Michael Jackson’s Last Will Was Completed in 2002

The issue of Michael Jackson’s will’containing disposition of assets and appointment of guardians for his children’can finally be addressed.

Sources say that Jackson’s final will was drawn up in 2002, after the delivery/birth/acquisition of baby Blanket aka Prince Michael II. The word is that Jackson’s longtime attorney and adviser John Branca, the man who kept Jackson out of many calamities in the 1980s and 90s, is the executor.

As early as sometime this weekend, Branca may share the contents of the will with the people named in it.

Jackson’s will’if it wasn’t updated at all since 2002’would then not include his feelings about people and events that came later, including his 2003 arrest and 2005 child molestation trial. That could cut both ways for certain people in Jackson’s inner circle. Some of them were helpful when Jackson was in trouble, some were not.

It’s possible that codicils address Jackson’s more recent financial issues including his monstrous debts and mortgages, as well as ownership of his intellectual property.

As far as guardianship of the three children, I am pretty amused by the rampant speculation serving as “news” right now on various blogs. The three children are currently with their nanny at the home of Michael’s mother, Katherine, in Encino, California. She may or may not wind up with them. But Mrs. Jackson’who stood by Michael through thick and thin’is too old to care for three rambunctious children even with assistance. There may yet be people Jackson considered better caretakers of his kids.

And still, the vultures keep circling, going from one useless TV interview to another. Still in the lead is Brian Oxman, a man who barely knew Michael Jackson, was not his lawyer, and was fired from his legal team in 2005 by Thomas Mesereau. I sat and watched, with other members of the press, as Oxman napped during many court sessions. That’s right: he fell asleep in open court, as I reported on April 26, 2005.

Even more unbelievably being used as “experts”: people like Diane Dimond, the ex-Court TV reporter who hated Jackson, sided from the beginning with Santa Maria prosecutor Thomas Sneddon. Dimond’s only sources were in the prosecution. She knew nothing about the defense side of the case, and wound up with egg on her face.

Even worse, if possible, Vanity Fair’s Maureen Orth, who told The Huffington Post’s Katherine Thomson: “I think this ending is great for Michael. He would have wanted to go out this way.” Does she really think Michael Jackson would prefer to have a gigantic celebrity death than to see his children grow up? Surprisingly insensitive considering her own public personal life, I’d say.

One thing’s for certain: Orth, Dimond and Oxman are not in Michael Jackson’s will.