Rich, famous and tussling with the taxman

Flavor Flav

The star: William Drayton Jr., aka Flavor Flav, first hit the public radar as the freestyling MC with the oversized chest clock in the legendary rap group Public Enemy. He went on to star in VH1 reality shows "The Surreal Life," "Strange Love" and "Flavor of Love."

Amount owed: $1.1 million

What happened: Despite his formidable timepiece, Flav apparently overslept when it came time to pay the taxman. In 2009, the IRS slapped the rapper with a whopping $906,249 bill for back taxes from 2004, 2005 and 2006 and the State of California added on a tab of $183,810. Not so surprisingly, those years also coincided with Flav's return to popularity with his reality TV turns.

The outcome: While there's been no word on whether Flav is putting a rap to his outstanding taxes, he has cooked up another income stream with the 2012 opening of Flavor Flav's Chicken & Ribs restaurants in Iowa, Las Vegas and a Detroit suburb, the first in a planned nationwide chain. "The Colonel better watch his back, G," Flav proclaimed to online media. It remains to be seen whether the taxman will respond with, "Yeah boy!"