Paul McCartney watched the rehearsals for the Beatles’ “Love” show from Cirque du Soleil and this is one thing he had to say: “We were a great f-ing band.”

This moment is captured in the documentary “All Together Now,” which seems like it was supposed to have come out last fall, did or didn’t, and is being pushed this week. Regardless, I watched it over the weekend, and it’s wonderful. Beatles fans will just eat this up. What a pleasure.

First of all, you get a real sense of the main players involved: George Martin, who deserves a purple heart; his devoted and talented son Giles; McCartney, of course; and Ringo Starr. You also get a real sense of Olivia Harrison, George’s incredibly loyal and devoted widow; and Yoko Ono. And there are the people from Cirque du Soleil: from creators Guy Laliberte and director Dominic Champagne, to a South African dancer who’s struggling to fit in.

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"The Agony and Ecstacy of Phil Spector"

Phil Spector, the mad genius record producer in prison for killing a Hollywood B-movie actress, is, you know, nuts. So nothing like an incoherent documentary about him to make things even nuttier.

Over the weekend, Vikram Jayanti showed his “Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector” at the Hamptons Film Festival. Apparently it was shown by the BBC (which produced it) last year at least once. It’s also available for free download on a sanctioned site called veoh.com.

This part seems problematic since the documentary includes full length audio by the Beatles, John Lennon, George Harrison and other artists whom Spector produced. It’s unclear that the music was actually “cleared” for use since Beatles recordings are usually not allowed in movies. And now it’s free on the Internet to underscore Spector’s ramblings. But I’ll have leave that up to lawyers since Jayanti professed no knowledge of the situation.

His film is, indeed, as incoherent as its subject. I’ve rarely seen such bad filmmaking from a professional filmmaker. It does look like Jayanti made some kind of deal with Spector to make him look good in exchange for exclusive interviews. The director denies it, but really, who’s kidding who? At the Q&A after the screening, Jayanti said he believed there was “reasonable doubt” that Spector did not kill Lana Clarkson. I’ve got some land to sell him in New Orleans.

Spector is obsessed with Tony Bennett. He doesn’t like him, and uses him as a refrain in the movie, referring to Bennett’s long ago drug problems. Spector thinks Bennett’s problems are more egregious than his own. Ha! He also compares himself to Galileo, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci. Why not? They never had hit records, so he may be wrong.

Jayanti is well known for the Muhammad Ali film “When We Were Kings.” But in “Agony and Ecstasy,” he either was obsessed with Spector or just lazy. The film is long on odd, with full length versions of Spector’s produced music playing over disjointed videos of his first murder trial in 2007. It’s really weird. There’s little context for anything. Is this a film about Spector’s music, or his first murder trial, or what? Or all of it? And through it, poor Clarkson, a great girl by all accounts, is demonized.

There is a lot of grandiosity at work too. Spector claims credit for all his Brill Building recordings, from “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling” to “Spanish Harlem.” There is zero mention of the writers of the songs — Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. It’s all Phil, Phil, Phil. He did it all, even the Wall of Sound. (Were there musicians? Not in this story.) Further, Jayanti doesn’t include any reference to Ronnie Bennett and the Ronettes, who made Spector, and just a scant one to Darlene Love.

Spector, of course, is a megalomaniac, and it comes across clearly. There is a particularly fascinating segment about the Beatles in which he attacks Paul McCartney and George Martin. He takes credit for all of John Lennon’s post-Beatles career. There’s also a bit about recording “My Sweet Lord” with George Harrison but no mention of the plagiarism suit that haunted the hit. The record was deemed similar to the Chiffons‘ hit “He’s So Fine,” which was not produced by Spector in the ’60s but certainly came from his world.

So do watch “Agony and the Ecstasy” to see and hear Spector — it’s probably the one and only time, whether accurate or not. And the video archival material of the Righteous Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, the Ronettes is all beyond gorgeous.

P.S. There’s a much better actual documentary about Spector here.

Heinz Edelmann, 75, the artist who brought the Beatles’ whimsical and everlasting “Yellow Submarine” to life through animation, died yesterday. He lived in Stuttgart, Germany.

Edelmann invented it all: Pepperland, the Blue Meanies, Jeremy Hillary Boob, Captain Fred, not to mention the everlasting visages of the Beatles as cartoons. Everyone thinks the artist was Peter Max, but it wasn’t. And if you really examine it, Edelmann’s work more closely resembles the then new material from “Monty Python.”

Thanks, Mr. Edelmann, for 40 years of tremendous pleasure.

Click here to view images of Edelmann’s work.

La Toya Jackson, fronting for her dastardly father Joseph, went to the British papers over the weekend with a wild accusation. She said that Michael Jackson was murdered for his money and publishing catalogs. I just hope her dad cut her in when the checks came from the tabloids.

But La Toya is wrong, wrong, wrong. Maybe Michael was murdered, accidentally. That remains to be determined.

However: Michael’s estate will remain the owner of all his publishing catalogs. Spread the word. Sources tell me that Michael’s half interest in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, as well as ownership of his own songs through MiJac Music, will continue to be owned by his estate.

In the case of the former: not only are the executors not planning to sell “the Beatles” catalog to anyone, they are indeed going to maintain it and grow it in a partnership with Sony, as it has been since 1995. Their intention, I am told, is simple: to give Michael’s three kids a legacy. For better or worse, they will never have to earn a dime.

This plan suits everyone just fine. Sony is already depleted from making deals this year. They’re not so eager to buy out Michael Jackson. But they do concede that with Jackson deceased, his wild spending has also stopped. For years Sony has refinanced and advanced Jackson to keep him from bankruptcy because he couldn’t curtail his spending.

Now Sony and the Jackson estate will refinance once again, lower the obligations and put the music publishing company on an even keel.

This is good news for Michael’s estate, for his kids and his mother. It’s bad news for LaToya, Joseph, and any one else who’d like to advance conspiracy theories. Michael was specific in his will: these other people are not to have a penny from his estate. And they won’t as long as the executors and trustees stick to the document as Michael Jackson worded it.

As for Joseph Jackson using daughter LaToya in his campaign to shake some money free from the estate: a very reasonable, respected and normal friend of Michael’s told me over the weekend that he overheard Joseph screaming at Michael in May that he didn’t have any money. The Jacksons don’t want this person giving an affadavit, believe me.

Michael Jackson is just hours dead and days away from being buried, but plenty of questions are being asked.

One of them is: did he leave a will? And either way, who gets the Beatles catalog?

Jackson died nearly $400 million in debt, with three children and two mortgages. And all of it is hinged to his 50% ownership in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the company that contains the catalog of 251 Lennon and McCartney songs from “Yesterday” to “Give Peace a Chance.”

Sony Music has the right of first refusal to buy Jackson’s half of the company. To settle his estate, whoever the trustee and executor are may eventually be forced to make that sale.

Jackson owes HSBC and Barclays Bank over $320 million secured by that asset.

Then there’s the case of Neverland. Colony Capital LLC has the note on the property. It’s unclear how much their refinancing of Neverland gave to Jackson, but it could have been around $25 million over the $23 million on the ranch. It’s what Jackson was living on for cash in the last year. Neverland, now, will be sold.

Jackson has one other asset, his MiJac Music Publishing, which contains his own songs, and those of artists like Sly and the Family Stone.

Of course, there’s also the issue of what, if anything, he’s owed by AEG Live, the company for whom he was supposed to perform 50 concerts. AEG had to insure the shows itself because no one else would do it.

There’s also an outstanding and unresolved problem concerning Jackson’s personal belongings from Neverland. They are currently in storage after last April’s aborted auction. Jackson’s ex manager, Tohme Tohme, paid off Julien’s Auctions and took everything. Jackson’s estate may have to sue to get it all back. Tohme currently has the key and access to the material — possibly several hundred million dollars’ worth.

And that’s just the beginning. But the first order of business will be finding a valid will. Right now, sources I’ve spoken with aren’t sure who has that, or when it was last updated, or what it reflects. If Jackson’s estate is not in proper order, expect a doozy of a fight.