Jordan, Spielberg top Forbes celebrity divorce list

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The bigger they are, the harder they fall -- especially in the world of celebrity divorce.

Basketball great Michael Jordan, singer-songwriter Neil Diamond and Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg top a new Forbes magazine list on Thursday of the most costly divorce settlements of the stars.

Jordan's pending divorce settlement with his wife of nearly 18 years, Chicago bank officer Juanita Vanoy, could end up as the most expensive in entertainment history, Forbes said, if his estranged spouse walks away with half his fortune.

With Jordan having earned much of his wealth during his marriage, most of it through endorsement deals, Vanoy (who filed for divorce last year) stands to collect more than $150 million, the magazine said.

A close second would be the estimated $150 million settlement Diamond paid to onetime TV production assistant Marcia Murphey, whom he married in 1969 before his breakthrough album, "Touching You, Touching Me," went gold, Forbes said.

They divorced in 1996. Diamond later said Murphey, his second wife, was "worth every penny," according to Forbes.

Spielberg's first marriage, to actress Amy Irving, ended in 1989 with his ex-spouse awarded roughly half of the filmmaker's fortune, about $100 million, ranking No. 3 on Forbes' list.

The magazine said Irving won that settlement after successfully contesting their prenuptial agreement, reportedly scribbled on a napkin, because she had lacked legal representation.