Family and business don't always mix, but when there's a celebrity in the family, it's especially complicated.
Latest case in point: Scarlett Johansson and her mother Melanie Sloan. Since Johansson fired her mother as her manager in 2009, Sloan's financial situation has taken a turn for the worse. And, for now, it does not appear the starlet will come to her mother's rescue.
Sloan, who managed her daughter's career since her debut in the film "North" at age 9, claims that she can no longer afford to buy a $1.4 million Manhattan apartment that she signed a contract for last October because she no longer has sufficient income to obtain a mortgage. She is suing the apartment's owners to get back her $130,000 deposit.
The owners are fighting back. Adam Leitman Bailey, a lawyer for the sellers, told ABCNews.com that Sloan claimed she had the financial resources to purchase the apartment back in October, then, three weeks later, said she couldn't afford it.
"I don't understand how someone's financial situation changes so quickly," Bailey said. "We think she's committing fraud and we believe she is not due the deposit back."
Perhaps Sloan thought she'd be receiving more in residuals from her daughter. In a Nov. 9 e-mail to Johansson's agent obtained by the New York Post, Sloan asked about upcoming payments related to her daughter's work.
"Do you know if there are any further Moët or D&G payments next year? Scarlett said there was something due," she wrote to agent Troy Bailey (no relation to Adam Leitman Bailey).
The agent responded that the only payment due in 2012 was $250,000 from Moët, for which Sloan would receive $25,000, hardly enough to afford the apartment.
ScarJo replaced her mom in November 2009 with Hollywood uber agent Rick Yorn, whose roster includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz.
"Once I got married, I felt that I needed to cut the cord," the 26-year-old star told Vanity Fair last month.
Johansson isn't the first celebrity to hand her parent a pink slip. Check out five others.
Beyonce and Matthew Knowles
When Beyonce announced last May that she was forming her own management company and would no longer require her father's services as a manager. She said, "He is my father for life and I love my dad dearly." But her parting with Matthew Knowles might have been less than amicable.
In court documents filed in a Texas district court last July, Knowles, who managed his daughter's career 14 years -- from her Destiny's Child days to solo superstardom -- suggested that Beyonce believed her father stole from her and, as a result, barred him from her business affairs.
It could not have helped that Knowles admitted to having an affair with Alexsandra Wright, who gave birth to their child, and soon after Beyonce's mother Tina filed for divorce from Knowles.
Knowles told The Associated Press his relationship with Beyonce remained "extremely amicable."
"Business is business and family is family. I love my daughter and am very proud of who she is and all that she has achieved," he said.
Leighton and Constance Meester
"Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester learned the hard way that under the bright lights of Hollywood, mother-daughter relationships can turn downright destructive.
Even after giving her manager-mother Constance Meester the boot, the pair continued to battle in court. Last July, Leighton sued her mother for custody of her younger brother after her mom allegedly spent money meant for her brother's medical bills to pay for her own cosmetic surgery.
Constance, who gave birth to her daughter while serving time in a federal prison for a drug smuggling conviction, told TMZ that her daughter promised to give her $10,000 a month for the rest of her life. Leighton has asked a judge to rule no such agreement exists.
The mom countersued for $3 million, alleging that her daughter repeatedly "hit her with a bottle" in December 2010 and was so crazed that her brother had to pull her off, but later dropped the suit. Leighton's suit is still winding its way in court.
Gary Coleman and parents Sue and Willie Coleman
Child star Gary Coleman reached TV superstardom playing Arnold Jackson on "Diff'rent Strokes" in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but when the show ended and his career stalled, he sued his parents and former manager over misappropriation of his $3.8 million trust fund. In 1993, Coleman won a ruling of almost $1.3 million, but in 1999, he filed for bankruptcy, attributing his financial problems to mismanagement of his trust.
Coleman, who suffered from health problems, including a congenital kidney condition, for much of his life, remained estranged from his parents until his death in 2010 from an intracranial hemorrhage.
"Gary wanted to live his life the way he wanted to live it, on his own terms," his mother told People in 2010. "He could've gotten in touch with us any time he wanted to. We were always open to him and he knew that we loved him."
Michael and Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson is credited with creating one of the greatest pop groups of all time, the Jackson 5. But in 1979, young Michael Jackson fired his dad, and soon after the group broke up, making way for Michael's stellar career.
Though Michael would later allege that Joe abused his children, he still honored his father with an annual "Joseph Jackson Day" at Neverland Ranch. Michael's father was also by his side during the singer's child molestation trial.
However, Michael left Joe out of his will, requesting that all his money go to his mother, children and charities. Joe was still looking for a way to benefit from his son. After Michael died in 2009, he asked his son's estate to help him cover living expenses of $26,000 a month. Then he filed a lawsuit against Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, who was convicted of manslaughter in his death.
LeAnn and Wilbur Rimes
LeAnn Rimes burst on the music scene in the mid-'90s. By 14, she had already made music history, becoming not only the youngest artist to be nominated for an Academy of Country Music award, but also the first country singer to win a Grammy for Best New Artist, in 1996.
Her parents split a year later and in 2000, Rimes tried to wrest control of her career from manager father Wilbur, who she sued for withholding $7 million of her earnings. Two years later, she settled the suit and made amends with her father so he could attend her wedding to first husband Dean Sheremet.
"I've never hated my dad. I just wanted a dad. I guess I just really disliked where he was in my life. I just wanted him to be my father," Rimes told "20/20."
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