Jermaine Jackson’s Michael Tribute: Chaos

By: Roger Friedman   //   Thursday September 10, 2009

Jermaine Jackson’s big Michael Jackson tribute show set for September 26th in Vienna is in shambles.

Both Mary J. Blige and Chris Brown have denied being part of it after Jermaine announced their participation. That’s just as well, anyway. Chris Brown didn’t seem like the right fit, if you know what I mean.

If Natalie Cole is smart, she’ll stay away from this thing, too.

Sources in the Jackson camp say that Jermaine does not — repeat, does not — have the support of his family in thie show. His mother is said to be furious with him, and is not going. She doesn’t endorse it. Michael’s kids won’t be going either. Janet is also exempt from this thing. That leaves LaToya, maybe, and maybe a house pet.

Jermaine, it turns out, is the lightning rod for controversy within the family. The biggest issues go back to his stealing brother Randy’s wife and marrying her. They’ve since divorced, but you can imagine the trouble that caused.

Jermaine recorded a song in 1990 called “Word to the Badd,” which castigated Michael. Insiders point out that Jermaine’s involvement with Michael was never good. He introduced him to the Nation of Islam, took him to Bahrain, may have introduced him to Tohme Tohme and even held up Michael’s burial because he alone wanted him at Neverland for eternity.

The Tribute 2009 remains a mess, however. And still unclear is how Jermaine can explain what his Earth Care International Foundation is. There is no record for it anywhere. In the end, the accounting for money from tickets sold to this Vienna event is going to end in tears, acrimony, and I dare say, a court case.

Get the 411 »     //     //  

Update: Neverland Trademarks Will Go to Estate

By: Roger Friedman   //   Tuesday September 8, 2009

We can relax a little.

I am told that the many trademark requests filed by Colony Capital for Neverland are not going to remain in their current state.

A source says that the Trademark filings will all be transferred to Michael Jackson’s estate. We will not be seeing toy guns or anything like the items listed in the item below with Neverland Valley Ramch.

It does sound as though Colony Capital’s efforts to exploit Michael Jackson in death are coming to an end. The Jackson executors — John Branca and John McClain — are taking firm stands on protecting Michael’s image and likeness, and his associated endeavors. There won’t be any “Heal the World” bandaids or “Remember the Time” alarm clocks either. No “Man in the Mirror” dressing tables.

Get the 411 »     //  

Neverland Owners’ Trademark Requests for Jackson Souvenirs

By: Roger Friedman   //   Monday September 7, 2009

Michael Jackson’s partners in his Neverland Ranch, Colony Capital LLC, have filed 20 trademark requests to brand the ranch for souvenirs with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

I do mean lots of souvenirs. Here’s a partial list of where Colony would like to see the Neverland name stamped. If they’ve forgotten something, it beats me:

Games and playthings, namely: plush toys, paper dolls, dolls and accessories, toy action figures, toy vehicles, toy cars, toy trucks, toy bucket and shovel sets, roller skates, toy model hobbycraft kits,  musical toys, jigsaw puzzles, badminton sets, bubble making wand and solution sets, toy banks, puppets, toy balloons, yo-yos, kites, baseball bats, balls of all kind, play wands, board games, playing cards, and children’s games to play during travel; ornaments, and decorations for a Christmas tree; sporting goods, museum services- namely: operating a museum in Michael Jackson’s former home and providing tours thereof; providing theme park services; entertainment services, namely: live shows and events; tennis and golf resort services; recreation and sporting club services; organization of meetings and conferences as well as clothing, footwear, headgear, and printed matter, namely: post cards, holiday/greeting cards, art prints, art reproductions, bumper stickers, stickers, decals, tissue/giftwrap, printed tickets, posters, wall calendars, flags and pennants of paper, printed and paper emblems, brochures, catalogs, and merchandise bags; books, namely: non-fiction books about Michael Jackson, activity books, address books, appointment books, coloring books, picture books, and comic books; paper and paper articles, namely: photographs, stationery, memo pads, notebooks, envelopes, pencil sharpeners, pen and pencil cases and boxes, pens, pencils, erasers, rulers, paper weights, staplers, binders, notebooks, stationery consisting of writing paper and envelopes, memo pads, writing tablets, paper table cloths, paper napkins, paper coasters, and paper mats; money clips, and in keeping with Michael Jackson’s theme of peace — toy rockets, toy guns, toy holsters.

Read the rest of this entry »

Get the 411 »     //  

Beatles Dominate Charts, 40 Years Later

By: Roger Friedman   //   Sunday September 6, 2009

Amazon.com is listing not one or two but seven Beatles albums in its Top 20 CDs.

Is it 1969 or 2009?

The CDs — the first remastered since the original Beatles digital discs were issued in 1987 — won’t be released until Tuesday. The next day — 09/09/09 — is officially Beatles marketing day as the group’s “Rock Band” video game is launched.

But for those of who, god forbid, don’t care much about video games but are audio-centric, Tuesday is the day. Amazon’s listing right now has Susan Boyle’s unreleased album at No. 1, Whitney Houston’s comeback at No. 2, and then the Beatles — “Abbey Road,” “Sgt. Pepper,” “The White Album,” “Let it Be,” “Past Masters” and “Magical Mystery Tour” have squeezed out the new Jay-Z album and several other new releases. Coming up fast behind them are the rest of the Fab Four’s catalog: “Rubber Soul,” “Revolver,” “Meet the Beatles,” etc.

What’s going to be interesting about all this is that the whole Beatles catalog comes out on Tuesday individually and also in two boxed sets — mono and stereo. Beatles purists want their music in mono. Capitol already released mono versions of the first four albums on CDs a couple of years ago with the stereo versions. But fans will be expected now to disregard all that. That’s easy since those mixes apparently weren’t from George Martin’s original tapes. These are. Like most Beatles fanatics, I’ve preordered everything.

So get ready for an avalanche of Beatlemania. And lots of Beatles radio play. How utterly sad and ironic that Sony/ATV Music Publishing is enjoying boom times now that partner Michael Jackson is dead.

Get the 411 »     //  

Neverland NOT Sold, Certainly Not to Designer

By: Roger Friedman   //   Sunday September 6, 2009

Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch has not — NOT — been sold to designer Christian Audigier. It still belongs to Michael’s estate and Colony Capital LLC.

How did this story get legs? Audigier may have purchased the Holmby Hills estate where Michael died. At least, he’s telling people he did. When Jackson died, Audigier — which is French for publicity vacuum — took huge billboards out in L.A. saying goodbye to Michael. He’s gone on TV proclaiming that they were good pals and working on a line of clothes together in secret.

Whatever.

Anyway, Audigier — who’s responsible for the pedestrian Ed Hardy line of clothes — has not, however, bought Neverland. The 2,900-acre ranch remains as is, awaiting some decision from the Jackson estate and Colony about what will happen. In all likelihood, it will be marketed next year and sold off. There’s nothing left in the house. It’s all gone.

Meantime, Michael’s brother Randy has issued some kind of statement complaining about news organizations that tried to film Michael’s funeral on Thursday night. Randy says it was a private family affair. And of course, it’s being sold to A&E for profit.

Other observations from the funeral on Thursday night: Rebbie Jackson would not go anywhere near her father, Joseph, and as such ceded her monitoring of Michael’s three kids. Janet Jackson shepherded the kids through the service.

Get the 411 »     //  

Jackson Funeral Travesty: Ex-Con 1st Speaker

By: Roger Friedman   //   Friday September 4, 2009

Michael Jackson can now spin in his own grave.

The first speaker at the travesty-like funeral he got last night was Leonard Rowe, the ex-con, self-proclaimed concert promoter who serves as lackey to Joseph Jackson and instigator of lawsuits against the singer.

The service, at Forest Lawn Glendale, was sparsely attended. Jackson would be pleased to have seen Macaulay Culkin and Elizabeth Taylor in the small seating area. Lisa Marie Presley reportedly was a guest. Jackson’s second wife, Debbie Rowe did the classy thing and stayed away. Other guests included Clifton Davis, who wrote the Jackson 5 hit, “Never Can Say Goodbye,” and Suzanne de Passe.

Get the 411 »  

Michael Jackson’s 2nd Funeral, Tomorrow: $1 Million

By: Roger Friedman   //   Wednesday September 2, 2009

Tomorrow, Michael Jackson’s second funeral will cost $1 million dollars.

This morning, his mother had to petition the court so that Michael’s estate would pay for this burial at Forest Lawn’s Glendale cemetery.

As I told you last week, the Jackson family didn’t have the money to bury Michael. They didn’t have it in July, when they put on a big show before and after the Staples Center memorial. The estate wound up paying for that, I’m told, and it cost north of a half a million dollars including all the limos, flowers, and the big party at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Today, the court ruled that the estate should pay for the funeral including the extravagant mausoleum picked out by the Jacksons. It’s a mausoleum no one will ever see, except maybe in pictures to be hawked later. Anyway, the estate retains ownership of the burial structure just in case Joe Jackson gets any other weird money making ideas.

It is hoped that this will be the last burial for Michael, who died — or was murdered, depending on semantics — on June 25. Tomorrow is Sept. 3.

Get the 411 »  

Jackson Update: Blanket Was Never Home Alone

By: Roger Friedman   //   Monday August 31, 2009

Best laugh of the weekend: a Brit tabloid’s assertion that Macaulay Culkin is the biological father of Blanket, Michael Jackson’s youngest child.

Are they kidding? This is as preposterous as Mark Lester being Paris’s father.

In each case, there isn’t even a slight hint of physical similarity. Forget that Culkin is blond and blue eyed, and that Blanket is dark and possibly Latino.

It makes no difference to the British press!

We can only imagine the laugh Culkin, who lives in New York’s West Village with his girlfriend, must have gotten.

Who’s next to be revealed as a bio parent of a Jackson child? Eggs from Tatum O’Neal? Sperm from Bubbles the Chimp?

As I’ve reported since 2005, Blanket is the product of Michael Jackson’s biological matter and a surrogate mother. The surrogate was chosen from a catalogue of names presented to Jackson by none other than Dr. Arnold Klein. Neither Dr. Klein, Mark Lester, Macaulay Culkin, nor Topo Gigio is the father.

Get the 411 »     //  

TMZ Gets Punk’D With Fake Jackson Document

By: Roger Friedman   //   Saturday August 29, 2009

Website TMZ got punk’d today by a concert promoter who wants a chunk of Michael Jackson’s money.

The site has published a letter purportedly from Frank DiLeo, Michael’s manager, instructing anyone who wants to produce a Jackson tribute concert to come through him. The letter bears a scrawled, indeciperable signature and the very funny sentence “Frank Dileo is the manager of Michael Jackson (deceased) in life and in death.”

The problem is, DiLeo tells me it’s not his letter, nor is it his signature. He didn’t write it, and has no idea who some of the people are who are named in the letter including a Fadi Rashed. “I’ve never heard of Fadi Rashed,” says DiLeo, and a Google search doesn’t help either.

DiLeo immediately called TMZ’s Harvey Levin, but Levin has yet to remove the fake correspondence.

Read the rest of this entry »

Get the 411 »     //     //     //     //  

Michael Jackson Doc Gets SAG Warning, Wrongly

By: Roger Friedman   //   Friday August 28, 2009

The Michael Jackson documentary, “This is It,” got a warning notice from the Screen Actors Guild. Someone at SAG must have panicked that the movie has never been registered with them, and that the people in it aren’t getting paid through the union.

A Member Alert went up on the union’s website that reads in part: “The producer of the theatrical motion picture ‘This Is It’ (also known as ‘Michael Jackson’s This Is It’) is not yet signed to an agreement with Screen Actors Guild covering the terms and conditions for performers and background actors employed on the picture.”

Apparently, no one has told then that “This Is It” is a documentary made from footage taken of rehearsals of Jackson’s stage show. It was never intended to be a film. No one is acting in it.

Meantime, I am told that the film is coming along nicely in the editing room. Every day director Kenny Ortega shows assembly of footage to a variety of producers involved in the project. The word is that everyone is very happy with what they’re seeing.

Most importantly, they do say that we’ll see Michael giving cogent instructions to dancers and singers, and interacting with his crew and cast. This should end once and for all the accusations that Jackson was out of it to perform, or to do the shows in London.

Meanwhile, no one knows why the police investigation into Jackson’s death is taking so long. Many people close to Jackson right before his death still have not been interviewed by the police. Nevertheless, one Jackson intimate has been very much in touch with the police, and is warning friends that something “big” and “dangerous” is about to happen. Let’s hope so.

Get the 411 »     //     //  

© 2010 The Hollywood Reporter.   All rights reserved. Terms of Use  |   Privacy Policy.

Home / About us / Advertise