This Sunday’s Grammy Awards is set to open with a tribute to Michael Jackson. There will be the 3D “Earth Song” from Michael’s canceled “This Is It” concert. Then a selection of pop stars including Smokey Robinson, Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood and Usher is scheduled to perform a medley of Michael’s hits.

But what hasn’t been determined is who will accept Michael’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. Jackson is to be honored along with Bobby Darin, Loretta Lynn, Clark Terry, David Honeyboy Edwards, Andre Previn, and Leonard Cohen. Among the winners of the Trustees award are Florence Greenberg, founder of Scepter Records and subject of the new musical, “Baby It’s You.” Read the rest of this entry »

EXCLUSIVE: This column has learned that Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie are planning a massive 25th anniversary re-recording of “We Are the World.”

The timing couldn’t be better, sadly enough.

The duo is summoning lots and lots of talent from Grammy weekend to stay an extra night — Monday Feb. 1 — and come to the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. There, they will celebrate a quarter century since Ken Kragen, Richie and Michael Jackson organized the original “We Are the World” with Quincy.

This time the artists invited include Usher, Natalie Cole, and John Legend. But you can bet that more names will be added shortly and that all the Grammy nominees and participants will be asked to come as well. Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich will produce the event, which will then be turned into a video and single just like it was in 1985. Don’t be surprised if Wyclef Jean joins in, along with Sting, Fergie, Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake and other distinctive voices.

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I can tell you something now that I knew a couple of weeks ago: Michael Jackson’s three kids didn’t spend the holidays with the Jackson family at their Hayvenhurst Rd home in Encino, California.

Even though Michael’s mother, Katherine Jackson, has custody of Prince, Paris and “Blanket,” the three kids weren’t with her on Christmas or New Year’s.

Instead, nanny Grace Rwaramba arranged to take the kids for an extended visit with family friends. This is contrary to reported stories that the three were with their aunt, Janet Jackson, in New York. That was a decoy story. It’s amazing how every blog from Perez Hilton to the most insignificant picked up that story on Christmas Eve and ran it without checking a single fact. Imagine what that means for other celeb blog “exclusives.”

“They were extremely happy and they had a great time,” says a source of the no-Jackson holiday. “It wasn’t a big deal Christmas with elaborate gifts. It was very humble.”

The reason? Katherine Jackson, a Jehovah’s Witness, doesn’t celebrate holidays. If the kids had remained with her in Encino, they would have been deprived, a source says, of their annual Christmas celebration. Katherine, they say, was wise enough to sign off on the visit, and allowed Rwaramba to make the arrangements.

And the word on the kids? “They seemed fine, well adjusted, they’re doing their school work. They don’t talk about Michael’s death but they do mention him.”

The FBI files on Michael Jackson show a concerted effort by the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s office to convict the pop star for child molestationin 2003-2005.

The DA even brought in the FBI for assistance. But the Bureau’s examination of all the computers seized from Neverland found nothing in April 2004 — ten months before Jackson’s trial. They  went through a bunch of computers seized at the ranch, and ran “keyword searches” through them, looking for kiddie pornography. They came up with 18 pages of nothing.

Michael’s defense attorney Thomas Mesereau expressed surprise to me about the FBI files yesterday. “I never saw them,” he said. “Shouldn’t they have shared them with me?”

It didn’t matter. Mesereau’s masterful handling of the case got Michael acquitted of all charges in his 2005 child molestation/conspiracy case. But why did the DA go ahead with the case at all if the FBI turned up nothing?

Mesereau told me: “They heard all these stories, they read stories in the tabloids, there was the 1993 case. They had to proceed. Plus DA Tom Sneddon had gotten legislation passed since the first case making it impossible not to go ahead. And he did it because of Michael.”

Jackson was innocent of those charges. Whatever else happened to Michael Jackson in life, he was set up by Janet Arvizo to take a fall. Luckily, several people stepped in to save Michael.

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Michael Jackson’s estate lawyers won’t be amused to hear this: Jackson’s likeness and music are being exploited by Scientology.

My colleague Guy Adams of the U.K. paper The Independent came across this invite to a December 6th Scientology event in Britain:

THE OT COMMITTEE CC LONDON CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO a spectacular evening celebrating one of the greatest artists of all time Michael Jackson in true Celebrity Centre style.

· Get briefed by a Senior Executive from Celebrity Centre International on the plans for CC London.

· Enjoy entertainment in honour of the King of Pop with dance troupe ‘Malfunktion’ and singer supreme Anton Lorien!

· Find out what the OT Committee is all about and what their plans are for the Ideal CC London!

Sunday, 6th December – 7.00pm
Fitzroy House, 33-35 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 6DX
Refreshments will be served.

A spectacular evening that you will NOT want to miss!

CALL xxxxxxxxx TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE NOW!

© 2009 Church of Scientology Religious Education College Inc. A non-profit organisation incorporated in South Australia. Registered Office 24-28 Waymouth Street, Adelaide, South Australia. Registered in the UK under company number FC9154. Registered agent in the UK: P D Hodkin, 42/44 Copthorne Road, Felbridge, East Grinstead, RH19 2NS. OT and CELEBRITY CENTRE are trademarks and service marks owned by Religious Technology Center and are used with its permission.

Michael was many things, but he was NOT a Scientologist. Of course, he was married to one — Lisa Marie Presley — but he resisted  the sect’s charms — and hers apparently too.

Michael Jackson must be rolling in his million dollar tomb. His kids spent Thanksgiving not in the warm embrace of a family meal at home, but in a luxury suite in a Las Vegas hotel.

A video of the kids’ Vegas reverie has been posted on YouTube.

The video features some of Jermaine and Randy Jackson’s kids conducting a tour of a $25,000 a-night a suite at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving Day. The suite is sort of a cold place on several floors and has a basketball court. Blanket — Prince Michael II — is seen in the video and heard shouting. His older brother, Prince, can be seen in it as well.

The question is then raised: where is Katherine Jackson, the kids’ grandmother and guardian? Why is there no adult present besides a bodyguard?

I told you recently that a Jackson insider said that the longer Michael’s kids are with the Jacksons, the worse it’s going to get for them.

And these are the Jackson family values. At last night’s premiere of the Jacksons’ reality show for A&E, guests were appalled that no mention was made of Michael Jackson at all. None of his songs were played. Jermaine Jackson thanked Allah. And the crowd was the usual D list gang: Some of the Wayans family showed up, as well as Tia Carrerre and Flava Flav. But they couldn’t compete with the few celebs who showed for the unveiling of a book called “Michael Jackson Opus”: former star athlete Bruce Jenner and his wife Kris Kardashian; and the grandstanding Jesse Jackson.

The cruel irony of Michael Jackson’s death is reflected in the boxoffice.

The movie about Jackson’s rehearsals for shows that never took place, “This Is It,” hit $240 million worldwide this weekend. That gives Jackson the biggest concert film and documentary ever. Jackson’s kids will wind up very wealthy from this film thanks to his executors. Remember, Sony paid a $60 million advance. The footage from all those rehearsals has become a bonanza. And this column told you first that AEGLive had 100 hours of it.  That was back on June 29th, four days after Michael was killed.

Of course, all Jackson ever wanted was to somehow get into the film business.

Back in 1991, he actually “stole” back the finished tapes for his “Invincible” album in June of that year. He held them for ransom until he got a part in Barry Sonnenfeld’s “Men in Black II.” In the end, he got his way. Sony got him the part, “Invincible” was finally released, and the following year Michael had a cameo in the movie.

Through the years, Jackson was easily taken in by anyone who promised him a film role. He was constantly accessible if an indie producer showed up with a hare-brained scheme to start a production company with Jackson’s money — or just his name, as his cash ran out.

Jackson has a weird role in a little-seen DVD release called “Miss Cast Away,” written and produced by Bryan Michael Stoller.

He also made a deal with Prince Abdulla of Bahrain to make movies, then reneged but kept the Prince’s $7 million advance.

By the way, if you want to see one of Jackson’ s major dance influences, check out this clip from YouTube that marries “Billie Jean” to Bob Fosse’s 1974 choreography/performance from Stanley Donen’s “The Little Prince.” Add a little James Brown, and voila! you have Michael Jackson.

As for “This Is It,” Sony would love to say the movie got to $250 million. That would mean leaving it in theaters through the end of the year. The DVD release is set for January 26th.

Michael Jackson’s kids are in a good news, bad news situation: two nights ago they quietly attended the Los Angeles premiere of “Twilight: New Moon.” Prince, Paris and Blanket went with family friends, got in through a side door, saw the teen vampire fest and didn’t even raise an eyebrow. “They loved it,” a friend told me.

With the kids: nanny Grace Rwaramba. She’s living in the Jackson house on Hayvenhurst in Encino, and is paid to watch the kids. As she did when Michael was alive, Grace has been put in the position of surrogate mother. It’s a little strange as she married her second husband earlier this year, a fellow Ugandan. Also, what happened to Rebbie, Michael’s eldest sister? She and Grace had a physical fight during the summer over the kids. Now Rebbie is gone.

But it’s a weird situation at best. Katherine Jackson was appointed the three kids’ guardian by the court. Yet she is not always with them. Mrs. Jackson travels, apparently: to London to see one son, to Phoenix to see her sister, and so on. “She can’t be there all the time,” says an insider.

And this has made Grace’s role problematic. Some people in the Hayvenhurst house want her gone. I received one call insisting that Rwaramba took the kids to “Twilight” without Mrs. Jackson’s knowledge and that the grandmother didn’t know where the kids were. Another caller insisted that everything was fine, and that Mrs. Jackson had agreed to the evening’s plan. And still in the middle of this, there are questions about who’s tutoring these children, and what kind of education they’re receiving at home.

And have they seen their father’s movie, “This Is It”? One source says no, but at the house the word is that Elizabeth Taylor took them to a screening.

Meanwhile, I reported on Monday that Disneyland was reactivating “Captain Eo” in January. But the Jackson estate has never given its approval to the revival of the 3D movie as an attraction. Insiders say that Disney, a family company, is acting on its own. Sounds like trouble down the road.

Evan Chandler, the dentist father of the boy who accused Michael Jackson of child molestation in the early ’90s, is dead.

Reports from various sources say that Chandler, 65, committed suicide at his luxury condo in Jersey City, New Jersey. The 800 square foot rental apartment in Liberty Towers was a far cry from Chandler’s pre-Jackson scandal world in Beverly Hills where he was a dentist to the stars and an aspiring screenwriter.

Sources also say that Chandler, whose real last name was Charmatz, had been on the outs with his son, Jordan, since an incident involving the police in 2006. According to public records, Evan Chandler still owed his public defender in that case $95.00.

Jordy Chandler accused Michael Jackson of molestation in 1993. The result was a settlement in which Jackson paid the Chandlers more than $20 million. The case never went to trial, but it forever tarnished Jackson. It did cause a rift between Jordy and his mother, June, from whom he was estranged until recently.

As part of the deal with Jackson, Chandler, his ex wife, and her then husband each received $1.5 million of their own.

In 1996, Mary Fischer, a journalist for GQ magazine, published a story refuting many of the child molestation claims. Fisher gathered evidence that Evan Chandler and Jordy’s stepfather conspired to shake Jackson down by drugging the boy and suggesting answers to him.

In 2005, Ray Chandler (nee Charmatz) self published a book detailing his account of witnessing his brother Evan finding out about Jordy’s relationship with Michael Jackson, and how he proceeded from there. The book, “All That Glitters,” caused a stir, but its veracity could never be proved.

Still another book, also published in 2005, by Jackson’s long time press aide Bob Jones — since deceased — questioned the closeness of Jackson in 1993 to the 12-year-old boy. Jones — who was angry with Jackson for firing him without notice or a word after almost three decades — said he observed inappropriate behavior between Jackson and Jordy.

Right after Michael Jackson died, the Internet was overwhelmed with rumors that Jordy Chandler had recanted his story. Alas, it was just an urban myth. To this day, Jordy Chandler has never commented on the case. His mother, June Chandler, testified at the 2005 trial — in which Jackson was accused of molesting Gavin Arvizo– that she believed Jackson was guilty of harming her son. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153158,00.html

Evan Chandler always had a basic problem in his story about Michael Jackson. His first instinct upon hearing that his son had been allegedly in a sexual affair with Jackson was not to beat the tar out of the singer. His basic reaction was to try and get money and a movie deal out of Jackson. The money proved to be his undoing. For many years, Chandler oversaw Jordy’s finances. They even bought a house in the Hamptons. But in later years he lost that control. By 2005 it was said that father and son weren’t speaking, and that Evan was ill. Now he’s dead, just five months after Michael Jackson. And the only person who really knows the truth of what happened in 1993 is Jordy Chandler.

“Captain EO” is coming back.

The word from Hollywood is that Disneyland is planning to revive Michael Jackson’s 3D film beginning in January. Heavily influenced by “Star Wars,” the 1986 short film was produced by George Lucas and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Back in those days, Michael had the money from “Thriller” to make anything happen.

Among the cast: Michael, Anjelica Huston, Dick Shawn – the latter died less than a year after “Captain EO” was released.

It’s the 3D version coming back to Disneyland, but you can watch a less complex version on YouTube (see below).

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