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Paris Jackson is Right: Michael Jackson’s Mother Hasn’t Had a Stroke

Roger Friedman
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Paris Jackson is Right: Michael Jackson’s Mother Hasn’t Had a Stroke

Paris Jackson, 14, is right in her Tweets (see the accompanying item next). Sources tell me her grandmother, Katherine Jackson, has not had any kind of stroke. But a war is raging within the Jackson family concerning the wrongful death lawsuit against AEG Live. Depositions are being taken now, and the AEG lawyers are apparently being very aggressive with the family.

“Mrs. Jackson would probably like to call the whole thing off,” says my source. “But the kids are desperate. They see it slipping away from them.” Janet Jackson, I’m told, was pressured into signing a very vitriolic letter sent to Michael’s executors. “The whole thing is really Jermaine and Randy,” says my source.

What’s happened now is that the letter (see the previous item) has caused a rift between the siblings who signed it–Randy, Jermaine, Rebbie, Janet and Tito–and the people who live in Katherine Jackson’s home–Michael’s kids. Paris Jackson Tweeted that her uncle Randy was a “liar” according to reports. Randy responded on his Twitter feed: “The letter is authentic.” And: “We ask that everyone respects that this is a serious matter that will be handled by the proper authorities.”

But Randy and Jermaine — whose children are cousins and half-siblings to each other–may have made a very risky mistake here. In the process of trying to overturn Michael’s will, or get part of a settlement from AEG Live, they’ve alienated Michael’s children if they’ve lied about their mother’s health. There will be no going back from that.

The lawsuit against AEGLive contends that the company shouldn’t have hired Dr. Conrad Murray, and that they’re somehow responsible for his negligence. In fact, it was Michael who insisted that AEGLive hire Murray, who didn’t work long enough even to get paid.

Meanwhile, Janet Jackson reportedly told Prevention magazine that she’s lectured Paris about being part of a planned animated movie. Janet needn’t worry. So far, the movie that was announced has no funding. There are no plans for it go forward.

Michael Jackson’s Family At War With His Estate, Executors

Roger Friedman
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1
Michael Jackson’s Family At War With His Estate, Executors

Michael Jackson’s family has declared war on the executors of his estate. At least some of them have, and there’s massive dissension among the family members. A letter was sent, and made public, to the executors. It’s signed by five of Michael’s siblings–Janet, Rebbie, Randy, Jermaine, and Tito. Randy Jackson, on Twitter, insists the letter is real. But it’s addressed to John Branca and John McClain, which makes Janet’s participation questionable: McClain helped her launch her career, and they have been friends for years and years. Plus, McClain has always been the Jackson family insider with the estate since Michael died in June 2009. The letter states: “Michael always despised both of you.” So that makes no sense at all.

Who didn’t sign the letter? Marlon, Jackie, and LaToya. And Katherine Jackson, Michael’s mother. The letter was sent to everyone in the Jackson estate and to AEG Live and Colony Capital. But interestingly, it wasn’t sent to Michael’s estate attorney.

The estate has issued a response to the letter, which claims that Michael’s will was faked, and that Branca and McClain have hijacked it.

If the letter is real, and truly signed by all these people, it’s delusional at best. The Jacksons are no doubt sorely needing money and this is their last shot at trying to overturn the will. But as the estate’s response points out, the will was approved three years ago, Branca and McClain were certified as the executors, and they’ve carried out their duties. They’ve made a lot of money for Michael’s kids.

Ironically, the one person who could vouch for the executors is someone who was never treated so well by them, and is now, sadly gone: Michael’s manager, Frank DiLeo. It was DiLeo who brought John Branca back into Michael’s life six weeks before he died. It was DiLeo who saw Michael in the hospital just after he died.

The letter from Michael’s siblings corresponds with some other crazy stuff that’s cropped up on the internet. There’s a website suggesting that Peter Lopez, one of Michael’s former attorneys, was murdered. In fact he sadly committed suicide. No one knows why. But it’s extremely hurtful, I’m sure, to his wife and children to have Lopez’s name dragged into this.

Maybe the bigger issue is what’s going on with 80 year old Katherine Jackson. The three kids–Prince, Paris and Blanket–obviously love her and are protective of her. She’s their legal guardian. There’s no one else to raise them. The letter suggests that she’s in trouble. Paris’s urgent Tweets that nothing is wrong are a little suspicious. Her intentions are good. But what is the reality?  She wrote: “at this point i dont care what people call me or if they think i’m a bad person… if it means sticking up for my grandmother i will do it.”

There’s a question now of whether or not Katherine has had a “mini-stroke,” as the letter states. Michael’s daughter, Paris, age 14, Tweeted that she hadn’t, and that Randy Jackson was lying about all of this. Paris, the daughter of Debbie Rowe, is a chip off the block. She’s a pistol. What she actually knows is questionable, but you have to respect her enthusiasm.

 

American Idol’s Randy Jackson: Adele Would Have Won “American Idol”

Roger Friedman
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3
American Idol’s Randy Jackson: Adele Would Have Won “American Idol”

Randy Jackson was in town today, on his way to St. Petersburg, Florida to premiere his line of watches on HSN this Friday at 10pm. The watches are beautifully designed by Randy, with Swiss movements and elegant boxes. He’s even made some automatic ones as well as quartz. I’ll tell you right now what he said about “American Idol”– he doesn’t know anything. He’s seven tracks into a new album with Mariah Carey, and saw her this week at her rented home in the Hamptons. We had lunch with a bunch of pretty fashion editors (and one other guy, from People). We talked music, mostly. He was horrified that I liked “Call Me Maybe.”

Randy’s favorite group right now is the Alabama Shakes, from Athena, Alabama. We talked about Adele. I asked him if she could have won “American Idol” had she been on his show. “Absolutely,” he said. “There’s no one else like her.” We talked about “Idol” and all the famous past winners and contestants. Randy is very proud of the show.

“Is there any other show where you can name so many of the winners and people who were on it?” he asked rhetorically, as the ten people at Hakkasan (yes, the London Hakkasan has opened on West 43rd St–I will be there a lot!) rattled off Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson–she didn’t win!, Fantasia, Chris Daughtry, and so on.

Randy’s sending a watch to “Soul Man” Sam Moore, whose album, “Overnight Sensational,” he produced. And he’s waiting to see if he and Mariah are going to be “AI” judges, and what the future holds in store. But as I pointed out, he’s the heart of “Idol.” He’s the anchor. People will come and go, but he’s got to be there. The audience expects it. I think Fox gets that, too.

Robin Williams Will Make Film Comeback as Dwight Eisenhower

Roger Friedman
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1
Robin Williams Will Make Film Comeback as Dwight Eisenhower

Robin Williams, one of my favorite people and a comic genius, is getting back to doing good films. The Oscar winner (“Good Will Hunting”) is joining two excellent projects. First he’s playing former president Dwight D. Eisenhower in Lee Daniels’ “The Butler” with an all star cast that includes Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, John Cusack and another Oscar winner, Melissa Leo, as Mamie Eisenhower. If “The Butler” isn’t an Oscar nominee in 2014, something will be terribly wrong. Then Williams goes into Phil Alden Robinson’s “The Angriest Man in Brooklyn.” He stars in it again with Melissa Leo (let’s hope they get along), Peter Dinklage, and James Earl Jones. Robinson, of course, made “Field of Dreams,” and wrote Carl Reiner’s brilliant “All of Me” with Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin, so we love him. Robin Williams has a crazy movie career and a crazier personal life, but we love him, too, and hope these two films bring him back with a vengeance. If he’s good as Eisenhower, we can all wear “I Like Ike” buttons again.

So Inside: Nikki Finke at War with Bret Easton Ellis and THR; THR Panders to Bert Fields

Roger Friedman
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0
So Inside: Nikki Finke at War with Bret Easton Ellis and THR; THR Panders to Bert Fields

It’s a very slow news day, “The Dark Knight” is about to slay the box office, we had hail this afternoon in lower Manhattan not quite as big as golf balls–more like Good n Plenty raining down on the city. Where was Batman to save us? Respected, established critic Marshall Fine said something critical about “The Dark  Knight” and fanboys threatened his life on Rotten Tomatoes.  So let me go on record: I loved it. Stay away from my house.

Of course, I’m in the phone book. Nikki Fine is not. She’s been hiding for a long time. “Less than Zero” and “American Psycho” author Brett Easton Ellis discovered that Nikki lives in the same apartment building in West Hollywood. He said so, and Nikki–who has no restraint whatsoever when it comes to vitriol–went after him like Ellis’s Patrick Bateman on a bad date. Ellis Tweeted that Finke called building management to complain, basically lost it. They are now at war.

Ellis Tweeted: “Nikki Finke: the hectoring, threatening, vaguely litigious e-mails she sent to our buildings owner and management was a truly awful thing…” Listen, Brett that’s nothing if Nikki is mad. Anyway, Nikki is busy venting at The Hollywood Reporter over a story they wrote about Warner Bros.’ Barry Meyer leaving his job running the studio. Today, Finke writes: “‘The Hollywood Reporter has really hurt their credibility. I don’t understand how they could write that stuff. It isn’t true,” Time Warner told me.”‘ You understand, all through this rant, it’s “Time Warner told me”–the whole company is now a speaking person. It’s a source at, or a spokesman for–it’s Time Warner, like a first and last name. There is such a person, and Nikki knows them. I have the screen capture. This is so awesome. Time Warner must be one of the Warner brothers.

Of course, it’s The Hollywood Reporter, which is a weird website, and a very expensive looking magazine said to be losing zillions of dollars. Its owners, Guggenheim Partners, just bought the Los Angeles Dodgers. I’m told the G’s want out now, and are looking at other big properties with a little more zip. But while they wait, THR today hits another low, forget about insulting Mr. (or Miss) Time Warner. They run a diary of Bert Fields’ weekend solving the Tom Cruise divorce case. He’s very busy with it, flies to New York secretly, but still has time to dine with Dustin Hoffman, see his new movie, and read poetry to his lovely wife, art dealer Barbara Guggenheim. Reading this caused me to use the last nausea patch in my medicine cabinet, and put it behind my ear before I fainted. Tom Cruise is so lucky to have this Renaissance man on his team, a man whose name turned up more times in the Anthony Pellicano federal indictment than the word “and.” If only the government had known Bert reads poetry to his wife!

I do feel bad for Brett Easton Ellis. He’s a nice guy. I knew him in New York. I can’t imagine where he and Nikki live–there are only a couple of luxury buildings suitable for them in West Hollywood. I’m thinking Empire West or Sierra Towers. Both buildings are stuffed with stars, many older and retired who don’t want to run their own homes. Do these people know all this is going on? What do they say in the laundry room? For years I stayed in Empire West. The late Suzanne Pleshette ran the building unofficially. My friend Julia Phillips, also gone, once set fire accidentally to her bedroom. It was the talk of the elevator for weeks. Bert Fields has represented Nikki Finke in the past, which is why she was the only entertainment journalist in the Modern World not to write a word about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. So Nikki and THR actually have something in common–they both love Bert Fields. Maybe Nikki can get Bert to come read some poetry to Brett. A Haiku perhaps. Or a limerick.

And this is why I write about Hollywood from New York. And just in case you were wondering, Julia Roberts lives across the street from me, and Daniel Day Lewis is around the corner.

PS I didn’t know what photo to run with this story. So that’s a picture of R&B great Mavis Staples, who’s appearing Friday at Lincoln Center in a tribute to the late great Curtis Mayfield with the Roots and the original Impressions. If you’re here in NYC, don’t miss this show.

Madonna London Show Panned by Press, Booed by Fans

Roger Friedman
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0
Madonna London Show Panned by Press, Booed by Fans

Madonna had a tough time performing in Hyde Park last night in London. First of all, it was raining, which never makes for a good show. Second, she was roundly panned by the newspaper critics and booed by fans who left early. Part of the problem: the show is heavy on songs from the flop album “MDNA” and light on the hits. Note to Madonna: this is contrary to what anyone will tell you in 2012. Roger Waters is performing Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” in stadiums. Paul McCartney does his Beatles and Wings hits. Sting is only hits, either symphonic or rock versions.

But Madonna can’t be told anything. Also, she doesn’t own the publishing rights to much of her early catalog, and doesn’t emphasize it anymore. The Evening Standard, Guardian, and Daily Mail were among the papers that thrashed her. They also quoted fans who said it was the worst show they’d ever seen and that they didn’t recognize the songs.

Here’s the set list. She sang 7 hits only, including a non hit called “Celebration” that’s supposed to replace “Holiday” a song with the refrain “Celebrate, it will be all right.” But Madge didn’t write “Holiday,” so it’s gone. I won’t be seeing Madonna at Yankee Stadium, but if I were going, I’d like to hear “Beautiful Stranger,” “Into the Groove,” “Isla Bonita,” “Borderline,” even the cacophonous “Music.” When Madonna goes to fake Yom Kippur services at the Kabbalah Center this fall, she’s going to have a lot to atone for.

Transgression
The Prayer Overture: Act of Contrition
(with Kalakan) (with excerpts from “Lekhah dodi”)
Girl Gone Wild
(with samples from “Material … more)
Revolver
Gang Bang
Papa Don’t Preach
Hung Up
(with samples from “Girl Gone Wild”)
I Don’t Give A
Prophecy
Best Friend
(video interlude; with samples from “Heartbeat”)
Express Yourself
(with excerpts from “Born This … more)
Give Me All Your Luvin’
Turning Up the Hits
(video interlude; with samples … more)
Turn Up the Radio
Open Your Heart
(with Kalakan) (with excerpts from “Sagarra jo!” by Kalakan)
Masterpiece
(with Kalakan)
Masculine/Feminine
Justify My Love
(video interlude)
Vogue
Candy Shop
(with samples from “Ashamed of … more)
Human Nature
Like a Virgin
(with samples from “Evgeni’s … more)
Celebration
Nobody Knows Me
(video interlude)
I’m Addicted
I’m a Sinner
(with Kalakan) (with excerpts from “Cyber-Raga”)
Like a Prayer
Celebration
(with samples from “Girl Gone Wild”)

 

Katie Holmes Should Be Nervous About Tom Cruise’s Sister Visiting with Suri

Roger Friedman
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1
Katie Holmes Should Be Nervous About Tom Cruise’s Sister Visiting with Suri

If I were Katie Holmes, I’d be a bit apprehensive about Tom Cruise’s visit with six year old Suri at the Greenwich Hotel. Why? Tom has brought with him his sister Cass Mapother, the Scientology homeschooling teacher who instructed Nicole Kidman’s kids, Connor and Isabella, away from their mother. Cass was also one of Katie’s “minders” during her wilderness days with Cruise. She was the one who appeared with her mother at the Armani fashion show in 2007 and threw herself between me and Katie before I could speak to her. (I often wonder how much of this period Holmes remembers.) Cass Mapother is married to Greg

Capazario, a long time Scientologist who runs one of their sketchier activities, Criminon. (This for the indoctrination of prisoners in jails.) These people are hardcore in the cult, and not exactly the sort of people who would tread lightly around poor little Suri. Cass Mapother’s first husband took Scientology courses 20 years ago before he left her. Their child remained behind (just like Cruise and Kidman’s kids) and became a serious Scientologist. Cass Mapother was seen in pictures yesterday at the Greenwich Hotel bearing gifts of toys for Suri. Caveat emptor, Suri.

Even though Katie Holmes has enrolled Suri in a Catholic school, let’s never forget Tom’s exchange with Diane Sawyer. To wit; there are Catholic Scientologists and Jewish Scientologists. “But we,” Tom said, “are Scientologist Scientologists.”

Cass Mapother, by the way, by all accounts is also on her third marriage with Capazorio. She’s been registered with Scientology under three different names. During her second marriage in the 1990s, she worked feverishly up the Scientology ladder. She completed about 40 “courses” between 1994 and 2005.

 

Movie Academy Elects Six New Governors, Brings Back Tom Hanks, Michael Mann

Roger Friedman
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0
Movie Academy Elects Six New Governors, Brings Back Tom Hanks, Michael Mann

News from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. There are six new governors. Tom Hanks and Michael Mann return. Bill Condon is added.

Beverly Hills, CA – Six first-time governors have been elected to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – Dante Spinotti, representing the Cinematographers branch; Lisa Cholodenko, Directors branch; Dick Cook, Executives; John Knoll, Visual Effects; Scott Millan, Sound and Bill Condon, Writers. In addition, seven incumbents were reelected and three other motion picture professionals will return to the Board after a time away.

Returning to the board after a hiatus are Michael Mann, Directors; Arthur Hamilton, Music; and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers. Mann previously served from 2000 to 2006. Hamilton most recently served from 2008 to 2011, he has served a total of 33 years. Kennedy was on the board from 1994 to 1997 and again from 2002 to 2011.

The reelected governors are Tom Hanks, Actors; Jim Bissell, Designers; Rob Epstein, Documentary; Mark Goldblatt, Film Editors; Leonard Engelman, Makeup and Hairstylists; Rob Friedman, Public Relations and Bill Kroyer; Short Films & Feature Animation.

Fourteen of the Academy’s 15 branches are represented by three governors, who may serve up to three consecutive three-year terms. Terms are staggered so that each branch elects or reelects one governor each year. The Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch is represented by a single governor.

At the end of 2011, Directors Branch Governor Paul Mazursky stepped down from his seat on the Board.  Lisa Cholodenko was elected to complete the 2 years remaining on Mr. Mazursky’s term and Michael Mann was elected to a new three-year term.

Governors who were not up for reelection and who continue on the Board are Ed Begley, Jr. and Annette Bening, Actors Branch; John Bailey and Richard Crudo, Cinematographers; Rosemary Brandenburg and Jeffrey Kurland, Designers; Kathryn Bigelow, Directors; Michael Apted and Michael Moore, Documentary; Jim Gianopulos and Robert Rehme, Executives; Anne V. Coates and Michael Tronick, Film Editors; Charles Fox and David L. Newman, Music; Gale Anne Hurd and Hawk Koch, Producers; Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Marvin Levy, Public Relations; Jon Bloom and John Lasseter, Short Films and Feature Animation; Curt Behlmer and Don Hall, Sound; Craig Barron and Richard Edlund, Visual Effects; and Frank Pierson and Phil Robinson, Writers.

Labor Day Telethon Reduced to 3 Hours, Jerry Lewis Completely Erased

Roger Friedman
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13
Labor Day Telethon Reduced to 3 Hours, Jerry Lewis Completely Erased

Despite a change in the production team, and a change among its executives, the Muscular Dystrophy Association is continuing to make strange choices. The annual Labor Day telethon will be reducted to just three hours this year, down from six last year, and the old 21 hours that so became a part of Labor Day traditions. The show, now produced by R.A. Clark, son of the late Dick Clark, has not announced its hosts yet. But on the MDA website there is no longer a history page, or any mention of Jerry Lewis.

Lewis, rudely dumped from the show and MDA last year, served over 50 years as MDA’s champion and spokesperson. There is now nothing left of all those years of blood, sweat, tears, shrieking, crying, inveigling, etc. It’s all been swept away.

Last fall, after the scandal of Lewis leaving and the show being downsized, MDA got rid of longtime exec Gerald Weinberg and fired their TV production team. There was a glimmer of hope that MDA would reinstate Lewis or at least do something kind for him, or apologize. But it does seem that ship has sailed. All of MDA’s good will has been squandered, which is a great tragedy for Jerry’s kids and all the kids who’ve thrived because of the organization.

I wrote on March 19th in Forbes.com (now all obliterated thanks to that website’s shortcomings):

Fans of Jerry Lewis are still smarting from his ouster last year as chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The ouster included his unceremoniously being dumped as host of the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon after around 50 years of service. What we didn’t know until recently: Gerald Weinberg, the man responsible for Lewis’s public drubbing, was himself retired very quickly and quietly from MDA after last fall’s telethon. A press release went out and got little notice that Weinberg, who was making nearly$400,000 annually as the head of MDA, was retiring at the age of 82. http://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2011/12/12/NY21368

But insiders tell me Weinberg was fired. And MDA is looking for a new chief. There’s more: Lewis doesn’t talk much about what happened. At the 92nd St Y last Friday, an audience member asked him, “How does anyone fire Jerry Lewis?” Lewis responded: “Easy!” Jerry cried. “Very easy. If Jerry Lewis has a  problem with the leadership, and the leadership can change that”– that. meaning Lewis. And now the leadership is gone, too.

For Lewis, Weinberg’s end is probably too little, too late. The telethon used to run 21 hours over Labor Day weekend. Last year, it was cut to six hours. This September, it will be reduced to a three hour show. Very quietly, after Weinberg was retired, MDA brought in a new producer, R.A. Clark, Dick Clark’s son. “The entire production team from last year was fired,” says a source. Some Lewis loyalists are hopeful that MDA will make peace with Lewis and ask him to return for a real send off. But a friend says he’ll never do it. “He’s done.”

With Weinberg gone, salaries at MDA still remain pretty healthy. One million dollars is divided among the five remaining senior staffers. And according to the MDA’s most recent Form 990, for 2010, three board members got nice inside deals for work done: Edward Nigro ($214,050 for real estate renovations), Steve Farella  ($219,207 for PSA Placements), and Daniel G. Fries ($314,285for Pension Actuarial Services). Jerry Lewis got nothing.

Macy’s Knows the Heights of Its Celebrity Pals

Roger Friedman
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0
Macy’s Knows the Heights of Its Celebrity Pals

Macy’s is shooting a commercial for its fall campaign in the next couple of weeks. They need SAG extras to play the celebrities who are attached to the department store as celebrity endorsers. Luckily they know the height of all these people, In case you’re wondering, Justin Bieber has not grown much. He’s about the height of Tom Cruise according to Telsey and company’s casting notice:

CAMILLA ALVES 5 ft. 8 – 5 ft. 10in. (claim to fame–being Mrs. Matthew McConnaughey)

MARTHA STEWART 5 ft. 9in.

DONALD TRUMP 6 ft. 2in.- 6 ft. 3in.

SEAN COMBS 5 ft. 9 – 5 ft. 11in.

TAYLOR SWIFT 5 ft. 10in.

JUSTIN BIEBER 5 ft. – 7in.

CARLOS SANTANA 5 ft. 9in. 5 ft. 10in. – Shoulder length black hair.

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