Michael Jackson must pay $60,000 in attorney fees for his ex-wife as she pursues a custody case against the pop superstar, a judge ordered Wednesday.

Superior Court Judge Robert A. Schnider gave the entertainer until Sept. 28 to meet the order. He did not rule on whether to grant Deborah Rowe visitation rights to the couple’s children, Prince Michael and Paris.

Jackson and Rowe did not attend the hearing.

Rowe had sought $195,000 toward her attorney fees but Schnider declined, noting that she had received an $8 million divorce settlement.

“She has millions of dollars, so she should be able to contribute to her own fees,” Schnider said.

The amount granted Rowe was reasonable and the judge left open the possibility that she can seek additional fees later, Rowe attorney Eric M. George said outside court.

Rowe, a former nurse for Jackson’s dermatologist, married him in 1996 but filed for divorce in 1999 and later gave up custody rights. She asked a judge to reinstate them in 2003 after Jackson had been arrested on child molestation charges.

He was acquitted last year and now lives in Bahrain.

In February, a state appeals court ruled that her parental rights had not been properly relinquished under the law.

Attorneys for Jackson and Rowe were scheduled to meet next Tuesday to discuss settling the custody case.

“Hopefully all issues will be settled,” Jackson attorney Michael Abrams said. “In one week, this case may be over.”

Jackson also has a third child, Prince Michael II. The boy’s mother has not been identified.

Source: Associated Press

By Jessica Garrison, Times Staff Writer

Starting today, Michael Jackson will figure in another courtroom drama - this one centering on attempts by Los Angeles Superior Court officials to show that celebrities and other rich people can’t buy special treatment from the legal system when they have business disputes or want to get divorced.

For years, Jackson’s custody battle with ex-wife Deborah Rowe sometimes seemed to suggest the opposite point.

Despite the media firestorm that accompanied the pop star when he was tried and acquitted last year on child molestation charges, he managed to keep the custody dispute largely out of the public eye.

He did so by hiring a private judge - a service that celebrities and rich people regularly use.

These judges are privately paid by the parties in the dispute, but are required to follow the same rules of public access and procedure used in public courtrooms.

But earlier this year, stung by the appearance that celebrities were buying special treatment, Los Angeles County court officials announced a push for greater compliance with the rules governing private judging. They also moved the Jackson case back into the public system.

This morning, lawyers for the pop star and his ex-wife are expected in the teeming, somewhat dilapidated downtown courthouse - a far different environment from the sleek conference rooms where some hearings had been held.

On the agenda are Rowe’s efforts to win visitation with her and Jackson’s two children, Prince Michael and Paris, as well as attorney’s fees.

Court officials also ordered lawyers for Jackson and Rowe to publicly file all legal documents since the divorce this week. As the papers have flooded in, they have opened yet another window into Jackson’s life.

Jackson and Rowe, who had been a nurse in the office of Jackson’s dermatologist, were married in 1996.

Rowe gave birth to Prince Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. in 1997 and to Paris Michael Katherine Jackson in 1998. In 1999, Rowe filed for divorce.

Jackson got custody. Rowe received an $8-million settlement, along with a house in Beverly Hills. At first, she also had the right to visit the children every 45 days, but in 2001, she went back to court and asked the private judge, Stephen Lachs, to terminate her parental rights.

She said she felt like “an intrusion on their life and they’re going to have enough intrusions as it is,” according to a transcript. “I’m absolutely around if Michael ever needs me, if the children need me for a liver, kidney, a hello, whatever, I will always be around for him.”

But she added, “These are his children. I had the children for him…. They’re his kids. They’re not my kids.”

At that time, Lachs, a well-regarded retired family law judge, agreed to terminate her parental rights.

But after Jackson was arrested on charges of child molestation, Rowe reconsidered. She went back to Lachs and asked him to void that order.

Lachs did, saying that he had erred when he terminated Rowe’s rights to Paris and Prince Michael without having someone represent the children’s interests. But he stopped short of allowing Rowe increased visitation without further evaluation of the situation.

That ruling set off a furious round of fighting between lawyers for Jackson and Rowe.

At one point last summer, lawyers for Jackson said Rowe was “trying to hold up Michael Jackson for money using the children as the tool…. I believe she is one step below a common crook or extortionist.”

Jackson’s lawyers also took Lachs’ decision to the Court of Appeal, which sided with Rowe in a ruling published earlier this year.

Source: LA Times

AP’s music writer, Nekesa Mumbi Moody had little good to say about MTV’s Music Awards. In fact, it was 99 percent bad news reviews.

I guess it did make one long for the old Michael Jackson days. But Moody was just in too bad a humor to even recall those times fondly. Instead, the zingers continued with “The lack of outrageousness almost made you long for the days when Michael Jackson was making out with Lisa Marie Presley - that was creepy, but at least it kept viewers talking.”

Creepy? What was so creepy about that? That dip still looks pretty classy to me.

Then, why not reflect on where was the high drama and fun of the MTV awards when MTV awarded Michael Jackson Best Dance Video for “Scream,” Best Choreography for “Scream,” Best Art Direction for “Scream?” How about Best Song In A Movie for “Will You Be There?” Or when the Video Vanguard Award was renamed “The Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award?” Or when “Thriller” walked away with the title of greatest music video of all time? And, remember 1984, when Thriller walked away with the show, taking Best Overall Video, Best Choreography and the Viewer’s Choice Award.

But we understand. It’s tres chic to be jaded and oh so bored.

Thanks, Edith, for bringing this to our attention.

Source: Associated Press

Michael Jackson has been staying at the luxury Luggala Castle in County Wicklow, Ireland, for the past three months.

Other celebrities such as Mel Gibson and Orlando Bloom have previously rented the seven bedroom home. The residence is reportedly adorned with fine art and is surrounded by five acres of gardens.

Michael has been seen taking the children to the movies and dining in local restaurants.

Source: MJFC

Investigators from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department have concluded their investigation regarding the August, 24th fire on Michael Jackson’s Neverland Valley Ranch.
The fire was determined to be caused by electrical facilities on the property. However no specific source of origin has been identified and cause of fire will remain as undetermined.

The blaze burned nearly 60 acres of Michael Jackson’s property. The flames only burned brush and fortunatelly, they did not reach any of the buildings or animals on the property. Jackson was not at Neverland at the time the fire accident happened.

Source: Santa Barbara News

A Broadway - style musical based on Michael Jackson’s biggest hits, “Thriller Live”, made its debut in London’s West End - Dominion Theatre, August 27th. 3000 fans had made their way to witness more than 80 performers singing and dancing along to the King of Pop’s most memorable tunes - from the early Motown years to his success with Thriller and other solo albums including a gospel choir and a children’s ballet troupe.

The first part of the musical was dedicated to the early years, starting with familiar Jackson Five hits like “I’ll Be There”, “Who’s Loving You”, “Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)” and “Can You Feel It”. The kids who performed the Jackson Five songs got big ovations from the crowd for their performance which were very close to the originals.

The second part of the show was dedicated to Michael’s solo career. The well known Michael Jackson impersonator Navi took the stage and performed “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” in front of an standing audience. When the ending of the “Black or White” music video were shown on the big screen the audience went totally wild, watching his every move from his dancing on top of the car to turning himself into a black panther. With more dancers on stage in part two, they got to see many great performances such as the well choreographed “Dangerous”.

Producer Adrian Grant has hailed the show a “musical celebration” and says it will help to revive Jackson’s status as the King of Pop.

“It’s to remind the public that Michael Jackson is still a great artist, and to put his music back out in the public domain.” - says Mr Grant, who founded the original Michael Jackson British fan club in 1988.

“A lot of his music has been covered at the moment and if you go to the nightclubs and hear a Michael Jackson track, people get up and dance, so he’s still very popular.”

So far the one - day spectacular musical has generated a buzz around the country and beyond, but it is organizer’s hope that it could eventually go on tour.

“The interest has been really good. We’ve got people from all over Europe coming, from Germany, Spain, Italy, and all over the UK”, he says. “But we’ll see how it goes on the day, get the public’s feedback and decide from there what we’d like to do. We’ve had interest from people who want to take it on the road.”

A female fan from Latvia describes the show as amazing. “It was just like you were on a Michael Jackson concert”, she says. “Fans sang along and it was so great!”.

While the show ended with “Man In The Mirror” and “Heal The World”, it proved that Michael Jackson once again has brought people from all over the world to have fun and enjoy his wonderful art.

Source: BBC News

Michael Jackson is in reunion talks with film-maker John Landis to direct his comeback video. The 48-year-old famously worked with THE BLUES BROTHERS director Landis on the famous promos for his hits THRILLER and BLACK OR WHITE.

Jackson, who was acquitted of child molestation charges last year (05), is hoping Landis’ magic touch will make his return from the wilderness a success. Landis says, “I talked to him last month. He was in Bahrain or some bizarre place. It was a business thing we had to talk about. “Michael is a genius. He’s obviously an eccentric but he really has a great talent.”

CC

John Landis started out by working in the 20th Century Fox mailroom but we know him for directing The Blues Brothers, Animal House, An American Werewolf In London and Trading Places, as well as the videos for Michael Jackson’s hits Black Or White and Thriller. He was recently the creative consultant on Universal 360 - A Cinesphere Spectacular, a nightly show about the history of films at Universal Studios, Florida.

Metro: How do you go from working in the mailroom at a studio to directing blockbusters?

John: People talk about how I worked my way up from the mailroom as if the film industry is the army but it’s not. Working in the mailroom you learn a lot about mail.

Metro: Were other budding directors in the mailroom with you?

John: Oh no. There are some who came out of the mailroom at Universal but the people at the mailroom at Fox, well, most of them are probably still there.

Metro: Is it true you were a stuntman as well?

John: I didn’t intend to become a stuntman. The first feature that I had a real job on was Kelly’s Heroes, shot in 1969 in the former Yugoslavia, when the Iron Curtain really meant something. I’ve never forgotten it - landing there was like going from colour to black and white. That was at the height of the spaghetti western boom so I drove to Almeria in Spain where there was a tremendous amount of production going on. I was there for a year and worked on more than 50 movies. Most of the time I was a stuntman. I became very adept at falling off a horse.

Metro: Any nasty accidents?

John: I got bruised a lot. There was this terrible Italian pirate movie. There was one stunt for which I got paid $175 (£93), which was a fortune to me. There were four of us dressed as pirates and we were supposed to leap off this mast into the water. It was very high. So we jumped and there are two things I remember. One was: ‘Gee, I’m falling an awfully long time.’ And two was that when we hit the water it was like hitting concrete. Nothing broke but I was one big bruise for a week.

Metro: Is Thriller the greatest video of all time?

John: I don’t think there is a greatest video of all time. I find those titles kind of silly. I thought it was absurd when the British Film Institute started doing ‘ten best’ lists. How do you compare Disney’s Pinocchio, which we all agree is a great film, and Orson Welles’s Touch Of Evil? What the hell do they have in common? Nothing - they’re both great films.

Metro: How much of the idea for Thriller was yours?

John: All of it. I wrote it but Michael inspired it. He had seen An American Werewolf In London. He called me up and said that he wanted to turn into a monster. He really did - he was fascinated by metamorphosis.

Metro: There’s a subtext there.

John: What can I say?

Metro: Are you still in touch with Michael?

John: I talked to him about a month ago. He was in Bahrain or some bizarre place. It was a business thing we had to talk about. Michael is a genius. He’s obviously eccentric but he really has a great talent. I’m not one to judge him.

Metro: How did you get involved with the Universal project?

John: The head of live entertainment at Universal Studios in Orlando called me and said they were planning this spectacular, every night at 10pm, in the park. It is a 19-minute montage of film clips that tells the history of Universal Pictures and of Hollywood.

Metro: And you suggested what films they should use?

John: Yeah, I made a list of all the films, they put it together and I basically argued with them. I was like: ‘Can we have a little less Ben Stiller and a little more WC Fields?’ They wanted a few of the recent international releases that I think are lousy but I can’t argue with them.

Metro: Will you name specifics?

John: Hell, no. But I was very upset when I had to take out Rock Hudson and Doris Day. However, my favourite part about working at Universal was going through all their classic horror pictures to put in the show. Motion pictures are the mythology of our times, so they have real power. The show also has this new technology called laser mapping. They photograph a building and then, when it’s dark, they project other images on to it. They can make anything they want happen. Suddenly, in one of the windows, there’s an explosion - it’s unbelievably real. I said to them: ‘Project a brick wall on that huge wall.’ To the people in the park after dark it was just a brick wall - then it exploded. It was a spectacular illusion but it was too successful - it scared the s**t out of a lot of people. They were running and screaming everywhere.

Metro: Do you now get free entry to the park?

John: I’d better.

Metro: If you could be remembered for one piece of work, what would it be?

John: I don’t know, because if I gave you an answer now in a half hour it would be different. Watching your own films is strange. In the last few years, I’ve had to approve the transfers for DVD of Animal House and An American Werewolf In London. I hadn’t seen them for 15 years and I tell you what, watching Animal House I laughed my ass off and I’d forgotten just how brutal Werewolf… is.

Metro: What’s the story behind the line ‘See you next Wednesday’ that appears in a lot of your films?

John: It’s so boring, you’ll be really disappointed. ‘See you next Wednesday’ is a line of dialogue from Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey I’d written a script many years ago that was not made, never will be made but whenever I cannibalise something from it, like a joke or a line of dialogue, I always give it a credit in the movie.

Metro: What was your See You Next Wednesday film about?

John: It was a sort of musical biography of a slacker. It was really dumb but there was some great stuff in it.

Metro: Is there still more to be mined?

John: Oh absolutely.

Source: Metro.co.uk