Chatter continues hot and heavy that Michael Jackson needs money in a hurry.

He is said to require funds urgently to cover a $70 million loan from Bank of America secured by his Mijac publishing company, while a second, $200 million loan secured by his 50% interest in Sony/ATV Music Publishing (of which John Branca’s firm, Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca and Fischer LLP, owns 5%) is also a concern, though a reportedly less urgent one.

Attorney/advisor Branca is helping Jackson understand and negotiate what is said to be a very complicated financial scenario during what is clearly a difficult period. Jackson’s other assets include his masters, currently leased to Sony Music, and Neverland, which is said to be worth about $50 million. But given that by selling his Sony/ATV stake, which includes all those Beatles copyrights, Jackson could reportedly clear all his debt, Branca is said to be trying to persuade the legally beset superstar to do so before the loans come due. That way, Jackson’s team would still be able to negotiate the price, as opposed to the bank selling his stake if he were to default, at which point the price would be out of his hands.

Meanwhile, Sony/ATV, which reports to Sony U.S.’s Rob Wiesenthal, is said to be eager to make a deal to buy out Jackson, since as half-owner, Jackson currently has veto power over any deal in excess of $1 million. If Sony ponies up a number tolerable to Jackson, a third party may not be involved, but there have already been whispers of Jackson adviser Charles Koppelman bringing in Goldman Sachs as another potential buyer—though many are wondering what the investment bank’s play is. All involved are said to be treading very lightly around an understandably high-strung Jackson as this situation plays out.

Source: Hits Daily Double

Michael Jackson’s current spokesperson Raymone Bain appearing on Larry King had this to say when asked whether or not MacCauley Culkin will testify for Michael Jackson:

“Well, I know, Larry, he had been on our witness list. But I’m not certain that Michael has been advised by his attorneys, yet, as to whether or not that is actually the case. When I spoke to both Mr. Mesereau and Michael not long ago, that was not — that issue was not raised. So, I can’t say that it’s true or it’s not true, or whether or not Michael is even aware of any of the news — breaking reports — right now.”

Larry King “Wouldn’t Michael ask him to testify?”

“Well, I know, Larry, that he is on the defense list, and he is a very good friend of Michael’s, and of course, he has maintained Michael’s innocence this entire time. He has indicated on your show and in other interviews that he has never seen Michael act inappropriately with children, and he has not acted inappropriately with him. So, certainly, we would welcome him coming into court, and I’m hoping that CNN’s report is true.”

Source: Larry King

A potential witness in the Michael Jackson trial was accused of having sex with a minor in the basement of her home after telling her he had seen the pop star seduce a girl.

Ahmad Elatab was being held on $25,000 bail in the Passaic County Jail in Paterson on Thursday, facing charges of sexual assault, criminal sexual contact and impairing the morals of a minor. He was not given the option of posting 10 percent in cash to gain his release, and must have no contact with the alleged victim in the case, police Capt. Robert Rowan said.

Police said a 14-year-old Paramus Catholic High School girl who knew the 18-year-old from a belly-dancing class invited Elatab to her home while her parents were sleeping on April 11.

They watched pornographic discs and other computer-generated images that Elatab had brought, police said, and the girl told them Elatab bragged that he had been at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch and had seen the pop star seduce a girl.

Authorities were alerted when a teacher intercepted a graphic note of the encounter that the girl was passing to a classmate.

The girl told officers some parts of the encounter were consensual, but she also said some were not because she said some acts were forced on her. Elatab was arrested Tuesday.

Authorities said Elatab said the sex was consensual and he denied telling the girl he saw Jackson seduce a girl. Elatab admitted he told the girl how “smooth” Jackson is and that he knows how to talk to women, police said.

Elatab is on the list of potential defense witnesses for Jackson’s child molestation trial in California.

He befriended Jackson’s cancer-stricken accuser and said the boy told him Jackson helped him fight the illness through meditation.

Elatab said he spoke with the boy when Jackson took them on an outing to a Toys ‘R’ Us store in 2003. He said the boy believed his cancer was gone because of Jackson.

Source: Associated Press

Michael Jackson’s defense lawyers have made a motion to prevent a former Jackson employee from testifying about an incident that took place about ten years ago in which the pop star allegedly asked for Vaseline while sharing his room with a young boy. The boy later received a multimillion dollar settlement from Jackson in 1994.

The employee, Kassim Abdool, indicated that he ’saw wet swimming trunks on a floor, witnessed a brief hug between Mr. Jackson and (the boy) and … was asked to bring Vaseline to Mr. Jackson’s bedroom.’

Abdool was one of several employees who unsuccessfully sued Jackson for wrongful termination in 1997. He was ordered to pay damages to the pop star as part of a countersuit launched by Jackson.

According to Jackson’s lawyers, Abdool’s testimony is ‘precisely the kind of inflammatory evidence that is more prejudicial than probative,’ and asked that it not be allowed.

The prosecution contends that Abdool’s testimony bolsters the credibility of Jackson’s alleged victim by showing a pattern of improper behavior by the pop star around young boys.

A decision is expected sometime Thursday or Friday from Judge Rodney S. Melville.

Source: Wired Report

The Michael Jackson jury will work a-half day today, so the judge can resolve some pending motions.

One is a prosecution request to have testimony from an expert on battered women, possibly to explain the apparent lack of action by the accuser’s mother during her family’s alleged false imprisonment.

Another prosecution motion objects to the defense plan to have two-dozen Jackson employees say he always behaved properly with children.

Ex-security guard Brian Barron, who worked at Jackson’s ranch, returns to the stand today. He’s testified he saw an order to keep the boy who’s now Jackson’s accuser on the ranch. Barron may be asked whether such orders were posted when other children visited.

He’s also expected to be asked about arrival and departure logs that contradict some earlier testimony.

Source: Associated Press

Former child actor Macaulay Culkin reportedly will testify on Michael Jackson’s behalf in the singer’s child-molestation trial.

The “Home Alone” star — who said last month he would not take the stand — will deny claims that Jackson molested him at Michael’s Neverland ranch, according to CNN.

The network cited “a source close to the case.”

But Culkin’s publicist, Michelle Bega, told CNN “there is no change” in the actor’s position against testifying.

Culkin’s testimony would help Jackson refute allegations that the King of Pop inappropriately touched him at the ranch in 1991.

Earlier this month, Phillip LeMarque, a former chef at Neverland, testified he walked in on Culkin and Jacko playing a video game and was “shocked” to see Jackson’s hand inside Culkin’s shorts.

Source: New York Post

According to the Matt Drudge, the prosecution is prepared to present the following graphic information: For the sleazy grand finale of the state’s case against Michael Jackson, prosecutor Tom Sneddon hopes to present a shocking story of Vaseline and alleged sex abuse, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

In a bombshell motion filed in closed court, Sneddon has obtained testimony from a former Neverland security guard — a guard who claims he fetched Vaseline for an aroused King Of Pop!

In 1993: “Jackson called Abdool and asked him to go to Jackson’s car and get a jar of Vaseline from the center console of the vehicle and bring it to his bedroom.”

“Chacon and Abdool opened the unlocked door of the black SUV, retrieved the Vaseline and headed for Jackson’s bedroom.”

Sneddon now wants the jury to hear the details.

Source: Drudge Report

In a lengthy review of the Neverland guest logs with Brian Barron (a fromer security guard), Jackson’s defense pointed out that the family’s claimed “escapes” from their alleged captivity at Neverland were duly recorded by security guards.

“There was no secret spiriting away. This was checking people out at the gate,” Sanger said. “This was done according to procedure, right?” he asked Barron.

The records did show that during part of this time the mother was housed next to two Jackson aides whom she alleged had been assigned to watch her.

An accident log showed the boy, now 15, once crashed “the Batman cart” into “the theater fountain” at Neverland, in a minor boost to the defense’s depiction of the alleged victim as a disruptive brat.

The questioning came as prosecutors rolled out a string of minor witnesses following the riveting appearance of the boy’s mother, which ended Tuesday.

Source: AFP

Defense lawyer Robert Sanger used most of his cross-examination to take Brian Barron (a former security guard at Neverland) meticulously through the security logs for late 2002 and early 2003, which showed the family coming to Neverland and spending many nights there.

The logs noted the family’s departure at 1:38 a.m. on Feb. 12, 2003 in a Rolls Royce driven by ranch manager Jesus Salas — a trip the accuser’s mother described as a desperate late-night escape from Neverland.

Sanger suggested the logs showed they were not “spirited away” in the middle of the night but had simply been checked out by security staff and allowed to go on their way.

The logs also offered a rare glimpse into the comings and goings at Neverland, noting the arrival in June of civil rights activist Al Sharpton and several senior television executives in February.

On Feb. 20, the logs noted that a “Miss E. Taylor” was due to arrive by “chopper” — an apparent reference to Jackson’s friend Elizabeth Taylor being expected in a helicopter.

Barron acknowledged that he had never witnessed any criminal behavior at Neverland and said Jackson’s accuser had once crashed a golf cart there.

Source: Reuters

A former security guard at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Valley Ranch testified on Wednesday that staff were instructed to keep the pop star’s teenage accuser from leaving the property.

Brian Barron, a police officer who moonlighted as a security guard at Neverland from 1997 to 2004, said the notice was posted in a ranch security office in early 2003. That was around the time the boy and his family said they were held prisoner by Jackson and his aides.

“It simply stated (the boy) is not allowed off the property,” Barron said.

He testified that the note was written on a dry-erase board and stayed there for about a week. He understood it to mean “that we weren’t to allow him off the property without some type of permission.”

Source: Reuters