G-Unit’s DJ Whoo Kid recently kicked it with Jackson at his Bahrain spot to discuss a possible duet between the two superstars. Whoo Kid even gave Jackson a tape of the proposed track so that the singer could take a listen before making a final decision.

“I gave Michael some music,” Whoo Kid told MTV. “I’m trying to get him to do a song with 50. It will be like the Jackson Two or something.”

Source: MTV

Rumours are rife that Michael Jackson could be set to resurrect his ailing career by performing a duet with rapper 50 Cent.

Jackson has reportedly been in touch with the hip-hop heavyweight about the possibility of a collaboration.

Jackson, who has been living in Bahrain since the end of the case against him, allegedly approached a member of ‘Fiddy’s’ entourage at the Bahrain Grand Prix last week.

A source revealed to the News Of The World: “Michael was talking to 50’s DJ Whoo Kid who spoke to 50 there and then about it.

“The track would catapult Michael back into the limelight, which he is desperate for, and 50 has always been a fan.”

Source: Virgin

Payday apparently came for workers at Neverland Valley Ranch.

Now state labor authorities want to find out whether Michael Jackson paid his hired help their back wages in full.

“We will now audit the payroll records to ensure that all employees were paid the proper amount owed them and that proper payroll withholdings were deducted,” Robert Jones, acting labor commissioner, said in a statement Friday. “The audit will also include the calculation of penalties due for violation of state law requiring prompt payment of wages.”

Labor authorities said the singer failed to pay at least $306,000 in wages dating to December 2005. In addition to that amount, he owed at least $100,000 in penalties.

On top of that, the singer is being penalized $69,000 for apparently not providing workers’ compensation insurance. That lapse dates to January.

In his statement, Mr. Jones said Jackson representatives were in the process of obtaining workers’ compensation insurance. Mr. Jackson has been silent on the wage and insurance matters.

A week ago, 69 employees were at the ranch. It’s not known how many remain.

Speculation has run wild in recent days that perhaps Mr. Jackson had shut down Neverland, with its main house, guest house, movie theater, amusement park, steam train and zoo, for good.

Early Friday, Jackson spokeswoman Raymone Bain tried to dispel those rumors.

“It is public knowledge that Mr. Jackson currently resides in the Middle Eastern country of Bahrain. He therefore decided to close his house and reduce his work force,” she said in a statement. “This is a common practice when a residence is vacant for an extended period of time.”

“Reports indicating that Neverland has been closed or ’shut down’ for good are inaccurate,” she said.

The state last week ordered Mr. Jackson to have no hired help at his property until he paid the back wages and secured workers’ compensation insurance. Since then, security duties have been taken over by volunteer family members, and an unidentified veterinarian put animal caregivers on his payroll.

Source: News Press

Following the old adage, “It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it,” here are a social scribe’s weekend highlights.

At a fundraiser for the Shambala Animal Preserve, a prominent woman at a very prominent table turned her fur coat inside out and sat on it all night, realizing after her entrance that at this event of all events, pruned pelts were not for preening.

“We’re not just giving animals a good home. I’m surrounded by them and I know they’re thinking, ‘Is this all there is?’ They need to be free,” said Tippi Hedren at “Wild Ones ROAR,” benefiting The Roar Foundation supporting the Shambala Preserve.

She founded the preserve more than 20 years ago for abandoned, abused and unwanted exotic cats. She spoke against people who think they can care for a wild cat in their home; against “canned hunts,” where for a price you can shoot a wild animal for a trophy; and of the rescue of cats from roadside zoos and drug dealers who use them as guards.

At Shambala in Acton, where 68 big cats live out their lives with dignity, guests and high school students may visit, learn about the animals and adopt an animal. “Come visit,” invited the mild-mannered actress, who announced that all of Michael Jackson’s animals at Neverland near Santa Barbara have been adopted to “good homes.” Shambala will be home for two tigers from the estate.

Source: Desert Sun, California

An extra day apparently was all Michael Jackson needed to come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages for employees at his Neverland Valley Ranch.

State labor authorities gave the 47-year-old singer until 5 p.m. Wednesday to make good on at least $306,000 in wages dating to last December or face a lawsuit. That’s one day past the original deadline set last week by the Department of Industrial Relations.

With about 90 minutes to go before the extension was set to expire, Mr. Jackson’s representatives made arrangements to distribute payroll “directly to the employees” starting today, said department spokeswoman Renee Bacchini.

The total amount of wages and penalties is likely to climb, Ms. Bacchini told the News-Press, as authorities continue their investigation.

“We have wage complaints from at least 36 employees,” she said. “We will verify everything along the way.”

While still facing a minimum $100,000 fine for failing to pay employees, Mr. Jackson appears to have averted a lawsuit for now, thanks to the agreement with the state.

“There is no need to take legal action in this matter at this time as our main concern that all employees receive wages owed to them is being addressed,” said Robert Jones, acting state labor commissioner, in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “As directed in a letter on March 7 demanding payment of wages, arrangements have been made to ensure that all employees are paid wages owed them.”

Just how much is owed has yet to be determined.

“The total amount in back wages paid will be known when the payroll process is completed and we have verified Jackson’s records,” said Mr. Jones. “DIR will then calculate the total amount in penalties and act to ensure they are paid.”

He said verified back wage and penalty amounts should be available early next week.

Mr. Jackson faces another $69,000 in penalties for failing to have on-the-job or workers’ compensation insurance in place for Neverland employees.

Department of Industrial Relations investigators stumbled upon that lapse, which dates to January, while investigating claims of nonpayment.

A week ago, they barred hired help at the 2,600-acre Los Olivos ranch until Mr. Jackson straightened out the payroll matter.

As the days went on, paid security personnel at the front gate’s guard shack were replaced by a volunteer family member, and an unnamed veterinarian took on the singer’s zoo help as his own employees, ensuring that the needs of the Neverland menagerie were met.

On a subsequent visit to Neverland, DIR investigators verified that no one working at the ranch was a Jackson employee.

His representatives have told the state that they were trying to obtain workers’ compensation insurance, but that doesn’t let the singer off the hook for not having it in the first place.

“In addition to the wage-related penalties, we will be calculating and collecting the exact amount due the state for Mr. Jackson’s failure to have required workers’ compensation insurance coverage for his employees,” Mr. Jones said.

Source: News Press

Michael Jackson got a day’s reprieve on a deadline to pay a $100,000 fine and $306,000 in wages he owes Neverland Ranch employees.

Jackson now has until 5 p.m. Wednesday to pay the penalty and remit back wages owed dozens of workers, who complained to the state that they hadn’t been paid since Dec. 19.

The 47-year-old pop star could face a state lawsuit if he doesn’t comply by then.

Jackson no longer lives at the ranch full-time. He has been living mainly in the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain since being acquitted of child molestation charges last year.

A call to Jackson’s spokesman, Raymone K. Bain, for comment wasn’t immediately returned Tuesday.

Renee Bacchini, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Industrial Relations, said Jackson was “aware” of the extension. She said such extensions are not uncommon.

The extra day was granted after Jackson’s financial representatives contacted the department to say “they are trying to come up with the money,” Bacchini said.

“They’re trying to work with us,” she said.

The 2,600-acre ranch in Santa Barbara County remained virtually shut down Tuesday under an order issued by the labor department last week. Sixty-nine employees were ordered to stop work after it was discovered that their mandatory workers compensation coverage for job-related injuries had lapsed.

Financial representatives for Jackson indicated they are complying with the order and “anybody who’s out there on the ranch is not an employee of Michael Jackson,” Bacchini said.

A security guard could remain on duty if the guard was paid by a separate company that has workers compensation coverage, Bacchini said.

Similarly, people remained at the ranch to care for the singer’s exotic menagerie.

“There are people who are being paid to take care of the animals” but Jackson wasn’t paying them, Bacchini said.

Jackson also faces a fine of $69,000 for allowing the workers compensation coverage to lapse. He has 30 days to appeal that fine, which was issued last week.

Source: Associated Press

Michael Jackson’s spokeswoman denied a London newspaper report that the pop icon was looking for a new home in Britain.

“Information disseminated this weekend from London is totally erroneous,” Raymone Bain told AFP. “He’s not purchased a house in London, he’s not been scouting schools for his kids, he has no intention to moving to London.”

The Mail on Sunday had reported that Jackson and his three children have been staying on and off at a Cliveden, one of Britain’s grandest stately homes in Berkshire, southern England, for the past month.

The weekly said “it was understood” that Jackson, 47, had asked whether the mansion was up for sale, only to be told it belonged to The National Trust and was leased to a hotel group.

“The reports having originated out of London regarding this thing are untrue,” Bain said.

“It quotes an official spokesperson, which I assume is me,” she said. “I’ve not spoken to anybody, in any publication in London regarding Mr. Jackson’s intentions of moving to London, this is totally erroneous and they need to stop it.”

Source: AFP

As his associates work to straighten out back pay and workers’ comp issues at Neverland Valley Ranch, Michael Jackson apparently is this close to wrapping up a new song to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina.

“It is in the very last stages,” Raymone Bain, the singer’s spokeswoman, told me. “The record will be done.”

In September 2005, eight days after the hurricane hit and three months after his “vindication” at the hands of outgoing District Attorney Tom Sneddon, the singer said he’d record a star-studded charity single called “From the Bottom of My Heart.”

“It pains me to watch the human suffering taking place in the Gulf region of my country,” he said in a written statement at the time.

Well, weeks turned to months and there was still no single. Observers found it odd that the King of Spin, now in self-imposed exile in Bahrain, would take so long to record a single.

They also scoffed when it was revealed that some of the original people touted as participants seemed to distance themselves from the project — or say they were never part of it to begin with.

Since the original announcement, Bain has come out several other times to say the single was coming along, but now it seems closer than ever.

Then came word from the singer’s new business partner, Sheik Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, that everything was A-OK.

“The record is coming along great,” he told The Associated Press’ Linda Deutsch. “We’ve been taking our time to perfect it and mix it.”

The public are not the only people waiting to hear the song.

“We were wondering whether or not it was ever coming out,” Andy Gibson, co-manager of the O’Jays, told the AP at the time. “They recorded their part of it two or three months ago.”

One thing that might have slowed the process is the way in which it was recorded. Apparently artists contributed via satellite.

When I asked Bain exactly why the thing is taking so long, she reminded me of the sheik’s comments, and added: “Michael is a perfectionist.”

And while a release date has not been set, Bain confirmed the song does have a new title: “I Have This Dream.”

She also said “two or three” of the original artists who were supposed to take part but didn’t for scheduling and other reasons, are back.

She provided no names, but, in addition to the O’Jays, some of the artists said to have contributed tracks are Snoop Dogg, Ciara, Jermaine Jackson and the Rev. Shirley Caesar.

Source: News Press

There is a very big question everyone keeps asking - where has ll of Michael Jackson’s money gone?

The expert in the hot seat would be Whitman, Jackson’s accountant. A partner in the Hollywood firm Bernstein, Fox, and Whitman, he has not able to send out the payroll or meet those insurance minimums for months for the staff at Neverland.

But that doesn’t mean that Whitman’s firm hasn’t been remunerated for the voluminous work it has done for Jackson. In the deposition, Whitman testified that since 2003, his firm has reaped $2.3 million in fees from Michael while others have waited patiently.

It’s also unclear whether Jackson has ever actually met Whitman or spoken to him more than once.

Source: Fox News

The city’s most famous family gathered Saturday to bury a man who was once part of the worldwide pop phenomenon known as the Jackson 5.

But while Janet Jackson sent a check to help bury Johnny Jackson Jr., neither she nor her pop-star brother Michael returned to their Indiana home for the farewell.

But that didn’t stop Jackson brothers Tito, Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Randy from joining other friends and relatives at Smith, Bizzell and Warner Funeral Home on Saturday morning to remember Johnny, who was stabbed to death March 1 in Gary.

Mourners arrived at the funeral home to little fanfare, but they brought plenty of memories of the band’s former drummer.

The last time the Jacksons saw Johnny was at a family reunion in California a year or two ago, Tito said, and he was the same Johnny he was when he joined the family all those years ago.

“Johnny was so full of spirit, and he made a lot of people laugh,” Tito said. “Seeing him at the reunion brought back a lot of memories.”

Johnny Jackson was not related to other members of the Jackson 5, though patriarch Joseph Jackson did become the teenage drummer’s legal guardian when the family moved to Los Angeles in 1969.

“They were family to him,” said Keith Jackson, Johnny’s cousin and occasional bandmate, who was not part of the more famous band.

Randy, the youngest of the Jackson 5 brothers, said he learned how to play drums from Johnny.

“He had a lively way of living and enjoyed every moment,” Randy said. “He made touring fun. There was never a dull moment, with jokes and a lot of laughs.”

Johnny backed the Jackson 5 for 15 years and lived with the family after their move from Gary to Los Angeles.

The 55-year-old drummer lived modestly after returning to Gary more than 20 years ago

Keith Jackson and his older cousin were the rhythm section for local band Triple Threat until Johnny began playing with Gary-based reggae and R & B group White Dove.

Johnny’s stormy relationship with Yolanda R. Davis, who was charged with the drummer’s death last week, concerned his may friends and relatives in Gary, Keith Jackson said, declining to comment further.

“It’s just tragic,” he said. “Johnny was just a great person and an incredibly talented person.”

A Jackson family spokesman earlier this week said that youngest sister and pop star Janet Jackson was paying for Johnny’s funeral. Neither she nor brother Michael nor sisters LaToya or Maureen nor parents Kathleen and Joe Jackson attended the service Saturday.

Andrea Blaylock of Gary, a member of the city’s Cornerstone Church, where Johnny was a member, said she was glad the Jackson brothers attended the funeral but was deeply saddened over the death of Johnny, whom she described as “talented” and “good-hearted.”

Source: Post Tribe