'I would trade my body for his, tomorrow' Randy Phillips May 2009 talking about Michael Jackson

'Michael's in great shape' says Kenny Ortega

In September 2012, emails written by Kenny Ortega and Randy Phillips, discussing Michael Jackson's health came to light - see Los Angeles Times. For those of you that are not aware, Lloyds of London insured Michael for the 'This Is It' shows, and Lloyds of London have a lawsuit out which contends that AEG Live hid Michael's health problems from them. They had asked for Michael's medical records for the 5 years preceding 2009, but never received them, Murray said Michael refused to hand them over to him.The emails have been collected by Lloyds of London for their lawsuit.

When I first heard that Michael had died of a possible overdose (initially it was reported it may have been a Demerol overdose), one of the first things that crossed my mind was :

 'Michael must have been in the last few weeks of rehearsal for the shows. He must have been onstage every day with dancers, musicians, choreographers, lighting crew etc.etc. Why didn't anyone notice that there was something wrong?'

I later found out that several people working on 'This Is It' had worked with Michael on previous shows, so they must know how he behaved during rehearsals and performances. This included Kenny Ortega and Travis Payne, the show's director and choreographer, as well as Paula Gongaware, who was now working for AEG.

These emails reveal that problems were apparent as early as March 2009, when Michael went to London to announce the 'This Is It' shows. According to the emails :

"MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent," Phillips wrote in a March 5, 2009, e-mail to AEG Live's parent company. "I (am) trying to sober him up."

In March 2009, Michael had yet to hire Conrad Murray as his personal doctor, and as far as we know, Propofol was not being administered to him at this time. He passed a health test for Lloyds of London the same month, having been tested by Dr Slavit in January, and in this month he also asked nurse Cherilynn Lee to advise him on nutrition. She administered a vitamin cocktail to Michael several times in March, because he was experiencing a lack of energy and she also advises him on how to beat insomnia. Michael started rehearsals at Centerstaging at the end of March.

So it seemed that nothing is too seriously wrong with Michael at this point, and you could just put the problems of 5th March down to fear and nerves. In a previous post, This Time Around I cover corporate bullying, but what I haven't mentioned is the physical impact it can have on an individual, and how it can cause stress, fear and loss of confidence. I think that this is what Michael was experiencing, although I doubt anyone knew it at the time.

On 4th April 2009, Michael and Kenny Ortega flew to Las Vegas, with Conrad Murray. It is in Vegas that Murray first witnesses Michael being administered Propofol by another doctor, and by April 6, Murray is ordering Propofol by the box. He could be ordering  the Propofol for another patient, but by then he was unofficially working for Michael, and he has since admitted that he administered Propofol for about 2 months by 25 June. So that means he started administering in April. At this point Murray's contract was not drawn up, and it wasn't written on paper until May 15, so technically Murray could have walked away from working for Michael at any point, up until the contract was signed by himself and Michael ( and it was never signed by Michael). His claim that he was 'entrapped' by Michael just makes him appear even more of a liar.

During May, Michael was still rehearsing at Centerstaging, and he took part in selecting dancers for his shows. The rehearsal room at Centerstaging was only just large enough to take the size of the 'This is It' stage, and I imagine it was here that the finer details of the music and choreography were thrashed out by the musicians and chorepgraphers, before the show was rehearsed in a larger theatre.

May 20th is the date that the first week of 'This Is it' shows were moved from 2009 into 2010. It is also the date of the video at the top of this Blog. By this time, Michael was being given Propofol 5 nights a week by Murray for over a month. At the time of writing, there is no anecdotal evidence or emails to show that Michael was unwell during May. However, more evidence may emerge as the lawsuit progresses. When the shows were moved to 2010, there was a lot of speculation in the media that this had been done because Michael was ill. Since January 2009 there had been various wildly speculative articles saying that Michael had a rare lung disease or skin cancer. In the video above, Ortega and Phillips are attempting to reassure people that the shows were not postponed for health reasons, but merely because of staging technicalities. As I write I am not clear how much interaction Ortega or Phillips had with Michael at this point in the rehearsals. We shall see.

The problems seem to escalate in June.

May 30, and the rehearsals moved to The Forum. From June 1 to 11, Michael was in Culver City to film the Dome Project, which is the HD footage to be shown during each concert. Some fans visited Michael on set June 11, and said that he was like a skeleton. By June 12, fans report that Michael does not want to go onstage, and security starts taking extreme measures against the fans who are waiting outside the Carolwood house.

June 14 AEG Live Co-CEO Paul Gongaware wrote an e-mail to show director Kenny Ortega addressing concerns that Murray had kept Jackson from a rehearsal the day before:

"We want to remind (Murray) that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him."

 June 16 and the fans report that Michael did not go onstage again, and is often groggy when leaving home and after visiting Dr Arnold Klein. The emails leaked to the Los Angeles Times in September 2012, show that :

'Those rehearsing with Jackson began sounding alarms in mid-June, according to the emails, a month before his scheduled debut in London. They complained he missed rehearsals, was slow picking up routines and would have to lip-sync some of his signature numbers.

"MJ is not in shape enough yet to sing this stuff live and dance at the same time," the show's musical director informed supervisors in an email. Jackson missed another week of rehearsals, and when he finally showed up June 19, he was too weak to perform.'

On June 19, Michael was shivering, incoherent, and obsessing. Kenny Ortega sent him home.

He wrote in an e-mail to AEG Live President Randy Phillips:

"It is like there are two people there. One (deep inside) trying to hold on to what he was and still can be and not wanting us to quit him, the other in this weakened and troubled state. I believe we need professional guidance in this matter."

Phillips responded with a glowing endorsement of Murray:

"This doctor is extremely successful (we check everyone out) and does not need this gig so he is totally unbiased and ethical."

This is the point where someone, one of those many people who said they were Michael's 'friend', should have stepped in and said  "he's not fit enough to continue". Unfortunately, it seems everybody saw it as someone else's responsibility, and they all seemed to hope that Michael was going to 'pull it out of the bag' at the last minute.

• They obviously knew Michael was not fit enough, so how did they expect him to make a miraculous recovery? 
• I also don't understand how Phillips can say that he checked Murray out - the fans who checked out Murray after 25th June 2009 soon dug up all sorts of money issues that Murray had.
• And why wasn't Ortega's suggestion of professional help acted upon?

The next day, June 20th, Kenny, Michael's then manager Frank DiLeo, Murray and Phillips met at Michael's rented Carolwood house. Their attitude was that Michael needed 'tough love' in order to gee him up and get him back to rehearsals. Michael was asked about the missed rehearsals, and alarmingly, Murray answered for Michael and said he was in good health. If I had been at the meeting, I would have been concerned by this - why would the doctor need to respond on behalf of Michael - was Michael at the mercy of the doctor, or were they both trying to cover something up? If I had seen Michael the day before, wrapped in a blanket on a Summer's day, I would not have believed there was nothing wrong. Are showbusiness people in Hollyood so used to turning a blind eye to artists' problems, that they no longer can see when someone is physically unfit to perform?  Can they not tell the difference between genuine illness and laziness? After receiving these reassurances, Phillips and co. left the house, seemingly confident that the rehearsals would now get back on track. Unbelievable.

You may ask yourself, why Michael himself did not ask for some time to recover. It may have been because, as a younger performer, he would have been told that the show must go on. I have some personal experience of this as a child attending ballet school. Every year we put on a show at Christmas, and we were told that if anything went wrong onstage, we were to carry on and not let the audience know that there was a problem, and we had to finish the scene and sort out the problem after we left the stage. It was also made clear that if we were unwell and could not go onstage on the day of the show, that we would be letting everyone in the show down, and that an understudy would have to be found which would be a great inconvenience to everybody. People seemed to be angry that you would dare to fall ill, as if you were doing so just to annoy them. Professional dancers will often go onstage when sick, because they fear the consequences of 'letting everyone down'. Most dance companies have a dedicated physiotherapist, who will advise whether dancing with an injury will cause further physical damage or not. Dancers know that injury may end their careers, so they do listen to the physiotherapists advice. It may be that AEG Live thought that this was the kind of service that Murray was performing for Michael, advising him how to stay healthy when he was tired or injured. But most performers are not likely to readily say 'I can't go on tonight'. Especially when, as with Michael, they are solo performers, and there is no one to understudy them! They know that if they do not turn up at rehearsal or for a show, that everyone in the show will be sent home, and a paying audience will have their money refunded. 

So if Michael was not going to ask for help, and the big guns running 'This Is It' were washing their hands of responsibility, who was left to help Michael?

Michael may not have realised that he would not be able to cope, when he signed the 'This Is It' contract in January 2009. He hadn't performed a series of concerts for 12 years, but he would have no reason to think he couldn't do it again. Even if he did have doubts, he needed the cash, and from the year 2000 music sales for any artist no longer generated good revenues, so he was forced to do live shows, which had proved to be successful money makers for other artists. He agreed, knowing that doctors had warned him not to tour again, as it would not be good for his health. The doctors knew that Michael often did not eat or drink enough during tours, and he became dehydrated and lost a lot of weight.
Some of the comments that Randy Phillips made about Michael during the 'This Is It' rehearsals, suggest to me that he has no idea of the physical and emotional pressure on a performer. From personal experience, I can assure you that giving an electrifying performance is not only physically but also emotionally draining. Even if Michael was only rehearsing and not performing full out, he was still the only person who could say 'yes, the music is played correctly', or' no, you aren't doing that dance routine correctly', because he wrote nearly all the music and helped create the iconic dance moves. He had to do all that extra work on top of rehearsing his own performance. It's a lot to take on, especially when you know you have to do it, even though it will probably make you ill.

I am sure that once he started rehearsals in April, he would begin to feel the pain of any old injuries, and if he had not recovered from the corporate bullying that I believe he suffered, he could be stressed, fearful and riddled with self-doubt. As a seasoned performer, he would know that this was not the way he should be feeling, and he may have worried that couldn't continue like that. Maybe that is why he was asking for the vitamin injections? Maybe when they did not help, he turned to Propofol, just to get some sleep?

Whatever the reason, the fact remains that by June, he was showing signs of being unwell, and Ortega and Phillips knew it. Phillips seems to think Michael is being lazy, and Ortega saw signs of problems, but didn't follow through and make sure that Michael had professional help.

As well as the Lloyds of London lawsuit, there is also the Jackson family wrongful-death lawsuit, which is going to trial to look at whether AEG Live were negligent in hiring Dr Murray, starting April 2. Let's see what else it reveals.

"There is a triable issue of fact as to whether it was foreseeable that such a physician under strong financial pressure may compromise his Hippocratic Oath and do what was known by AEG Live's executives to be an unfortunate practice in the entertainment industry for financial gain," Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos wrote in her order, which became public on March 1.

"Triable issues of fact exist as to whether it could have been foreseeable that Dr. Murray would engage in the exact behavior alleged here: Dr. Murray's provision of drugs which led to Decedent's death," she said.

The AEG Contract - good or bad?

08 November 2007

The AEG contract was for a maximum of 31 concerts between July 26 and September 30 2009, and the first leg had to be a minimum of 18 shows. A greater number of shows could be agreed, but the initial contract was as stated above, UNLESS AEG could prove that more shows were needed in order to recoup the advances it paid to Michael.

We now know from the cancellation policy that the Specified Costs, Expenses and Commitments estimated to have been spent by AEG and/or The Michael Jackson Company before the shows began, were $17.5m. After 13 shows (estimated income of $18,643,040) this money would have been recouped, and the concerts would be in profit.

So this means that the minimum of 18 shows in the contract were more than enough to cover the costs estimated to be spent before the shows began.

This Is It had sold out 50 concerts.

Where is the written contract for the additional 19 shows, making it up to 50? I certainly have not seen or heard of one, so to my mind that suggests that either the agreement was verbal, or the contract for the 19 shows is being kept under wraps for now.

The other fact that seems to have gone unnoticed by a lot of fans, is that the cancellation policy covered costs spent by AEG and/or The Michael Jackson Company, which means that both AEG and The Michael Jackson Company benefit from the policy, not just AEG.

The AEG contract ran until 31 December 2011. Yes you read that right December 2011. Which means, if AEG could prove that more shows were needed to recoup advances, they could keep Michael performing for 2 and a half years. And the contract also allowed for AEG to extend beyond 31 December 2011, if there was a World Tour or if the advances had not been paid.

The contract also agreed to pay Dr Tohme Tohme $100,000 per month, under an agreement with Tohme’s company TT international LLC.  Tohme’s salary was part of the advances agreement, that was paid out of Michael’s 90% of the profits. If Tohme had not been looking out for Michael’s best interests when the contract was being discussed, he could have kept other promoters offers from reaching Michael. Leonard Rowe says he knew of other concert offers which were for $10-15m PER PERFORMANCE, and would have solved Michael’s financial problems, and Michael would not have had to sign with AEG at all. So was Tohme working against Michael, and was Michael unknowingly paying for the deception financially? We know that one company, Allgood Entertainment, did manage to get their contract in front of Michael, via Frank DiLeo. The meeting between Frank and Allgood was in November 2008, when Tohme was Michael’s manager, not DiLeo. This suggests to me that Allgood were unable to make the offer to Michael directly, so they tried to go via DiLeo. Michael was negotiating with AEG in earnest from around October 2008, and did not sign until January 2009, so perhaps someone was stopping him seeing other offers, in order to ensure the AEG contract was the one that got signed? The Allgood contract was for a Jackson5 reunion for one night in July 2010 – Michael was to get $12-15m for one night. In my other blog here, I calculated that 50 shows for AEG would net Michael approximately $53m, that’s just over $1m per show NOT $12-15m per show! Michael was talking to Allgood about their contract in May 2009, that’s AFTER he’d signed the AEG contract and when he was in the middle of rehearsals for This Is It. The story goes that he rejected the idea, because Allgood wanted pay-per-view and Michael didn’t like pay-per-view. I think Michael wanted to cancel or postpone some or all of the This Is It concerts, until after the Allgood concert, but he was told ‘No’ by AEG.

Another company, Citadel Limited, were also in negotiations with DiLeo in the first quarter of 2009, for a musical event in Trinidad and Tobago, featuring Michael,  to take place in the last quarter of 2009. The first leg of the This Is It concerts would have finished in September, so this is feasible. DiLeo had signed a Binder Agreement, and Citadel had wired him a total of $300,000 as part of this agreement. After 25 June 2009, Citadel wanted their money back, and filed a lawsuit against DiLeo to recoup it. It is not clear exactly when DiLeo started to work for Michael again, but I would guess maybe March 2009.

So could Michael have gotten himself out of the AEG contract? Leonard Rowe says that even if Michael had filed for bankruptcy, if his liabilities were greater than his assets, he would have lost his entire fortune to AEG. Personally, I don’t think that is true. Michael could have cancelled the concerts, because he was covered by the cancellation policy, under specific terms. But the problem with cancelling was that, after years of attack by the media, Michael’s professional image was already badly damaged, and I believe that cancelling the concerts would have destroyed him. Michael would have walked away with no money to show for months of preparation, or even made a loss.

There is another large flaw in Rowe’s assumptions. He assumes that all Michael’s assets were part of his estate, and therefore AEG could force Michael into bankruptcy in order to get hold of the assets. But I have done some research and found that Michael’s major assets were all in bankruptcy remote trusts, which fall outside of the estate. Once in a trust, the assets no longer belong to Michael Jackson, and Michael cannot be forced to hand them over to creditors. I don’t know if AEG were aware of this, but Michael surely was.

Leonard says in his book that the AEG contract was despicable, and that it wouldn’t have happened on his watch. He claims the reason he was fired was that Randy Phillips was afraid he would expose the nature of the contract. Leonard has a letter showing that Michael wanted him to oversee the finances of the O2 shows. This was 25^th March 2009, 3 months AFTER the contract was signed. So why did Leonard not get hold of the contract and start addressing his concerns to Michael? If he was overseeing the O2 finances, surely the starting point would be to understand the contract? Without understanding that, how could he understand Michael’s finances? He says he had found out about AEGs ticket scalping and brought it up at a meeting with AEG in May. So why did Leonard do nothing about the contract between being hired in March and May? Well, perhaps Michael didn’t want Leonard to have anything to do with the concert finances. Perhaps the 15 May meeting was about the problems with the concert scheduling? Perhaps Michael realised that Leonard wasn’t able to negotiate effectively with AEG, and so replaced him with Frank DiLeo?

Was the AEG contract good or bad? Financially, I think the AEG contract was good for Michael. AEG don’t seem to be profiting hugely at Michael’s expense.

But I do think Michael had problems with AEG, and I think those problems were to do with mounting the concerts. I have heard rumblings that the costume designer, the choreographer and the producer were planning the show without Michael’s input. Michael didn’t have the control he had had over his other concerts. This must have added to the huge pressure already on Michael, who as a solo artist, was the only person who could oversee the music, the songs and the choreography, and who in addition had to prepare his own performance.  I also believe that some of the people working on This Is It, who had worked with Michael before, knew that he was not well in the last few weeks. I think they are afraid to speak the truth for fear of being landed with a wrongful death lawsuit, or of being blackballed. I think that explains the inconsistencies in the stories these people have told in interviews since June 25 2009, and is why so many people have lied about so many things. I think the Jackson family know, hence the AEG lawsuit.

'This Is It' Rehearsals

Michael rehearsing 'Black or White' June 23 2009

Michael rehearsed at The Forum 30 May – 19 June 2009, and at The Staples Center  22 - 24 June 2009. The Forum has yellow seating and The Staples Center has red seating, so I used this information to determine which venue the sections of ‘This Is It’ with Michael in it were filmed. In addition, a large LED screen was erected behind the stage at The Staples Center, so this is an added visual clue as to where rehearsals were filmed.

The singer Judith Hill said that the rehearsal of ‘I Just Can’t Stop loving you’ was the first time she had performed the duet with Michael. I am guessing then that The Forum was the first time the singers, dancers and musicians were all together for rehearsals with Michael.

At the time of writing, the trial of Conrad Murray is underway, and both the prosecution and defence have requested excerpts of film from ‘This Is It’, and these are listed in a court document Source. So we now know exactly what was filmed on 23-24 June 2009. I do not have definitive dates for The Forum or the other rehearsals at Centerstaging, so I have put the different rehearsals into the order I think they were performed, but please bear in mind that it is guesswork.

The Forum 30 May to 19 June 2009

The Forum Balmain jacket with white lapel and studs, red shirt, black trousers – Human Nature

The Forum Balmain jacket with white lapel and studs, red shirt, black trousers – I Just Can’t Stop Loving You

The Forum red shirt, black trousers – Thriller

The Forum red shirt, black trousers – Beat It

The Forum Blue and silver jacket, black t shirt, black trousers – Billie Jean

The Forum Blue and silver jacket, black t shirt, black trousers – Man In The Mirror

The Forum Military jacket with 3 rows of buttons, gold sparkly trousers, white t-shirt, trilby – Startin’ something correction

The Forum grey jacket, gold sparkly trousers, white t-shirt, trilby – The Drill

The Forum grey jacket, gold sparkly trousers, white t-shirt, trilby – Human Nature

The Forum silver jacket, gold sparkly trousers, white t-shirt, trilby – Smooth Criminal

The Forum silver jacket, gold sparkly trousers, white t-shirt, trilby – The Way You Make Me Feel

The Forum white shirt, gold sparkly trousers, white t-shirt, trilby – I’ll Be There acknowledgements to The Jacksons

The Forum Black and silver jacket, white T shirt – The Drill

The Forum Black and silver jacket, white T shirt – Smooth Criminal

Culver Studios 3 June to 11 June 2009

Culver Studios Black and silver jacket, white T shirt – The Drill

Culver Studios red leather jacket – watching filming of Thriller

Culver Studios – filming Smooth Criminal

The Forum, silver jacket, orange trousers, turquoise t-shirt – Startin’ Something

The Forum, silver jacket, orange trousers, turquoise t-shirt – Speechless

The Forum, silver jacket, orange trousers, turquoise t-shirt – Jam

The Forum, silver jacket, orange trousers, turquoise t-shirt – The Drill

The Forum, silver jacket, orange trousers, turquoise t-shirt – Human Nature

The Forum, Smooth Criminal jacket, orange trousers, turquoise t-shirt, black fedora – Smooth Criminal

The Forum, Smooth Criminal jacket, orange trousers, turquoise t-shirt, black fedora – The Way You Make Me Feel

The Staples Center 23 June to 24 June 2009

 23 June Staples Center, green and bronze metallic jacket, black t-shirt, black trouser with silver stripe – I’ll Be There

23 June Staples Center, white shirt, black t-shirt, black trouser with silver stripe – Black or White

23 June Staples Center red shirt with diamante 7s, grey jacket  - The Drill/They Don’t care About Us

23 June Staples Center red shirt with diamante 7s, grey jacket, black t-shirt – Startin’ Something

23 June Staples Center red shirt with diamante 7s, grey jacket, black t-shirt – Jam

23 June Staples Center red shirt with diamante 7s, grey jacket, black t-shirt – Human Nature

23 June Staples Center red shirt with diamante 7s, Smooth Criminal jacket, black t-shirt, white fedora – Smooth Criminal

23 June Staples Center red shirt, blue shirt – The Way You Make Me Feel

23 June Staples Center red shirt, blue pearly shirt, black t-shirt– Jackson 5 medley

23 June Staples Center red shirt, white shirt, black t-shirt– Shake Your Body

23 June Staples Center silver jacket, black trousers, trench coat – Beat It

23 June Staples Center silver jacket, black embellished overcoat, black trousers – Black or White

24 June Staples Center Curls for My Girls Tshirt, white shirt, black jacket, Ed Hardy trousers – Thriller

24 June Staples Center Curls for My Girls Tshirt, white shirt, black jacket, Ed Hardy trousers – Earth Song

‘This Is It’ concerts – $315m the Big Money

So were AEG the ‘good guys’ and helping Michael get out of the financial difficulties imposed on him by corporate bullies, or were they in it for themselves?

Let’s look at the AEG contract itself and see. As a layperson I do not understand all the terms and conditions in the contract, and for that I may have to defer to Leonard Rowe’s explanation in his book. But what I do understand is that the contract was for a maximum of 31 concerts between July 26 and September 30 2009, and the first leg had to be a minimum of 18 shows. A greater number of shows could be agreed, but the initial contract was as above, UNLESS AEG could prove that more shows were needed in order to recoup the advances it paid to Michael.

Leonard Rowe says that normally, production costs are taken from the gross revenue before the balance is split between the artist and promoter.

So for example if the gross revenue was $1 million and the production costs $300,000, the remaining $700,000 would normally be split between the artist and promoter.

In the AEG contract the gross revenue was split 90/10 in Michael’s favour BUT Michael PAID ALL The PRODUCTION COSTS from his 90%. So, using the same figures as above, Michael would get $900,000 minus the $300,000 production costs leaving him $600,000 and AEG would get the other $100,000. This looks OK at first glance, but then Michael also had to pay back other advances as well. So if the productions costs plus advances spiralled upwards, Michael could end up with $0 or even worse, owing AEG money, and AEG would STILL GET their $100,000.

It appears that the AEG contract did not put AEG in any financial risk. All the financial risk seems to be shouldered by Michael, the artist, without whom there would be no revenue in the first place.

Let’s look at the figures, to see if Michael was going to make any money from the concerts:

COSTS for 1 year

Rent of 100 Carolwood Drive for 1 year estimated at $1.2million

Rent of Foxbury Manor in Kent for 1 year – estimated at $1million

Production costs up to $7,500,000

Cancellation insurance premium for 1 year – estimated at $1.3m

Salary for Tohme Tohme at $100,000 per month - $1.2m

Salary for Conrad Murray at $150,000 per month - $1.8m

Producers Fee (5% of Artists Net Tour Income) – estimated at $3,825,000

COST TOTAL approximately $23 million in 1 year

MICHAEL’S INCOME for 50 shows

90% of the revenue for each 5 shows he completes (out of which the costs above are paid) – estimated at $85,000,000

MICHAEL’S INCOME (estimating $113 for each ticket sold) approximately $76.5m in 1 year.

Therefore, subtracting costs,

MICHAEL’S NET INCOME would be an estimated $53.5m in 1 year.

AEG would be making $8.5m.

This is a conservative estimate, but I think it shows that the AEG contract was going to make Michael a very large amount of money. The production costs would be unlikely to ever rise to $53m. Remember, this is just for the 50 shows.

If he had gone on to do a World Tour, the profits would have been even greater:

MICHAEL’S INCOME for 3 year World Tour

90% of the revenue for each 5 shows he completes (out of which the costs above are paid) – estimated at $255,000,000

MICHAEL’S  INCOME approximately $229.5m in 3 years

Therefore, subtracting costs as above for 3 years,

MICHAEL’S NET INCOME would be an estimated $180m in 3 years.

These figures do not include profits from concert merchandise, which were estimated to be $150m. If the 90/10 split also applied to merchandise, that is another $135m for Michael,

MICHAEL’S GRAND TOTAL $315m

"They don't care, they care about the money" - lyrics from "Money" by Michael Jackson. So what is happening to the will?

What you may not realise is that Michael’s will is still in probate.

Reading the estate’s report on the management of MJJ business, dated September 2010, in conjunction with the description of probate (below) these are the points that stood out:

Description of probate: “Probate is the court-supervised process of locating and determining the value of the assets owned in the individual name of a deceased person, referred to as a "decedent," paying the decedent's final bills and estate taxes and/or inheritance taxes (if any), and then distributing what's left of the decedent's assets to his or her heirs.”

Page 15 line 3 of the MJJ Business Report says “it appears likely that the administration of the estate will continue for an unusually long time”

Page 21 line 20 “the loans will be allocated to Mrs Jackson’s share of The Michael Jackson Family Trust upon its funding”.

So in effect I think that means that until all the debts have been paid, The Michael Jackson Family Trust is not being funded and the will is in probate.

The Estate have granted Mrs Jackson a monthly stipend of $86,000 and authorised some loans for her, until the Trust is funded. The loans will eventually be paid back from Mrs Jackson’s share of the Trust.

The largest debts that we know Michael has are the loans taken out on the Sony/ATV and Mijac catalogues.  Some business matters were not deemed public knowledge, and were not included in the report, so I am unable to comment on those. From what was included in the report we know this  :

·          the Sony/ATV loan from Barclays matured December 3 2010, (repayments were made from profits from the Sony/ATV catalogue, which is in the New Horizon II Trust). The loan was refinanced with UBS. My understanding is that when you refinance, you choose a lender with more favourable rates to take over the loan for the period of the original loan. But it is not clear if the loan has been paid up in full or extended.

·          The Mijac loan from Plainfield/HSBC was refinanced with HSBC, and matures in May 2011, although the report mentions a negotiation of a tax saving over 5 years, which could take it to 2014. (repayments are made from profits from the Mijac catalogue, which is in the New Horizon III Trust).

So initially, it looks like the largest debts could be repaid by May 2011, unless the loans have been extended. So my understanding is that if The Michael Jackson Family Trust has not been funded before then, it should certainly start being funded once these loans have been paid in full.

What was the size of Michael’s debts? They have been estimated between $250-500m. Some reports say that the loans on Mijac and Sony/ATV catalogues totalled $435m alone. We do not know what other debts he had, besides the mortgage on the Encino house.

If the estate has taken $1billion in the first year, as claimed in various reports, then this should have been enough to settle the two largest loans, leaving  $500m to pay for creditor claims and 10% fees for the Special Administrators. According to the business report, Exhibit A, action has been taken regarding $9,333,384 of claims, most of them paid in full. With $100m going to the Special Administrators, that leaves about $391m. Mrs Jackson is getting $86,000 a month leaving about $390m unaccounted for. Even unpaid tax bills since 2006 would not amount to $390m, so why has this money not been used to fund The Michael Jackson Family Trust? Where has it gone? And why are the loans still being paid off?

On the other hand, other reports say that the estate has only taken $310 million, and has paid out $159m Source to cover debt. That still leaves $58m after the outgoings listed above. As this is not enough to pay off the catalog debts outright, then this probably explains why the will is still in probate, but it does not explain why the Michael Jackson Family Trust is not being funded.

The two New Horizon Trusts were set up in 2006 specifically to pay off the loans on the catalogs. Either the income generated by the Trusts does not cover the repayments, and is being subsidised by the $58m, or the $58m is going somewhere else. If the loans mature but have not be paid back in full, then the estate will have to take out new loans, and work on new MJ business deals to generate more income, and the will could stay in probate for another few years. It is not clear from the business report if the Mijac loan was refinanced or whether it was paid in full, so I will have to wait until the next report to clarify that. Similarly, the Sony/ATV loan has been refinanced, but it is not clear if it matures in 2011 or 2014.

However, the longer the debts go unpaid, the longer the will stays in probate, and the longer The Michael Jackson Family Trust stays empty. By granting the executors 10% of the profits of the deals they make, it makes it very attractive for them to keep the debts unpaid and the will in probate. I’m assuming that once the debts are paid, the estate will be turned over to people who will run it like a business, and the executors will no longer be receiving any monies from it. I do hope the court is keeping an eye on things to make sure the executors are not lining their pockets at the expense of the Trust fund.

AEG Lawsuit – 30 December 2010 AEG Demurrer

Note: in the bulleted list below, my comments are in bold.

The attorneys for AEG Live have filed notice of a demurrer that they will use in court on 2 February 2011. This is in response to the complaint filed by Katherine Jackson on 15 September 2010, which sues AEG, and claims they breached their legal duties to Michael.

·         The demurrer says that Katherine lacks standing to assert any claims on behalf of Michael Jackson, because her complaint gets the law and the facts wrong, and her theories are just that. AEG claim that only Michael’s personal representative can prosecute them, not Katherine. There is a note in the footer which says the estate is in probate, and that John Branca and John McClain are therefore Michael’s personal representatives.

·         The demurrer say that rather than pleading recognised legal duties that Katherine alleges AEG had to Michael, she is trying to create new theories of liability.

·         They state that the performance contract did not create any special duty-of-care, just because AEG arranged for his housing and transport. AEG is not liable for premises liability nor for the actions of a third party within the premises. They say that because Michael had not yet signed the contract with Murray, AEG did not have to supply medical equipment for Murray to use. Various internet articles have stated that there are several monitors that should be used when giving a patient propofol, for example, and Katherine’s lawsuit set out to show that Murray asked for the equipment but that AEG did not provide it. So the demurrer is pointing out that Murray would not receive equipment until Michael signed the contract, and is implying that Murray should not have gone ahead with any treatment that required them. AEG attorneys also say that AEG could not have foreseen that a personal doctor would treat Michael with an anaesthetic that normally is only used in a hospital, and therefore they are not liable under duty of care.

·          AEG attorneys say that AEG and Michael did not have a ‘special relationship’ because Michael was not a dependant of theirs. Katherine’s lawsuit claims that AEG exerted ‘an extraordinary degree of control over Michael’ but AEG attorneys say they do not provide facts to back this up. They only back up that he was financially dependant on the money he was going to receive in advances. Now this is where it may get interesting, because AEG attorneys do not deny that Michael was financially dependant on the money he was due. If Katherine’s attorneys are canny they will home in on this, because I do feel they have a case to show that the contract could have made Michael financially dependant on AEG for 2 and a half years. Leonard Rowe says in his book that parts of the contract were not standard practice, and I think that the contract may have been worded in a way to KEEP Michael financially dependant on AEG for two and a half years or more. Leonard describes the AEG contract as grounds for malpractice and a breach of fiduciary duties. The demurrer goes on to say that despite the lawsuit alleging that Michael was threatened with cancellation unless he accepted Dr Murray’s services, which they claim indicated a ‘special relationship’, Michael was only under pressure financially. Here AEG attorneys are actually agreeing that Michael was under pressure financially and furthermore under pressure financially to accept Murray’s medical care. So he was dependant financially on AEG, and under pressure financially to accept Murray. So maybe it could be proven that he agreed to both under duress? AEG attorneys then say that Michael could have refused Murray and cancelled his contract with AEG. But they have just agreed that he was under pressure financially. His contract states that if Michael cancels, he has to pay back all advances plus all production costs incurred. That means the rent on the house, any cash advanced, transport costs, cancellation premiums, Tohme’s salary, rehearsal costs etc etc. How many millions was that? I estimate well in excess of $6m and may be as much as $36m. The cancellation insurance (paid by Michael, and benefitting AEG) would probably cover these costs, but what recompense would Michael get? Probably nothing, and his reputation and career would probably be extinct too.

·         It says that the complaint seeks to hold AEG liable for fraud without alleging any actual misrepresentations. Here Katherine was trying to show that AEG made false representations to Michael, when they went to his house on 18 June 2009, in that they said they were looking after his well-being and best interests, but actually were threatening him to accept only Murrays’ medical care. AEG attorneys say that the allegation does not specify what was said, by whom, and who had the authority to make the statements. As if anybody needs authority to make a threat! A threat is a threat. So they knew he was under financial pressure, and they threatened him with more. Great. The problem is, without witnesses, it is quite difficult to prove that any threat took place. Randy Phillips was there, with Murray and Michael. Who of these will testify a threat took place?

·         Katherine’s complaint holds AEG liable under respondeat superior , but the AEG attorneys says she does so without recognising that there was no special employer-employee relationship. (respondeat superior : Latin, Let the master answer.] A common-law doctrine that makes an employer liable for the actions of an employee when the actions take place within the scope of employment.AEG attorneys say that because Dr Murray was employed by Michael and not AEG, that there are no grounds for a employer-employee relationship regarding Murray. They also say that Katherine should have claimed for wrongful death due to medical negligence within one year, and she has failed to do so, so her claim should be dismissed.

·         AEG attorneys  say that Michael, not AEG, controlled his medical care and hired Dr Murray. They refer to the contract between Michael and Murray, which Murray had signed but which had not yet got Michael’s signature. They point out that the contract was between Michael and Murray, not AEG and Murray, and as it was not signed by all parties, was not yet in force. But as we saw above, Michael was later put under pressure by AEG financially to accept Murray’s medical care. We have been told in the past that Michael was told by AEG not to visit his dermatologist anymore, and only accept Murrays care, or AEG would pull the plug on everything. If Michael did not accept Murray or cancelled with AEG, they would want all their money back.

·         AEG attorneys say Katherine has not shown that AEG were told that Murray was unfit to be Michael’s doctor, nor has she shown that they knew Murray was giving Michael anaesthesia.

·         The demurrer says that the claim for Prince Jacksons’ emotional distress at seeing his father lying injured, should be dismissed because Prince did not witness the actual injury taking place. Maybe not, but he would have seen his father with an IV in his leg, and maybe various syringes and vials were being used as Murray was trying to resuscitate Michael. He would have known that something was wrong. It wasn’t as if Michael was just lying there under the bedcovers with his eyes closed. The scene must have been chaotic and a total shock.

Generally, this demurrer is nothing less than I would have expected. I don’t think they are not going to admit any wrongdoing or liability, and are only going to respond if accused of something directly. I have seen this tactic used before myself, although outside the courtroom:

I will only answer direct questions. If you don’t ask the right question I am not giving any extra information.

I will try and divert your attention onto less relevant issues, in the hope you will forget to ask me about the important issues.

Ding.Ding. Round 2.

UPDATE: A judge ruled in L.A. on 2nd February that the lawsuit can proceed. Judge Yvette Palazuelos stressed that Katherine's case would need to provide evidence of “fraud, negligent infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy”, adding that proof of the latter was currently lacking. Palazuelos said that any agreement that Dr Murray would ensure Michael made it to rehearsals was not, in itself, an illegal act, and that evidence would be needed that the implications of such an agreement were more sinister.
Kenny Ortega, who had worked with Michael before, and who was director of 'This Is It', was originally named as a defendant. But Katherine Jackson's attorneys recetly dropped him from the suit, citing new information.
The next hearing in Katherine Jackson's civil case is scheduled for March 22.
UPDATE: On March 21 2011 AEG filed their answer to the Lawsuit, denying every allegation.
UPDATE: 2 June 2011 the trial date has been set as 10 September 2012.

Vampires and Werewolves

Jacques Peretti made a second documentary for British television about Michael Jackson, which was aired December 30 2010. For his first documentary about Michael, Jacques flew to America a few weeks after 25 June 2009 to interview people for “Michael Jackson’s Last Days: What Really Happened”, which was aired 12 July 2009.

The latest documentary “Michael Jackson’s Secret Hollywood” included some interesting new information, and confirmation of what some of us had already suspected.

That Michael was surrounded by advisors, doctors, lawyers and fixers that all wanted a piece of him.

People fought to get into his entourage, and often wanted to BE the star at the center of the entourage. Brian Oxman was interviewed, and said that the theft from Michael by his own staff was astronomical, and that Michael told him  ”I hire the people that steal from me the least”.

It was clear that Michael knew EXACTLY what was going on around him, and periodically had a ‘spring clean’ of his staff, replacing managers and even bodyguards.  Michael‘s managers over the years:

1984-1989 Frank DiLeo

1989-1997 Jim Morey/Sandy Galin

1996–2003 Dieter Wiesner

Wiesner was interviewed for the documentary, and said that Michael asked him to spring clean, to “To get rid of everybody” and also to come up with a plan for his future : MJ Universe (see my post for more details about this 2003 project). Wiesner says that because he was not part of the Hollywood scene, MJ Universe never took off, but we all know the real reason; the Bashir interview and the child molestation charges brought against Michael in 2003.

Brian said that the reason for the trial, was NOT about child abuse, but because the prosecution had found out about Marc Shaffel’s gay pornography background. Marc was a videographer who had made a video for Michael for his single called “What More Can I Give”. They wanted to prove a connection between Schaffel’s shady past and Michael, and tar Michael with the same brush. To top it off, it was then revealed that Wiesner himself owned a string of sex clubs across Germany. This is what they wanted to use to take Michael down. Guilt by association. Fans such as myself, know that Michael would be horrified to find out about such connections to the sex industry, as it went against everything he stood for. But Michael knew that people were manipulative and out for themselves.

Jacques also looked into the ‘clean-up’ services provided by Hollywood when things went wrong for stars like Michael. He spoke to Private Eye Paul Berezi or ‘The Enforcer’, who realised that witnesses to the alleged 1993 child molestation charges against Michael, were embellishing their story, as the price for their story went up. Berezi spoke about another job he had undertaken for Eddie Murphy, and how he had got witnesses to recant their stories, and that the only witness not to do so had mysteriously fallen to her death. At this point, I started to realise that the idea that the deaths of Peter Lopez, Bruce Ayers and Sulema and Jerriell Wilborn, could be linked to the vampires and werewolves surrounding Michael’s Jackson, really wasn’t as farfetched as I had thought.

Berezi’s story made me realise that there really was a dark underbelly to Hollywood, and that the ‘cleaning-up’ operation after 25 June 2009 was in full swing.