Some readers’ comments on the posts in this blog are so profound that they need to be singled out into separate articles. This is what I decided to do with the comments about the drawing known to us as a “suicide note” of Jordan Chandler. Initially it was meant to be a mere summary, but in the progress of it some new facts presented themselves and this eventually turned this post into a new big version of what happened in the 1993 case at all.

Jordan Chandler’s drawing is found in the book of Victor Gutierrez. The book was published in the US in 1996 under a flashy but false title “MJ was my lover”. Those who know the author from reading his book or from information about him attending a NAMBLA conference in a capacity we can only guess of, will wince at the mere mentioning of his name.

But on the other hand when writing his book Gutierrez worked in very close collaboration with Evan Chandler, so the general outline of the events described there may be quite correct. It is their interpretation which will be terribly distorted as the story is being told by Michael’s worst detractors with the additional twist added to them by a suspected boylover Victor Gutierrez.

So if the general outline of the events is more or less true, Jordan’s drawing depicting someone falling off the roof of a high building may turn into an interesting document for us.

Initially almost none of us disputed Gutierrez’s interpretation of the picture claiming that it was Jordan’s suicide note in which he was warning his father against exerting more pressure on him or otherwise he would kill himself.

VERSION 1. Jordan’s threat to commit suicide?

Victor Gutierrez says that Jordan made this drawing the next day after the August 4, 1993 meeting with Michael Jackson and Anthony Pellicano.

Evan opened the discussion with the money thing thinking that there was a prior agreement over it between his lawyer Barry Rothman and Michael’s investigator Pellicano.

But to his big surprise Pellicano did not confirm that any agreement had been reached. When Evan realized  that Jackson “was not eager to negotiate” he flew into a rage, shoved in Michael’s face the hypothetical psychiatric opinion of the case and left him and Pellicano in great fury closing his speech with a threat that he “will see them in court”.

Gutierrez claims that after that notable meeting Jordan was so nervous that he drew a picure of himself jumping off the roof of a five-storey building and landing in a pool of blood on the ground.

Let us read the full Gutierrez’s text trying to distance ourselves from his pedophile-like interpretations and not paying too much attention to words like the “look of an assassin” attributed to no other but Michael Jackson.

Considering Gutierrez’s own inclinations his account naturally starts with a tender scene between Jordan and Michael Jackson meeting each other:

The meeting would be on Wednesday, August 4, at the Westwood Marquis Hotel.

Upon arriving to the hotel, Jordie calmly walked in, but when he saw Jackson, he jumped into his arms as they both hugged and kissed each other on the cheeks. Jordie rested his head on Jackson’s chest. Jackson stroked his hair and asked him:

“Are you okay, Jordie?”

“Yes, but I miss you!” responded the boy. The pleasantries ended when Evan told Jordie to sit down next to him. He opened the conversation by asking Jackson about the offer he had made to Rothman. Pellicano surprised Evan by immediately denying that he had spoken to Rothman about an offer. Evan looked at Jackson and said, “You’re the only one who can help me!” referring to his Hollywood dreams. But Pellicano again denied making any offer.

Evan briefly turned to Pellicano, and snapped: “Okay, then are you telling me that my attorney is a liar, or is there some kind of misunderstanding here?”

Before Pellicano could say a word, Evan returned to Jackson, and showed him a copy of the psychiatric report on his son, and added:

“I know what you have done to Jordie!”

Evan looked at his son for confirmation. Jordie nodded his head as if to tell Jackson that his father already knew their secret. Jackson looked Jordie in the eyes, smiled and shook his head. “It was a cold smile, without feeling,” Evan said. “It was a look of an assassin declaring their innocence in spite of a mountain of evidence. It was then when I realized that Michael Jackson had not only sexually abused my son, but that he was also a criminal.”

Evan and Jordie went to Rothman’s office to tell him about the outcome of the meeting. Evan told Rothman that Pellicano had reneged on the offer. This angered Rothman, who said “These people are incredible! They don’t keep their word. They lie. How can we negotiate with them?” Evan and Rothman thought that they would have to file a lawsuit against Jackson. Jordie was fearful and depressed about what had occurred at the meeting with Jackson, and about his father’s consideration of filing documents with the court.

The idea that he would have to testify in court against his “first love” depressed him so much that, before going to bed that night, he drew a picture of a boy jumping off of a building and another person yelling at him to stop from behind. The drawing also showed a figure on the pavement covered with blood. This was a message. It was a suicide note. Evan found the paper the next morning. When he saw the drawing, he wrote on it the sentence “Don’t let this happen!”

He thought that the reason for the suicide note was that Jordie had been sexually abused by Jackson. The drawing appears exclusively in this book. Jordie’s reason for suicide was not because he felt shame for his sexual acts with Jackson. He was depressed because his father had promised him that nobody would know. Now his own father was negotiating and planning to go to court to tell all. His father had betrayed him. He also understood that his relationship with Jackson would never be the same. At night, he had nightmares that he wouldn’t see Jackson. During the day, he took long naps, barely ate, and did not want to speak to anyone.

To understand Jordie’s behavior towards Jackson, we must understand his relationship with his parents. Although he had until recently lived with June, her dedication was to her daughter Lily, and, until their problems, had been to her second husband, Dave. He seldom had seen Evan, and never felt close to him. Jordie loved both of his parents very much, but he knew he had not been treated well. He realized that his parents were fighting over him, but only to be close to Michael Jackson. June was happy to receive expensive gifts and luxurious attention. Evan wanted his big opportunity in Hollywood with an interesting project. Jordie realized that Evan’s top priority was not to love him, but rather to administer and negotiate using him.”

(Copyright © 1995 by Victor M. Gutierrez Prieto, 1st Edition: March 1996).

Gutierrez’ interpretation is primitive, exaggerated and very specific in its tone, but in 1996 when the book was published and not yet banned in the US due to its pornographic contents, this was the only account the public, media and police had, so all of them easily fell for the story.

Later on the whole thing was plagiarized by Randy Taraborrelli who gave it the widest possible publicity by repeating it in at least three new revisions of his 1991 book (in 2003, 2004 and 2009).  Gutierrez’s story must have been included into the 2003 version already and stayed there until 2009 from where I am quoting it now.

Essentially it is the same Gutierrez’s story up to the “cold smile of a criminal” that Evan Chandler allegedly saw on Michael’s face:

“… ‘Michael responded with a cold, mocking smile that you often see on the face of criminals who proclaim their innocence even in the face of irrefutable proof of their guilt,’ Evan wrote. ‘It was a chilling sight. He showed no sign of remorse for his actions and he was completely indifferent to Jordie’s suffering.’”

“After his father’s show-down with Michael, Jordie was more depressed than ever before in his young life. The thought that he might now have to testify against Michael was more than he could bear. Before he went to bed, he drew what looked like suicide art: a stick figure jumping off the roof of a five-storey building, and then landing in a bloody heap on the ground.

The next morning, when Evan went into Jordie’s room to say goodbye to him before going to work, he found the chilling drawing on the floor. Jordie was still asleep. Evan wrote on the top of the paper: Don’t Let This Happen, underlining each word. He then put the drawing back where he found it. Turning to leave he changed his mind and decided to take the drawing. It would become evidence of Jordie’s state of mind.”  (Copyright 2003, by Randy Taraborrelli)

Let us single out of this chilling narration the two points we will need for our future analysis. They are as follows:

• the “suicidal” character of the drawing
• the claim that it was made by Jordan before going to bed the same day as the August 4th meeting

A slightly different story is provided by Ray Chandler in his book “All that glitters” published a year after Taraborrelli’s 2003 version (in September 2004).

The differences are minimal and may be easily overlooked. Ray Chandler also describes the August 4^th meeting at Westwood Marquis but does it in somewhat quieter terms. The first thing we learn from his narration is that there was no tender scene between Michael and Jordan Chandler.

The tender scene did take place but it was between Michael and Evan Chandler as the first thing Evan did was come up to Michael and warmly hug him as if he were his best friend. In contrast to Gutierrez’s pedophilia fantasies Jordan never even came close to Jackson:

AUGUST 4  Anthony Pellicano played the gracious host, all smiles as he ushered them in and offered food and drinks from a buffet. Evan exchanged a quid handshake with the man, but Jordie wouldn’t go near him. He remained slightly behind but very close to his father.

Evan then walked over to Michael and embraced the star with a big, happy-to-see-you hug, patting him on the back like an old friend. Jordie wouldn’t go near Michael either. “I was scared of him. I knew my dad was going to say that 1 told him what happened, and I thought Michael would get mad.”

…”So,” Evan began, directing himself to Pellicano, “Barry tells me you have a plan to help Jordie and me reestablish our relationship.”

“I never said that,” Pellicano replied, his voice suddenly taking an aggressive tone.

The harsh response took Evan by surprise. “Well, either you’re telling me Barry’s a liar, or there’s some serious misunderstanding here.”

Evan couldn’t figure it out. Barry had no reason to lie. Pellicano had made an offer and they had come to discuss it. Now he was denying it.

Frustrated by Pellicano’s attitude, and Michael’s apparent condoning it,  Evan turned to Michael. “You’re the only one who can help me now,” he said. “I know what you’ve done to Jordie. He told me everything.” Evan then asked his son to confirm that he had, and after the boy nodded affirmatively, Evan waited for Michael’s response.

The King of Pop leaned in close, looked Jordie squarely in the eye, and calmly said in a little-boy voice, “I didn’t do anything.”

…After the meeting, Evan and Jordie went directly to Barry’s office. Jordie sat in the waiting room, doodling, while the two adults discussed what had transpired at the Westwood Marquis.

…Barry was furious that Pellicano had denied making the offer. “These people are unbelievable!” he exclaimed. “How the hell can we negotiate ; with them?” They talked it over and decided there was no choice but to file for custody.

Just as they reached that conclusion, Pellicano called. He claimed he never denied making the offer and told Barry that Evan was crazy and walked out of the meeting for no reason. Rather than waste time arguing over the phone, Barry invited Pellicano to his office to continue the discussion.

…Evan and Jordie left before Pellicano arrived.  When Evan returned the following morning he found Barry “in a state of ecstasy”.  Pellicano had responded to the deal by saying he thought it was a great idea and would cheek with the accountants and look over Michael’s development deal with Fox Pictures to see how it could be worked out. “

Evan accepted Barry’s interpretation at face value, but doubted Pellicano had any intention of going through with the deal. As he left the office he handed Barry the picture Jordie had drawn while “doodling” in Barry’s waiting room the night before. He also gave Barry a letter with instructions on how to proceed.

Jordie’s drawing showed what appeared to be a child jumping off a tall building. Contrary to press reports, the drawing did not represent thoughts of suicide on Jordie’s part, rather his fears of going to court and having to tell the world about his sexual experiences with Michael. Fears he constantly relayed to his father.”

(Ray Chandler, Copyright 2004)

The dictionary explains “doodle” as

1. drawing or scribbling idly
2. wasting (time) in aimless or foolish activity.

So the gist of Ray Chandler’s version is that later in the day of the notable August 4^th meeting Evan and Jordan went to Barry Rothman’s office where Jordan was “doodling” (drawing something) while the adults were talking, and the next day when Evan returned to Rothman he handed him the picture made by Jordan in that office the night before.

Isn’t it interesting how the drawing allegedly made at home and at bedtime according to Gutierrez/Taraborrelli suddenly turns into a drawing made in Rothman’s office according to Ray Chandler?

On the other hand what difference does it make? Indeed, this detail may not be that important –  except for the conclusion that the above is proof that Taraborrelli was using Gutierrez’s book (and not Ray Chandler’s), and for this alone we should be grateful to this short piece of information.

The second idea expressed by Ray Chandler is that Jordan was absolutely not suicidal.  Ray Chandler says that the boy was only reflecting on his fears of having to tesify in court. Since Evan had voiced the idea of taking the case to court only in the morning of the same day, this could indeed be a blow to Jordan and his drawing could be a way of expressing his fears of testifying.

In fact, fears can also be a reason for a suicide, however Ray Chandler clearly says that Jordan was in no mood for it and this shows the boy to be more detached, calculating and controlling his feelings than we previously thought.

This idea is very much different from Gutierrez’s theory, but is surprisingly in line with what we heard from Jordan in his October 6^th, 1993 interview with Dr. Richard Gardner. No one can be colder and more detached than this boy, who is supposed to be talking about his “abuse”:

  – “What about fears? Any fears of any kind?”

- “No.”

-  ”Sometimes people, after experiences of this kind, develop different kinds of fears. You have no fears?”

- “Maybe of cross-examination but that’s all. I mean I have nothing to hide, it’s just the thought of it.”

Thus Ray Chandler’s words about his nephew and the boy’s own totally emotionless attitude go against Gutierrez’s suicide story which was based on the deep feelings the boy supposedly had for his “former lover”. And though the suicide version per se is not yet fully ruled out, it is clear that this “love” version so dear to  Gutierrez’s pro-pedophilia mind does not hold water.

If Jordan was ever suicidal the reason for it must have been totally different.

But was a suicidal note at all?

VERSION 2: Jordan is angry with his father who throws Michael Jackson from the top of the world?

The non-suicidal verson was voiced by one of our readers (aldebaranredstar) who called the picture a homicide.

The idea of this interpretation is that the darker figure standing at the edge of the building is the most destructive person in Jordan’s life, and this person is Evan Chandler. Evan is throwing Michael down from the roof of the building  and he lands in the pool of blood (which as a result of that fictional 1993 case he really did).

June Chandler and one of the minors (Lily or Nikkie) are depicted in the lower floors of the building and therefore play a secondary role. All they can do is merely observe the horror scene from a distance as they are unable to influence its outcome in any way at all.

The person standing behind the assassin is his son Jordan who is screaming “No” and trying to prevent his father from making the step fatal for Jackson.

By the time this version arose we had already managed to rid ourselves of the spell cast on us by Gutierrez and Taraborrelli and started regarding this version as the only plausible one.

Indeed it explained and rather convincingly so the disposition of the main forces on the eve of Michael’s character assassination which was nothing new to us. Evan Chandler actually voiced it himself in a telephone conversation with David Schwartz and promised a massacre if Michael Jackson didn’t oblige.

The homicide interpretation would perfectly fit and answer each of our questions – but only if it were not for Geraldine Hughes’ book and her account of meeting Jordan Chandler. She met him in the office of her boss, Barry Rothman who was Evan Chandler’s attorney.

The first thing we recall about Geraldine Hughes’ description of those events is that she saw Jordan Chandler in their office twice. The first time she accidentally entered her boss’s room and found Jordan sitting there alone with Rothman. She had not noticed him coming in and was startled by his presence in the same way as Jordan was startled by her unexpected appearance there too:

I was very surprised to see the boy in Mr. Rothman’s office unaccompanied by a parent. The boy, likewise, was surprised when I opened the door. Mr. Rothman snapped at me for entering unannounced. … The boy had a puzzled look on his face when I walked into Mr. Rothman’s office. … This meeting  between Mr. Rothman and the Chandler boy took place just before the boy was taken to see the psychiatrist who later reported the sexual molestation charges against Michael Jackson.

The second time Geraldine saw Jordan was at a much later time. In fact it was after Evan Chandler had already made his allegations public. The second time she met Jordan she was working overtime, typing some documents and Jordan was hanging about the office waiting for his father and Rothman to finish with their business. Geraldine says that the very idea why they were staying in Barry Rothman’s office was to discuss their further strategy but mostly to hide themselves from all the media frenzy:

The second time I met the 13-year old boy was after the child molestation allegations hit the media. Dr. Chandler and his son came to our office to hide from the media frenzy that erupted immediately thereafter. No one was prepared for the public’s response to the allegations. Dr. Chandler was afraid to go home because his yard was crawling with news media and the media was desperately trying to find Dr. Chandler and his son, who were both hiding in our office. Mr. Rothman demanded that I work overtime that evening to type some legal documents for them (p.45).

So if Geraldine was present in her office on Wednesday, August 4^th but didn’t see Jordan accompanying his father on that day, it means that Jordan did not return to Rothman’s office after their unsuccessful negotiations over money (and went home instead), and came to the lawyer’s office only after the allegations broke out not to stay at home alone when the media began spying on each of his steps.

Given that the allegations broke out on August 17, 1993,  Jordan could visit Rothman’s office and draw a picture there only after that date. It won’t change much in terms of Ray Chandler’s description of Jordan’s fears. Fear were fears no matter when the boy felt them, and Ray Chandler could have simply forgotten the correct date.

However if this was indeed the only day when Jordan came to Rothman’s office Geraldine’s description of the boy will contradict the essence of the drawing he made there – the boy was calm and composed, and much more in control of the situation that his father Evan. Nothing in his composure betrayed any of his fears – at least for Michael Jackson. In contrast to his son Evan Chandler produced the impression of a “nervous wreck” and it was actually the boy who was soothing him. He looked normal, undisturbed and in no way behaved like an “abused” child.

This is how Geraldine Hughes describes Jordan the second time she saw him:

While Mr. Rothman and Dr. Chandler were secretly hashing out details of their next move in the conference room, the boy kept walking back and forth between the conference room and my desk. I remember that he was amazed at my ability to type over 100 words per minute. He asked me, “how can you type so fast?” He kept staring at my keyboard with amazement. Once, while he was near my desk, I asked him how he was doing. He stated that he was doing fine.

While he was observing me, I too, was observing him. He was playing with some toys while listening to a Walkman radio. He seemed to be enjoying himself. I am not sure if he knew exactly what was going on outside of Mr. Rothman’s office, but at least for the moment he seemed to be having a good time. From all appearances he seemed like a perfectly normal child interested in playing and listening to his music and was curious about everything.

I observed the boy going in and out of the conference room where his father was nervously going round and round with Mr. Rothman. The father was far more nervous than his son. The boy seemed to just stay in his own imaginary world playing, having fun and not seemingly worried about what was going on with the outside world. I understood why Michael Jackson was fond of the boy. He was very fun, loving, warm spirited and cute. I found myself drawn to his warm and loving personality.

He was not your normal bratty kid – he was very kind and had a gentle personality. He did not act or appear as though he had been harmed in any way. He was acting like any normal, well behaved 13-year old child.

Although I do not have enough psychological experience to know how a child would act who had been sexually abused, I can say that there was nothing abnormal about his behavior, personality or attitude. In fact, he was the one who kept calming and consoling his father, who was a nervous wreck. If appeared as if the boy was protecting his father instead of vice versa. He was more concerned about his father’s well-being than his own.

After observing the boy for a number of hours, I could not help but speculate, in my mind, what would cause a child to falsely accuse someone of child abuse? Especially someone he loved and valued as a good friend – especially someone like Michael Jackson! Most kids would give their right arm and leg to be close to the superstar. I could not stop wondering how this boy could be sucked into such as scheme as this. What could make such an innocent child part of such an evil scheme?

It was obvious to me the boy felt a sense of duty towards his father. He kept walking back and forth checking on his father and asking if he was alright. When the father would have a nervous outburst the boy would soothe him and calm him down.

(“Redemption” by Geraldine Hughes, p. 45- 46).

But now a question arises – if Ray Chandler and Geraldine Hughes are describing one and the same visit, and Jordan was very much calm and composed that day, why did he make that drawing then?

And this brings us to the third version of the same events.

VERSION 3: Jordan was worried about his father Evan and not Michael

The first to mention this drastically new theory was my compatriot Natasha. She wrote to me an email explaining that the picture could be about Jordan being afraid for his father’s life (and not Michael’s).

Evan himself could be on the verge of a suicide and Jordan could be screaming “No” to him to stop him from taking the dramatic step. The drawing could be made for Evan’s sake to show that Jordan cared for him and didn’t want him to die.

The version was interesting and when Nannoris expressed the same idea I realized that since this theory struck two people on both sides of the ocean and quite independently of each other too, it had the full right to exist and be discussed in full earnest.

Moreover this version looks like it might turn out to be the best and the most correct one too, since it explains every little detail the other versions are still unable to explain.

It explains why Evan was a nervous wreck after his allegations became public and was so bad that Jordan had to sooth and calm him down. Evan was terrified by the thought that he might go to jail for extortion knowing full well that the extortion it was.

He was also bipolar and what looked like a great prospect when he was in a manic state turned into the worst of nightmares when the depression stage followed, especially after he finally realized the possible consequences of his plan.

This version also explains why Evan wrote on the note “Don’t let it happen”, meaning it as an appeal to his son not to let it happen to him (Evan). It could be a typical emotional blackmail where the father was saying to Jordan that everything was in his hands now and if he didn’t want the worst to happen to him as his father, he should better do as he was told.

It will explain why Jordan took the side of his father after all. If Evan was openly threatening to kill himself, or if Jordan simply felt that his father was on the verge of a suicide,  he could have agreed to say and do whatever his father wanted him to say and do, just in order to prevent the imminent tragedy.

It will explain why Jordan took care of his father even after he had been formally estranged from him and could perfectly well live all alone, but never did. It could probably be a way to keep an eye on his father and monitor the situation further.

It could also explain why Jordan forgave his father even after he had made an attempt on his life and did not insist that criminal charges be brought against the person who actually tried to kill him.

It can even explain Evan Chandler’s suicide in 2009. He simply did what he had been threatening to do for the 25 years prior to it.

This version will also explain why Jordan agreed to accuse Michael even though he knew perfectly well that he had not done him any harm. Michael would part with a little of his money and the whole thing would be eventually forgotten, while his father would require medical help for the rest of his life and could do with a couple of spare millions – especially if those millions were taken not from Michael’s pocket but from his insurance company.

Blood is thicker than water, you know.

But on the other hand Jordan did not want anything terrible to happen to Michael and was very happy when no criminal charges were brought against him. Gutierrez describes how stunned everyone was when, upon hearing that the case against Michael was closed, Jordan splashed into a swimming pool in his clothes and said to his brother Nikki that this was a good day though he could not yet understand it. This reaction was so spontaneous and so unexpected that over here I am even ready to believe Gutierrez:

Soon Jordie would receive some news that would relieve him from some of the pressure of being the boy who changed the life of the King of Pop. A representative from the OA’s office telephoned him, and told him “Michael Jackson will not be prosecuted, but if some day you change your mind and you want to testify against him, the case will be open for another six years.” Upon hanging up the phone, Jordie felt “relief and peace,” according to what he told to his best friend. “No one would speak about it anymore.” Jordie went to the swimming pool at his house where his stepbrother and Nathalie were, and jumped in w ith his clothes on. When his brother asked him if he was crazy, he answered, smiling and hugging him, “You don’t understand, but this is a good day.”

In short the theory of Evan Chandler blackmailing Jordan with his own suicide is not that bad. I hope you will agree that the above picture can be interpreted that way. And though we cannot prove that this was really the case it would explain a lot about what happened in the Chandlers’ camp.

This short post was inspired by the terrible site I read yesterday and also by the incredible things claimed about Michael Jackson by one extremely religious blogger who now calls him names like “the beast”,  for example. There is nothing for me to say about this blogger except that there are different ways of turning crazy and each person goes his/her individual way, but as regards that terrible site there is still a very short note to make.

The name of the site is freerepublic.com and the people running it call themselves conservatives. I also wanted to register there as my huge liberalism has a solid conservative foundation to it and I wanted to leave a comment there on their ideas about Michael Jackson – however  they didn’t allow me access, and this gives me no other chance to speak but here only.

That site is a lair of Michael Jackson’s haters and is actually an incredible read. “SHED NO TEARS FOR THIS TWISTED SICKO” typed in capital letters is a typical headline.

The people there think themselves to be exceptionally clever, knowledgeable and important, but the real impression they produce is that of foolish pompousness, ignorance and utter hypocrisy. Much of this impression is due to their Lilliput vision of reality and pretense they try to pass as their belief in God which they parade on every occasion possible. In short they think they are respectable people but look like ugly and pathetic clowns instead.

On occasions they criticize some hateful ‘communists’ who are supposed to be their total opposites. OMG, if they only knew that these ‘communists’ are exactly the same kind of people, with the same ignorance, stereotypes and total inability to think!  Both types supposedly know everything there is to know about life, while in reality no one can be more backward and narrow-minded than they are. In fact these ‘freerepublic’ people and our hardliners would make a perfect match. If only they could be placed on some island! They have so much in common that they could probably make perfect mates for each other.

After reading their site I’ve realized that it is not only the pedophilia  lobby which is trying hard to bring Michael down, but hardliners like the above too. If the proportion of these people is high among the population the fight for Michael will be long, tiresome and deadly. And the most terrible thing in this fight for the truth about MJ is that these people simply don’t want to know it.

Their hypocrisy and double standards are unbelievable. On the one hand they say that Michael has “excessive coverage” (in case a neutral media story appears), but on the other hand they will clap their hands and run with their story like mad if the lie is nasty enough for it.

Their  biggest grief, woe and trouble now is that Michael’s death was mourned by millions of people all over the world and that after a decade of full oblivion people are talking about Michael again. This is something they totally cannot get over and live with. “This orgy of phoney grief over Jacko shows how empty our values have become”, “Mob grief proves Britain is more wacko than Jacko”, etc. are again their typical headlines.

Out of this pile of hate and hypocrisy I’ve selected one article only. It is called “What you Believe does Matter . . . FOR ETERNITY (Michael Jackson’s Life)”.

The article is the usual ritualistic scream about what these hypocrites understand as Jesus and faith in God in general and how Michael Jackson is not fitting into their scheme. Their own behavior is the best evidence that they don’t know what they are talking about at all, as they have no idea what Jesus said and did, and God’s commandments are no good for them either, but this (as usual) does not stop them from screaming the loudest about their “faith” and Michael supposedly being in “hell”.

Here are some excerpts:

In all of the intense media coverage after the death of pop superstar Michael Jackson, the one thing that has driven me crazy has been hearing over and over, often by high-profile Christians, that Michael is now at peace in Heaven. Really? I hear this same thing whenever a famous person dies, regardless of what they believed during their life, as well as from people when a family member or close friend dies, again, regardless of what they believed during their life.

…It is arguable that Michael Jackson was the most recognized person on the planet. Despite his vast fame and material possessions, Michael was bankrupt in the things that really matter in life, joy, peace, contentment, HOPE! Those things only come through having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and living according to God’s Word.

…After his child molestation trial concluded, on June 17, 2005 I wrote these words, “Even though he has been acquitted of the charges brought against him, the moment he dies he will stand before The Judge, God Himself. At that moment, if he dies without Christ he will be standing all alone. There will be no high-priced defense attorney, no family, no fans, only God who will judge him for his sins and cast him into everlasting darkness. At that moment, if he has accepted Christ as his Savior by faith, he won’t be standing alone. Next to him will be the ultimate defense attorney, JESUS CHRIST, who will tell The Judge that his sins have been paid for and Michael Jackson will be ushered into God’s presence for all eternity.”

…I know it makes people feel better when a famous person or someone they know dies, if they think that they are in Heaven. This is why I have literally given my life 24/7/365 these past 20 years for the Gospel, because the FACT is, those who die without Jesus will not be in Heaven but in the flames of hell for all eternity. What you believe matters, and based on what he believed, Michael Jackson is not in Heaven but in eternal torment and punishment for his sins.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2283167/posts

So this author believes that Michael was “bankrupt” in the things that really matter in life, joy, peace, contentment and hope? This he was bankrupt in? And this in spite of him being a great source of joy, love, hope, inspiration and endurance for millions and millions of people?

And this author imagines that Michael was standing all alone there when it was time for him to answer before the final Judge? And that there weren’t any defense attorneys by his side at that moment?

And what about the world?

Isn’t the overwhelming grief that spontaneously took over so many people the best proof that Michael wasn’t standing there all alone? And that the world itself became the highest-priced defense attorney Michael could ever get to speak for him to the heavens? Wasn’t it the whole world that testified in Michael’s defense and presented as evidence the infinite good he did to all of us as well as the true values in life he was teaching  us to appreciate?

These millions of people suddenly woke up to understanding that they had lost someone very precious to mankind and it was these grieving millions that became Michael’s best defense attorneys. Their voices were so loud and tears so genuine that they surely reached the heavens.

And this is all we need to know to make sure that Michael is in the greatest of all places now.

*  *  *

“Propofol is safe, but Conrad Murray was not” 

Sometimes we need to come back to a topic when we learn something new about it or when we happen to make an experience in connection with it. It can be amazing when things we have written and talked about suddenly affect us personally and give us new insights, confirmations or recollections.

These recollections now will come back especially with the upcoming trial against AEG, and we will also remember the trial against Murray and the way Michael died.

But before I come to this topic I have to start with a story about my sister.

I have a sister who suffers from PKU (phenylketonuria), a genetic metabolic disorder which leads to mental retardation by the amino acid phenylalanine which accumulates in the body because it cannot be metabolized. Today a mental retardation mostly can be avoided because through newborn screening the disease can be detected immediately after birth and the children receive a strict Phe-less or low-protein diet, usually their whole life. However, when my sister was born – in 1962 – the newborn screening did not yet exist in Germany. It was only found out what she suffered from when she was 2 years old, her brain was already damaged. The phe-less diet was started too late. So unfortunately my sister is disabled and cannot speak – only a few words. She is afraid of medical treatments because 12 years ago she was very sick and almost died. But she is a very lovely person, always in a good mood, smiling, trusting, and we can communicate with her very well. She understands many things we tell her and is very attentive to everything that happens around her.

And the most important thing is: She is singing the whole day. She has one huge talent and that is music. She hears a song once – and can sing the melody immediately. And she has a feeling for different genres of music. Well, we are a musical family and she learned to listen to all kinds of music through us. But it’s just amazing, how she sings chorales of Johann Sebastian Bach as well as blues songs of B.B. King and Muddy Waters. She sings Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez as well as the famous Hallelujah of Händel’s “Messiah”. She loves R&B as well as Irish folk or baroque or church music.

And, of course, she loves Michael’s music, who combined several music genres. She knows every song by heart and expresses great joy when I play his songs. She even knows the sequence of the songs on the albums by heart and starts singing the next song before it begins to play. I am 100% sure that Michael would have been very impressed by her if he had known her. She literally cannot live without music, it must play the whole day and she complains when someone turns it off.

But this is just the introduction to this post. I wanted to make understandable why my sister needs a sedation for a dental treatment. In fall last year we realized that she needed to have her teeth checked. This is always a problem because she doesn’t open her mouth. I am her legal guardian and so I looked for a dentist who would treat her with the help of an anesthesiologist. This is not always easy because the treatment is more complex, needs more time and patience as usual. Of course, she doesn’t understand what’s going on, is afraid and tries to resist a treatment. She is crying and sometimes screaming. It can be nerve-racking.

The documents for my sister’s anesthesia said that it would be deep sedation with Propofol

But then I found a wonderful dentist who really cared. He arranged for an appointment with an anesthesiologist who worked with him, and they were both very kind-hearted and understood the problem. We discussed the procedure and I had to sign the documents for anesthesia.

It said: “Deep sedation with propofol.”

I wasn’t surprised and it was okay for me. I am working at a university children’s hospital and I know that many of our children are sedated with propofol when they need a cardiac catheter or an MRI for diagnostics.

However, at that time I didn’t know that I eventually would be present when the sedation is carried out. The appointed day was the 21st of December of last year, the day when the world was supposed to end. Well, I knew that in reality it was meant as the beginning of a new cycle, and that’s what I exptected it would be for us, too, because we would be very glad when we finally got over with it right before Christmas.

I hoped I could avoid being present, I shied away from seeing her being sedated. But it was clear that someone would have to hold her because she would try to resist.

We brought her to the dental chair, my mother held her one arm, and I held the arm where the cannula was placed to inject the propofol. And so I witnessed the direct effects of propofol with my own eyes.

Within seconds of pushing the syringe my sister was motionless and knocked out. No way someone can do it him/herself. She was knocked out before the syringe was completely pushed to the end. I could see the effect at first in her eyes. Her eyes suddenly ossified and stayed open. The lids only became a little heavy. And then her mouth opened automatically. We then went outside and the dentist began his treatment, but when I left my sister I saw her like Michael’s assistants described it – with fixed open eyes and open mouth.

However, it was a wonderful feeling to know that the anesthesiologist stayed at my sister’s side for the procedure and watched her breathing, ready to intervene in any case of complication. I wasn’t there when they finished and she awoke, because I had to go to work. But my mother told me that she was awake very quickly, they just sat with her for a while in the waiting room before they took her home – altogether she was at the dentist’s for barely 2 hours.

When my mother also described me how caring the anesthesiologist was, that he even dressed her with her jacket, zipped it, and walked with her to the door to make sure she is alright, I thought: If only Michael had had such a doctor.

I can only say: Propofol can be a blessing. It’s so helpful for cases like my sister or for the kids in our children’s hospital, who would be scared to death without being sedated in case of very grave diagnostic methods and treatments. I was nervous before we went to the dentist and it was a bit odd to watch this situation, but now I am glad I could see all this. It seems so normal now to me that a substance like propofol is used for the benefit of patients.

Afterwards at work I talked with two of our doctors about the use of propofol, and they both confirmed to me how useful and popular it is. One of them even called it a “blockbuster” because everybody prefers it now to former anaesthetics. The experience also made me somewhat emotional and I had trouble to sleep the following night. The picture of my sister on the dental chair switched with Michael’s picture all the time. It’s so incredible that Murray left him alone in this state and didn’t care. And it’s strange that the substance that killed Michael is such a blessing for everybody else.

But it was good for me to get the confirmation with my own eyes that in reality it wasn’t the substance that killed Michael, but a person who did it the wrong way, an entertainment company that apparently put a lot of pressure on him – and on a larger scale the mankind that was so cruel to him.

To remind us of what really happened to Michael when he died, I want to repeat the judgment of Dr. Raphael Gershon, Chief of Anesthesiology at Grady Memorial Hospital, on Conrad Murray in an interview with CNN. He said that it isn’t the matter of propofol per se as it is a very safe medicine to use in a proper setting – it is the matter of the “wrong person doing the wrong thing in the wrong way and in the wrong setting”.

It is the matter of the wrong person doing the wrong thing in the wrong way and in the wrong setting.

We can find the statement in this blog’s post of 28^th September 2011: http://vindicatemj.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/murrays-trial-begins/  

We have to remember this and not be afraid of any use of this anesthetic in our own life by real professionals.

I also want to remind us of the interview with former Deputy DA Hamid Towfigh (Link to Jane Velez-Mitchell talking to Hamid Towfigh:  http://www.examiner.com/jackson-family-in-national/former-la-deputy-da-hamid-towfigh-on-conrad-murray-michael-jackson-propofol-video )

Towfigh: In their opening statement of the defense they are telling us if their theory was based on self-injection or self-ingestion by swallowing the propofol. That’s very interesting. But under both reasons they’ll fail.

First of all propofol or deprivan is only vial available [ ] If you swallow propofol it will not cause the reaction of death. That’s in the medical literature, you can ask Dr. Sanjay Gupta about this.

Velez-Mitchell: What about Michael Jackson somehow making an injection or opening the drug?

Towhigh: This is not possible, because according to the Coroner’s report Michael Jackson had a general anesthesia level of propofol in his blood. If you ask anesthesiologists they’ll tell you it is about 200 mg or higher of propofol. The syringes that were in the room of Michael Jackson were 10cc syringes which is the equivalent of 100 mg. That means that he would have had to inject himself twice 200 mg of propofol to get the levels that the coroners said he had.

That is not possible, because after the first dose that Michael Jackson supposedly gave himself, he would have passed out.

And besides propofol is a very painful drug. That’s why they mix it with lidocaine. Michael Jackson had lidocaine in his system. They mix propofol with it because when it goes into your body it’s very painful. So had Michael Jackson self-administered this (which he didn’t) he would have screamed [ ] and Conrad Murray would have heard him in the other room.

Velez-Mitchell: I think that what you are saying is brilliant. [ ] He had so much propofol in his system according to the autopsy report that it was enough for major surgery. He would have had to use two bottles [in a shot, drip or whatever]. And at the time of administering the first one he would have been knocked out so that he couldn’t have been awake to administer the second one. Is that what you are saying?

Towfigh: Exactly.

Velez-Mitchell: Wow!

 Why MJ cannot have administered propofol by himself is described very well also in this post by Helena, who did a great job in covering the Murray trial in 2011:  http://vindicatemj.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/conrad-murray-trial-week-4/

Dr. Steven Shafer – key witness and brilliant propofol expert at the Murray trial – said that one of the reasons he reviewed the Murray case without being charged was that as a practicing anesthesiologist he now hears patients say to him again and again, “Are you going to give me the drug which killed Michael Jackson?”

It was Dr. Shafer’s personal interest to dispel the fear many patients have acquired after Murray’s deeds. In my case he was successful. I never doubted his explanations. And this also helped my sister, so I want to express my thanks to Dr. Shafer for making this decision easy for me.

Dr. Barry L. Friedberg, another well-known anesthesiologist, said: “The general public has been needlessly traumatized over the safety of propofol. I have said from the outset that propofol is safe, but Conrad Murray was not.” http://www.free-press-release.com/news-murray-guilty-propofol-not-1320709413.html

On January 18, 2013, Dr. Barry L. Friedberg posted on his website:

“We do not blame the automobile for the reckless drunk driver’s deaths. By his own public admission, Conrad Murray was reckless by giving Jackson propofol & leaving the room.

Hundreds of millions of patients worldwide have safely received propofol because someone was watching them breathe & monitoring their oxygenation.

(…)

Conrad Murray was practicing as a cardiologist with hospital privileges to catheterize & stent diseased coronary arteries under propofol sedation & pulse oximetry. Despite this knowledge, he chose to buy the cheapest pulse oximeter monitor for Jackson – one that made no sounds & had no alarms.

Clearly, Murray does not believe the normal safety measures apply to his practice, behavior that defines him as a sociopath that never again deserves a license to practice medicine.”

http://drfriedberg.com/blog/propofol-michael-jacksons-death.html  

When Dr. Shafer called Murray’s deviations from the standard of care unconscionable, I think this assessment also applies to the people of AEG Live, who treated Michael apparently with the same ethical violations of his rights as a human being. The tone of AEG’s attorney Marvin Putnam says it all:

“The most important thing to note is that Michael Jackson asked AEG Live to be his concert promoter, not his sobriety coach. AEG never assumed a duty to protect Michael Jackson from his longstanding private demons or from his longtime doctor,” lead defense attorney Marvin Putnam, a Los Angeles partner at O’Melveny & Myers, wrote in an e-mail to The National Law Journal. ”

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202588802957&Michael_Jacksons_concert_promoter_We_werent_his_sobriety_coach&slreturn=20130207060518  

This and the exploitation of Michael by AEG is also very apparent from this leaked email Paul Gongaware wrote 11 days before Michael’s death, obviously because Murray didn’t send him to rehearsals:

“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.”

By the way, did Michael Jackson really ask AEG Live to be his concert promoter? Wasn’t it the other way round? Didn’t AEG ask Michael several times to do a concert series with them when Michael was not ready to do it? Randy Phillips himself told it. They persuaded Michael to do the shows together with those who told him he is broke.

AEG Live probably put so much pressure on Michael and also on Murray to get Michael ready for the rehearsals and the shows that propofol was used as means to an end to reach their goal. Propofol was misused the same way Michael was misused. And both are a blessing for mankind and should be treated with respect.

The AEG Live advocates active in this blog say that this concert promoter is no worse than others, Michael Jackson was no angel and should not be looked upon as a victim, and since we don’t know why Randy Phillips yelled at Michael, we should not pass judgment on AEG – what if there were reasons for it?

This forces me to make a kind of a review about the relations between Michael Jackson and AEG in the months prior to his death.

1. CONTRACT

First of all let me say a short word about the so-called contract between AEG Live and Michael Jackson (so-called because it was actually a letter of intent). Besides it being a dubious document in terms of its validity, there is also no force on this planet to convince me that it was made in the interests of both parties as is usually done between civilized people. No, it was made in the interests of one party only - AEG Live, and in the very best case was a way to coerce Michael into making those shows and blackmail him if he wanted to back out, and in the worst case was a tool to squeeze millions out of Michael’s gross exploitation and grab his assets if he was unable to perform.

Behind the seemingly respectable façade of those ‘contract’ papers you will see the grossest exploitation, disdain for Michael Jackson and the immoral taking advantage of him as an artist and human being. There is even a special legal term describing this kind of a business relationship and the name to it is an unconscionable contract:

• An unconscionable contract is one that is so one-sided that it is unfair to one party and therefore unenforceable under law.  It is a type of contract that leaves one party with no real, meaningful choice, usually due to major differences in bargaining power between the parties.
• In a lawsuit, if the court finds a contract to be unconscionable, they will typically declare the contract to be void.  No damages award or specific performance will be issued, but instead the parties will be released from their contract obligations.

Unfortunately only few have read that contract and cannot imagine how immoral it is. Many are also confused by the vagueness around Michael’s state of health, his reasons for the alleged missing of rehearsals and AEG’s propaganda about their huge losses which they never sustained.

With so much talk about how lovely AEG Live is I decided to make a full check-up of my own impression of them and review it from the most neutral position possible. What if I am really unfair to AEG Live? If I am this is no good, and it was from this premise that I started this review. The story below is what came of it.

2. LET’S DO SOME MATHS

One of the first questions I asked myself was whether AEG Live treated other artists in the same way. This was a difficult question as the AEG contracts with others performers are not available to me, so I had to go by scraps of the media information only.

The first impression I got from what I read was that AEG behaved in a different way with different performers and provided different terms depending on who the star is.  Judging by the variations they could probably even follow some of the performers’ wishes.

Prince, for example, was promoting his new album 3121 and to reflect the title of the album he and AEG Live set the price of every ticket to his 2007 O2 Arena performances at £31.21 irrespective of the seat. In case the profits were not good enough this was later compensated for by Prince’s setting the price at $312,01 for his Las Vegas performances, as this article informs us:

Prince’s permanent Vegas vacation

It happens to them all, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, even Siegfried and Roy, they all made Vegas home to their twilight career. Prince has now made a big step to follow in their footsteps by apparently looking into taking over the Empire Ballroom club on the south Strip which is really at 3676 Las Vegas Blvd will be renamed Club 3121. Prince will be charging Vegas prices too, his first dates at this show sold at $312.01 per general admission ticket for the “intimate” 1,300 capacity venue for dates across the summer, which will include special guest performers. His current plans incuding holding regular performances at the Rio Hotel/Casino.

With Bon Jovi AEG Live pursued a different policy. The price of tickets was even lower than that of Prince’s but the tickets could be bought only on condition you buy their CD. This was the opposite policy to that of Prince who offered a free CD together with the ticket to promote his new music and artificially influence some “Soundscan charts”.

I’ve learned these details from Randy Phillips’ public correspondence with a person whom I understand to be a professional in this business. Here is a sample of it:

From: Bob Lefsetz
Date: June 26, 2007 6:33 PM PDT

“The Bon Jovi deal is the first “all-in” presale that bundles together a ticket and a digital album as a single transaction sold via Ticketmaster’s Web site. In this way, the promotion is more a digital version of Prince’s 2005 Musicology tour, which included with the ticket price a physical version of his new album, to be picked up at the venue.”

You HAD to buy the digital download if you wanted tickets in the pre-sale…

From: Randy Phillps
Date: June 26, 2007 6:46 PM PDT

In the Prince sales we didn’t give the consumer the opt-in/opt-out choice and did accidentally (all Prince cared about was getting his new music into as many hands as possible) and artificially influence the Soundscan Charts. This was not the case with BJ.

…. Bob, they are playing 10 nights, not 1 or 2, and there are plenty of tickets available to the public in both the primary and secondary markets. Only 45,000 out of over 100,000 sales opted to buy in. Those are REAL sales. All we did was make it easier for a fan to purchase the record. Please open your mind to new ways of selling records. The business and artists need these avenues. For God’s sake, Tower Records is gone! Embrace the new paradigm. Soon physical product will be gone also. At least fans bought an entire album instead of just a song. RP

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2007/06/27/randy-phillips-responds/

In contrast to Prince and Bon Jovi for Barbra Streisand’s three O2 Arena concerts in the same 2007 AEG Live set sky-rocketing prices. The face value of the tickets ranged between £100 and £500 while the secondary tickets (those sold through third parties) went up to £1,500.

By way of comparison let me say that the face value of tickets to Michael Jackson’s concerts was within the range of £50 to £75 while the price of secondary tickets reportedly went up to £10,000. The difference between the face value and the secondary tickets speaks to the popularity of the performer and is an extremely important factor to look into. Usually it indicates the true “market value” of the star and besides being an objective assessment of his merit is crucial for cases when tickets have to be returned (for whatever reason). The thing is that the balance between the face value and the price of secondary tickets is never returned, so if you paid £10,000 the most you will get back will be £75, and this gives the concert promoters certain opportunities.

The level of prices for Barbra Streisand’s concerts and the huge demand for Michael’s shows made me think that to reach the same sum from the concerts Michael didn’t really need 50 shows.

All he needed was a little rise in the price of his tickets.

The London concerts in my opinion were too strenuous for Michael to give them away cheap, so those of us who could not afford to see Michael Jackson live could be given an opportunity to see Internet pay-per-view concerts at a minimal price (as AEG’s competitor AllGoodEntertainment was planning to).

Another possibility was to arrange a series of 3D documentaries that could be shown in the movie theatres belonging to the same AEG or sell the footage to TV round the world.  In short there were ways how to find a reasonable compromise between the huge desire of fans to attend Michael’s concerts and the respectable price of tickets which could alleviate some of Michael’s financial problems and help him to make his dream about a children’s hospital come true.

Michael Jackson was surely a no lesser star than Barbra Streisand and what Barbra Streisand’s spokesman said about the price of tickets to her show and her performance being “the momentous occasion comparable to seeing Elvis or Sinatra” applied to Michael Jackson all the more so:

Barbra Streisand charges up to £500 per ticket for comeback show

by PAUL REVOIR

01 May 2007

Fans wanting to see Barbra Streisand perform in the UK for the first time in 13 years will have to pay as much as £500 for the privilege, making the concert one of the most expensive ever.

The cheapest seats for the diva’s show at London’s O2 Arena – the former Millennium Dome – will cost £100, with top ticket prices more than three times what it would cost for the best seats at a Rolling Stones or Madonna concert.

Critics claimed Miss Streisand, 65, was exploiting her fans’ goodwill.

But her camp defended the sky-high prices by calling a live performance by the singer a “momentous occasion” comparable to seeing Elvis or Sinatra.

The last time Miss Streisand played in the UK, in 1994, ticket touts were forced to sell tickets below face value after the expected demand failed to materialise.

Her concert at the venue in London’s Docklands on July 18, featuring a 58-piece orchestra, will be one of five European dates for the singer-actress.

…Madonna was criticised last year when tickets for her Confessions tour were priced between £80 and £160 while the top tickets to see the Stones at Twickenham this summer are £150.

Part of the proceeds from the tour will be donated to good causes through the Barbra Streisand Foundation.

A spokesman for the star said: “Seeing Barbra Streisand in concert is a pretty momentous occasion that ranks up there with seeing Sinatra or Elvis.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-451657/Barbra-Streisand-charges-500-ticket-comeback-show.html

Well, if Madonna’s tickets were between £80 and £160 in 2006 (three years before Michael Jackson’s concerts), not to mention the 2007 Barbra Streisand tickets at £100 to £500, why were the tickets for Michael Jackson’s concerts set at only £50 and £75 two years later? It is inflation, you know, and wouldn’t the higher price of tickets befit Michael Jackson’s name better in addition to sparing his health and reducing the number of shows which was Michael’s biggest desire?

Let us do some maths as an example.

With the O2 Arena seating capacity of 20,000, the tickets to only one Barbra Streisand’s show collected the gross sum of £2mln to £10 mln  - £6mln on average (if no secondary tickets are included here, of course).  But the same tickets for one Michael Jackson’s show were collecting only £1mln to £1,5mln – or £1,25mln on average.

The gross sum collected from secondary tickets to Michael’s concerts, which were approximately half of all the tickets, was incomparably higher than the official sum and is difficult to estimate. If the tickets were sold at a price ten times as high (£500 – £750) the gross collection from one show could be £10mln to £15mln. And if the price per secondary ticket reached £10,000 as some papers reported, the resulting gross sum could be an astronomical one.

But if we compare the average sums collected from the face value tickets for the shows of Streisand and Jackson (£6mln and £1,25mln) we’ll see that a single Barbra Streisand’s concert was bringing as much as four Michael Jackson’s concerts.

That is why Michael Jackson had to do 50 concerts while Streisand would have had to do only 12,5 to reach the same sum.

No, I am not suggesting that Michael’s fans should be subjected to this highway robbery, and Michael wouldn’t have agreed to it anyway – all I am trying to say is that a reasonable compromise could and in my opinion should have been reached considering that Michael wasn’t a boy and his show was physically demanding in the extreme. A fewer number of shows could have spared Michael’s health, lessened his stress and reduced the production expenses that were to be paid by Michael and Michael alone (salary to dancers, their feed and accommodation, travel expenses, visas, equipment, transportation, etc.). All of it could have been cut and still get the same money if only the prices of tickets had been raised at least to the level of Madonna’s 2006 shows.

Let me say it again that to satisfy the desire of Michael’s fans to see his concerts AEG Live could have televised them and shown them via Internet on a pay-per-view basis or could have sold the footage to some TV channels. Those fans who could not afford a live concert could have watched the show on the Internet at a symbolic price, while the most would have surely agreed to pay more to see with their own eyes the miracle of a fifty-year old man dancing like a twenty-year old.

Didn’t Randy Phillips himself say in his above email that we should ‘open our mind’ to ‘new venues’ and ‘embrace new paradigms’? And didn’t he also say that ‘soon physical product will be gone’ evidently referring to performers? Especially middle-aged performers? But if they were to be gone soon, shouldn’t something have been done to spare them and help them get the best terms possible which would be suitable for them, their fans and their concert promoters?

The only thing AEG Live needed for opening their minds to ’new paradigms’ as regards Michael Jackson was the desire to work out the best working scenario for him and find a proper compromise between the intensity of the tour, its length and the price of the tickets. However for Michael Jackson none of it was done.

3. THE COMPETITOR

In contrast to the giant AEG Live their smaller competitor AllGoodEntertainment did think of Michael being no longer a boy and the need to spare him, so it was them who came up with the idea of an Internet pay-per-view show. But AllGoodEntertainment was sort of swindled by Frank Dileo who promised a concert by Michael Jackson and his siblings though he wasn’t even Michael’s manager at the time. They did talk on the phone occasionally but that was it. The show was never agreed to by Michael, and we are not even sure that he or his siblings were aware of Frank Dileo’s underground activity.

Michael Jackson did not want to do a reunion concert which Joe Jackson was trying to organize mostly for his own sake and his other children, but from the financial point of view the concert planned by AllGoodEntertainment could have brought Michael at least three times as much money as a much more strenuous concert with AEG. The plans of AllGoodEntertainement were brilliant however their biggest problem was financing of the project:

“The plan of AllGood Entertainment was to host a “one-time event” tentatively titled “The Jackson Family Reunion: A Concert for the World” in the summer of 2009. The concert would star Michael and Janet Jackson while also including his siblings: LaToya, Rebbie, and all of his brothers. Billed as “The Most Anticipated Concert Event in Music History” the concert was anticipated to gross more than $93 million through a variety of means including ticket sales (at $135 each), sponsoring, Pay-Per-View access, DVD and CD sales, merchandising, digital downloads, broadcasting, and licensing. Using such a figure as a selling point, the company sought out a sponsorship to help fund the endeavor which included around $30 million of expenses.

…The event would be day long and recorded professionally for Pay-Per-View and DVD releases with a projected first-showing audience of 100 million. The Pay-Per-View would fetch and estimated 3 to 7 million purchasers at $30 each, and there would be a worldwide market campaign building up to the event.

…[One of the agreements between AllGood Entertainment and Frank Dileo ] called for at least a 90 minute performance by Michael Jackson and 150 minute performance overall by all parties of the Jackson family.

…In summary, two contracts and agreements were signed by December 1, 2008 by Frank Dileo and parties relating to Dileo’s agency and AllGood Entertainment’s agency. None of these contracts bare any signature of the Jacksons, nor has there been any confirmation that the Jackson siblings are aware of these concert-related plans.

…On October 30, 2008 (one month before any such contracts, proposals, or agreements were drafted and signed), Michael Jackson issued the following statement: “My brothers and sisters have my full love and support, and we’ve certainly shared many great experiences, but at this time I have no plans to record or tour with them. I am now in the studio developing new and exciting projects that I look forward to sharing with my fans in concert soon.”

http://www.positivelymichael.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-3349.html

Later AllGoodEntertainment announced that for Michael Jackson’s 90 minutes of performance at that one-night event they would offer him $3 million. This sum makes me think that if Michael had agreed to do a solo concert with them the remuneration from that concert promoter could have been even higher.

We cannot be sure that AllGoodEntertainment would have raised the necessary $30mln for producing the show, but the fact that the terms of the offer were less demanding and more profitable for Jackson is indisputable in my opinion.

It is also interesting that AllGoodEntertainment was planning to spend the same $30mln on production as the sum eventually provided by AEG and this means that the scale of the show was supposed to be the same. The only difference was that all production expenses borne by AEG were to be later compensated for by Michael Jackson. As to AllGoodEntertainment I don’t know – possibly not, as it is the first time I hear of the need for the performer to fully cover all the expenses on the show. Why need the concert promoter then? The same could have been done through a bank…

The questions why Michael Jackson preferred AEG to AllGoodEntertainement and how dared Frank Dileo make arrangements with AllGood behind Michael’s back and even take some advance money from them as I hear (a totally outrageous thing to do) will not be the point of the present discussion.

The point I am trying to make is that the comparison with another concert promoter shows that AEG Live could have arranged Michael Jackson’s shows in a way that could make them less rigorous and physically demanding, but at the same time more profitable  – but this of course only in case AEG Live wanted it that way.

4. THE MAD MARATHON

The other issue I needed to check was the time space between the concerts arranged for Michael Jackson by AEG Live.

Barbra Streisand’s schedule included three shows on the London O2 Arena during her European tour in 2007. The dates of the shows were set with a span of 3-4 days between them, with the exception of 5 days in the middle and 2 days before the last show:

 21 June        Vienna Schloss Schonbrun
26 June        Paris Bercy
30 June        Berlin Waldbuhne
4 July           Stockholm The Globe
10 July         Manchester MEN Arena
14 July         Dublin Castletown House
18 July         London The O2 Arena
22 July         London The O2 Arena
25 July         London The O2 Arena

http://www.barbrastreisand.com/us/news/barbra-streisand-concert

The schedule worked out by AEG Live for Michael Jackson and his first 10 concerts in July 2009 was dramatically different.

The dates of the shows were set on the show/day-off/show/day-off basis from beginning to end. You will agree that even if Michael Jackson was able to do something of the kind in his younger years, it does not mean that he could do it at the age of 50 and after a many years’ break too.

Even when he was young Michael used to say that he would no longer be able to keep up with the pace of the tour, so you don’t have to be a genius to realize that a similar schedule for Jackson in 2009 was totally unrealistic, physically impossible and even humiliating for a 50 year-old singer who was also to dance during the major part of his show.

However all these considerations didn’t stop AEG from setting the first 10 shows one after another with hardly any days off. This was how the first 10 shows were set:

• Wednesday, July 08
• Friday, July 10
• Sunday, July 12
• Tuesday, July 14
• Thursday, July 16
• Saturday, July 18
• Wednesday, July 22
• Friday, July 24
• Sunday, July 26
• Tuesday, July 28

Besides almost all dates going one after another with only one day off between them, what also amazes me is that the above scenario was not only grueling, but also totally uncalled for – there was no rush and no need to press Jackson to perform at such a backbreaking tempo. Or was it?

The itinerary also makes it clear that the dates were set by the concert promoter and possibly by Michael Jackson’s manager, but not by Michael Jackson himself . The schedule was so much going against his interests that he clearly did not take part in the decision making.

Why AEG Live and Tohme did it for Michael still remains to be looked into. In the meantime here is the record of how things were developing – the sale of the tickets began on March 11, 2009 and the dates were announced the day before:

Michael Jackson Reveals London Concert Dates

March 10, 2009 08:13:29 GMT

Ten concert dates for Michael Jackson’s gigs at London’s O2 Arena have been announced. Described as a “big budget, grand, highly technical, incredible show”, the concerts will begin on July 8 and will be wrapped up on July 28.

On what fans can expect from the upcoming concerts, Randy Phillips, a chief promoter of AEG Live tells BBC that since Michael is a perfectionist, he will come up with a new idea. “Michael Jackson is a perfectionist, so it’s going to be amazing,” Randy says. “He’ll try a lot of new things.”

Michael Jackson previously said that his London concerts will be his “Final Curtain Call”. During a press conference at London’s O2 Arena, he stated, “I just wanted to say, these will be my final show performances in London. When I say this is it, it really means this is it. I’ll be performing the songs my fans want to hear. This is it, this is really it, this is the final curtain call.”

Michael Jackson’s London concert dates:

• Wednesday, July 08
• Friday, July 10
• Sunday, July 12
• Tuesday, July 14
• Thursday, July 16
• Saturday, July 18
• Wednesday, July 22
• Friday, July 24
• Sunday, July 26
• Tuesday, July 28

© AceShowbiz.com  http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00022648.html

However this was only the beginning of the marathon. Immediately after selling tickets for the first 10 shows an additional number of shows was announced. The number itself was not known. Rumor had it that 12 more shows would be added, and Reuters reported that it was Michael Jackson who allowed AEG to add extra shows:

Michael Jackson to add concerts after sellout

LONDON | Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:39pm EDT

(Reuters) The 50-year-old singer has been a virtual recluse since his acquittal on child abuse charges in a 2005 trial, his last full set of live concerts was 12 years ago and he has not recorded an album of new music since “Invincible” in 2001.

Last week he announced his long-awaited comeback at London’s O2 Arena, where he plans a Las Vegas-style “residency” with a series of 10 concerts beginning on July 8.

“The pre-sale 10 shows at The O2 that went on sale this morning at 7 a.m. have already sold out,” said Outside Organization, the PR company representing promoter AEG Live.

“Due to the incredible level of interest, Michael Jackson has allowed AEG Live to add extra shows.”

It was not immediately clear how many concerts would be added. The website of music magazine Rolling Stone reported 12 extra concerts had been booked.

AEG Live said last week it may extend Jackson’s London series and launch gigs elsewhere in the world if the demand was there.

Jackson is still the “King of Pop” to his legions of fans despite his sometimes bizarre behavior and appearance in recent years. He has sold around 750 million records, won 13 Grammys and is regarded as one of the biggest pop acts of all time.

Organizers said fans should log on to website http://www.michaeljacksonlive.com for information on the additional shows.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/03/11/us-jackson-idUSTRE52A44W20090311

By midday it was clear that 16 more shows were added, thus taking the schedule as far as September 10th. Now Michael Jackson was to give 26 shows from July 8 to September 10th:

• July 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30
• August 1, 3, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26, 28, 30
• September 1, 3, 6, 8, 10.

Looking at this schedule and at the breaks of 5 days (after August 3d) and 4 days (after August 12th) in the middle of it,  I see that even if Michael Jackson discussed the schedule with AEG Live, which I highly doubt, all he managed to get from them was a little rest in the middle of the marathon. But as to the remaining dates the schedule was simply bizarre.

Instead of spacing the shows more evenly and giving the artist some rest on a regular basis, the 50-year old Michael Jackson was supposed to first run a marathon of 13 concerts, then have some short breaks in the middle, and then run the second marathon of 11 more shows, all of them set at an incredible show/day-off/show/day-off pace.

I doubt that Michael Jackson’s well-being or survival were on the minds of AEG Live functionaries when they were setting this brutal schedule for him.

The media was closely following the situation and what was Michael Jackson’s shock, pain and anxiety became a thrilling circus for the media and the public:

How Thrilling: Michael Jackson adds 16 more shows to London run

BY MELINDA NEWMAN WEDNESDAY, MAR 11, 2009 3:13 PM

We’re still not sure that he’ll even make it on stage (British oddmakers are even taking the bets), but Michael Jackson has added 16 more concerts to her run at London’s O2 Arena.

According to Billboard, that brings the total number of shows to 26. The first 10 shows have yet to go on sale to the general public. Pre-sale tickets for the first shows went on sale today for those who registered

through www.michaeljacksonlive.com.  AEG Live, which is promoting the shows, told Billboard that 10 shows sold out their pre-allocation amount. That amount is believed to be 50% of the total tickets available.

The general public can buy tickets starting March 13.

The 26-date run now spans July 8-Sept. 10. Prices are $68.82 to $103.23. Prince played 21 dates at the same venue in 2007.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/the-beat-goes-on/posts/how-thrilling-michael-jackson-adds-16-more-shows-to-london-run

But even then the marathon was not yet over. Two days after the first 26 shows were so swiftly announced and sold out, on March 13th another 24 shows were added thus making it 50. It did not happen in one stroke either, but was again done in fits and starts – first one number was announced, then another one, and then finally 5 more shows were added.

The summer/autumn season was supplemented with four more shows to be done in September – 21, 23, 27, 29, thus bringing the first leg of the tour to a total of 30 shows.

Then came a three months break and 20 more shows were added in January and February 2010. What’s incredible about the winter season was that the new dates followed the same grueling show/day-off/show/day-off pattern as if AEG Live had nothing to learn from the first leg and this hectic scenario was all they could ever offer to Michael Jackson.

Among other things the three months break in between meant that for the winter time AEG Live would not have any problems with filling in the shows on O2 Arena due to Michael’s death – those concerts were too far off to worry about the replacements, so all Randy Phillips’ lamentations over the need to immediately fill in their precious arena for 50 nights could concern only the first leg of 30 shows.

The newly added dates were as follows:

• September – 21, 23, 27, 29
• January 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 23, 25, 27, 29 
• February 1, 3, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24

Over here I have a question. If they made a ‘mistake’ of setting the dates too close to each other in the first part of the tour, what was driving AEG Live to do the same in the second part of it? Frankly, this schedule does not look like a recipe for success – to me it looks like a recipe for a disaster and an intentional one at that. In fact it is something like, “If we didn’t do him in the first time, this time we’ll make it”.

Below is the news about the 50 concerts the way it was reported on March 13, 2009. There is also some vague talk there about the viagogo broker which is selling secondary tickets, and though Randy Phillips is trying to underestimate the problem all of it is about a huge speculation with Michael Jackson’s tickets done with full AEG Live’s knowledge as they are the first to collect the surplus money:

Michael Jackson tickets for ‘This Is It’ concert series sell out in hours

By Allison Reitz

Fri, Mar 13th 2009 1:50 pm EDT

Just hours after sales opened to the public, tickets sold out for all 50 dates of Michael Jackson’s comeback run at the O2 Arena in London. CNN reported that approximately 750,000 tickets were sold-out during a four-hour time slot.

Due to overwhelming demand for tickets, 35 shows were added over the course of presales, which began March 11. Jackson’s stay at the O2 was initially set at 10 dates, with the option to add more performances as dictated by public demand.

However, all 45 concerts quickly sold out their total presale allotment of approximately 360,000 tickets. As a result, concert promoter AEG Live added five more dates — for a total of 50 shows — to today’s general on-sales.

Jackson’s 50-show sell-out shatters eclectic musician Prince’s 21-night record at the O2 and defies industry expectations for the 50-year-old. Even AEG Live is stunned by the positive response from fans around the world.

“We never thought ’50 shows’ and frankly, based on the queues on Ticketmaster, plus the 300,000 registrants we still haven’t issued codes to, we could spend two years here,” AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips said during an interview with BBC Radio 1. “Mike asked me how long he would be in the United Kingdom for, and I told him, ‘Probably long enough to get a British passport.’”

Despite the broken records and astronomical sales figures, Jackson’s unprecedented comeback has not been without its share of controversy.

Concerns have risen in the media over AEG Live’s deal to sell premium-priced tickets for high-demand seats directly through official secondary partner, viagogo. Recently,Madonna set up a similar deal with the site, which is the official premium ticket outlet and fan-to-fan resale base for her upcoming Sticky & Sweet summer 2009 tour extension in Europe.

In an interview with Billboard, Phillips explained the deal as a chance “to give fans access to premium seats and the market would set the price on only a small percentage of the house every night; and, secondly, to give fans a peer-to-peer platform where they know these tickets aren’t counterfeited.”

However, Phillips then alleged that viagogo contacted brokers with discounts on the premium tickets rather than selling them directly to fans on the site’s exchange platform. AEG Live is reportedly seeking an injunction against viagogo in London courts today (March 13) to ensure that the premium tickets go to fans.

viagogo did not respond to requests for comment.

Michael Jackson 2009 schedule: 
(Dates are subject to change.)

July  8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30
August 1, 3, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26, 28, 30
September 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 21, 23, 27, 29

Michael Jackson 2010 schedule: 
(Dates are subject to change.)

January 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 23, 25, 27, 29
February 1, 3, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24

http://www.ticketnews.com/news/Michael-Jackson-tickets-for-This-Is-It-concert-series-sell-out-in-hours3913461

The information about the “dates being subject to change” should not fool anyone here. It is clear to every reasonable person that with a million tickets on the customers’ hands (20,000 seats multiplied by 50 shows) and half of them being secondary tickets (sold through third parties at sky-rocketing prices) it would have been extremely difficult to change the dates.

A much easier way would have been to space the dates evenly, with 3 or 4 days breaks in between (like in Barbra Streisand’s case) from the start of it, and only then offer tickets for sale.

However this was not the way AEG Live wanted it. For some reason they chose to first sell the tickets to an extremely harsh schedule for Jackson and only then inform Michael Jackson of what was in store for him.

When Michael Jackson got familiar with the schedule set up for him by AEG Live and Tohme, he went into a panic.

Usually people name Michael’s bad financial situation as a reason for Michael’s huge stress, however this situation had been dogging Michael for many years already and never made him really panic. Michael seemed to know how to distance himself from all those money troubles. Even in the tape made by Conrad Murray while he was putting Michael under sedation, Michael was talking of giving away money for a children’s hospital he was dreaming of. If he had been terribly concerned about his finances, his half-conscious condition was exactly the time when his worst fears would have been voiced – however the way he spoke of money showed that the finances were not his top worry, at least not at that moment.

Then what was his top worry?

From the way he reacted to the schedule made for him by AEG Live and Tohme I think he panicked when he saw how impossible for his mere survival that schedule was and how terribly the people he relied on had betrayed him. This was probably the first time he realized that those who had induced him into the project were not meaning him any good.

5. DAVID GEST: THE PRESSURE KILLED JACKSON

Irrespective of what we think of Michael’s flamboyant friend David Gest the story he is telling us of Michael’s panicky reaction to the AEG schedule and details of the way the number of those shows grew are perfectly in line with what we’ve just learned about the same events from other sources.

David Gest says that it was the stress Michael had to live with from the moment of seeing that schedule that actually killed him:

Gest: ‘Concert pressure killed Jackson’

Published Monday, Jun 29 2009, 09:33 BST | By Mayer Nissim

David Gest has claimed that Michael Jackson was killed by the stress of his impending live shows at London’s O2.

The TV star and singer’s friend told The Sun that Jackson was unhappy at having been booked to play 50 shows, rather than the ten originally announced.

Gest said: “Michael told me he was excited about getting back on stage. I told him I was proud of him. But I really believe in my heart of hearts that the pressure of those concerts killed Michael.

“He thought there were going to be ten dates as announced. But then all of a sudden [Doctor Tohme R.] Tohme, along with Randy Phillips, president of organisers AEG, had arranged 20, 30 then 50 dates.”

He added: “Michael was being told: ‘You are going to set the world record for concerts at the O2, you are going to beat Prince’s record.’

“They knew how to feed into his ego. But when Michael realised his schedule, he began to panic. It was one show after another, with hardly any days off. He should never have been tied to so many, especially a guy who dances through more than half of his set.”

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/news/a162540/gest-concert-pressure-killed-jackson.html

Let me repeat it again:

• “He thought there were going to be ten dates as announced. But then all of a sudden Tohme, along with Randy Phillips, president of organisers AEG, had arranged 20, 30 then 50 dates.”

• “It was one show after another, with hardly any days off.”

 The above is a correct description of what the schedule was really like and a very accurate account of the way the tickets were really sold – first 10, then 26 quickly turning into 30, and then 50 shows including the winter season.

So according to David Gest, initially Michael was not aware of what was going on with the schedule and what rigors it had in store for him. But when the euphoria of all that enthusiastic welcome passed and he did realize it, he saw that the dates were simply impossible to keep up with.  One show was going after another with hardly any days off and this was supposed to take place for a period of three months!

And then, as if this was not enough for them, they arranged the same schedule for the winter time and this ugly pattern of one show after another was repeated again! Why, why were they so insistent on this mad race?

I’m afraid that none of us are able to imagine the sickness Michael must have felt when realizing the disaster. Bad as it was, another thing contributing to the stress was the fact that nothing could be changed now that a million tickets was sold out. The situation was inevitable, irreversible – it was hopeless.

If we didn’t know of the way Barbra Streisand’s concerts were organized we could imagine that cramming all the shows into the shortest period of time was AEG’s usual practice. The reason why they could be doing it was not to mix the main event with others and therefore make it as compressed as possible, even despite the fact that they were dealing with human beings and not machines.

But we do have Barbra Streisand’s example and know for sure that it was quite possible for AEG Live to have a break of 3 – 4 – and even 5 – days between the shows!

AEG Live could have filled the spaces in between Michael’s concerts with something else as they evidently did it with Barbra Streisand and it did not harm them a bit and they perfectly survived the practice.

So a proper schedule for Michael Jackson was just a matter of how much goodwill they were ready to extend to Michael Jackson and whether they really wanted him to make those 50 shows.

Yes, the other side of this mad marathon was that it could rebuff on AEG Live too – if Michael did not cope with the rigors of it they would have also lost on those concerts (or wouldn’t they?).

So if they didn’t want to lose those concerts why were they doing it to him then?

This must have been the question constantly on Michael Jackson’s mind and something his emotional state heavily depended on. If we learn whether he found an answer to this question (and if we find this answer ourselves) we can consider the box of the mystery unlocked.

The sure conclusion we can make at this stage is that the strenuous schedule arranged by AEG Live and Tohme for Michael Jackson was absolutely not a must and this poses a question why these people chose to arrange things the way they did arrange it for Michael Jackson. I hope we will be able to answer this question one day.

6. TOHME TOHME

David Gest pointed to Tohme Tohme as the main person with whom Michael associated the disastrous schedule.

To be more precise, Gest did not name all the people Michael was unhappy with and just made a general statement about it. From what he said we can gather that the mess was the result of Michael trusting wrong people and one of these people was Tohme Tohme:

Michael Jackson ‘Trusted Wrong People’

29 June 2009

One of Michael Jackson’s closest friends, David Gest, insists the singer was surrounded by bad advisors and the stress of preparing for his 50-night London residency killed him.

David Gest has blamed Michael Jackson’s advisers for his death.

The 55-year-old concert promoter - a friend of the late ‘Thriller’ singer since he was 11 – insists the pressure of preparing for a 50-night run of concerts caused the fatal suspected cardiac arrest that killed Michael on Thursday (26.06.09), singling doctor Tohme R. Tohme for particular responsibility.

David said: “We all have weaknesses and Michael’s was that he trusted the wrong people most of the time. He thought people were good, which they are not.

“Michael was in terrible pain and all he cared about was feeling better. He started taking prescription pills to numb the pain and he also started drinking. It was then that his judgement started to become clouded.

“Michael told me he was excited about getting back on stage. But I really believe in my heart of hearts that the pressure of those concerts killed Michael.”

David believes his friend was misled when he agreed to his ‘This Is It’ residency, which was due to begin at London’s O2 arena next month and the stress of such a gruelling schedule was “too tough”.

He added to Britain’s The Sun newspaper: “Michael thought there was going to be 10 dates as announced. But then all of a sudden Thome, with Randy Phillips, president of organisers AEG, had arranged 20, then 30, then 50 dates.

“Michael was being told, ‘You are going to set the world record for concerts at the O2.’

“They knew how to feed into his ego. But when Michael realised his schedule he began to panic. They should have realised doing one concert a day, then one day off, would be tough for any performer, let alone someone who hadn’t been on stage for nine years, it was ridiculous.

“Michael was working his a*s off for eight hours a day to prepare, the schedule didn’t allow him any time to rest. I know for a fact he was rehearsing until 2am the morning before he died.”

http://www.contactmusic.com/news/michael-jackson-trusted-wrong-people_1108046

So Michael was working for eight hours every day to prepare for the extremely tough schedule…

The point about pain after realizing the fraud does not necessarily mean physical pain – it could be the emotional and mental anguish Michael was going through (though with Michael’s lupus you never know what it could be) and the idea of “painkillers and drinking” may have been an exaggeration on Gest’s part, however a serious Michael’s breakdown at that moment cannot be ruled out.

Any of us would have broken down under the enormous shock, stress and despair of facing the need to do the impossible, and seeing the people whom you trusted and connected all your hopes with, betray and take advantage of you the way they did it to him.

The partnership with AEG Live was something Michael Jackson could not break up as he was tied to them by various papers and mostly by the advance of several millions they had given to him. One part of the money went into renting the house – the house was by the way found for Michael Jackson by Tohme Tohme (for a mere $100, 000 a month). Tohme admitted it himself that it was he who got that house for Michael:

“We put a stage in his house in Vegas because before he was practising in the local hotels. He was writing music, working with choreographers. And after we start talking to AEG for the London gigs, I decided Vegas was not the right place for Michael to stay at the time, especially for the children…it is very hot in the summer.

‘LA is where all the action is. I convinced him to move to LA and he took residence at the Bel Air Hotel for three months. Then I rented the house for him. Then we signed the deal with AEG and we went to London – him, his kids, and me – and stayed at the Lanesborough Hotel.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1197571/Jackson-family-fallout-Exclusive-interview-manager-reveals-rift-funeral.html

The other part of the money advanced by AEG Live to Michael Jackson went into settling the suit with the 2Seas records. Settling it was a condition on which the money was provided to Michael at all.  As a result of all that obligatory spending even if Michael wanted to sever his relations with AEG he could not – there were simply no millions to return.

But his personal manager he could fire. And though he was afraid of this person very much indeed, the shock of finding Tohme working against his interests must have been so big that Michael raised himself to take the drastic step – part with Tohme and rehire Frank Dileo instead.

Let us note that though all these events were raging in the middle of March, no information about Michael’s situation was leaked to the press until two months later in early June. It was then that Michael privately spoke to his fans about the shock of 50 concerts he didn’t want to do, and his anger towards the concert promoter that pushed him into that incredible schedule. But when it first happened in March Michael kept silent about it and would have continued to keep silent if the media had not learned it from Michael’s fans.

But these two months of silence did not mean that all this time Michael was not worried about the situation or was not angry with Tohme and AEG Live. No, he was and very much so, and it is quite probable that his frustration was growing with each new day as he was observing the slow production of the show. Why did they engage him in this mad race if they themselves were so slow?

According to Randy Phillips himself they did not start to implement the show until April and the choice of dancers for it began only in May! In his testimony at Conrad Murray’s trial Randy Phillips said:

• ”In March no production had not started.  It didn’t kick into gear until sometime in April”.  http://vindicatemj.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/conrad-murray-trial-week-5/

Speaking of the concrete date for the crisis with Michael’s tour schedule it must have taken place around March 10-13 and this coincides very well with what Frank told us about the moment when Michael hired him.

It was March too.

7. FRANK DILEO BECOMES MICHAEL’S MANAGER

In his interview of June 2009 with Roy Trakin http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/newsPage.cgi?news07696m01 Frank Dileo confirmed every single fact that has just been discussed here.

He said that Michael called him in March, that Tohme had miscalculated the scheduling of the dates and that it was something Michael wanted Frank Dileo to take care of  because Michael did not want to perform more than twice a week. Tohme is so abominable a character that Dileo even refused to discuss him:

An exclusive HITS interview with Frank DiLeo 

July 30, 2009

Dileo: Michael first called me a couple of years ago, after he came back from Bahrain, then was in Ireland and Vegas for a while. We chitchatted, he called again and we started communicating about film projects. There were a couple of scripts we wanted to develop and produce. Then he got involved in this concert deal. He called me in March and said, “Frank, I need someone with a little bit of experience. Would you like to manage me again and take care of all this stuff?” And I said, “Yeah, sure.” By the time I came in, everything was signed. Dr. Thome Thome—who is someone I don’t want to talk about in this interview—had miscalculated the scheduling on the dates, which is something I had to take care of, because Michael didn’t want to perform more than twice a week.

Michael and his manager Frank Dileo during the Bad era

Though Frank Dileo was rehired by Michael Jackson to help him with adjusting the schedule, Dileo didn’t really do anything for him – except that three July dates were shifted to March 2010. But it is quite possible that the shift had nothing to do with Dileo’s efforts.

The show was not ready, so they took the July 8th, 10th and 12th dates and shifted them to March next year, appointing July 13^th as the new starting date of the tour. AEG Live and Kenny Ortega explained the changes by the need to finish the technical side of the show. The show was indeed far from ready, so there is a very high probability that the shift of three dates to March was none of Frank Dileo’s achievements (though he said it was).

The official and true version of the delay was voiced on May 20, 2009 and may be now seen as a great illustration of how the truth was told but still never believed due to the extreme bias against Jackson:

Michael Jackson’s London Shows Already Delayed

by Josh Grossberg

Wed., May. 20, 2009 12:56 PM PDT

Is the King of Pop already fizzling out?

No doubt to the delight of British bookies who predicted the shows wouldn’t go on, Michael Jackson announced today that he was pushing back the dates for his heavily hyped comeback concerts set for this summer in London.

His 50-show residency at the O2 Arena, dubbed “This Is It,” had been slated to kick off on July 8. The new start date—at least for now—is July 13.

And what exactly is the reason for the delay?

“There’s nothing nefarious,” Randy Phillips, CEO of concert promoter AEG Live, said in a video news conference Wednesday. “There’s nothing going on with his health. This is strictly a production issue.”

AEG claims the “massive and technically complex show,” which will feature special effects, live animals, intricate illusions, stunt work, elaborate costumes and plenty of dancing, is requiring more prep time than originally planned.

“We apologize to all disappointed Michael Jackson fans and remain extremely dedicated and focused on creating an exceptional live music experience,” said the show’s choreographer, Kenny Ortega . “Promoters said anyone who chooses not to attend the rescheduled shows will be entitled to a full refund.”

Ortega says he will use the extra time to work out some new moves for the Moonwalker.

Performances set for July 10-14 will now be rescheduled for next March, likely ticking off those fans who thought they had the coveted seats to Jackson’s first live shows in more than a decade.

Jackson is said to be rehearsing six hours a day in a Los Angeles studio with eight dancers—six men and two women—handpicked from dance companies from around the world.

The 50-year-old entertainer stands to earn upwards of $50 million if he manages to fulfill the entire sold-out residency.

But even if the production gets squared away, there’s a chance Jackson could be derailed before taking the stage. Rival promoter AllGood Entertainment is threatening to sue the performer for breach of contract for refusing to participate in a Jackson family reunion show with the rest of his brothers and sister Janet. According to the terms of that deal, Jackson had allegedly agreed to a noncompete clause barring him from any other live concerts before the family show.

At a top-secret meeting with family members and business associates last week, Jackson said he won’t do the family act. He claims his former manager signed the deal with AllGood without the Gloved One’s permission. AEG Live has called the claims “meritless” and said the London shows will go on.

http://uk.eonline.com/news/124962/michael-jackson-s-london-shows-already-delayed

Michael Jackson postpones London O2 concerts

Joe Bosso May 20, 2009,

The self-proclaimed King Of Pop was originally scheduled to begin his 50-date This Is It run on 8 July. Now that date has been pushed back to 13 July, according to promoters for the shows.

Additionally, shows that had been scheduled for 10, 12 and 14 July have been postponed until March 2010.

Choreographer Kenny Ortega, Jackson’s collaborator, said that the date changes were necessary to give Jackson more time to prepare a “flawless production.”

AEG Live, which is promoting the concerts, said in a statement that it was their “sincere hope that those lucky enough to have purchased tickets will have enough time to change their personal schedules and travel plans if they are coming from outside of London.

“We understand the inconvenience this may have caused and for this reason we have secured some excellent hotel deals for Michael Jackson fans traveling to London on these rescheduled dates.”

This past week, Jackson denied claims that he is battling skin cancer. These postponements will only increase chatter as to the stability of the singer’s health.

Whatever the case, we’ll see what happens on 13 July.This Is It? Maybe. Or maybe it won’t be, you know, ‘It.’

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/michael-jackson-postpones-london-o2-concerts-207530

Here’s the list of affected dates, per AEG Live:
8th July will take place on 13th July 2009
10th July will be moved to 1st March 2010
12th July will be moved to 3rd March 2010
14th July will be moved to 6th March 2010

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/michael-jackson-postpones-first-o2-arena-this-is-it-concerts-20090520

These were the most decent of media reports about the May 20th announcement of the delay. It is clear that no one believed the official AEG Live version. Everyone attributed it wholly to Michael’s poor health and some even had their field day mocking at his health and the delay it caused.

Amid reports about Michael’s “cancer” which for some reason evoked much fun and exhilaration, no one paid attention to the fact that at the end of May Michael Jackson was rehearsing six hours a day in a Los Angeles studio together with the hand-picked dancers. The dancers were indeed selected only in May 2009 which was a very late date for such a project.

From the media frenzy accompanying the announcement and the amount of mockery poured on poor Michael we can imagine what a volcano would have erupted if all the dates had been postponed as the earlier news promised it.

No, once the dates were set by AEG and Tohme, nothing could be done about it and this is what Michael must have realized very well – at least at the end of May when he saw the media reaction to what was a very moderate change in the schedule.

So all that information about the ‘dates being subject to change’ was just a pretence covering up for full impossibility of the postponement scenario. And AEG Live knew that as soon as they quickly sold out the tickets in March 2009 there was simply no way back.

From now on the only chance Michael had was to do the shows no matter what as resetting the dates was simply no option.

Would he be able to cope with the ruthless schedule they made for him? This question must have been constantly on Michael’s mind – the one he fell asleep with and woke up to.

As if apologizing for the little or nothing he did for Michael, Frank Dileo explained in his interview with Roy Trakin that “by the time he came, everything was signed”. He could be referring to the AEG Live contract (which was no good either and was only half-signed by Michael) or to the schedule made by Tohme and AEG Live, but the truth of the matter is that irrespective of what he referred to none of those papers were changed.

The 50 number of concerts remained the same and the disgraceful show/day-off/show/day-off pattern set for Michael from the very beginning of it remained there too.

You can compare the initial and resulting schedules yourself and will see no difference between them except for the first three shows shifted to March and even that was done not because of Jackson, but due to the slow production process.

So the most Dileo probably did for Michael was just creating the impression that now there was an old friend beside him and convincing him that what’s done is done and should be fulfilled by all means.

Frank Dileo was either helpless to do anything or unwilling to confront AEG Live, so the explanations he was giving to Roy Trakin should not be regarded as gospel truth. Some facts he mentioned there are perfectly correct as they coincide with everything else we know of the situation, but their interpretation by Dileo is the weakest part of his narration.

Since Frank Dileo achieved no results in the mission Michael Jackson hired him for, he preferred to shift all the blame onto Michael saying that the contract had been ‘read to him three times’ so he was ‘absolutely’ aware of the need to do 50 concerts when he was ‘signing’ for them.

These signatures are attributed to Michael Jackson. The closing phrase of this letter of intent addressed to Tohme says that the definitive agreement is still to be negotiated, so there is no way it could be final even by their own words

Well, firstly, the fact of Michael’s signing anything still remains unproven as at least one of the two signatures looks fake, and secondly, this is the kind of a contract the full meaning of which cannot be grasped if you hear it only.

Hearing this paper can bring all of us, including Michael Jackson, absolutely nowhere as is structured in a way that unless you know what each definition in the Appendix means you won’t be able to understand the Contract itself. The Contract is a sort of an encoded message with keys to the decoding process kept in the Appendixes. This means that to be able to understand at least a bit of it you need to place all the papers side by side, compare them with each other and look into each letter of them with a magnifying glass.

And the third point crucial about that contract is that even after studying it with a magnifying glass you won’t be able to find any 50 concerts there. So when Frank Dileo’s says that Michael knew of them he is simply covering up his back – there is no mention of 50 concerts in the contract:

Roy Trakin: Was Michael aware that he was signing for up to 50 individual shows?
Dileo: Absolutely. I read the contract. I know what the minimum amount of dates were, as well as the maximum number of dates. That contract was read to Michael by three different lawyers, as well as Dr. Thome. He wanted to beat Prince’s record and be in the Guinness Book of World Records. He was the one who picked the number 50. There were enough ticket sales to do 85 shows, but he was zeroed in on 50. That’s what he wanted and that’s what happened. Dr. Thome had him doing three or four shows a week, though. I was adjusting and moving dates to try to make it more palatable for Michael to do.

Let us not fall for Dileo’s bragging about adjusting the dates (he didn’t adjust any), but at the same time let us not overlook the reason he is naming for the problem itself – and this reason is Tohme who initially “had Michael doing three or four shows a week”. 

And “doing three or four shows a week” is exactly the show/day-off/show/day-off schedule. So it was Tohme who arranged it for Michael Jackson and for AEG Live who readily accepted it or asked for it in the first place.

As if trying to explain his helplessness in dealing with AEG Live Frank Dileo then talked about his health. And his health was indeed far from good. Five years prior to the events, due to diabetic condition he had fully lost sight in one of his eyes and 80% of it in the other eye. The problem was diagnosed only two years later (2006) and then he underwent 6 operations. So by the time he was dealing with Michael’s contract his eyesight was so bad that he  even ‘could not see well in the light’ and was able to read the text only if he moved his head in order to make out its letters.

How could a man like that grasp what the AEG contract was all about? No doubt that he gave it a perfunctory look only, especially since he was convinced that it was a signed paper and he himself was not ready to challenge AEG Live in any way:

Dileo: “In 2004 I lost my eyesight, and it’s taken six operations to enable me to see. I still have limited vision. It was a diabetic condition that separated the retina. I lost complete sight in one eye and 80% in the other eye. It took two years for them to figure that out. There’s a lot of scar tissue still, and I don’t see well in light. I have to wear dark glasses all the time. I have to move my head to see certain letters because I have a permanent “V” in my vision.”

Frank Dileo says that with his coming Michael felt much more secure and was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. He regained some of his confidence and was regularly training with his instructor Lou Ferrigno. We also learn that after the workout with his trainer Michael also danced for three hours every day.

Please remember that the May 20^th articles said that Michael was training for 6 hours every day. The difference in the number of hours is not important – it could be variable and also depended on whether the workout with Lou Ferrigno was included or not.

What is important is that in May 2009 Michael was working, rehearsing and contributing his whole self to the show.

From Frank Dileo’s interview it also becomes clear that Michael reconciled himself to the impossibility to change anything about those 50 concerts and was working hard to build up his stamina in order to cope with the impossible schedule. And at some moment he reached the point when he realized that he could do it and this confidence of his was confirmed by at least three people – Frank Dileo, Lou Ferrigno and Randy Phillips himself (when Michael hugged him and said “Now I know I can do it”).

Here is an excerpt from Dileo’s interview where he speaks about the same:

Roy Trakin: You sat in on most of the rehearsals.
Dileio: Every single one. He was in good condition. He was working out with Lou Ferrigno. He was dancing over three hours every day after his workout. He was prepared. A lot of times he would watch and direct. These are songs he’s sung his whole life. He didn’t have to go full out every day. The last couple of weeks, he stepped it up. On the night before he died, when he came down after doing 10 or 11 songs, Kenny Ortega was at the bottom of the stairs, we all hugged and Michael put his arm around us and we around him, to walk him to his dressing room. And he said, “Frank, I’m ready. I’m doing all 50 shows. Don’t even think that I’m not.” We talked about possibly doing stadiums after the 50. He said, “Frank, I’ve never been happier. Since you’ve been back, things are going well. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We did it once. This is our time to do it again.” And that was the last time I saw him alive.

Roy Trakin: You’re telling me this is a very confident guy, ready to take on this challenge.
Dileo: He knew he was 50 and that the other dancers were young. He built his stamina up to the point where he knew he could do it. Michael’s a competitive guy. I don’t care whether you’re five years old or 40, you’re not going to out-dance Michael Jackson. He’s gonna put it to you sooner or later. And he worked himself up to that.

8. LAST POINT

Here is the last point of the interview and of this post too:

Roy Trakin: Where does that [Michael’s death] leave you at this point?
Dileo: There are a few things that have to get cleared up. I have to make sure the estate understands some of the things that I know. I’ve been appointed to the board of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. So I have a role to play there. Michael wrote the letter getting me appointed. After they removed Dr. Tohme, they added myself and Joel Katz.

Now this is complete news to me.  So Tohme managed to reach the board of Sony/ATV Music Publishing at the time he was running Michael’s business? How very interesting.

And it is getting even more interesting in the light of Tohme and AEG’s plans for Michael Jackson – Tohme was playing with the idea of restructuring Michael’s business and even voiced it on a couple of occasions, and AEG’s contract had all assets of MJ’s company as collateral for the advances given to him.

It is true that those assets did not include the Sony/ATV catalog yet, but all the potential to acquire it was there, as in case the bankruptcy procedure was triggered off all Michael’s assets would become extremely vulnerable and accessible to the creditor. The only thing AEG Live had to do for starting the process was finding fault with Michael Jackson for at least something and ‘pulling the plug’ at this pretext. In this case Michael was supposed to immediately repay all the advances and since he was unable to do it, his bankruptcy was becoming a reality, turning his catalog acquisition by AEG Live into a reality too.

In fact AEG Live even threatened him to pull the plug if he didn’t attend every rehearsal. It doesn’t matter that their contract had no obligation for Michael Jackson to do it – they still said that it had, and therefore could realize their threat to pull the plug at any moment.

This was the reason why Michael Jackson was so eager to attend the rehearsal before his death on June 26^th. This was the reason why all the stress accompanying the situation didn’t allow Michael to fall asleep that or other nights. If he had missed that damned rehearsal they could have stamped him out with their boot and that would have been the end of him.

However this is a projection only. The fact we know for sure now is that Tohme managed to go as far as the board of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. On the other hand Tohme was linked to AEG Live as even officially, according to their own contract with Michael Jackson, Tohme was on the payroll of AEG Live. This was the real reason why he did not leave the scene of the crime even after he was fired by Michael (in fact he was never even hired by him – Tohme said he was just helping him as a ‘friend’). Tohme could not leave the project as he was actually working for the other side and remained in it as AEG Live’s representative.

Now that we find Tohme on the board of Sony/ATV Music Publishing the catalog acquisition scenario does not look like science fiction any more. This scenario was something AEG propagandists here called a totally impossible one – however nothing is impossible under the sun and finding Tohme so close to the cherished Michael’s catalog is just another proof of it.

Fortunately at least in March 2009 Michael Jackson realized that Tohme was absolutely not the right person to be on the ATV Music Publishing board and took him away from it.  I am not sure that it made Tohme and those around him happy.

However Michael still had to cope with the mad marathon they imposed on him.

*  *  *

Related post:

• AEG Live Entertainment and Dr. Tohme Tohme in a game against Michael Jackson. FRAUD, LIES AND DEVILISH INTENTIONS

Now that I’ve reestablished my connection with the blog I have to be quick as I can lose touch with it any minute, so I will post shorter pieces just as they come. My notes will not be connected with Katherine’s suit – at least not at the moment. The suit was narrowed down to so little that now it is a purely technical matter limited by highly artificial boundaries. The same thing happened at Conrad Murray’s trial when not a single question was asked about AEG Live and no one was allowed to see the fuller picture. 

In my opinion the truth of what happened with Michael Jackson is much more complex and goes far beyond the boundaries of Katherine’s suit. That is why I am now trying to recreate a broader picture of Michael’s life for the last couple of years prior to this death.  And while doing it I am trying to find answers to questions which really baffle me. 

The first baffling question is the discrepancy between what the AEG people said and thought about Michael’s health. The fact that they presented to the world a glorious picture of Michael’s condition does not surprise me a bit – they wanted to sell him and would have said anything to anyone. But what amazed me was that despite their doubts in his health, voiced in those leaked emails, they still booked him for 50 concerts. If they thought him to be so poor a case why did they set those 50 concerts then? Why bother with all this mess if you have to return the tickets anyway?

Let me also note that the autopsy report showed Michael to be an exceptionally healthy man for an average 50 year old, so whatever AEG said in their emails will remain the matter of their conscience – if they have it of course.

Another question was why their production process was so slow – the dancers were enrolled very late, less than two months before the premiere (May 19^th was the final day they were selected) and this was inexcusably late for what was supposed to be the show of the century.

Another thing that also worried me was why they shortened the rehearsal period by three whole weeks if they started so late and were so terribly pressed for time? I am talking of July 26 set in the contract as the date of starting the tour and the July 8th date they actually announced.

These questions may look unimportant to you but they were not fitting into the picture and required an answer. This series of posts (if I manage to make them of course) will be an attempt to answer these questions.  But first we need to make a sort of a summary of some events prior to that.

Sorry for not answering your expectations but I am going back much further than you expected  - to the time of Michael’s arrival in the US. I still need to tell you about one man in Michael’s surrounding.

MICHAEL COMES BACK TO THE US

Michael was brought back to the US by Jack Wishna, a Las Vegas dealmaker. He wanted to create and run a permanent Las Vegas show for Michael Jackson as well as a Rock City Club project where Michael was supposed to perform only three times a month –  the rest of the time was to be given to new artists whom Michael was going to present:

Jul. 10, 2009

The idea that they danced around from mid-2006 to mid-2007, and again earlier this year [2009], was to have Jackson in residence at a Las Vegas hotel, where he’d star in a concert spectacular called Michael Jackson Presents that would also feature guest appearances by the latest R&B hitmakers.

Wishna was suggesting the idea to Michael even at the beginning of 2009, but Michael evidently did not agree as he was getting ready for the AEG project. But in December 2006 when Michael was returning to the US  from Ireland he very much excited about this and other projects Wishna had for him.  

Michael, the children and nanny arrived from Ireland by a private plane on December 23d, 2006. At the airport they were met by Wishna and his wife Donna who took them to the house Jack rented for Michael for a year at the price of $1mln. The Wishnas had a great Christmas tree set up in Michael’s house with presents for him and the children. 

The price of the annual rent for the Vegas house is probably the only thing I don’t like about Wishna – it looks to me too speculative. It also created for Michael a certain idea of the level of prices for renting houses in the US, and this is probably why Tohme’s offer of $100,000 a month ($1,2mln a year) for a house in Los Angeles did not surprise Michael very much though I hear that it is also unreasonably high.  

When Michael arrived he was full of energy and produced on Wishna the impression of stepping direct from the Bad era. He was in great spirits, but gradually his old anxiety came back. The media and public kept painting Michael a criminal despite his full acquittal in 2005, and greeted him with the usual hate and mockery which he surely didn’t expect after the comfort he enjoyed in Ireland. 

In Wishna’s view it was also Jackson’s father Joe and some other members of the family who greatly contributed to the stress at the time. They were evidently dogging him with money problems which Michael could not help anyway as he was in the financial straits himself. The family would later say that they were going to stage some “interventions” though why they would intend to stage them is unclear – the people who met Michael at the time did not say anything about him taking any drugs. Jack Wishna did not see any drugs either:

And although Jackson’s use of prescription drugs became big news after his death, Wishna said he never saw any of that kind of stuff around.

“Never saw any drugs,” Wishna said. “Never saw any intravenous, or needles or anything like that. Never met any doctors around Michael.”

http://www.accesshollywood.com/jackson-confidant-jack-wishna-opens-up-about-michael-and-the-tour-that-never-was_article_27503

It could be only due to the pressure from the outside that Michael sought utter seclusion for himself. He and his children rarely left the mansion. Tohme who for the first time met Michael in Las Vegas in 2008 said that Michael was retreating from everybody but was still practising and writing music (if you remember he was working on the Irish album at the time): 

‘When I first met him in Las Vegas, he was out of touch. Michael was secluded and retreating from everybody. It was just him and his kids. He used to use the wheelchair. I said, let’s get rid of this. You have to realise that you had to baby Michael Jackson. I wanted people to see him as a healthy human being.

‘But he was working. We put a stage in his house in Vegas because before he was practising in the local hotels. He was writing music, working with choreographers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1197571/Jackson-family-fallout-Exclusive-interview-manager-reveals-rift-funeral.html

In my opinion Michael was simply afraid of people. What he saw and heard around himself did not encourage him to think that he would get a welcome response if he went on stage. An artist must know that he is loved and appreciated by his audience, and when everyone around calls you a freak and a child molester despite your full acquittal it does not contribute to building your confidence – and confidence is what he needed most for the resumption of his career after a long and hard break. 

Let me tell you of the feeling prevailing in the US on the eve of Michael’s arrival from Ireland – here are some typical comments taken from an article about his stay in Ireland. From his high spirits upon arrival in Las Vegas we can imagine that he had not read any of this before starting on his journey: 

• He’s way too creepy for the States..
• So no he’s targeting drunken Irish children, I guess he figures he’ll get lucky
• No way can he ruin that beautiful country-kick his ass out Ireland……
• Leave Ireland alone, you freak!!
• To the people of Ireland: Tell your young male children to hide their “Blarney stones”
• I can’t wait till he dies.

 At some point of his life in Las Vegas Michael was seen in a wheelchair which could easily be a case of a lupus flair that erupted due to all this stress. Though people mocked at his behavior as ‘antics’ I doubt very much that a wheelchair was actually Michael’s voluntary choice. What it surely created was much negative publicity and it was due to this publicity and Michael’s quickly worsening state that Jack Wishna dropped his initial plans and suggested to Michael other projects which would not involve the necessity for him to perform. 

One of them was the Cirque du Soleil project.

Yes, now we find out that this project was Jack Wishna’s idea, only at that time it was supposed to be an anthem of the Beatles. Preliminary meetings with the Cirque du Soleil management did take place, but the plans were never realized as at this point Wishna said that Michael was “wooed” by AEG Live.

“Woo” means “to seek the affection of with intent to romance, to tempt or invite, entreat, solicit, or importune”, and after seeing this type of courtship Wishna had to step aside.

 Later Wishna went on with the other projects he had for Michael – the site RockCityClub which he regarded as a new way to discover talent and create rock stars:

…But the tide quickly turned. When Jackson was wooed by entertainment giant AEG Live, Wishna moved to his next big plan: develop a global social media website, RockCityClub.com, for musicians and their fans.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/wishna-embraced-the-art-of-the-deal-181337711.html

One Rolling stone article presenting only AEG’s side of the story claims that Jack Wishna saw Michael “drugged up”. However there is no proof to confirm this statement. As you know Jack Wishna always said exactly the opposite – he never saw Michael take any drugs and he never met any doctors around Michael:

And although Jackson’s use of prescription drugs became big news after his death, Wishna said he never saw any of that kind of stuff around. “Never saw any drugs,” Wishna said. “Never saw any intravenous, or needles or anything like that. Never met any doctors around Michael.”

http://www.accesshollywood.com/jackson-confidant-jack-wishna-opens-up-about-michael-and-the-tour-that-never-was_article_27503

When asked whether he could have obtained drugs Wishna agreed that he could, but suppositions what someone “could have done but didn’t do ” are not the point and it is only the fact that he never saw any drugs that really matters:

“Wishna said he never saw Jackson using drugs, but that he wouldn’t have had any trouble obtaining whatever he wanted—oftentimes from people who didn’t have his best interests at heart.”

http://boards.library.trutv.com/showthread.php?293796-Michael-Jackson-is-gone/page6

Among many other things in this video Jack Wishna is speaking about never seeing Michael take drugs:

Jessie Jackson also saw Michael in the summer of 2007 but noticed no signs of any drug use, and as to Frank Cascio’s family where Michael stayed for about two months since August 19th until October 2007 no one saw any sign of medicine taken,  though Frank was specially on the look out for it:

“He was alive and excited, getting back into being creative and free. He and Eddie were working in the studio during the day, and he was playing with an idea for an animated cartoon he hoped to produce. He was happy to be around my family, with whom he could be himself. There was no sign that he was on any sort of medicine. He was back to being Michael.” http://vindicatemj.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/the-documented-evidence-of-michael-jacksons-last-album/

Well, even Tohme who met Michael in Las Vegas in 2008 said that Michael never took drugs:

“He said the star kept himself and his children on a healthy diet, never ate red meat, didn’t drink and, as far as he knew, never took drugs”   http://www.today.com/id/31740617#.UUFxuBeeNEI

AEG will surely argue in court that Michael’s poor health was the result of him “taking drugs” (as if drugs may be the only reason for the deterioration of people’s health and there are no natural reasons for it), so the evidence from all these people should never be forgotten by us. 

I am more than sure that considering all Michael’s stresses his case was that of “the nerves” and the nerves can trigger almost every disease including lupus.

Besides never saying any fictional things about “drugs” another important Jack Wishna’s difference was that given Michael’s state of health he said and proved it by his deeds that he would have never booked Michael for 50 concerts and at that terrible regimen too. In Wishna’s opinion it was unrealistic even for a fit and young man not top mention a 50 year old like Michael. 

The media did not elaborate on his idea but from the little Wishna said we can conclude that he was amazed by how Michael was treated by his new AEG partners. He was a businessman but valued Michael still more than his own profit or success, and even took care of his partner’s well-being by adjusting his plans according to Michael’s state:

Jul. 10, 2009

But though concert promoter AEG Live said that Jackson passed a physical with flying colors earlier this year, Wishna maintains that the 50-year-old artist had been in a “weakened state” and wasn’t able to do three shows a month in 2007, much less maintain a more rigorous schedule now.

“He would get hurt if he had to do a regimen of performances,” Wishna said. “You really have to be fit to go up on stage to do that.”

So, earlier this year, he and Jackson instead discussed creating a show in the guise of LOVE, Cirque du Soleil’s ode to the Beatles, that the King of Pop would not actually be in.

But then, Wishna said, he found out Jackson had hooked up with AEG for his London engagement.

“He said it should be fine,” Wishna recalled. “In my heart I knew he didn’t get better from the time I was with him. He was thin and weak. It’s going to be a disaster. I would never put him into a show that way. I don’t know who the doctor is that certified him for it. I didn’t think [Jackson] was capable of doing it.”

http://uk.eonline.com/news/133691/it-s-going-to-be-a-disaster-associate-says-jackson-was-too-weak-for-major-comeback

The next point from the same article habitually speaks of some “enablers” catering to every Michael’s need, though it is absolutely clear from the context of it that Wishna is talking here about Michael’s business and  the fact that Michael does not know his deals, and it is most probably Tohme who he is referring to:

“There were so many people around him that were enablers,” the exec said. “It was one thing after another that just made it very bizarre.”

“Michael has a lot of people around him that cut deals and sometimes Michael doesn’t even know what those deals are,” he added. 

The same article clarifies one more thing for us and it is Michael’s attitude to Neverland and total impossibility for him to live there.  Jack Wishna says that Michael never wanted to set foot on Neverland again:

..”In Ireland, when I spoke to Michael, I said, ‘Come back and go back to Neverland.’” And Jackson said, “I never, never, never want to go back to Neverland. Never.”

“My thought is if someone buries him in Neverland he will come up out of the ground like inThriller and strangle them,” Wishna said, referring to rumors that Jackson’s family is still considering a bid to inter Jackson on the grounds of his once-beloved ranch. 

“I tried to get rid of Neverland for him. He would never set foot back on Neverland. He never wanted to go there, never wanted to sleep there— never, never.”

http://uk.eonline.com/news/133691/it-s-going-to-be-a-disaster-associate-says-jackson-was-too-weak-for-major-comeback

The above is very much different from what Tohme wanted for Neverland:

“He said he is disappointed that Jackson won’t be buried at Neverland but hopes that may change: “He deserves to be buried in the wonderful world he created.” In Jackson’s final months, Tohme said they talked about his wish to create “a special place 10 times bigger than Graceland” where fans could come to see Jackson’s memorabilia and awards. Jackson even talked about creating a veritable city for children.  http://www.today.com/id/31740617#.UUFxuBeeNEI

By arguing that Michael should be buried in Neverland Tohme was simply arranging for his friend Tom Barrack another of those profitable deals. Apparently he and Colony Capital wanted to turn Neverland into a goldmine and circus that would draw millions of fans from the whole world to Michael’s grave which was to be put somewhere in between the Ferris Wheel and other Neverland attractions. It was a totally correct decision on Katherine Jackson’s part not to allow this circus to take place. 

Jack Wishna regretted very much that he had convinced Michael to come back to the US and said that if he had not brought him from Ireland Michael would still be alive:

“In the interview broadcast on ABC News last evening, Jack Wishna stated: “I will forever feel haunted by the thought that if I did not help convince Jackson to leave Ireland and return to America, would Jackson be alive today.

“Over the years I always thought that maybe if I didn’t move Michael from Ireland back to America, back to Las Vegas, that maybe Michael would be alive today,” says entertainment power broker Jack Wishna, president of Rockrena, Inc.

http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/133419218.html

That is absolutely true – if Michael had stayed in Ireland he would be alive today. But I can take this idea further and add that if Michael had stayed in his business with Wishna he would surely be alive now too.

Don’t know about his finances though, probably not that bad either, but as to his health he would be perfectly okay – this I have no doubts about.

Wishna’s own life ended in November last year. He was 54 when he was found sitting in his Bentley in a garage dead from “carbon monoxide intoxication”. The police ruled it to be a suicide. For his friends his death became a big surprise though some said he looked somewhat depressed prior to that.

*  *  *

The above will hopefully fill in the gap between Michael’s stay in Ireland and his meeting Tohme and eventual move to Los Angeles.

Despite the incredible technical difficulties in writing in my own blog I am still trying to make an outline of the events preceding Michael’s death – just to understand who the main players are.

HOW IT STARTED

The media said that by November 2008 Randy Phillips had been chasing Michael for two years already. It might be a slight exaggeration as exactly two years before that Michael was still in Ireland, but in December 2006 he did indeed return to the US, and AEG evidently appeared on Michael’s horizon almost immediately:

March 4 2009

In late November Randy Phillips, President and CEO of AEG Live, said that the company — which books and runs the O2 — has been chasing Jackson for two years looking for a multi-night engagement. Though no deal was signed at the time, Phillips said AEG has had a “standing offer” to Jackson since 2006 to re-create his landmark Thriller album in its entirety at the O2 but had struggled to nail down a firm deal with the elusive singer.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1606272/michael-jackson-expected-announce-london-concerts.jhtml

However in 2007 Randy Phillips found Michael disinterested in their offer. Their first offer was a world tour, then it changed into a tour of several cities and then into a Las Vegas type residency tour.  But Michael was working with another concert promoter (Jack Wishna) and turned AEG down. Phillips’ then verdict was that Michael was “not ready”:

Phillips had his eye on Jackson for some time. In 2007, Phillips had approached the singer with a deal for a comeback, but Jackson, who was working with different advisors, turned him down. “He wasn’t ready,” Phillips recalled.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/31/entertainment/et-michael-jackson31/2 

Michael Jackson in Los Angeles

In spite of what people said about Michael’s frail condition we cannot be sure that Michael was indeed ill at the time. Mentally and emotionally he was under a very heavy strain, and this did take a toll on his health. In the quiet of his beautiful mansion rented for him by Jack Wishna he could function as a family man, and could work on his music and practice dancing, but for facing an audience he needed at least some encouragement and goodwill from the general public. This was the essential component for his rejuvenation and would have worked miracles on him as the example of Ireland showed it.

However all of it was missing. What was present instead was open public hostility and ridicule which rid Michael of the last shreds of confidence in himself. 

Randy Phillips described Michael as a non-confident man. Like all of us he must have also seen the newspaper reports of Michael in a wheelchair and thought him to be in a very frail condition and not fit to perform. This was how he regarded him two years prior to their future agreement, and this is an important point for us to remember. 

When by the end of 2007 Michael’s financial situation aggravated and the problems with Neverland’s foreclosure became an urgency, Jermaine Jackson (and probably Janet Jackson living in Las Vegas at the time) brought in Tohme Tohme into Michael’s life with a request to help him save Neverland.

TOHME MEETS MICHAEL JACKSON

According to Tohme he met Michael in Las Vegas in 2008.

Tohme had previously worked with Colony Capital. He was absolutely not the only option for Michael Jackson at the time – besides Jack Wisha and his promising long-term deals in Las Vegas as well as occasional lucrative offers like the one from concert promoters like AllGoodEntertainment, Michael had a friend and advisor billionaire Ron Burkle who was also consulting him and offering him his own recipes of financial restructuring. However Tohme somehow managed to get the upper hand over the other possibilities:

Jackson‘s brother Jermaine enlisted the help of Dr. Tohme Tohme, an orthopedic surgeon-turned-businessman who had previously worked with Colony Capital. Tohme reached out to Barrack, who said he was initially reluctant to get involved because Jackson had already sought advice from Barrack’s friend and fellow billionaire Ron Burkle.  “I said, ‘My god, if Ron can’t figure it out, I can’t figure it out,’ ” Barrack said.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/31/entertainment/et-michael-jackson31

From the Estate court documents now filed against Tohme we learn that Tohme began working for Michael in January 2008, so this must have been immediately after meeting him in Vegas.  The picture of Michael painted by Tohme is that of a man living in seclusion but nevertheless practicing, dancing and working on his music:

‘When I first met him in Las Vegas, he was out of touch. Michael was secluded and retreating from everybody. It was just him and his kids. He used to use the wheelchair. I said, let’s get rid of this. You have to realise that you had to baby Michael Jackson. I wanted people to see him as a healthy human being.

 

‘But he was working. We put a stage in his house in Vegas because before he was practicing in the local hotels. He was writing music, working with choreographers. And after we start talking to AEG for the London gigs, I decided Vegas was not the right place for Michael to stay at the time, especially for the children…it is very hot in the summer.

‘LA is where all the action is. I convinced him to move to LA and he took residence at the Bel Air Hotel for three months. Then I rented the house for him. Then we signed the deal with AEG and we went to London – him, his kids, and me – and stayed at the Lanesborough Hotel.’  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1197571/Jackson-family-fallout-Exclusive-interview-manager-reveals-rift-funeral.html

Tohme said he talked with Michael Jackson for hours on the telephone and finally persuaded him to move to Los Angeles where “all the action is” (Tom Barrack and AEG are indeed there). 

For three months after coming to Los Angeles Michael lived in the Bel Air Hotel and at around Christmas time he took residence in the mansion in Carolwood drive which was rented for him by Tohme for a mere $1,2mln a year. The chronology suggests that Michael moved to Los Angeles sometime in September 2008.

….after speaking with Tohme for “hours each day … on the telephone and in person,” Jackson agreed in fall 2008 to move back to Los Angeles. He took up residence in the luxurious Hotel Bel-Air, nestled in the hills above Sunset Boulevard.

In court filings, Tohme says he worked with the star on a months-long search for a rental property, culminating in the choice of the Holmby Hills residence where Jackson subsequently died.

 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-jackson-manager-tohme-lawsuit-351241?page=3&google_editors_picks=true

In August 2008,  possibly prior to his move to Los Angeles, Michael signed two General Powers of Attorney for Tohme. The documents invested Tohme with huge powers – now he was Michael’s fully authorized representative, so when Tohme later said that “everything was going through him” he was telling the truth (unfortunately).

But already the next month after investing Tohme with these powers Michael was regretting it very much indeed. On September 23 he spoke to June Gatlin and she gathered from that conversation that Michael was deathly, deathly afraid of his own manager. Within a month or so of seeing Tohme doing his business he already realized that Tohme was bringing in a division between him and his representatives and had cut him off all his advisors so that he could no longer speak to anyone at all: 

MJ: …There’s a divide between me and my representatives and I don’t talk to my lawyer, my accountant. I talk to him and he talks to them.

June: That’s not good.

MJ: I know it’s not good. I don’t like it. I wanna get somebody in there with him that I know and trust. … I don’t know what’s in my accounts. I don’t know.

NBC’s Jeff Rossen: How much control did Tohme Tohme have over Michael Jackson’s finances?

Frank Dileo: He had pretty much complete control.

JR: In what way?

FD: He had checking accounts, he was having money put into the accounts, he was signing checks.

JR: He was signing checks for Michael Jackson?

FD: Yeah, yeah…

JR: And Michael allowed him that?

FD: He gave him the power of attorney to do it.

The NBC correspondent said that Michael’s friends and business associates were sure that Tohme was abusing his power – both financially and emotionally, cutting Michael from his friends and even from his own family. Jeff Rossen talked to Dileo and Gatlin about it:

Jeff Rossen: Did Michael Jackson trust the wrong people?

Frank Dileo: A lot of times in his life he did.

JR: What did Michael tell you?

FD: He said he is trying to say who I can see and where I can see and I don’t like it.

June Gatlin: He’d taken over Michael’s complete life. He’d taken over. Michael was deathly afraid of him. Deathly afraid.

JR: What was he afraid of?

June: He was afraid of who this man is, afraid of whatever this man may or be capable of doing.

     Voiceover: “Court papers reveal that Tohme was accused of everything from Fraud to making threats.” 

The General power of attorney was indeed vesting Tohme with many rights, however it did not allow him to sever ties between Michael and his other partners. It gave Tohme the right to act on the part of Michael Jackson, but did not allow him to hide information from him and cut him off from his business.

These powers of attorney were not turning Michael into Tohme’s prisoner and in case Tohme took wrong decisions Michael could exercise his right to revoke the papers – which he finally did in April 2009. 

However when in September 2008 Michael was speaking to June Gatlin he didn’t revoke Tohme’s powers of attorney primarily because he didn’t know what  Tohme was doing behind his back. To learn it he needed to talk to someone else he trusted but all these people were cut off from Michael, which is the reason why Tohme was doing it in the first place.

What we know of Tohme now was not known to Michael then, and though he was deeply apprehensive of Tohme, he was also involved with Tohme in his business over Neverland for which Tohme had been brought in at all, and this process was too late to stop. 

TOM BARRACK AND HIS COLONY CAPITAL

All Tohme’s help as regards Neverland was limited to contacting Michael with Tom Barrack of Colony Capital. From the media we learn that Barrack met Michael as early as 2008 when Michael was still in Las Vegas and was living in a “fifties stucco rental house in Palomino Lane” which is supposed to convey to us that it was a far cry from the grand house rented for him by Wishna in which Michael had lived until the end of 2007. 

The article in the LA Times written on May 31, 2009 or three weeks before Michael Jackson’s death is describing Tom Barrack in glorious colors as if he were a kind of a ‘savior’ of Michael Jackson. Their story sounds like a  complete fairy tale for Michael:

May 31, 2009

Tom Barrack, a Westside financier who made billions buying and selling distressed properties, flew to Las Vegas in March 2008 to check out a troubled asset. But his target was not a struggling hotel chain or failed bank.

It was Michael Jackson. The world’s bestselling male pop artist was hunkered down with his three children in a dumpy housing compound in an older section of town. At 49, he was awash in nearly $400 million of debt and so frail that he greeted visitors in a wheelchair. The rich international friends who offered him refuge after his 2005 acquittal on molestation charges had fallen away. His Santa Barbara ranch, Neverland, was about to be sold at public auction.

In Jackson, Barrack saw the sort of undervalued asset his private equity firm, Colony Capital, had succeeded with in the past. He wrote a check to save the ranch and placed a call to a friend, conservative business magnate Philip Anschutz, whose holdings include the concert production firm AEG Live.

Fifteen months later, Jackson is living in a Bel-Air mansion and rehearsing for a series of 50 sold-out shows in London’s O2 Arena. The intervention of two billionaires with more experience in the boardroom than the recording studio seems on course to accomplish what a parade of others over the last dozen years could not: getting Jackson back onstage.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/31/entertainment/et-michael-jackson31

In fact Barrack describes the scene of meeting Michael with rare cynicism. According to his own words he got interested in the deal only when the Sony/ATV catalog was placed on the table in front of him: 

Barrack’s turn into entertainment investing began with a visit to Michael Jackson’s home in Las Vegas in 2008. Barrack had received a call from Tohme Tohme, a fellow Lebanese-American who had become Jackson’s business manager.

Jackson hadn’t released a new album or done a world tour in years, but he had three significant assets: the Neverland property, the MiJac catalogue of his own music, and the enormous Sony/ATV catalogue, which included, among other songs, most of the Beatles’ oeuvre. Jackson was facing a crisis, Tohme said. The holder of $270 million in loans to Jackson was foreclosing on Neverland and planned to sell it in five days. Would Barrack meet with Jackson? “It’s so not Tom’s thing,” Lowe says. “Getting roped into spending half an hour with Michael Jackson in some weird house is just not on his agenda.”

Somewhat grudgingly, Barrack arrived at Jackson’s fifties stucco rental on Palomino Lane. “Not one blade of grass,” Barrack says. “The house was old and musty.” The 1,000-plus-page Sony/ATV catalogue was on the table between them, and Barrack was quickly won over. “For sure, the guy is an absolute genius,” Barrack says. “He was remembering not just songs but every performance, every date, every script.” When it came to business matters, though, Jackson was lost. He knew only that if Neverland was foreclosed on as scheduled, it would trigger a cascade of financial devastation. For the past decade, he had repeatedly staved off financial reckoning by borrowing. Now he was out of options.

As a rule, Barrack is drawn to distressed situations. One of his rules for success.  http://nymag.com/news/business/69782/index2.html

So this is when Tom Barrack got interested. He was heading for another success story for himself.

TOM BARRACK SETS CONDITIONS

From the LA Times article I get the impression that during their talk in Las Vegas in March 2008 Tom Barrack practically set a condition to Michael Jackson that he would buy the foreclosure note on Neverland only if Michael had a new “caretaker”. 

If he was talking about a person it was surely Tohme Tohme who as a result of this change in status was turning from a mere one-time intermediary between Michael and Colony Capital into Michael’s manager and “caretaker” invested with huge powers.  

But since Barrack also mentioned a ‘podium’ he could also be talking of AEG Live whose boss Phil Anschutz was his personal friend and whose company Tom Barrack was imposing on Michael as a condition on which he would buy the foreclosure note on Neverland.

Tohme threatened the auctioneers that ‘there will be bloodshed”

Most probably it was due to those two conditions set by Barrack that the two entities – Tohme and AEG Live – were firmly placed into Michael’s life. Michael was given a choice to either go into business with these people or Barrack was not going to “save” Neverland.

 The condition of having Tohme as Michael’s caretaker surely explains why in September 2008 Michael could not rid himself of this man though he was mortally afraid of him and already realized that associating with him further bore him no good. In September 2008 Neverland was not yet “saved” and Tohme as a necessary link and condition for it to happen had to stay.

Either the LA Times correspondent got things mixed up or the timing provided by Barrack was intentionally wrong, but in that article Barrack says that his decisive meeting with Michael was around the time of the auction of Jackson’s home possessions. This is absolutely wrong as the auction was to be arranged in March 2009 while we are still in the year 2008 – even before the Colony Capital bought the foreclosure note on Neverland:

…he [Tom Barrack] was drawn to the deal. He owns a ranch five miles from Neverland, and his sons were among local children Jackson invited over for field days at the ranch.

With the auction of Jackson’s home and possessions just days away, Barrack made the singer a proposition.

“I sat down with him and said, ‘Look . . . we can buy the note and restructure your financial empire,’ ” Barrack said. But, he told him, “what you need is a new caretaker. A new podium. A new engine.”

Tohme, who acted as Jackson’s manager until recently, recalled the urgency of the situation. “If he didn’t move fast, he would have lost the ranch,” Tohme said. “That would have been humiliating for Michael.”

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/31/entertainment/et-michael-jackson31/2

To obtain Michael’s agreement to his suggestions Barrack portrayed to him all the horrors of his financial situation saying that he was heading for a disaster unless he went to work (with AEG).  My opinion is that much more lucrative deals could have been made with Jack Wishna and even AllGoodEntertainment, however the attraction of the Colony Capital/Tohme/AEG’s project was that it came as a package of settling the matter with Neverland, restructuring Michael’s finances and making a resident tour of shows in London on a short-term basis.

The difference from Jack Wishna’s project was that once a special Michael Jackson casino was launched it had to be run on a long-term basis while Michael didn’t really want to perform forever.  With AEG Live Michael hoped only for ten concerts and that was it.

Below is how Tom Barrack persuaded him into a deal with AEG Live. He presented it as a choice between Michael’s success story (if he went for Barrack’s plan) or a funeral (if he didn’t). In reality it was exactly the opposite of course, however there was no way for Michael Jackson to know it at the time. This article is actually where Barrack is setting Michael his conditions:

Barrack had a relationship with the loan holder, Fortress, and was able to get an extension to give his Colony team time to crunch the numbers. They concluded that the only way to make a deal work would be for Jackson to start generating new revenue, which meant performing old material.

Two days later, Barrack called Jackson. “I told him: ‘Where you are is an insolvable puzzle unless you’re willing to go back to work. If you’re willing to do that, then we can help, but if you’re not willing to do that, it’s just presiding over a funeral.’ ” At first, Jackson demurred. “He really had a hard time with that, and he struggled for about three days. Finally, he calls back and says, ‘You’re right, I’ll do it.’ ”

Colony agreed to bail out Jackson; in return, the firm would take ownership of Neverland and arrange for AEG, the concert promoter owned by Barrack’s friend Phil Anschutz, to stage a comeback. An unforeseen complication arose when Barrack received a call from the King of Bahrain, whom he knew from Sardinia, where Barrack owns much of the Costa Smeralda; astonishingly, Jackson had apparently forgotten that while being hosted in Bahrain, he had signed over a number of recording and performance rights to the king’s son. Colony had to buy out that interest. Jackson moved into a gated $100,000-a-month mansion in Bel-Air to prepare for a run of 50 concerts in London that would relaunch his career.

http://nymag.com/news/business/69782/index2.html 

The above was very informative.  First of all we get a confirmation on what condition Tom Barrack was to bail out Jackson – he would become the owner of Neverland and arrange for his friend Phil Anschutz Michael’s comeback shows. 

In addition to that the article mentions some Michael’s “interest in recording and performance rights” which he had allegedly signed over to the prince of Bahrain. We learn that Tom Barrack also “bought them out” and is now their owner. I wonder what that “interest” actually is.

I see why Michael called this place Neverland,” says Tom Barrack, the newest owner of Michael Jackson’s Neverland Valley Ranch.

The deal was proclaimed as “saving” Neverland though to me it sounds as an acquisition of very expensive property of 12,14 hectares at an extremely cheap price and at a very convenient location too as it is only 5 miles away from Tom Barrack’s own estate.

Wiki says that initially Michael Jackson purchased the property in 1988 for a sum variously reported to be $16.5 to $30 million, and invested into its development probably half as much or even more. Twenty years later Tom Barrack bought it at half the original price and announced in every paper that he “saved” it. I wonder how it was different from a simple purchase of property below its market price?  

Wiki describes the events in the period of February – May 2008:

On February 25, 2008, Jackson received word from Financial Title Company, the trustee, that unless he paid off $24,525,906.61 by March 19, a public auction would go forward of the land, buildings, and other items such as the rides, trains, and art.On March 13, 2008, Jackson’s lawyer L. Londell McMillan announced that a private agreement had been reached with the private investment group, Fortress Investment, to save Jackson’s ownership of the ranch. Before the agreement, Jackson owed three months‘ arrears on the property.McMillan did not reveal the details of the deal.

On May 12, 2008, a foreclosure auction for the ranch was canceled after an investment company, Colony Capital LLC, purchased the loan, which was in default.  In a press release, Jackson stated, “I am pleased with recent developments involving Neverland Ranch and I am in discussions with Colony and Tom Barrack with regard to the Ranch and other matters that would allow me to focus on the future.

The deal was finalized in November 2008. The matter mentioned as allowing Michael to focus on the future was his deal with AEG Live which was to be struck two months later, in January 2009: 

On November 10, 2008, Jackson transferred the title to Sycamore Valley Ranch Company, LLC, and neighbors reported immediate activity on the property, including the amusement rides being trucked along the highway. Jackson still owned an unknown stake in the property, since Sycamore Valley Ranch was a joint venture between Jackson (represented by McMillan) and an affiliate of Colony Capital LLC (an investment company run by billionaire Tom Barrack). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverland_Ranch

Let us note that November 2008 was the period when Michael was to fulfill Tom Barrack’s conditions irrespective of how fearful he was of Barrack’s friend and protege “caretaker” Tohme Tohme and how apprehensive he was of going into a deal with AEG Live.  

And though in respect of Tohme as a condition for the deal we can still have some doubts, as regards AEG Live it is absolutely clear that it was set as  a condition to the Neverland deal – Tom Barrack was sending Michael Jackson to work, and to work for AEG.

I was especially struck by the manner in which Tom Barrack spoke of Michael Jackson not as a human being, but as a troubled asset or “operating business” totally lacking any human component. He regarded Michael as a commodity:

Barrack built his fortune making deals, and in some ways, Neverland began as just another one—a contrarian bet on a troubled asset, an operating business backed by real estate. But in this case, the operating business was a person. Colony would bail Jackson out of his substantial debt; in return, the firm would assume ownership of Neverland, and Jackson, after a thirteen-year hiatus, would go back to work to generate new revenue.

http://nymag.com/news/business/69782/index1.html 

One of the most amazing things in this amazing recruiting business is that Tom Barrack takes the credit for giving Michael access to AEG and implies that he brought them over to him, though AEG had been hovering at Michael’s door for two years already before that. 

Despite his own story on how he forced Michael Jackson into working for AEG Live, in other sources Tom Barrack presents the case as if the “devout Christian” Anschutz had to be persuaded to go into the deal with Jackson and it was after Tom Barrack talked to his friend that he agreed to put Jackson in touch with Randy Phillips (!):

After buying Neverland, Barrack called his friend Anschutz. Barrack said the prospect of helping Jackson, given his recent criminal case, gave Anschutz, a devout Christian, pause. (Anschutz declined to be interviewed.) …Ultimately, Anschutz agreed to put Jackson in touch with Randy Phillips, the chief executive of his concert subsidiary.http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/31/entertainment/et-michael-jackson31/2

Ultimately Anschutz agreed to put Jackson in touch with Randy Phillips?

I wish they had checked Randy Phillips’ accounts of the same period before they disgraced themselves by telling us Barrack’s arrogant nonsense. Some billionaires tend to think too much of themselves.

And this “devout Christian” thing is simply driving me mad. If they weren’t repeating it so often I would not be tempted to recall equally often that devout Christians are supposed to care for their fellow beings and not set impossible three month schedules with hardly any days off between the shows for 50-year old dancers who are also supposed to sing and not lip synch their songs while dancing.

Let me remind these devout Christians that other human beings are not machines and require rest between the shows, and that they should also be adequately remunerated for their job. And that tickets to their shows should not be priced at a minimum but should cost at least twice as much, not leaving a chance for some concert promoters and touts making fortunes on secondary tickets without moving their little finger and getting their ass off the chair they are sitting on.

The fact that it was AEG dying to get Michael into the deal is proven by one of those emails sent by Paul Gongaware and leaked to the press. Over there this co-CEO of AEG Live was giving advice to their negotiators (including Anschutz)  how to behave with Michael Jackson not to frighten him off from the start of it. The email makes it clear that even at the stage of meeting the big boss Philip Anschutz Michael was still wary and not too trusting of AEG Live. It also shows how very much willing AEG was to get Michael into their net.

To make Michael relax and develop trust in the AEG people Paul Gongaware instructed them to wear casual clothes and talk fluff with him (fluff –soft, light, downy mass; something of no consequence):

Anschutz invited Jackson to a meeting at a Las Vegas villa in September 2008. Paul Gongaware, an AEG Live executive who knew Jackson, emailed colleagues a strategy memo. Wear casual clothes, he told them, “as MJ is distrustful of people in suits” and expect to talk “fluff” with “Mikey.”

Besides Tom Barrack Tohme is also taking credit for arranging that London tour with Jackson. In his current court papers against the Estate he says that he “played a key, if unspecified, role in the series of 50 concerts Jackson was to perform in London starting in July 2009”. 

He [Tohme] points with pride to the crown jewel of his and the new Jackson team’s efforts: the contract with AEG for concerts at the 02 arena in London. http://www.today.com/id/31740617#.UUFxuBeeNEI

Well, even without them telling us we have already guessed that Tohme was one of the makers of that fraudulent contract with AEG Live that plunged Michael into a catastrophe of 50 concerts. 

But it is the newly discovered link between all these people which is so big news to us now, same as the fact that the Neverland deal was used as a blackmail tool to  make Michael agree to cooperation with AEG Live and forcefully plant Tohme into a position of Michael’s caretaker.

This is probably all we needed to know to explain to us why the contract with AEG was not even with Michael Jackson but with Tohme Tohme from the very beginning of it. 

This inseparable link between the Colony Capital – Tohme – AEG also explains why Tohme was on almost each page of AEG’s contract with Michael Jackson and was also placed on board of the Sony/ATV Music Publishing and made its trustee on a par with Katherine Jackson.

The whole deal was revolving around Michael’s “troubled assets” the charm of which was irresistible to the Colony Capital, especially since the situation allowed to obtain them as cheap and easy as the Neverland ranch. 

I believe that since the moment Tom Barrack saw that music catalog on that table in front of him, getting it into his hands with the help of Tohme and AEG Live most probably became his most cherished dream. 

To reach that goal Tohme not only had himself nominated to the Sony/ATV Music publishing board and became its trustee, but openly declared his plans to restructure Michael’s share in both Beatles and Michael Jackson’s songs catalogs under the terms we can only guess at.

In fact he said that he was working “with others” on that problem:

He said he was working with others to renegotiate the terms of Jackson’s main assets, his share of the Sony-ATV Music Publishing Catalog which includes music by the Beatles and the catalog of Mijac, the company that controls Michael Jackson’s own music.

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/celeb/articles/2009/07/04/20090704jackson-tohme.html

Frankly, now I am not even sure that AEG was the worst link in this triumvirate of greed and power around Michael – all the three heads of the dragon are equally ugly and worthy of each other.

MICHAEL COULD NOT INTERFERE WITH TOHME’S DECISIONS

Tohme said that Michael was not supposed to look into the way Tohne was running Michael’s business:

“We had an agreement,” Tohme continued. “I would never interfere with his creative decisions and he wouldn’t interfere with my business decisions.”

http://www.today.com/id/31740617#.UUFxuBeeNEI

This beautiful formula – which for sure was none of Michael’s inventions – is best illustrated by the way the negotiations with Randy Phillips of AEG Live were conducted. Michael was fully kept outside the business part of the talks. Whether voluntarily or under Tohme’s pressure, but talking business and money with AEG Live was wholly Tohme Tohme’s responsibility.  

Tohme’s bankruptcy documents obtained by NBC. How could this man help Michael? Or was he using Michael to settle his own money problems?

At Conrad Murray’s trial Randy Phillips said that with Michael they discussed only the creative side of the show, while the money matters were ‘separate’ and were discussed between AEG Live and Tohme together with his lawyer Dennis Hawk. 

At first the negotiations took place between AEG, Tohme/Dennis Hawk and Peter Lopez as Michael’s lawyer. But Lopez was present only at the initial stage and said they had not gone further than the general concept of the arrangement. Then Peter Lopez was brushed aside which was common practice for Tohme who was “building a fence” around Michael and the negotiations continued in the absence of a lawyer representing his interests. Michael was not present either.

Initially, back in 2008 Michael may have probably even felt relieved that someone reliable and proficient as he thought Tohme to be, had taken the pressure of business decisions off his shoulders so that he could focus on music at last (he was working on a new album he had started in Ireland and was going to launch new music in addition to the show in London). 

However by September 2008 when the powers of attorney were in Tohme’s hands Michael was already mortally afraid of his manager and went along with him simply because he could not break that Neverland/Colony Capital –AEG –Tohme vicious circle, and it was only the total shock of facing those 50 concerts with too little space between them which made Michael realize the disaster Tohme had got him into and this person’s ugly intentions towards him. 

The same goes for AEG Live. Their letter of intent sent to Tohme and later passed off as their contract outlined their intentions towards Michael. And their intentions presented the worst possible conditions for their client and the best possible conditions for themselves.

They included a theoretical possibility of a very harsh scenario which set 3 and a half shows per week (the show/day-off/show/day-off regimen) for a leg no longer than 10 weeks initially planned for July 26-September 30. This was the maximum of what AEG could require of Jackson in case his company Artistco approved the itinerary (Artistco was Michael Jackson Company LLC presided and run by Tohme).

The minimal number AEG Live fixed in that paper (which was not yet final) was 18 concerts for the first leg. If they had stopped at that it would have still been okay for Michael Jackson – if you spread 18 shows over the period of 10 weeks, the intensity of performing would be exactly two shows per week which was the maximum Michael Jackson wanted.

However since it was Tohme who ran Michael Jackson company LLC (Artistco) those 18 shows quickly turned into 30 crammed into the same period of time and 20 more shows added at the same mad pace for the winter season of the tour. These were the decisions Tohme as the Colony Capital “caretaker” was taking for Michael Jackson, most probably without ever consulting him.

THE MONEY FOR TOHME

For his dubious services to Jackson Tohme requested gigantic money. The first fee he charged was 10% of the $24,3mln paid by the Colony Capital for Neverland. This fee was to cover the purely symbolic service of bringing Michael Jackson and his friend Tom Barrack together though it was his responsibility as Michael’s manager to provide him with a choice with a view to select the best investor and best restructuring plan.

Then Tohme arranged for himself a salary of $35,000 plus expenses, irrespective of the result of his work and further 10% from every Michael Jackson’s deal brought to him via Colony Capital.

On top of that Tohme was to get 15% of all gross compensation received by Jackson as a result of his work and a salary of $100,000 a month in a deal with AEG Live. 

This is very well laid out in the Estate’s suit against Tohme:

But the Jackson estate alleges that throughout his dealings on Jackson’s behalf, Tohme behaved with impro­priety. When he made the deal to prevent foreclosure on Neverland, says the suit, Tohme failed to disclose fully to Jackson that he had an existing (though unspecified) relationship with Colony. Jackson could have gotten better terms had he been represented by an independent adviser, says the estate, and the $2.5 million fee Tohme arranged for himself was far in excess of the norm.

 

…For rendering all these services, Tohme claims he is owed $2.3 million for his Ranch rescue, plus 15 percent of Jackson’s gross compensation starting July 2, 2008, and continuing beyond the pop icon’s death.

 

Apart from those deals, Tohme had arranged to have Jackson pay him $35,000 a month plus expenses to act as manager. He set up additional payments to himself of $100,000 a month to function as a producer for the London engagements.

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/celeb/articles/2009/07/04/20090704jackson-tohme.html

Tohme wanted 15% of Michael Jackson’s gross compensation?

Does it mean that Tohme was counting on having 15% of Michael’s money as a result of his 50 concerts for AEG? I hope I am wrong here but in the messy AEG papers this 15% Tohme’s share could easily become another of Tohme’s incomes in addition to the $100,000 which were already there…

This is probably a convenient moment to remind everyone that Tohme presented himself as a selfless guy who just wanted to help Michael and loved him from the very bottom of his heart:

“I saw him with his children and I had never seen a better father. … I decided to do what I could to help him.”

“For the last year and a half I was the closest person to Michael Jackson,” Tohme said.

He would only briefly discuss Jackson’s finances. During his time with the superstar, Tohme said, he was paid nothing but was able to negotiate lucrative business deals that would secure the future of Jackson’s children.

The day Jackson died, as Tohme rushed to the hospital unsure if his friend was alive or dead, he said he remembered precious moments: Jackson bringing his children to Tohme’s house for Thanksgiving dinner; Jackson and his children singing “Happy Birthday” to Tohme on the phone; the last time he saw Jackson at Staples Center, rehearsing for his big comeback. And he remembered Jackson’s last words to him that day: “I love you.”

http://www.today.com/id/31740617#.UUFxuBeeNEI

As regards Tohme’s salary of $100,000 a month the biggest insult of it was that though it was initially proclaimed as AEG’s salary to Tohme, ultimately it was to be paid from Michael’s pocket again – the ‘contract’ said that Tohme was to be paid by AEG Live while the Appendix included Tohme’s services into production costs, and production costs were eventually placed on Michael Jackson’s shoulders. 

If we threw away the Appendix (it doesn’t carry the date or signature anyway and could be made by AEG at any time)  the only thing that would remain after that would be their ‘contract’  and Tohme would become AEG’s responsibility again.

DISMISSALS – TOHME OR AEG?

While Tohme was receiving $100, 000 on a monthly basis and was planning for himself the rest of those incredible payments he was firing  Michael’s closest associates at the pretext of cutting his expenses. The children’s nanny Grace Rwaramba was fired twice, allegedly on Jackson’s orders:

“I built a fence around Michael to keep people out,” he said, acknowledging that he cut costs by firing many members of the Jackson staff, including security guards. And he twice fired the children’s nanny, Grace Rawaramba, on Jackson’s orders. “I was trying to do what we could to maximize his profits and minimize spending. I wanted to find a way to reel in all the loans he had. http://www.azcentral.com/ent/celeb/articles/2009/07/04/20090704jackson-tohme.html

The correspondence around the nanny’s second dismissal in April 2009 is a fantastic proof of Tohme merging with AEG into so close a unity that the two became virtually indistinguishable from each other. Another of Paul Gongaware’s emails says that it was actually him, the AEG co-CEO and not even Tohme, who fired the nanny of Michael’s children at the pretext of cutting his expenses:

“AEG has been cutting down on Mr. Jackson’s expenses in anticipation of his upcoming tour. Unfortunately at this time the services you provide do not meet our needs,” AEG exec Paul Gongaware told Rwaramba April 19.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/michael-jackson-full-doubts-hated-emails-reveal-article-1.1155107?pgno=1

If anyone is still under the illusion that AEG had no control over Michael Jackson’s life the above email will be just all you need to show to these people.

Besides the fact that AEG had no business to dismiss any of Michael’s personal staff, and this being clearly a move to fully isolate Michael from any assistance from the outside, it also raises the question how Michael Jackson was supposed to be effectively getting ready for the shows if he knew that there was absolutely no one to take care of his kids while he was at the rehearsals? Isn’t it a strange way AEG wanted to ensure Michael’s attendance of rehearsals every day?

PETER LOPEZ

Peter Lopez, Michael Jackson’s lawyer, was dismissed around Feb.28, 2009. He died at the age of 60 on May 1, 2010 from a gunshot ruled as an apparent suicide.

The media made snide remarks about Peter Lopez’s dismissal. First of all it saw it as Michael’s doing (though it was not) and second it regarded it as a sign of Michael backing out of his obligations to AEG Live.  I would not be surprised that this theory was leaked to the press by Tohme and AEG to coerce Michael into agreeing to their terms. 

The rumor of Peter Lopez being fired was leaked on February 28, 2009 which was a week before the March press-conference in London. 

By that moment a month had already passed since the AEG letter of intent was signed (January 26, 2009), however the matter was not yet finalized as there was still no final contract. Michael was surely insisting on his own trusted lawyer Peter Lopez to look into those documents and this must have been exactly the reason why the lawyer was fired.  That disgraceful document could not be shown to anyone at all for fear of its cancellation, so to me Peter Lopez’s dismissal at exactly that moment in time does not look like a mere accident. 

And all the rest of the conclusions are based on the fact that the contract was not signed. If there was no contract no performer would ever agree to take upon himself any obligations concerning any concrete shows – how could he if he did not know on what terms he was doing it and everything was still very indefinite and undecided? 

However Michael in that situation was termed “lazy” and a “coward”. This theme rings a familiar note and reminds us once again of the AEG Live co-CEO Paul Gongaware and his other email where he also called Michael “lazy” and said that he “constantly changes his mind to fit his immediate wants”. 

From the article below we find that the news conference where Michael was to announce his London shows was to take place approximately ten days earlier – on February 24 or 25.  The staff of the O2 Arena was informed about the future announcement but it never came and no explanation was given for the delay.

 This postponement also speaks to a big crisis at that moment in Michael’s life which evidently arose to a dispute over the need for Peter Lopez to review the contract before its finalizing. No matter what AEG will say about it Michael was in a crisis connected with a total uncertainty over his  contract with AEG and lack of a trusted lawyer by his side.  

We will never know it but from the way Tohme was doing his business we cannot be sure that Michael saw those AEG papers at all. By the way it could be due to the terrible uncertainty of the situation that Michael was “drunk and despondent” on the day of that March news conference…. 

However for the Newshound all of it is much fun. The paper provides a full list of Michael’s fictional and true faults since time immemorial to explain how “lazy” he is. What you see here is actually a sample of what AEG Live would have placed in every paper if Michael  had cancelled his concerts in 2009 :

FEBRUARY 28, 2009

The O2 residency; Jackson cries off again?

Sad but predictable news has reached the Newshound that Michael Jackson’s O2 negotiations have faltered for a third time.

Selected staff at Sony BMG’s London HQ had been briefed that Jackson would announce details of his O2 residency on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, staff at the O2 arena were told over a week ago that the residency would be announced in a press conference on either Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

By midday on Thursday there was confusion at Sony HQ as to why the announcement had not been made. However, staff were reassured that the announcement would be made by the end of the day.

The announcement never came.

The Newshound is now hearing whispers that Jackson has fired Peter Lopez, the star’s music lawyer of several years. Lopez had been representing Jackson in negotiations surrounding the residency since they began in 2007. Rumours of the lawyer’s dismissal are as yet unconfirmed and the reasons behind the alleged dismissal remain unclear.

The Newshound, however, will be so bold as to venture that should these rumours prove true, there is just one reason behind the decision.

Jackson is extremely work shy and has been since the late ninties. In 1999 the star signed contracts to perform two concerts at the turn of the millennium. However, Jackson failed to perform those concerts and never offered a legitimate reason as to why.

Jackson approached his next studio album, Invincible, so lazily that Sony rejected it in its original state. Insiders claim that Jackson was so addicted to alcohol and painkillers that friends and colleagues feared for his life. The star reportedly had no interest in the project, earning most of his songwriting credits by changing occasional words in other people’s compositions.

Prior to the album’s release, Jackson performed two largely mimed concerts in New York, infuriating producer David Gest by showing up high on painkillers.

The star went on to record one music video for Invincible but shunned all subsequent promotion, branding his record company ‘racist’.

Later, in a 2003 television special, the star declared that he hated touring.

In late 2003 Jackson struck a peace deal with Sony, agreeing to embark on a short European tour to promote his ‘Number Ones’ compilation album. However, it is worth noting that although Jackson technically agreed to the tour, he had already got wind of an impending child abuse allegation and hired Mark Geragos as his defence lawyer. As such, it could be the case that Jackson knew he would never have to fulfill that particular obligation.

Since his child molestation trial Jackson has promised charity singles, a music video and an album – and, more recently, claimed to be ‘finalising’ TV specials and a world tour. To date none of these projects, some of which date back to 2005, have ever seen the light of day.

No evidence exists to suggest that the star has completed any work on his new record apart from a lackluster duet with Akon, featuring a vocal so half-hearted that Jackson could have recorded it in under an hour.

Jackson displayed further laziness early last year when he reneged on a deal with Sony to promote ‘Thriller 25′ at the Grammy Awards. The star was due to perform a live medley and then complete a backstage interview for the promotional podcast series known as the ‘Thrillercasts’.

Jackson angered Sony by failing to complete either activity and enraged Grammy organisers to such an extent that they cancelled an ‘all-star salute to the King of Pop’, despite having already advertised it on national television.

Sony sources also told the Newshound in late 2007 that Jackson had recently backed out of an X Factor appearance, claiming he had done so because the press had ‘ruined the surprise’.

During the last 18 months Jackson has become involved in serious discussions with AEG Live – promoters for the O2 arena – on three separate occasions; once in late 2007, once in early 2008 and once during the last fortnight.

It seems that firing Peter Lopez could be Jackson’s way of backing out for a third time, effectively killing the negotiations by removing his only point of contact. This would be typical of Jackson’s cowardly approach to dealing with problems, which tends to consist of either running away and leaving somebody else to clear up his mess or trying to place the blame on a third party. Or, quite often, both.

However, speculation is rife that the O2 has already booked dates for Jackson’s residency, with no concerts currently being marketed between July 6th and August 5th. Rumour also suggests that some papers could already have been signed, which – if true – could leave Jackson fighting one of the most intense legal battles of his career.

The future of Jackson’s O2 residency is unclear. The only certainty is that Sony employees and O2 employees were expecting an announcement on Wednesday or Thursday. That announcement never came. At the same time, the steady stream of leaked information has once again dried up, suggesting that negotiations have ceased.

More as and if the Newshound hears it.

Mahalo!
The Lowly Newshound

http://lowlynewshound.blogspot.ru/2009_02_01_archive.html 

Unfortunately now we cannot ask Peter Lopez about the circumstances around that news conference and the reason why he was fired -  a year after Michael’s death Peter Lopez committed a suicide by shooting himself . For some reason there was no weapon found beside his body.

MICHAEL FIRES TOHME

On May 5, 2009 Michael Jackson fired Tohme Tohme AGAIN

It is hard to imagine Tohme’s fury at seeing that everything he had been working on was lost when Michael Jackson fired him in the middle of March and revoked his power of attorney in April 2009. By then he had been practically in full control Michael’s businesses and even life.

The Estate’s court papers say:

…The estate’s lawsuit acknowledges that Tohme assisted in negotiating the deal for the concerts in London. But according to the suit, Jackson dismissed Tohme in March 2009, formalizing the termination April 14 by revoking Tohme’s power of attorney. On that basis, executors Branca and McClain reject Tohme’s claim for a percentage of revenue from the Jackson estate.

 

But when news of Jackson’s death broke, Tohme rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and presented himself to the media as a spokesperson for the star. In the following weeks, Tohme found himself receiving unwelcome attention.

 

Today did a piece describing him as “the mystery man behind Michael Jackson.” June Gatlin, a self-described “spiritual adviser” to Jackson, claimed on that broadcast that Jackson was “deathly afraid” of Tohme and produced a tape she said she had made in September 2008, on which Jackson said, “There’s this divide between me and my representatives, and I don’t talk to my lawyer, my accountant. I talk to him, and he talks to them.” Gatlin can be heard telling Jackson, “That’s not good,” prompting him to reply, “I know it’s not good. I don’t like it. … I don’t know what’s in my account.”

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-jackson-manager-tohme-lawsuit-351241?page=3&google_editors_picks=true

“Dr. Tohme R. Tohme is no longer authorized to represent me” (from Michael Jackson’s letter dated May 5, 2009)

The NBC report about Tohme and June Gatlin’s recording mentioned earlier said that Michael wrote a letter about Tohme’s dismissal on May 5 but Tohme still ‘did not take the hint’ and continued doing business on Michael’s behalf.

Considering all the information we have about Michael trying to dismiss Tohme earlier – first in March 2009 and then in April 2009, when he revoked Tohme’s powers of attorney, the third Michael’s attempt to fire Tohme on May 5 only testifies to how fierce Tohme’s resistance was to Michael’s attempts to free himself of this person.

Despite Michael’s wishesl Tohme stayed in their project until after Michael’s death, and even in the hospital made an announcement of Michael’s death as his manager and spokesman. Frank Dileo was also present but was not given a chance to speak.

The NBC says that two weeks after Michael’s death Tohme was still saying to one of their correspondents,

• “I’m still in charge of Michael Jackson’s business till otherwise I am informed not to do so”.

Below is the full NBC video.  At the very end of the program Jeff Rossen of NBC asked June Gatlin if Michael was trying to change his life around in the end and she answered that Michael was not only trying to change his life but Michael was changing his life and firing Tohme was a big part of it.

The very least we can say about Tohme is that as Michael Jackson’s “manager” he never stood by his interests. Tohme was simply using Michael as a way to get all his possessions and the infinite riches of his catalogs, whether for his own self or others.  However in fighting Tohme Michael was facing not only one person – he was facing a huge conglomerate of Colony Capital, AEG Live and Tohme whose interests seemed to have merged into a big and ugly unity where Tohme was just a convenient means to reaching their common goals.

Life itself has shown that very little depended on Michael here though the very fact that he was fighting is very important. Though he fired Tohme already in March 2009 the situation did not change much – Tohme still stayed in the project and remained in Michael Jackson’s ‘contract’ with AEG.  Tohme was never named there as Michael’s manager, it was never clear for which party he was acting, so with the annulment of his power of attorney little seemed to change.  AEG was probably even paying him at least until Michael’s death, only this time evidently for his past services and staying loyal to them and their project.

Tohme was still Tom Barrack’s friend and was still actively involved in all projects connecting Michael with the Colony Capital. This is why Tohme was so insistent on Michael to be buried in Neverland – he and Tom Barrack were hoping to turn Neverland into a major attraction generating millions from the stream of grieving Michael Jackson’s fans coming there. 

But the worst part of the problem was that even after Michael fired Tohme his AEG partners did not have any desire to listen to Michael Jackson and pay any attention to his decision. Same as they disregarded Michael’s wishes and controlled his life in every other aspect they simply ignored his dismissal of Tohme. And the horrid illustration of it is found in no other place but Randal Sullivan’s book.

AEG IGNORES MICHAEL’S DECISION

Despite my general attitude to Randal Sullivan’s book this was surely a real-life scene which was evidently described to Sullivan by one of the witnesses of the event. Most probably it was Tohme Tohme himself.  This account left me totally speechless: 

Tohme would say later that whatever doubts he harbored about his own status were soothed by that visit to the Staples Center.

Randy Phillips introduced him to everyone as “ Dr. Tohme, Michael’s manager,” and placed a bracelet around his wrist that would allow Tohme access to the Staples Center rehearsals any time he wanted to show up.

At one point, Michael waved to Frank Dileo and said, “Come here and give your boss a hug.”

Dileo responded by walking away, and Tohme asked Randy Phillips, “What’s that guy doing here?”

They kept Dileo around, Phillips answered, according to Tohme, “because he makes Michael laugh”.

So this is how AEG Live looked at Frank Dileo …. They took him for a sort of a clown for Michael Jackson… Someone insignificant and not even necessary to reckon with –  like an old teddy bear to keep the child happy with while serious grown-up people are going about their serious  business… 

Previously I had some doubts about Frank Dileo’s role in all this ugliness around Michael Jackson, but now this scene has fully reconciled me with him. No, he wasn’t part of it and was probably suffering no less than Michael himself.

And look at all this AEG’s disdain for Michael’s decisions and disregard for his wishes and at the open way Randy Phillips was displaying it!  Michael tried to show to people around him that his real manager was Frank Dileo and jokingly asked him to come and give him as his boss a hug, and the only thing Frank could do in reply to that was geting up and leave at some pretext.  He probably did it to save Michael from the embarrassment of hearing what Randy Phillips had to say about it. He had just heard Phillips introducing Tohme as Michael’s manager….

What a scene! What a precious scene telling us more about AEG’s control of Michael’s life than all their lawyers and papers taken together! And what a proof it is of how disrespectful they were towards Michael Jackson, the man through whose mere existence they were making all those millions!

And how unfortunate it is that same as Peter Lopez we cannot ask Frank Dileo either about that and other occurrences in his association with Michael Jackson. Frank Dileo was accidentally given a double doze of anesthesia during an operation, fell into a coma and died too… 

This post was prompted by some discussion in the comments about Neverland – whether it was saved by Colony Capital or was simply called so for publicity sake. As full and proper facts are not open to us we will have to go by the shreds of information we have, trying to connect the dots.

TOHME

We know that Tohme was instrumental for the Neverland deal as it was him who brought in Tom Barrack of Colony Capital. Depending on the source Tohme is described as Barrack’s “close personal friend”, his former business associate and as someone working for Colony Capital at the moment of the deal. 

Bankruptcy documents for Tohme also call him Thomme. Yes, at some point in time he filed for bankruptcy

The Associated Press calls Tohme’s past “murky” so this wide variety of opinion about the man shouldn’t surprise us. We do not even know how to spell his name – Tohme and Thomme as even here there are some variants – so how can we know anything about his past and present? 

One article says that Tohme worked with Colony Capital previously and calls him a doctor which was later said to be wrong:

July 5, 2009

More from the Business Mirror and Dr. Tohme: 

“In an interview last week Dr. Tohme Tohme, an orthopedic surgeon-turned-businessman who had previously worked with Colony Capital, identified himself as the singer’s manager, spokesman, everything, and spoke about the benefits of dealing with business titans Barrack and Anschutz rather than their ‘sleazy’ predecessors. ‘Michael Jackson is an institution. He needs to be run like an institution,” Tohme said. http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2009/07/michael-jacksons-death-neverland-the-mysterious-dr-tohme-president-of-michael-jackson-productions/

And Roger Friedman wrote another article which says that Tohme was working for Colony Capital at the time of the deal.

Friedman’s own name is not free from controversy, but he had the advantage of interviewing Tohme at least and was therefore privy to some first-hand information. His article also details the Estate’s claim against Tohme, the Julien’s auction stopped by Michael, and correctly says that Tohme is no doctor and no ambassador at large though he claimed otherwise: 

February 17, 2012

Michael Jackson‘s estate has finally filed a lawsuit against Tohme Tohme, who used to call himself “Doctor.” Tohme was Michael Jackson’s penultimate manager–meaning he was replaced just before Jackson’s death by Jackson’s longtime manager and friend, Frank DiLeo. But Tohme, the estate says in a complaint filed by attorney Howard Weitzman, ran amok during his short term between January 2008 and March 2009. It was Tohme, working for Thomas Barrack‘s Colony Capital, who pulled off the sale of Neverland to Colony.

But according to the complaint, Jackson never understood that Tohme was also going to receive a finder’s fee for doing work for his own employer. Jackson had no lawyer representing him in his many signed agreements with Tohme, and so didn’t understand that when Colony came up with $24 million to bail out Neverland, Tohme would get $2.4 million.

Tohme, the complaint further reads, got Jackson to sign an agreement paying him $35,000 a month. He was also to receive 15% of all gross compensation Jackson received for anything he did in the entertainment field. Jackson signed not one but two Power of Attorney documents giving Tohme “extraordinary” powers. He also gave himself a $100,000 per month producers fee for the run of Jackson’s London concert dates–from July 2009 through at least March 2010.

All of this Jackson signed without a lawyer, and despite numerous stories (many written by yours truly) about Tohme’s many assertions about his credentials being false.It was during Tohme’s regime, for example, that the contents of Neverland were emptied and consigned to an auction house in Beverly Hills. The auction didn’t proceed when Jackson finally got a grip, and a lawyer, stopped the auction. Tohme then took back the contents and warehoused them.

When Jackson died, the estate had to negotiate with him to get back the property. Out of luck was Julien’s Auction House, which published a now collectible catalog of everything that had been in Neverland.“Tohme took possession and control of money and property that belonged to Jackson. Tomhe did not return to Jackson and refuses to deliver to the executors all of the property and cash belonging to Jackson that Tohme took possession and control of.”

On a side note, Tohme used to claim he was a doctor from Lebanon. But he could never prove to me that he was a doctor and when I questioned him about it in 2008, he told me wasn’t practicing. He did say he was Ambassador at Large to Senegal, but their Embassies denied it.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerfriedman/2012/02/17/michael-jackson-executors-finally-sue-singers-final-manager/

Since the page which had this article is no longer found for some reason, I am posting a link to mjjjusticeproject where the article was copied: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/jha5ot

‘SAVING’ NEVERLAND

When you look at the way the Neverland deal is presented in the press the first impression is not that bad. The foreclosure note on Neverland warning Michael of an imminent public auction if he did not pay, was purchased by Colony Capital in spring 2008 and this was followed by the November 2008 news about a joint venture formed with Michael Jackson and giving him some share in the deal.

This article explains it:

Michael Jackson gives Neverland to corporation

November 13,2008By Robert Jablon, Associated Press Writer

The singer filed a grant deed on the ranch Monday that makes the new owner an entity called the Sycamore Valley Ranch Co. LLC, Tom Pearson of the Santa Barbara County clerk-recorder’s office said Wednesday.Sycamore Valley Ranch Co. is a joint venture between Jackson and an affiliate of Colony Capital LLC, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction who was not authorized to speak on the record and requested anonymity.

The person could not say what would become of the 2,500-acre property in the bucolic, oak-studded hills of Santa Barbara County’s wine country, 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles. A call to an attorney for Jackson, L. Londell McMillan, was not immediately returned Wednesday.

Jackson had gone into default on the $24.5 million he owes on the property and had faced foreclosure before Colony Capital bailed him out earlier this year by purchasing his loan.

Pearson said the deed did not indicate who owns Sycamore.A listing on the California secretary of state’s Web site says the company filed with the state in June.

It does not identify its owners, but the company has the same Century City address as Colony Capital LLC.Colony Capital is a Los Angeles-based real estate investment company run by billionaire Tom Barrack. It owns several properties in Las Vegas, including the Las Vegas Hilton.

The property was called Sycamore Valley Ranch before Jackson bought it in 1988 and began turning it into a miniature amusement park with a zoo, Ferris wheel, roller coaster and other rides.At the height of his popularity, the superstar invited thousands of children to play on the grounds.

He renamed the ranch after the mythical land of Peter Pan and set about creating the magical childhood experiences he said his career as a child star had denied him.“It’s like stepping into Oz,” he once said of Neverland.

“Once you come in the gates, the outside world does not exist.”Jackson has struggled to pay his debts since his financial empire began to crumble following his arrest in 2003 on charges that he molested a 13-year-old boy at the ranch. He has not been seen in the Los Olivos area since a jury acquitted him of all charges, and recent aerial photos show the ranch falling into disrepair. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/music/2008-11-13-565952169_x.htm

Who owns the property as a result of the deal was not disclosed however the details may be deduced by us by comparing the two key factors. The first key factor was found by blogger Justice4some:

Richard Siklos, editor-in-chief of Fortune Magazine, wrote in October, 2009, that “under the terms of an agreement struck with Jackson after Colony Capital purchased the note on the property for $23.5 million, when Neverland is eventually sold, Colony will recoup its investment in the note plus the accrued interest, its management and upkeep expenses, and around 12% of above that as a success fee. The rest will go to the Estate.”

Essentially, this means that the Michael Jackson Estate will receive a large profit of the sale of Neverland, or the Estate could have the option to buy the property.http://mjandjustice4some.blogspot.de/search/label/Sycamore%20Valley%20Ranch

It looks like the editor-in-chief of Fortune Magazine explained the deal the way it is customary to make it . Someone puts out the fire by bringing in money, helps to settle the problem and then gets his money back together with the interest and fee, finally withdrawing from the scene. 

And the Colony Capital deal is described here in the same customary manner – Tom Barrack puts out the fire by buying the loan, then he and Michael Jackson jointly find the best customer and Tom Barrack gets his money back with all the expenses paid plus his interest and fee for the timely help. The sum remaining from selling the ranch to some third party goes to Michael or the Estate acting on his behalf. 

This is a customary scheme and this is probably how the deal was explained to Michael. Well, at least Richard Siklos who conveys to us the impression that he actually saw the documents was under the same impression too.

However two years after the news about Neverland was reported some new details surfaced in the press, and the person who disclosed them was no other but Tom Barrack himself.

He evidently spoke to two newspapers about how successful the transaction was and in the process disclosed the detail which makes to us all the difference in the world. This essential detail was a condition Tom Barrack accompanied the deal with which said that he would buy the foreclosure note on Neverland only if he himself became owner of it: 

Nov 28, 2010

Colony would bail Jackson out of his substantial debt; in return, the firm would assume ownership of Neverland, and Jackson, after a thirteen-year hiatus, would go back to work to generate new revenue. http://nymag.com/news/business/69782/index1.html

As if trying to bring home to us the crucial element of the deal the New York Magazine states this condition twice on each page of their article:

But in this case, the operating business was a person.  Colony agreed to bail out Jackson; in return, the firm would take ownership of Neverland and arrange for AEG, the concert promoter owned by Barrack’s friend Phil Anschutz, to stage a comeback. http://nymag.com/news/business/69782/index2.html

This article from “deathby1000papercuts.com” is no longer found

In addition to this New York article we have another author who wrote the same, only much earlier, on July 5, 2009.

 What is top important for us is that the ownership condition for the deal was reported to us after the author got familiar with the court documents:

Just who is the mysterious Dr. Tohme Tohme, and what are his ties to Michael Jackson and Neverland?

In the latest interviews Tohme claims he’s just an unpaid adviser and spokesperson for Michael Jackson, but in court records we found a different story, where Tohme claims he’s President of Michael Jackson Productions.

Tohme claimed he set up the original meeting between Barrack, Tohme, and Jackson. One result of the meeting: Barrack wound up saving Neverland from the auction but also gained ownership, with Jackson given some sort of profit sharing agreement. It was Barrack who contacted the owner of AEG, Phillips Anschutz.

http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2009/07/michael-jacksons-death-neverland-the-mysterious-dr-tohme-president-of-michael-jackson-productions/ (The link to the article is not working so don’t even bother looking).

What does the condition to pass the ownership from one person to another mean in circumstances when Tom Barrack seemed to be simply giving Michael a helping hand by buying his debt on Neverland? 

It means that the good guy was going to help Michael but only on condition that the property became his. This formula sounds to me like “I am paying your debt now but in return you make me its owner”.  

Just imagine an agreement like that for your own flat or house and you will understand what it means.

Since this was the essence of Tom Barrack’s deal as he himself described it, it means that when he was setting the condition on which he was to ‘save’ Neverland he must have given Michael the final price too, then and there, and in those circumstances the price could be only minimal. 

Another variant is that he could soothe Michael into thinking that the selling price would be agreed later (by that joint venture of theirs). I don’t even know which variant is worse because in the second case it is the same as saying, “I’m paying your debt now in return for owning your house. All the rest will be settled later”. 

You can imagine what the future will hold for you if you listen to this argument. When the time comes to ask the good old guy to pay you the market price he reminds you that you are nobody here and have no right to dictate any prices to him – he is the owner anyway.

So according to Tom Barrack’s own words and the court documents quoted by the above author in May 2008 Colony Capital bought the foreclosure note on condition they gained ownership of the ranch. In November the same year they finalized the deal with all media rightfully proclaiming Colony Capital owners of Neverland (now Sycamore Valley). 

There are reasons to believe that this “ownership” condition was not disclosed to Michael Jackson in due manner and in due time. Why do I think so? Because Richard Siklos, editor-in-chief of Fortune Magazine, who actually saw the agreement, described its terms in a customary manner – without ever mentioning any “conditions” to it. However in the court documents mentioned by the second article quoted here the condition is already set. Moreover it is also Tom Barrack himself who also speaks about it.

This makes me think that the news of this condition could be broken on Michael much later or introduced into the deal in some stealthy manner. This does not surprise me in the least as the contract with AEG Live is actually following absolutely the same pattern.  

The style of both deals is absolutely the same – Michael Jackson thinks he is going into one deal and in reality it turns out to be something different.

Michael Jackson thinks he is going into a joint venture with Colony Capital and in reality Neverland is going into Tom Barrack’s ownership. He thinks the document he is signing with AEG Live is a letter of intent only but it turns out to be the final contract already. He thinks he has agreed to 10 concerts, but the number turns out to be 50 instead.

There is a pattern here, guys. And what is especially interesting here is that in both cases we have to do with one middleman – Tohme Tohme.

Michael actually said it himself that he did not know his deal. He said about it to June Gatlin adding that he spoke to Tohme and Tohme spoke to everyone else. He had no chance to verify and check what the deal was, and had to go by Tohme’s word only.  

The same was noted by Jack Wishna who observed Michael and people around him when he was in Las Vegas and said, “Michael did not know what his deals were”:

“Michael has a lot of people around him that cut deals and sometimes Michael doesn’t even know what those deals are,” he added. “So many people have been around him. At every turn it’s like he’s his worst enemy because of the people that are around him.”http://uk.eonline.com/news/133691/it-s-going-to-be-a-disaster-associate-says-jackson-was-too-weak-for-major-comeback

Excerpt from the Estate’s 2011 report on the status of Sycamore Valley

However an important amendment to the above has been made in the last minute before making this post. 

Maureen reminded me of  the percentage the Estate has in the Sycamore Valley now. And according to the Estate’s report it is 87,5%.

Frankly I completely forgot to look up that document and this Estate’s share sounds as good news to me. 

However the fact that the share is estimated as “zero” is keeping me from falling into complete euphoria over it. In the Estate’s own terms it means that “the liabilities in this asset exceed assets” and this means that the Estate is in debt over it. How big the sum of the debt is nobody knows and what the terms of the agreement with Colony Capital were over it nobody knows either. 

All we know is what the court documents and Tom Barrack previously said – that the condition on which he was paying the foreclosure note was gaining him the ownership of the ranch. The fact that Michael still retained his share in the joint venture and that the ranch was evidently not sold to Barrack may mean that the deal was reversed when Tohme was fired, and the debt arose as a result of that annulment. This was the sum that was to be paid by Barrack to Michael but was rejected at the last minute and turned into a debt to Barrack instead, and since then must have accrued a lot of interest. 

Well, this is the explanation of the puzzle I can think of at the moment and as you understand I cannot provide proof of it. What I know for sure though is that Neverland should be returned and this is why it is so crucial for Katherine Jackson to win her case against AEG Live. 

Reading about Tom Barrack sitting at the foot of the oak tree where Michael wrote his songs is simply unbearable and is one of the most painful scenes I’ve ever read:

Nov 28, 2010

You’ll see why Michael called this place Neverland,” says Tom Barrack, the newest owner of Michael Jackson’s Neverland Valley Ranch. Barrack is a 63-year-old billionaire with a gleaming shaved head, summer-in-Sardinia tan, personally trained muscles, and sockless tasseled loafers. He is sitting on the lawn beside the Tudor-style, panic-room-equipped main house, near a gnarled oak tree with steps winding up to the perch where Jackson wrote Bad    http://nymag.com/news/business/69782/

I wish it could return to where it was before:

One of Jackson’s favorite outside spots to relax was up in a large oak tree on the grounds. There were handles installed on the tree to help Jackson climb up the tree, where he would sit and contemplate life. He even wrote lyrics and melodies to his songs while relaxing up in the tree.   http://www.examiner.com/article/inside-michael-jackson-s-neverland-ranch-slideshow

OTHER TOHME DEALS

The other business Tohme did for Michael Jackson is best illustrated by the Estate’s lawsuit against Tohme. The full document is found here http://ru.scribd.com/doc/81994850/Michael-Jackson-Tohme-R-Tohme-Suit  

I will comment on the Estate’s side of the story only as what the fraudster says can be read now in numerous articles spread all over the Internet. If you want the details you can go to this source from which the summary of the Estate’s suit against Tohme has also been taken:  http://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/threads/121500-MJ-Estate-sues-Tohme-Tohme-Tohme-countersues-Tohme-s-complaint-pg-14).  

The summary of the Estate’s suit will have a couple of my additions:

- Tohme arranges a series of negotiations without Michael having independent legal counsel and Michael giving informed consent

- Tohme takes possession of Michael’s money and personal property using his powers of attorney and never returned it to Michael Jackson or the Estate

- Tohme goes unchecked until March 2009 but not later than April 14 when his powers of attorney were terminated

- Tohme gets hired around January 2008 and “gets as he pleased” as the Estate puts it
- Tohme doesn’t have any experience in being a personal manager of an artist

- As personal manager he owed to Michael Jackson the highest duties of care, openness, honesty, loyalty and disclosure. He was required to put Jackson’s interests above his own and disclose all information known to him

- Tohme took control over all of Michael’s personal and professional affairs. He hired and fired and supervised other people that worked for Michael and therefore no one could have objected his actions
- May 2008 Tohme and Michael sign a finder’s agreement for Tohme introducing Michael to Colony Capital.

- Estate says Tohme didn’t tell Michael that he had a pre-existing relationship with Colony Capital
- According to the finder’s fee agreement: Michael was to give Tohme 10% of the loan amount ($2.4M), 10% from the future sale of Neverland and 10% from any future transactions with Colony Capital
- Michael didn’t have an independent lawyer and signed the finder’s fee agreement without fully understanding the deal

- Michael signed the agreement because he trusted Tohme and believed the finder’s fee amount was normal and customary. These amounts were excessive for the services provided – Tohme did nothing else but introduce Jackson to Colony
- Tohme had conflicting roles, working as a finder (motivated by getting a fee) and as Michael’s manager (obliged to vigilantly protect his interests)

To close the matter of the finder’s agreement let me note that the Estate does not say that the second 10% was to be deducted from the future sale of Neverland as the above summary puts it. No, all it says is that Tohme was to receive his 10% twice (!) – from the initial $24,5mln sum paid by Colony Capital (point a) and another 10% from whatever was left to Michael in the sale (point b). 

This can mean that points a) and b) come simultaneously which is perfectly in line with my conclusion that there was no talk about any future sale of Neverland (to some third party). No, all of it was decided then and there, when the foreclosure note was bought and a condition for passing the ownership to Colony was set.

Tohme was to receive his 10% twice – from the foreclosure sum of $24,5mln. and from whatever money Colony was to pay in order to buy out Michael’s share.  

- Michael signed the Neverland/Colony Capital agreement without having counsel independent from Tohme and not subject to Tohme’s control and authority.
– The terms of the deal were disproportionally favorable to Colony Capital and inferior to Jackson

- As Tohme had ties and interest in regards to Colony Capital, he didn’t look for better and more favorable financing options for Neverland. The Estate is informed and believes that other alternatives were available to Jackson and he suffered substantial harm as a result.

- July 2008 Tohme gets Michael to sign a “Services agreement”.

- Again MJ Estate says Michael signed because he trusted Tohme, didn’t have an independent counsel and thought it was customary.
- According to this agreement Tohme was to be paid $35,000 + expenses per month even though Michael earned nothing.
- Tohme was also to receive 15% of all gross compensations received by Michael for his services in the entertainment industry including live performances, merchandising, electronic arts, recorded and live telecasts, motion pictures, animation projects.

The above point has a direct bearing on the deal with AEG Live. If Michael, for example, was to receive a million for an AEG concert, Tohme set for himself $150,000 out of Michael’s earnings. This, as the Estate says, by far exceeds normal and customary terms for personal managers of artists.

In my opinion this fee, set by Tohme on top of everything else, is a complete outrage. I wonder very much indeed how Tohme managed to obtain Michael’s signature under these terms. What did he do to him to make him sign?

- August 2008 Tohme gets Michael to sign two Power of Attorney (POA) which gave extraordinary powers to Tohme that are “wildly beyond what was customary” as the Estate puts it
- Also Tohme gets Michael to sign an Indemnity Agreement which was again too broad.
- Again the same claims of Michael didn’t have an independent counsel, trusted Tohme, signed them without fully understanding them.
- Tohme made substantial gifts of Michael’s property without having a right to do so. In November 2008 he gifted Michael’s art to Brett Livingstone-strong and signed off Michael’s copyrights in those drawings. The POA’s don’t give Tohme the power to gift anything and transfer Michael’s copyrights to a third party.

-Tohme negotiated TII concert deal with AEG
- Tohme was supposed to get $100,000 a month as a producer fee from TII concerts. AEG would have pay this amount but then would get it back from Michael as part of production expenses
- Again the same claims about Michael signing this agreement.

It seems that the Estate chose to regard the agreement with AEG as valid. They are lawyers of course and know better, but a general observation I need to make here is that we are facing a choice here – if we consider the agreement fraudulent and void, this will nullify everything including the money Michael Jackson was entitled to. However if we regard the agreement as valid its terms including AEG’s financial obligations to Michael will remain. 

- Using his powers Tohme took possession of substantial amounts of money (in the millions) and tangible personal and other property of Michael
- Tohme commingled Michael’s funds with his own and used Michael’s money for his expenses, travel, entertainment and purchase of  property for himself
- Tohme refused to provide accounting for Michael’s money and property he handled
- The Estate says they believe Tohme is in possession of property belonging to Michael (and the Estate) and took, concealed and disposed of some of it. In accordance with the law Tohme is to pay twice the value of such property

- Estate says Tohme was fired March 2009 and Michael revoked his POA’s in April 2009 but didn’t return Michael’s property
- After Michael’s death Tohme requested significant funds from MJ Estate but refused to return the property in his possession to MJ Estate.
- Tohme didn’t return books and records over the property he handled and refuses to do so.

It seems that Tohme was giving away Michael’s property to the left and to the right. Besides misappropriating some of it for himself he also gave away the collection of Michael Jackson’s own art to artist Brett Livingston Strong which according to some estimation costs now no less than $900mln. Tohme made a gift of it to Livingston and Livingston was about to resell it to an unknown international investor for $87,7mln. 

Michael’s artwork. A door

The Estate is battling to reverse the deal on the grounds that Tohme had no right to make a gift of Michael’s artwork to anyone. Especially if it costs almost a billion now.

Michael Jackson’s lawyers battling to save his $900 million secret art collection

7 Jul 2011 // by: Music-News.com Newsdesk 

Michael Jackson’s lawyers are battling to save his $900 million secret art collection.

The late ‘Thriller’ star’s ‘rare intact major collection’ has just been discovered, but rather than securing the financial future of his three children – Prince, 13, Paris, 12, and Blanket, eight – lawyers for the star are battling to reverse its $87.7 million sale to an undisclosed international businessman.

Appraiser Eric Finzi told Star magazine the 182-piece collection, which has never publicly been seen, has ‘an invaluable pedigree for future sales in the international art market’.

Michael’s artwork. The portrait of George Washington

He added: “Michael’s mystique in life combined with this exposure of his wonderful fine art creations following his tragic death will escalate the value of these works and the popularity of his artistic vision worldwide. I do not think we have begun to see the true value of this fine art yet.”

The collection is made up of drawings, sketches and sculptures made by the ‘Beat It’ singer over a number of years while being taught by an Australian artist and friend, Brett Livingston Strong.

Among the artworks are sketches of Martin Luther King, President Abraham Lincoln and President George Washington, said to be worth in all, more than $8.1 million, sketches of Jackson’s own feet doing his signature dance move the Moonwalk and recreations of the Statue of David and Dying Slave, the masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo.

Before Michael died in August 2009 his estate was in financial trouble, yet a letter sent to Brett by Dr. Tohme Tohme – Jackson’s last business manager and spokesperson – paved the way for the sale, transferring over the collection of artwork free of charge “to keep, sell, copy, exhibit and to use in whatever way you wish’.

Michael’s artwork. The Neverland gate

Brett and his advisors are thought to have orchestrated the deal to sell off the artwork recently.

Lawyers are now questioning the validity of the letter and trying to reverse the sale.

The letter transferring the works to Brett reads: “Michael wants you to know he is truly grateful for the loyalty you have shown him over the years, and he views this as a small token of appreciation for your continued friendship and artistic partnership.” http://www.music-news.com/shownews.asp?nItemID=42472

Michael’s artwork. Childhood

Isn’t it strange that though Michael’s finances were supposed to be in much trouble Tohme took it upon himself to give away free Michael’s precious possessions – and with no visible authorization from Michael too, except the letter Tohme himself wrote to accompany the gift?

The angar with Michael Jackson’s artwork presented to Brett Livinston Strong http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/62053632.html

The Estate is right – no matter what extraordinary powers someone gets under a power of attorney, it absolutely does not allow him to present to others the property he doesn’t own. Otherwise whenever you make such a power of attorney you risk to lose even the chair you are sitting on now. Law sets certain limits to avoid things like that. 

THEY MADE HIM LOOK BROKE

While Tohme was squandering Michael’s artwork Tom Barrack was explaining to Michael that his financial situation was that of “a funeral”, this way making him more susceptible and agreeable to their plans.

AEG Live and the press were also notified of the catastrophic state of Michael’s affairs. Randy Phillips had no direct access to Michael’s papers while Tom Barrack did – before paying the foreclosure note he communicated with Fortress holding Michael’s loan and got his team to “crunch the numbers”. The people who looked into Michael’s finances were evidently the same accountants whom Michael hired in the spring of 2008 after they were introduced into the picture by Tom Barrack. These were also the people whom Michael dismissed a year later together with Tohme.

There is absolutely no way for us to know whether the numbers they left to Michael after they were fired were not aggravated by them while they were still at it. The Estate for example is of the opinion that Tohme had misappropriated some of Michael’s property and up till now did not receive any records from him.

The article written in November 2010 explains that Tom Barrack described to Michael his finances in so sombre a way that poor Michael had to struggle with it for three days before he finally agreed to go to work for AEG:

“Barrack had a relationship with the loan holder, Fortress, and was able to get an extension to give his Colony team time to crunch the numbers. They concluded that the only way to make a deal work would be for Jackson to start generating new revenue, which meant performing old material.

Two days later, Barrack called Jackson. “I told him: ‘Where you are is an insolvable puzzle unless you’re willing to go back to work. If you’re willing to do that, then we can help, but if you’re not willing to do that, it’s just presiding over a funeral.’ ”

At first, Jackson demurred. “He really had a hard time with that, and he struggled for about three days. Finally, he calls back and says, ‘You’re right, I’ll do it.’ ” http://nymag.com/news/business/69782/index2.html

Even from the articles available to us we see that Barrack indeed tried to paint Michael’s circumstances in the darkest colors possible. Thus he implied to the press that Michael’s living conditions were dismal and from the way he described it one might think that Michael had to live in a dingy hole: 

 “The world’s bestselling male pop artist was hunkered down with his three children in a dumpy housing compound in an older section of town. At 49, he was awash in nearly $400 million of debt and so frail that he greeted visitors in a wheelchair. The rich international friends who offered him refuge after his 2005 acquittal on molestation charges had fallen away. His Santa Barbara ranch, Neverland, was about to be sold at public auction. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/31/entertainment/et-michael-jackson31

Another article alleged that Barrack grudgingly agreed to meet Jackson as he resented the idea of spending half an hour with him in some “weird” house of his:

Jackson was facing a crisis, Tohme said. The holder of $270 million in loans to Jackson was foreclosing on Neverland and planned to sell it in five days. Would Barrack meet with Jackson? “It’s so not Tom’s thing,” Lowe says. “Getting roped into spending half an hour with Michael Jackson in some weird house is just not on his agenda.”

Somewhat grudgingly, Barrack arrived at Jackson’s fifties stucco rental on Palomino Lane. “Not one blade of grass,” Barrack says. “The house was old and musty.”

http://nymag.com/news/business/69782/index2.html

In this house Michael Jackson lived from end of December 2006 to beginning of 2008

After all these descriptions we were naturally curious to see how those houses looked. On the left you will see the house rented for Michael by Jack Wishna (recently it was sold for $3,1 mln.). In this house Michael lived from December 2006 when he arrived from Ireland until early 2008, when he moved into a more modest Mexican-style hacienda.

In Hacienda Palomino Michael spent the remaining months of 2008 before he moved to Los Angeles sometime in August 2008. The owners of the Hacienda arranged a tour of their house on the second anniversary of Michael’s death and this is how we got some pictures of it.

Hacienda Palomino

The house is not as grand as the first one, but is still hardly reminiscent of the hole Tom Barrack was trying to portray. I was especially amused by Barrack’s statement that there was “not a blade of grass” there. True, there was hardly any grass there as it was a garden full of cactuses and palms and there are tiles and stones all around the house because it is the style of that property, you know.

The owners of Hacienda Palomino opened up their house on the 2nd anniversary of Michael’s death

The media will naturally say that Michael was living an opulent style which he could not afford. This may be partially true as Michael himself did not know the state of his finances. But the point I am trying to make is that Tom Barrack did try to portray Michael’s affairs in the light worse than it really was. I myself had so terrible an impression of the living conditions in which Michael allegedly lived that didn’t even want to have a look until I was forced to do so after some discussion in the comments.

Michael’s situation was far from good, that’s true. But even the success of the Estate after his death shows that with proper management it could have been corrected. Even the Cirque du Soleil project offered by Jack Wishna could have worked wonders for Michael at the time, not to mention the fact that in the very worst case even the catalog could be discarded if it had to be done to sanitize the situation. In short some opportunities were still open to Michael and in their suit against Tohme the Estate also speaks about it. 

The rooms of Hacienda remind me of Neverland

Actually the fact that Michael’s situation was painted worse than it really was, was confirmed by Randy Phillips himself.

 On the one hand he dutifully repeated what Tohme told him and used it to get Michael on the hook:

Randy Phillips, AEG chief executive, said: “I got a call from Dr. Tohme, who said Michael was in bad financial straits”
http://www.chocolatecity.cc/2009/07/25/why-was-dr-tohme-secretly-keeping-michael-jackson-millions/

“Not a blade of grass”, said Tom Barrack. Indeed, not a blade of grass…

But on the other hand he also said something different. To the Daily Telegraph for example he said that Michael’s finances were actually not that dire – “they were making out his finances much more dire than they really were”. It was cash that he needed most.

What made Randy Phillips so outspoken to the press I don’t know – probably the shrill of seeing Michael selling a million tickets within some seconds. The article is dated exactly that period: 

14 Mar 2009

“We finally made Mohammed come to the mountain of the O2,” Phillips grins. Jackson refused twice, but several months ago, the idea arose as the superstar was putting together a restructuring plan for his finances. Not hat we should believe rumours that Jackson is struggling, after spending a fortune on security and lawyers after his famous child abuse trial – which ended with his acquittal.

“They make out Michael’s finances are much more dire than they are,” Phillips assures me. But he needed the cash, right? “I asked him straight off: why say yes to the tour now? Was it the money? He said: you know what, my kids are old enough now.” Jackson agreed to do 10 dates for AEG, before relenting to 40 more. The star “worships” London, but plans to stay in a country house where his children can play. If any Daily Telegraph readers have a plush rural pad for rent, Phillips wants to know.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/4987420/Randy-Phillips-profile-Michael-Jacksons-promoter-is-making-all-the-right-moves.html

So this is what Randy Phillips thought of Michael’s situation?

·        “They make out Michael’s finances are much more dire than they are”. 

THE EMAILS

The above is indeed a precious observation on the part of Randy Phillips especially if you compare it with some emails the AEG people exchanged between themselves on the matter of Michael’s finances. The emails said: 

Pressed by another promoter about Jackson’s ability to deliver, Phillips shot back in an email, “He has to or financial disaster awaits.”
“We are holding all the risk,” Gongaware wrote to Phillips. “We let Mikey know just what this will cost him in terms of him making money…

“He is locked. He has no choice … he signed a contract,” Gongaware wrote.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/02/local/la-me-aeg-jackson-20120902

But look here. Independent of what Michael’s finances really were, the statement by Randy Phillips about the imminent financial disaster and the earlier one about the state of affairs being not that dire, means that he was expressing two opposite ideas. How can that be? Does it mean that he was lying in one case and was telling the truth in the other?  

My opinion is that both times Randy Phillips was telling the truth, only he was talking about two different situations. The first time he was talking about Michael’s finances in general, and in the emails he and other AEG officials exchanged they talked of the situation they themselves created for Michael.

Indeed, the terms of their contract were so unfavorable to Michael that after signing their papers he became sort of their hostage. Now he could be really threatened by an imminent disaster in case he tried to back out of the deal and easily blackmailed into any decision they wanted him to take. I myself was telling you in numerous posts about their contract that in case there was a cancellation Michael would have been stripped naked by his AEG partners.

There is one more point we need to make as regards those emails and all those “risks” AEG allegedly had as well as their worries about Michael non-performing. 

First, there were no risks for AEG as the money they invested in Michael was secured by all his possessions according to the Promissory Note he signed. so all the risk was on Michael’s side only.

And second, there was no need to worry about Michael not keeping his word. There was no way he would go back on it and draw out of his agreement with AEG Live. He had a much bigger incentive for performing than any of these people could ever imagine – he wanted to do those ten concerts for his children and knowing how much he valued everything connected with them we will understand that with the children being his main driving force no power on earth could stop him from performing – except death of course.

WHY HE WANTED THOSE CONCERTS

Randy Phillips always stressed that the strongest motive for Michael to agree to the London tour was his desire to show his art to his children. This statement was repeated so often and by so many people besides Phillips that I also began to think that this was indeed the biggest incentive for Michael to perform. Money was always of secondary importance to him while the children were his utmost value, and the first and only priority in life.

Almost every person who came into contact with Michael said that he wanted those concerts primarily for his children (in addition to his fans):

Those who know Jackson say his real motivation is to show his children what he is capable of.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1170856/As-concern-grows-voice-health-mental-state-ask-Has-Jacko-40m-date-disaster.html

“He’s doing it mostly for his fans,” Jackson’s former spokesman Dr. Tohme Tohme tells RS. “And he’s doing it for his children and the children of the world.”http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/inside-michael-jacksons-troubled-london-comeback-20090625

Phillips had his eye on Jackson for some time. In 2007, Phillips had approached the singer with a deal for a comeback, but Jackson, who was working with different advisors, turned him down. “He wasn’t ready,” Phillips recalled.

This time, however, Jackson was receptive. He needed the money, and he has a second, more personal reason: His children — sons Prince Michael, 7, and Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., 12, and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11 — have never seen him perform live.

“They are old enough to appreciate and understand what I do, and I am still young enough to do it,” Phillips quoted Jackson as saying. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/31/entertainment/et-michael-jackson31/2

Even our old friend Stacy Brown is saying the same:

Michael had reportedly planned for 12-year-old Prince Michael to sing and dance with him, his friend and biographer Stacy Brown has claimed.

According to the writer, the 50-year-old singer “didn’t really want to do any of the shows” but was spurred on by his three children, Prince Michael, Paris, 11, and seven-year-old Prince Michael II.

He added: “Michael really wanted his children to see him perform.”

Besides Stacy Brown the article also cites Michael’s photographer who said that Michael was so focused on the shows and so hopeful for his family and fans to see them that he reminded him of an “expectant father pacing up and down the stage”:

Kevin Mazur, a photographer who was taking pictures of Michael rehearsing and spoke to the singer during his practice sessions [ ] said the singer was shouting: “This is me. The true me. I feel so alive. I feel as though I want to perform forever.

“The only thing missing is my fans, my people, my family – and they will come. I know they will. I’m so happy. Can you feel it? Can you feel it?” Kevin added: “It was incredible. It was a joy to behold. You could tell Michael was so excited.

“He was like an expectant father pacing up and down the stage. He was just so focused. I have never seen him so happy.” http://www.tourdates.co.uk/news/14072-jackson-5-to-stage-tribute-show

But most of it is coming from Kenny Ortega. He says that Michael’s children knew of his performances but were curious to see them live. Michael wanted to show to his children what he had been doing all his life and share this experience with them. He wanted the children to meet his fans and turn the concerts into the final grand bow:

“For the last couple of years, we had been talking about finding the right project. That it had to have meaning, real purpose behind it for him to want to do something. And when he called me, he said, ‘This is it.’ That’s where the title came from,” he says. “He wanted this so much for so many reasons. For his children, who are now old enough and really, you know, curious [about his performances]“  http://www.oprah.com/entertainment/Michael-Jacksons-This-Is-It/3

“Michael was intending to go out there with his children and see the whole rest of the world, share that experience with them, meet the fans, take one more grand bow, and then he wanted to pull the plug on his live performing because he said, ‘I don’t want to be out there doing it when I can’t do it with the integrity that I’m known for. However, let’s make movies and great albums and develop projects together.’ So he was excited about so much. He had so much more in him still.” http://movies.about.com/od/michaeljacksonthisisit/a/kenny-ortega_2.htm

Kenny Ortega also paints a much bigger picture of Michael’s motives for those concerts which ranged from involving his children in life creatively to turning his shows a “call to arms” as Michael was going to say to the world, “Come on world, take responsibility”:

As the director explained, for MJ, those powerful reasons numbered three: his family, his fans and his hope for — and yes, his love of — the future of humanity. “He wanted to do it because he wanted to involve his children in his life creatively,” he said. “He wanted them to be able to experience what it was, that he loved his whole life, now that they were curious, old enough to be able to appreciate it, and he was still young enough to do it.”

Additionally, Jackson wanted to reward his loyal fanbase with a live show — not just featuring the King of Pop, but one he wanted to be bigger and badder than any other before it. “The fans meant everything to Michael,” Ortega told us. “They were his food, his fuel, his life source, his energy, and he was energized by them and he appreciated their loyalty more than I can ever say. This film is for the fans.”

But in the end, love was really the driving force behind the concerts. “Most importantly, Michael wanted to do this because he wanted this to be a call to arms,” Ortega said. “This is it. Come on world, take responsibility. We need to love each other more, put more love back into the world. We need to take care of the planet or we’re not going to have one for future generations.”

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1624516/michael-jacksons-this-it-director-explains-reasons-comeback-shows.jhtml

Money is not even mentioned by any of these people. And Michael himself never mentioned money in connection with those concerts either. He was recorded by Murray when falling asleep and in moments like that people betray their innermost desires, and I never cease to be amazed that at a moment like that Michael spoke of spending money instead of acquiring it. And that he dreamed of spending money not on himself, but on a children’s hospital built for the little angels he cared for. And he didn’t even mention money but spoke of God instead:

Jackson:  Elvis didn’t do it.  Beatles didn’t do it.  We have to be phenomenal.  When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I am them to say, “I’ve never seen nothing like this in my life.  Go. Go.  I’ve never seen nothing like this.  Go. It’s amazing.  He’s the greatest entertainer in the world.”  I’m taking that money, a million children, children’s hospital, the biggest in the world, Michael Jackson’s Children’s Hospital.  Gonna have a movie theater, game room. Children are depressed. The –in those hospitals, no game room, no movie theater. They’re sick because they’re depressed.  Their mind is depressing them.  I want to give them that.  I care about them, them angels.  God wants me to do it.  God wants me to do it.  I’m gonna do it, Conrad.

Murray:  I know you would.

Jackson: Don’t have enough hope, no more hope.  That’s the next generation that’s gonna save out planet, starting with-we’ll talk about it.  United States, Europe, Prague, my babies.  They walk around with no mother.  They drop them off, they leave- a psychological degradation of that.  They reach out to me- please take me with you.

Murray: Mmmnh-mmnh

Jackson: I’m gonna do that for them.  That will be remembered more than my performances.  My performances will be up there helping my children and always be my dream.  I love them.  I love them, because I didn’t have a childhood.  I had no childhood.  I feel their pain. I feel their hurt.  I can deal with it.  “Heal the World,” “We are the World,” “Will You be There,” “The Lost Children.”  These are the songs I’ve written because I hurt, you know, I hurt.

Murray: You okay?

Jackson: I am asleep.

 (As a side note on the above recording  why does Murray reply to Michael’s “I’m gonna do it” with “I know you would?” )

You will probably agree with me that with a driving force like Michael’s children he would have done any number of concerts there were to do. The only condition required for it was the right schedule and enough time for rest and sleep between the concerts. As to the rest of it Michael was so highly motivated for those shows that he would have never cancelled them at a mere whim. He rarely did it before without a proper rescheduling and he was absolutely not going to do it now.

This makes all those ‘worries’ about the concerts expressed by the AEG people totally unjustified. If Michael did not attend some rehearsals it was most probably because he either practiced at home or needed to save his energy. He also expected his partners to do their part of the deal – their business was to make the show ready and his business was to put the final touch to it.

In this connection Randy Phillips often recalled Michael saying,

• “You build the house and I come, put in the front door and paint it”.

THE SHOWS WERE NOT READY

However by June 25^th when Michael Jackson died the shows were far from ready. I hope there will be a time to talk about this fact in more detail and at the moment will only quote Kenny Ortega who in his conversation with Oprah Winfrey suddenly blurted out that truth. And the truth is that on June 25th “they were about three weeks from being ready”:

Now, the director and choreographer is releasing his most heartbreaking—and inspiring—project yet in honor of Michael Jackson, his friend of 25 years. Michael Jackson’s This Is It is an unguarded look at the King of Pop’s final days as he prepared for a series of comeback concerts in London. “We were about eight days away from leaving to London to do our final technical and dress rehearsals,” Kenny says. “We were about three weeks from being ready.” http://www.oprah.com/entertainment/Michael-Jacksons-This-Is-It

Three weeks is 21 days as everyone knows, but if you add 5 or 6 days remaining in June and 12 days in July (the 13^th was Sunday and the day of the premiere) it will make 17-18 days only. If you further deduct from this number the days-off and the time needed for moving the show to London you will be amazed at how little time they actually had. 

Michael Jackson was supposed to leave for London on July 4th and on the 8th he was to have his first London rehearsal, and this left to him and the others only 9 working days excluding Saturdays and Sunday. If you add Saturdays too this will be all they had for finishing up the show.

Please mind that Michael needed a comfortable schedule for himself which would allow him to reach the shows in his peak form, save his energy and voice, and not allow him to “burn out” before anything started at all – however the too little time left was not giving him any chance to relax.

Whether AEG was pressuring him on purpose or due to their mistakes in planning does not really matter – even if the pressure was a forced measure it means that their production process left much to be desired and all the mistakes they themselves made were to be compensated at the expense of Michael Jackson and the tremendous burden of overwork they were placing on his shoulders.

Answering AEG’s interrogatory Paris Jackson said her father told her that he was overworked and the schedule was “too much”

An anonymous witness to those events shared his view of the show on the eve of their move to London and said that nothing was actually ready for it.

We cannot dispute the opinion of this person as this is one of those rare cases when no one even needs the confirmation of his words. We have seen “This is it” documentary with our own eyes and it illustrated everything this person said – the costumes were indeed not ready and when they were finally made and decorated with thousands of Swarovsky crystals they were good for a museum only as I doubt very much that Michael would be able to dance under all their weight.

The videos were not yet shot either, the robot equipment was not yet there and even in the film some scenes were a computer simulation only. Some of the songs were to be included in the set but had not even been started. In short what this witness to the events said perfectly coincides with out own impression of it.

This is what the person who heard the account of that witness put down:

“According to this person, there was absolutely no way the concert was going to be ready for opening night on July 13th, and everyone knew it.

He asked me the following “when you saw the movie, you do realize right that they had to show the best scenes, the best performances, right?” I said “yes, of course” to which he replied “so do you realize that what you have seen, most of it came from June 24th, 23rd and 22nd ? Based on what you saw, did it feel as if everything was going to be ready in 2 weeks ?” He said that Michael did not have his clothes ready, and that there was “pathetic” @#$%$ing around from different stylists that were trying to come up with ideas. But nothing was ready, no clothes, not even for the dancers. Michael wanted Michael Bush, but Travis Payne brought in that Zaldy guy, and AEG was behind Zaldy, rather than Michael Bush.

The opening number for the concert was only done on the computer, just like we saw in the movie. It was never rehearsed, and the robot that Michael would have come out from was not ever ready. Also the closing of the show was just a concept.

He also confirmed that they never had a full rehearsal. In other words, they never practiced the whole concert, it would always be a few songs on several days, but it was never put all together, therefore they were also very concerned that once everything was gonna put together, it would take much longer that the 2 hours originally planned. This was going to be a huge problem for AEG and the O2 arena, because of an agreement they had with time. Also, Michael did not want to have long shows, for obvious reasons.

Also, they never rehearsed with implementing the videos for Smooth, Thriller and Earth as we saw in the movie, those were edited in the movie, but they never rehearsed using them, and it was still unclear how they would be used with the songs, especially Smooth Criminal.”

And this was the state of affairs at the very end of June, some two working weeks before the shows? They still needed time for taking the show across the ocean, setting up the equipment there, finishing up the costumes and rehearing some previously unrehearsed songs, running the full show from beginning to end and arranging at least one dress rehearsal prior to the premiere – and for all this they had some 9-12 working days?

And if all this leaves us with a terribly disquieting feeling, how much more worried and apprehensive must have been Michael Jackson seeing all that? No wonder that he was nervous and even said to his fans as Talitha remembers:

MJ: I put everything I have into the shows. I work so hard. But I’m only one person. There is only so much I can do. (sounding emotional)

http://www.michaeljacksonthelastangel.com/michael-jackson-this-is-it.html

Michael was urging his partners, “Build the house and I’ll come and paint the front door”. He was asking them to do what was expected of them so that he could make his own input and “paint the front door”. However the house was far from ready and that’s the main point of it.

IRRELEVANT QUESTIONS

When trying to use some old articles stored on my computer in connection with this story I encountered a worrisome phenomenon.

First of all many of the articles listing Tohme’s feats against Jackson have suddenly disappeared. The Forbes and the deathby1000papercuts articles are no longer there and many others are also missing. Practically everything that can give us some information about the details of Tohme’s business with Michael is missing now.

Second, a big number of glowing reports about Dr. Tohme appeared. Over there he is painted a kind of a savior of Michael Jackson and his work for him is praised in a totally flagrant manner. 

And third, when I once again watched Randy Phillips’ testimony at Conrad Murray’s trial it struck me very much how unnaturaly Prosecutor Walgren and the Judge avoided almost all questions concerning Tohme.

Chernoff asked questions whether Phillips knew Tohme, had met him before or recognized him. But not a single of these questions was allowed by Walgren and the judge. The vehemence of their objection to these seemingly innocent questions is simply overwhelming and is telling a story of its own. It points to the fact that Phillips and Tohme evidently did know each other before and this for some reason must have a certain importance for the case.

This made me recall that there was some information on the Internet saying that Tohme and Phillips were related by marriage  – Tohme’s was previously married to Phillips’s sister. Initially I did not pay any attention to this fact (what does it matter who was married to whom?), but after the prosecutor and the judge made such a show of it I now tend to believe that this must be something really significant for the matter we are discussing here i.e. Michael’s last concerts arranged by AEG.

The shows were after all arranged by means of a fraudulent contract which was handled by Phillips and Tohme, and their number could be increased to 50 also only through a deep personal understanding between these two people. And the minimal spacing between the shows was also the doing of personally Tohme and Randy Phillips as Phillips himself said that it was him and Tohme who were working on all Michael Jackson’s dates.

Yes, to CelebrityAccess Randy Phillips said exactly what I have just said – that it was him and Tohme who worked in connection with all of Michael Jackson’s dates.

Consequently it is only the two of them who are responsible for the crazy schedule with hardly any days-off between the shows which were set for the 50 year old Jackson:

AEG’s Randy Phillips told CelebrityAccesss that they have been working with Dr. Tohme Tohme in connection with all of Michael Jackson’s dates.

http://encore.celebrityaccess.com/index.php?encoreId=184&articleId=30345

In these circumstances the fact of their former relationship and probably friendship will not look that innocent as it seemed to me at the beginning.  

Here is the way Chernoff examined Randy Phillips on day 17 of the trial, September 25, 2011 and how he was rebuffed at the first attempt to find whether Randy Phillips knew Tohme before. Almost all questions concerning Colony Capital are blocked too. It starts at around 6:30:

Chernoff: Is Colony Capital an entertainment company?

Phillips: Not to my knowledge.

C: And entertainment agency?

P: No.

C: What kind of a company is it?

P: My knowledge of it is that it is that they are like a private equity fund.

C: And the owner, the principal of that company is Tom Barrack?

P: Right. I think there are numerous partners.

C: Who did Tom Barrack contact with? You directly?

P: No, he actually contacted Phil Anschutz.

C: Who is Phil Anschutz?

P: He is the chairman of AEG and is someone I report to.

C: He is the Anschutz Entertainment Group?

P: Yes, he is.

C: And Tom Barrack knew Phil Anschutz to your knowledge?

P: I believe so.

C: And you were contacted by Phil Anschutz?

P: Correct.

C: Were you familiar with the involvement Tom Barrack had with Michael Jackson?

Walgren: Objection. Relevance.

Judge: Sustained.

C: When Phil Anschutz called you what instructions did he give you?

Walgren: Objection. Relevance.

Judge: I will sustain the objection. I think we can go to the next step. Thank you.

C: After the conversation, after the boss called you, what did you do?

P: I set up an appointment for me to go and meet with Mr. Barrack  and his partner Richard Nannula at Colony Capital. [the spelling of the name is the way I hear it]

C: And this was where?

P: At Century City. Century City, California, Los Angeles.

C: You made up a phone call and set up a meeting.

P: That’s correct.

C: How soon did you meet with Tom Barrack and his partners?

P: I believe it was the next day or the day after next to the best of my recollection.

C: All right. And then what happened?

P: [...]  and I had a meeting with them. Tom Barrack [..] I think it was Richard Nannula who is the partner at Colony Capital who pretty much led the meeting and who explained to me that Colony Capital had purchased the note on Neverland, Michael’s ranch in the Santa Barbara County and purchased the note on his ranch from the company called Fortress.

C: All right. And what does it have to do with the concerts?

Walgren: Objection. Relevance.

Judge: Sustained.

C: Was there a conversation about a concert during this meeting? Or concert tour? A series?

P: When Richard Nannula…

Judge: Will you just answer this specific question?

P: Yes.

C: Who had that conversation?

P: Me, Richard Nannula and Tom Barrack. 

C: After this discussion of the concert what did you do next?

P: They set up a meeting for me with a gentleman named Dr. Tohme who was presented to me as Michael Jackson’s manager at that time.

C: Dr. Tohme?

P: Correct.

C: And the meeting was already set up?

P: It was set up during that meeting at Colony.

C: And where was this meeting held?

P: At the Bel Air Hotel.

C: And when was this meeting held?

P: I am not sure. I would be the same day or the next day.. I believe it was the same week that I met the Colony Capital.

C: You did say you had a meeting at Colony Capital in August 2008?

P: Right.

C: That would be August you had this meeting?

P: That is correct.

C: And it was at the Bel Air Hotel?

P: Yes.

C: The next day you went to the Bel Air Hotel to meet with Dr. Tohme? Had you ever met Dr. Tohme?

Walgren: Objection. Relevance.

Judge: Sustained.

C: Did you know Dr. Tohme?

Walgren: Objection. Relevance.

Judge: Sustained. Let’s get to the next step. Thank you.

C: Did you recognize Dr. Tohme?

Walgren: Objection. Relevance.

Judge: Just a moment. The objection is sustained. There was a meeting. The next question.

C: Can you tell us where in the Bel Air Hotel the meeting was?

Walgren: Objection. Relevance.

Judge: Sustained.

C: We can agree that somewhere within the confines of the Bel Air Hotel you met with Dr. Tohme, right?

P: Just to clarify your question. I am not sure it was the next day.

C: But you did meet with Dr. Tohme?

P: That is correct.

C: Who else was at the meeting?

P. Just Dr. Tohme.

C: And what was the discussion about?

P. That Michael Jackson ..

Walgren: Objection. Does it have to do with the proposed concert tour?

Judge: Does it have to do with the proposed concert tour?

P: Yes. .. that Michael Jackson wanted to restart his career…

All I can say on the above is that if the civil trial against AEG Live goes along the same lines, I am afraid we cannot expect much justice for Michael Jackson and his family. All the questions relevant for the family (and Michael’s supporters) may be considered irrelevant by them while they are perfectly relevant for us and for the truth too.

Well, we’ll see how this justice works in the conditions of so many billionaires around and when some people are tied to other people by former marriage links and newly shared secrets cementing their relationship. 

Previously I’ve read an article with an interesting title “Can Michael Jackson get justice in a town owned by AEG?” However following the already mentioned tendency of disappearance of some articles this one disappeared too and is no longer available though I clearly remember reading it and even in several sources too.  

Instead a new article appeared – it is called “AEG’s chief is a force in L.A” and is about Tim Leiweke, the President and CEO of AEG. Its three pages are fully dedicated to all the good AEG is doing for the city but a couple of paragraphs insert a drop of criticism and try to show how unbiased the paper is towards this huge LA force:

Tim Leiweke of Anschutz Entertainment Group stands atop the new 52-story Ritz-Carlton tower at L.A. Live. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Those who praise him see Leiweke as an exemplar of what Los Angeles has long lacked — a smart, savvy player who can link arms with financial backers, politicians and unionized workers with equal gusto. In an era when the city can do little development on its own, he and AEG have helped fill a major civic void, doing what many would consider city-building on mostly private land.

…To critics, however, Leiweke is a classic example of an influence peddler who curries favor with lawmakers through huge financial donations and gets, in turn, handouts in the form of tax breaks and a rubber stamp on his vision. The company received approximately $246 million in tax breaks on the L.A. Live project alone — plus a grant of $5 million from redevelopment funds.

“There is a feeling that things are out of balance in the attention the city is paying to that area, to downtown in general and in particular to that area around Staples [Center] and L.A. Live,” said Dennis Hathaway, of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight, which has tangled repeatedly with AEG. “And there’s a perception that AEG has kind of become the tail that is wagging the dog of the city.”

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/07/local/la-me-leiweke7-2010feb07

With a force like it is hard to expect anything good for Katherine Jackson and her lawsuit, especially since the crucial points have already been thrown away and are not going to be discussed. Therefore we are most probably in for a new barrage of “irrelevant” questions asked and never answered. And in the place of the Jacksons’ lawyers I wouldn’t be that confident of the result of the case no matter how solid it looks to them.

Well, we’ll see how the justice works. The world will be watching.

Related articles

• Michael Jackson and Jack Wishna in 2007 (vindicatemj.wordpress.com)
• The story of MICHAEL JACKSON, TOHME TOHME and AEG LIVE. Part 1
• The story of MICHAEL JACKSON, TOHME, TOM BARRACK and AEG LIVE. Part 2

It is obvious that prior to the AEG trial we need to refresh our knowledge of Conrad Murray’s contract with AEG. The last time we spoke about it was so long ago that few of us remember what it was all about. Now a fresh look is needed especially since a new look always helps to see things clearer and notice what was overlooked before.

The two drafts of Murray/AEG contract are found in Joe Jackson’s lawsuit. Last year (February 21, 2012) this lawsuit was thrown out as a double to Katherine’s and though it wasn’t a complete double I agree that it is strange to have two suits from one family against the same company. The judge said that Katherine’s lawsuit came first so Joe’s had to go:

 A judge has thrown out Joe Jackson’s wrongful death lawsuit against Dr. Conrad Murray and AEG, but only because his wife Katherine Jackson already has a similar suit pending – both on her behalf, and on behalf of Jackson’s three kids, reports TMZ.

The judge said you can’t have two suits that allege the exact same thing, and since Katherine filed first Joe’s was tossed, the website reported.

http://www.eurweb.com/2012/02/mj-papa-joes-lawsuit-tossed-estate-tohme-sue-each-other/

Whatever is the case with  Joe Jackson’s papers they are a great help to us as they provide invaluable information about Conrad Murray’s contract with AEG and his correspondence with Timm Woolley of AEG prior to making it. Its final variant was signed by Murray on June 24^th one day before Michael Jackson’s death. No one else signed it but Murray.

Michael wasn’t a party to the contract but there was a blank space left for his signature on the last page of the document and AEG said he simply had no time to sign the document – which is why it never came into effect.

When I cast a second glance at these documents the situation became much clearer to me.

THE DATES

As you remember we have two drafts of Murray’s contract which are almost identical – except for the date in the opening sentence of each contract and the period of concerts mentioned there (one covers the first leg of the shows until September, and the second covers both legs of the shows until March).

So the first big discovery I made when looking at those two contracts was that the dates mentioned in the opening paragraph of each of them had nothing to do with the dates when these documents were made. It is even surprising that such a simple thing could be overlooked before.

One variant of the contract starts with: “This independent contractor agreement … is made effective as of May 1, 2009”.

And the other variant says that “the agreement is made effective as of June 2009” (no specific date is mentioned there).

For easier illustration I’ve combined the front page of each contract with its last page, and below you will see the so-called May 1st variant of it (the documents were originally posted by TeamMichaelJackson, so their logo will appear across all the papers provided here):

And this is  how the so-called June variant of Murray’s contract looks like:

Initially all of us assumed that the May variant was made in May and the June variant was made in June and the reason for the mistake was in looking at the front pages only. However if you look at the last pages of the same drafts you see that what looks like the “May 1st” variant is actually dated June 24th, while the so-called “June” variant is not dated at all.

What does effective date mean in a contract?

• Definition of effective date: The date on which an agreement, such as a contract or insurance policy, takes effect. –
• The effective date is the date that the agreement becomes effective and can be a specified date other than the date the agreement was signed. The execution date is the date that the party signs the document.

http://www.askives.com/what-does-effective-date-mean-in-a-contract.html

So in the case of Murray’s contract the effective date was May 1, 2009 and the execution date was June 24, 2009 when the contract was signed at least by one of the parties. AEG thinks that it didn’t become valid because they as the other party did not sign it. They said they needed Michael Jackson’s signature for that.

THEY STARTED EARLY BUT WAITED UNTIL LATE

The email below explains to us that Conrad Murray did indeed show the AEG contract to his lawyer after which he was ready to sign it – only these arrangements were made as early as the middle of May.

The email I refer to is dated May 15^th and Murray makes it a point there that he is ready to sign, is “fully engaged” with Michael and that his work started in accordance with the earlier agreement with AEG which was confirmed by the memo sent to him by Timm Woolley on May 8, 2009.

It seems that Murray is taking every opportunity to fix in his correspondence with AEG the current state of affairs for each particular moment in time so that AEG cannot go back on their word later. After all he is working on the basis of an oral agreement only backed by nothing but a couple of emails only:

From Conrad Murray

Friday May 15, 2009

To Tim Woolley

Dear Tim,

Thank you for your correspondence. With respect to the contractual agreement in respect to Mr. Jackson and the upcoming concert tour; it was also for me a great pleasure to meet you even more I look forward to meeting you personally. I am basically in agreement and reiterate that your memo is correct pursuant to our conversation of May 8, 2009. In reference to the international health coverage I would also like to have the opportunity to include members of my family i.e. wife and children. The family cost of the health insurance excluding myself will be solely at my expense.

If you would be kind enough to adopt the contract I will have to peruse by my attorney so that the verbiage is clear and correct for all of us. Once that is done I will be ready for signing. As for good faith with my client I am sure that you are aware that my services are already fully engaged with Mr. Jackson. I wish you and yours all the best and I look forward for a quick response so we can close this matter.

Sincerely,

Conrad

Now that we know that AEG wanted to play on Murray a dirty trick with the dates, we also realize that this way they not only wanted to avoid payments to him but also wanted to avoid the delivery of the medical equipment he requested.

PRETEXTS

Dr. Murray always refused to take money from Michael. One time Michael asked Responding Party to give Dr. Murray money but Dr. Murrey refused.  [Paris Jackson's answers to the AEG interrogatory]

Non-provision by AEG of medical equipment to Murray will be a much more difficult issue to explain. The equipment was to be provided to Murray “during the term” which was beginning on May 1^st but the specific date of the provision was not mentioned. I presume that the equipment was to be supplied at the very beginning of the term and that this point was discussed at preliminary negotiations.

Considering that the final variant of the contract was made about two months after the first oral agreement by then AEG knew perfectly well that non-delivery of the equipment was their big fault, so they worded the clause about the equipment in an extremely vague manner. The wording is such that if they provided the equipment on the last day of the term it would be okay too.

However since the equipment was part of Murray’s services there could be a round-about-way of proving that they should have delivered it in the first days of his work.

What is more than clear though is that Michael could not be interested in delaying provision of the equipment (and consequently delaying the contract). It is also clear that the only party interested in such a delay was AEG Live.

This is how their obligation looked like in the contract:

“3.3. Producer shall provide Dr. Murray for his use during the Term with medical equipment requested by Dr. Murray to assist him in performing the Services as approved by Producer (“Equipment”). The Equipment will include a portable cardio pulmonary resuscitation unit (“CPR Machine”), …

Why AEG was not delivering the equipment is a puzzle of its own, requiring a separate study and a separate post. At the moment let us only note that knowing that they are to blame for non-delivery of the equipment AEG will do their  best now to invent various pretexts why this was not done at the time when Conrad Murray was requesting it and needed it most.

The first thing they have already said was that they thought the equipment was needed for the UK shows only. However their contract says that during the term of the agreement beginning on May 1st, 2009 Murray’s services were to be provided not only on the territory of the UK, but in the USA too, which automatically takes us to May-June 2009 when Michael was rehearsing there:

A peculiar detail of the AEG story which I notice only now is that AEG was to approve both Murray’s services and the list of medical equipment, and since approval without looking is simply impossible  this means that AEG was obliged by their own contract to look into what Murray was doing, what equipment he required and for what purpose it was meant (the approval points are marked yellow in this quote):

“3.3. Producer shall provide Dr. Murray for his use during the Term with medical equipment requested by Dr. Murray to assist him in performing the Services as approved by Producer (“Equipment”). The Equipment will include a portable cardio pulmonary resuscitation unit (“CPR Machine”), saline, catheters, needles, a gurney and other mutually approved medicate equipment necessary for the Services.

Knowing AEG’s stinginess no one will doubt that they did exercise their rights to approve and monitor everything there was to monitor there, simultaneously fully neglecting their duties to provide what Murray requested for Michael Jackson including the equipment and a medical assistant (who was also missing).

Let me also note that the equipment was to be supplied and paid for by AEG Live (and not Murray or Michael Jackson) as after the termination of the agreement everything was to be returned to AEG.

Another of those pretexts widely used by AEG to explain why they never fulfilled their obligations was that the contract was not signed and could not be executed.

Well, Murray was ready to sign it already on May 15^th and wanted it to be done as early as possible for payment reasons.  Michael Jackson also wanted it as soon as possible as he needed a doctor and the equipment by his side for his own safety and from the very start of it too, so the only party we are left with as being interested in the delay is AEG Live.

WHO DID MURRAY WORK FOR?

The requirement to have Michael’s approval of the contract and his signature in Murray’s contract seem to me the last minute corrections introduced to the agreement by AEG Live. First they specified in Murray’s contract the terms extremely unfavorable to Michael Jackson and then demanded that he should agree to them by putting his signature there.

Why do I say that the terms were unfavorable? And how would you look at the clause which says that the doctor you employ for taking care of your health and who you pay from your own pocket is actually hired by AEG Live to perform the services requested by them, and not by you?

Imagine hiring an employee and paying him a salary but seeing him follow the orders of your competitor instead and you will realize the absurdity of the situation.

The need for Murray to do as AEG Live requested is described by their contract as Murray’s number one responsibility towards his AEG bosses.

This piece from their contract is a complete masterpiece. It refers both to Murray and GCA Holdings LLC which is Murray’s company:

4. RESPONSIBILITIES OF GCA/DR.MURRAY. Without in any way limiting any other term or provision of this Agreement or any obligation of GCA or Dr. Murray hereunder, GCA and Dr. Murray shall:

4.1 Perform the Services reasonably requested by Producer.

Any other wording in the place of this 4.1 clause would have suited us – for example, that Murray was to maintain his patient’s health and keep him in constant health protection as Wiki explains the general responsibilities of a doctor.

In fact any interpretation of the doctor’s duties provided in the Internet would be okay, except AEG’s insolent demand to “perform the services requested by Producer”. This type of a demand may be made only if you hire a doctor for a helpless invalid who cannot hear or talk and speak for himself, but even then it will still be a gross violation of the basics of the medical ethics as the doctor you hire is not obliged to fulfill your requests but is supposed to do what his medical profession tells him to.

In this situation no amount of words proclaiming that Murray was an “independent” contractor can outweigh the meaning of this short phrase – if a doctor is required by his contract to perform the services requested by someone who hires him, his independent status ceases the moment the doctor agrees to such terms.

By the way this “independent contractor status” can be interpreted as a call to Murray to be independent from his friend Michael Jackson (for example) and never listen to what he tells him.

The disposition of forces resulting from all this mess is an extremely interesting one – Murray is independent from his friend Michael Jackson whom he does not listen to as his boss is AEG Live and since AEG  is the boss Murray’s main responsibility is to perform the services requested by AEG, however it is his friend Michael who is to pay him for these services.

One needs to be a genius of evil and absurdity to be able to come up with a twisted formula like that…

Indeed, the formula sounds so absurd that now I begin doubting that it was actually Michael Jackson who was to pay a $150,000 salary to Murray. Could AEG have played some dirty game again and shift this payment onto Michael’s  shoulders at the last minute too? The reason why I am asking is that I cannot even imagine how vile people should be in order to first force all this nightmare on Michael and then make him pay for it too.

COULD MICHAEL REFUSE MURRAY’S SERVICES?

I hear that AEG says that Michael Jackson could refuse the services of Conrad Murray at any time. Is this really so?

The formal answer contained in the contract is yes, he could refuse Murray, only even in case he refused him there is a strong probability that nothing would have changed – the decision to terminate Murray was to be taken by AEG Live and AEG alone:

TERMINATION:

7.3 Immediately by Producer if the Artist decides for any reason that the Artist no longer wants or needs the services of Dr. Murray

If the word “immediately” makes you think that AEG Live was to immediately follow Michael’s request, let us look at the wider context of it. And the wider context says that the agreement may be immediately terminated by AEG Live if Michael Jackson decides that he no longer needs Murray’s services.

As you understand this may be can easily turn into may be not, and this wording covers a very big range of possibilities –  from immediate termination of Murray at the request of Michael Jackson to AEG’s insistence that he goes on working for him even if Michael no longer wants him. Here is the full text of it:

Everything we’ve learned up till now is proving that though Michael was to pay Murray $150,000 a month he himself  had a very little say in his cooperation with this person – Murray was to perform the requests of AEG Live and even if Michael wanted to refuse Murray the AEG bosses could still impose him on Michael Jackson (the way they did it with Tohme).

AEG was also to provide the equipment for Michael but failed to do it, and AEG was to lend Murray money, but did not do it either. The additional insult to the story was that the expenses on all this outrage were to be eventually covered by Michael Jackson.

MICHAEL’S SIGNATURE

Was it because of all this outrage that Michael did not put his signature under Murray’s contract? Possible, though AEG assures us that Michael simply had no time to sign it.

But I have another question. Was Michael obliged to sign this contract at all if he was not even a party to it? Possibly not, though the final variant of the Murray/AEG contract said that he was:

9. ARTIST CONSENT. The effect of this Agreement is conditioned upon the approval and consent of the Artist. Withouth the Artist’s expressed and written approval of the Agreement neither party to the Agreement will have any rights or obligations to one another arising from the Agreement.

In his lawsuit Joe Jackson argued that initially there was no talk about Michael approving Murray’s contract and putting his signature there. This Joe Jackson’s statement finds its confirmation in the email sent to Murray by Timm Woolley on May 8, 2009. The memo sums up the main points of the preliminary agreement which were apparently discussed during their telephone conversation the same day.

The memo was sent to Murray and Paul Gongaware to fix what they had agreed about in that conversation and what was to be turned into the main terms of their contract. However despite a fairly detailed summary of the talks not a single word was said there about Michael Jackson’s need to consent to these terms –  though the later variant of the contract would suddenly claim that it was the central, crucial point of the contract everything else depended on.

Here is the email:

Conrad

It was a pleasure meeting you on the phone. We discussed some mundane details:

Contracting entity: GCA Holdings LLC, 2110 East Flamingo Road, #301, Las Vegas, NV89119.

Your contact info: Office (702) 866 68, cell (702) 862 0973.

Your mode of travel: most likely with Artist on charter, but 1st if not.

Family airfare personal cost.

Accommodation – “easy proximity of Artist” – that might be a guest house on the ground of the ground of the property rented for Artist.

Tour pays for necessary professional costs including transport between Artist & house and house & venue.

Probable need for multiple UK-based cell-phones & your need for one. Need for one venue-based, one home-based extracorporeal CPR units.

Insurances: travel-type accident, sickness, loss-of-possessions policy to be incepted for traveling party – but this is working personnel. Premium is about $250/person if you’d like us to extend to family. Effective only while away from USA.

Life insurances –personal choice.

AEG contract would not cover more than one month in lieu of notice if there was a curtailment or cessation of the tour.

Loss-of-profit – also called contractual performance insurance – had asked brokers at Lloyds to research, intelligently, they also suggest it covers both possible Force Majeure affecting tour/performances as a whole and possibly of accident preventing your providing services. Insurance would be personal cost.

Fees $150k/mo payable mid-month.

Lots of consider above and would be happy to continue discussion when convenient to you.

Timm

Valerie Wass filed an appeal for her client Conrad Murray claiming that he is not to blame for the death of Michael Jackson. She says that the night Michael died he was not on a drip and that Murray delivered Michael only 25ml of propofol (by a syringe) after which Michael allegedly self-injected himself with another portion of 25ml (by another syringe) and this allegedly caused his death.

Though Wass is trying to present her story as something new it is the exact replica of what the defense and Dr. White already proclaimed during the trial and each of their statements were refuted by the prosecution and Dr. Shafer in a thorough, meticulous and super scientific way.

This is why I would like to make a short summary of the main arguments that unequivocally prove Murray’s guilt. Since this is a purely scientific matter my main problem here was to express complex things in the simplest language possible, so please don’t be cross with me for wording things primitively. My goal is that everyone, even Valerie Wass, understands that Murray is simply fooling us.

WASS’S DISPUTE WITH THOMAS MESEREAU

Valerie Wass voiced her version of the events during an interview with Piers Morgan in the course of a vehement discussion with Thomas Mesereau. She was so adamant about her story that she hardly gave Thomas Mesereau a chance to put in a word. The conversation started with Murray singing a song on the telephone which produced an inimitable impression on everyone present and made me doubt Murray’s adequacy:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONRAD MURRAY, MICHAEL JACKSON’S FORMER PHYSICIAN: (Singing) He’s a little boy that Santa Claus forgot and goodness knows he did not want a lot, he wrote a note to Santa for some crayons and a toy, it broke his little heart when he found Santa hadn’t come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: A surreal moment from Anderson Cooper’s interview with Dr. Conrad Murray when the convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson’s death burst into song on live television last night. Meanwhile, jury selection continues in Katherine Jackson’s lawsuit against AEG, seeking $40 billion.

Now Conrad Murray’s attorney, Valerie Wass, is here to go head-to-head with Michael Jackson’s attorney, Tom Mesereau.

Welcome to you, Valerie Wass. You weren’t happy watching Tom and I discussing this last night. Why not?

VALERIE WASS, ATTORNEY FOR DR. CONRAD MURRAY: Well, I felt that he was — he was viewed in a — in a wrong manner. I feel very strongly about Dr. Murray, and that he’s a compassionate man and I believe that he is an innocent man. I believe he was wrongly convicted. And I don’t know if Tom really knows the facts of the case and has read the record and all of the evidence, such as I have done for the last year.

THOMAS A. MESEREAU JR., DEFENDED MICHAEL JACKSON IN MOLESTATION TRIAL: I haven’t read — I haven’t read the record, but I watched a lot of the trial. And every single physician in this courtroom, including the — including Murray’s own expert, thought that having propofol in the home and administering it the way he did was a gross deviation from the medical standard of care.

Nobody justified having propofol in their house. Nobody justified administering it the way he apparently did. He didn’t have the equipment, he didn’t have personnel assisting him. He didn’t have backup equipment. He didn’t have the medications you need if something goes wrong. He didn’t have the power supply if something goes wrong. Everything he did, in my opinion, was a disgrace, and I think he caused the death of Michael Jackson.

MORGAN: Valerie?

WASS: Well, even if he deviated from the standard of care, he didn’t cause the death of Michael Jackson because on the night Michael Jackson died, he was not on a propofol drip. And that’s what nobody understands. And using propofol in a home is not — is not illegal. It’s not — it’s not illegal. It’s an off-label use. And off-label use —

MESEREAU: Did you read the toxicology?

WASS: Absolutely.

MESEREAU: The toxicology — the toxicology examined eight specimens from his body. The stomach, the liver, the heart, the veins, the femoral artery. He had propofol in every single of the eight specimens, OK?

WASS: That’s correct. And the toxicology results are —

MESEREAU: I mean, he was loaded with propofol.

WASS: He was loaded from propofol from a 25 milligram bolus injection that Michael Jackson self-administered shortly before he died. It matches up with all the toxicology findings.

MESEREAU: First of all the — the amount of propofol grossly exceeded the 25 that Mr. — Dr. Murray said he administered. First of all. Second of all —

WASS: That’s right. Because Jackson administered another 25 milligram dose.

MESEREAU: Well —

WASS: And when he administered rapidly, that’s what caused cardiac arrest and it comports with the toxicology results.

MESEREAU: Well, the jury came back in eight hours, finding that Michael Jackson did not self-administer propofol, that your client was grossly negligent and caused his death. And now listen, I don’t think he intentionally did this. He wasn’t charged with premeditated murder, he was charged with gross negligence, involuntary manslaughter, and every single expert that testified admitted he had committed gross negligence in a variety of ways.

One expert said there was 17 acts of gross negligence. Propofol in the home, administering it the way he did —

WASS: That’s right. But he was not on a propofol drip on that night, how can he be — there was no cause.

(CROSSTALK)

MESEREAU: Your client told the police —

WASS: No, the two months that Dr. Murray administered propofol to Michael Jackson on a drip, Michael Jackson was fine. It was after he stopped administering the propofol drips that he died.

MESEREAU: Well, that’s your argument. I understand that. And I think you’re doing a commendable job defending him. The problem is, the jury rejected it in eight hours and every single medical expert rejected it as well.

WASS: I actually spoke to one of the jurors last summer and found it really interesting that they adopted this slit saline bag theory. It was a ludicrous theory that was — that probably came about because the prosecutor popped the tab on the Exhibit 30 bottle and they were forced to find another way to hang the bag. It was an absurd method. No — even the prosecution’s expert had never heard of such an absurd method of hanging a drip.

MESEREAU: Well, your client ordered propofol, took it into his home. I think he had it delivered to his girlfriend’s apartment, took gallons into his home and that alone was a gross deviation from acceptable medical standards.

WASS: That’s right. But it’s not — it’s not a causative factor. That’s the difference.

MESEREAU: It’s not a causative factor? Then what caused his death? Every single specimen was loaded with propofol. It was a propofol induced death. That was the cause of death and nobody really disputed that. The argument was, where did the propofol come from, and Murray should not have brought it in the home. It doesn’t belong in the home. It’s not a treatment for insomnia.

(CROSSTALK)

WASS: Michael Jackson had his own stash of propofol when Dr. Murray first started treating Michael Jackson. There’s evidence that he was on propofol —

MORGAN: OK. Let me — let me jump in and speak — it’s been fascinating to watch you both go at it. He’s obviously already been tried and is in jail as a result. Let’s move to what this new trial is basically going to come down to, which involves a responsibility aspect of who was really employing Conrad Murray.

http://www.cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1304/03/pmt.01.html

Here is the video of the conversation:

So Valerie Wass claims that Michael was supposedly not on a drip that night. Moreover according to her Michael was on a drip for two months before that (so Murray does admit it now) and all this time he was alive, and when Murray stopped administering propofol this way and made only one 25ml injection Michael suddenly died. Wass agrees that Michael was loaded with propofol but she is sure that all of it came from a 25ml bolus injection and that the fatal injection was made by Michael himself and he died of a cardiac arrest as a result of it.

To check up this crazy but washed out version we need to recall what was determined at the trial about the possibility of Michael dying of a single 25ml bolus injection. This matter was thoroughly discussed by Dr. Shafer.

 25ML OF PROPOFOL

Dr. Shafer said that though 25ml is an extremely small quantity under certain circumstances it can arrest a patient’s breathing.

He made a computer simulation for this case and showed that at the moment when propofol is pushed into the vein the concentration of propofol in the blood is very high, however then it drops almost immediately (see the dot line on the picture below).

On the brain propofol does not work that fast – over there propofol gradually grows and reaches its peak only  two minutes later (see the non-dot line on the same picture).

The level of propofol in the brain is crucial as propofol acts via the brain and its only danger is a possibility that it might affect the brain so hard that it stops sending signals to the lungs to breathe. Therefore the most common and in fact only complication when administering propofol is a respiratory failure and anesthesiologists are always on the lookout and ready for this complication.

However a bolus injection of 25ml is so minimal a quantity that it cannot affect the brain and therefore cannot start a breathing arrest. The picture shows that the “brain line” of propofol does not even remotely reach the “apnea threshold” which is a point when breathing stops.

To exclude any possibility of a mistake in this simulation Dr. Shafer extended the corridor of sensibility to the drug adding individual people’s reactions to it and after that it turned out that a small number of people did fall into a risk group.  See the “brain line” rising towards the gray area and at one point reaching it – this is exactly the 1,5 minute period within which a small number of patients are at the risk of stopping breathing:

If patient-to-patient deviations are added to this model a small number of patients will be at risk even with this small dose

But then Dr. Shafer proved that though in theory this scenario was possible for Michael’s particular case it was not applicable.

The gist of it is that even if a patient stops breathing as a result of these 25ml his heart will go on working for another 10 minutes - there is still some air in the lungs and it keeps the heart beating. During those 10 minutes all propofol in the blood will be broken up or metabolized. The computer simulation shows that by the time the heart dies both lines (propofol in the blood and propofol in the brain) come close to a zero point. You can see it in bottom right hand corner of the picture.

However the autopsy report showed the level of propofol in Michael’s blood as 2,6 micrograms. And this figure is customary for cases when patients receive not 25ml of propofol but a full-time general anesthesia involving 200ml of this drug or more.

The propofol concentration of 2,6 mcg taken from the autopsy report was the most conservative figure used by Dr. Shafer as all the rest were much higher – for example, the overall propofol level measured at the hospital was 4,1 mcg and the level found in the heart was 3,2 mcg.

The 2,6 mcg level of propofol recorded in Michael’s blood is shown in the picture as the Femoral Vein line. And if we compare the nearly zero point where the 25ml injection takes us to after the 10 minutes of heart beating with the real level of propofol found in Michael’s body we realize that he should have got a bigger, a much bigger dose of propofol.

This 2,6 mcg level required an explanation and Dr. Shafer provided it:

• “Michael Jackson received more than 25 mg”.

50 ML OF PROPOFOL

However Wass was talking of two 25ml injections – the initial was given by Murray and the next 25ml injection was allegedly self-administered by MJ thus bringing the total quantity to 50ml.

Let us put the matter of “self-injection” aside for a moment and see whether the level of propofol found in Michael’s body (femoral vein) is consistent with Wass’s 50ml theory. Dr. Shafer naturally looked into this version too and even turned it into a much harsher scenario – in his simulation all 50ml was given as one injection and pushed as a bolus (at once)  instead of two possibly slow 25ml injections with a time span between them.

The snapshot made during the trial demonstrates total impossibility of this scenario for Michael’s case.

Now you know what to look for in the picture and see that at the moment when the heart stops ten minutes after the injection the level of propofol is approximately 5 times as low as the level registered in the autopsy report and this means that the propofol given must have been much higher than the 50ml mentioned by Wass.

The reason why the level of propofol drops so fast after it is injected is always the same – when breathing stops the heart goes on beating for at least 10 minutes, the blood continues to circulate and the metabolism process quickly takes away propofol from the system.

This is why doctors and patients like propofol so much – no matter what amount of it has been given it metabolizes so quickly in the body that the moment it stops dripping the patient opens his eyes – it breaks up into its metabolites almost instantly with no trace of propofol found in the blood. The most it takes to fully drive all propofol from the system is 5 minutes or less.

The only place where a little bit of propofol remains even after all of it is gone is the urine. The reason why it happens is because a tiny fraction of non-metabolized propofol manages to escape into the bladder and stays there until the urine is evacuated. If the patient dies the bladder will still act like a bag which keeps the propofol that accumulated there when the patient was still alive and producing urine. Upon his death no more propofol will be added, but the one that got there will be stored.

For propofol to be found in the blood, like in Michael’s case, first of all its quantity should be so big that when breathing stops and the level of propofol begins to quickly decrease, by the time the heart dies (ten minutes later) some propofol should still remain in the body and show a level higher than zero – like the 2,6 mcg in Michael’s blood, for example.

Another reason why propofol may register in the blood is when it flows into the body after the patient dies. In this case it simply streams into the veins and accumulates there without breaking up as nothing in the body is working any longer and no metabolism is taking place.

What course of events could produce the result of so much propofol in the blood?

Dr. Shafer came to a conclusion that it should be a dripping process during which the quantity of propofol was slowly building up and at some point reached a level when breathing stopped. Ten minutes later Michael’s heart stopped too but since propofol was still dripping its concentration in the blood continued rising and reached the level found at the autopsy. The reason why all this happened is because Conrad Murray was simply not looking and is therefore guilty of an unheard of,  terrible, egregious, unconscionable negligence.

The other scenario can be worked out on the basis of Valerie Wass’s words. She says that it was not a dripping process and all propofol was delivered by a syringe. But in this case Murray must have first made an injection of propofol big enough to stop Michael breathing and then continued making these injections again and again until ten minutes later the heart stopped and inject propofol even after that in order to further accumulate it in the blood.

But the described process is actually a premeditated murder. So if Valerie Wass wants to prove that Murray is actually a murderer and not a grossly negligent doctor she is very much welcome to prove it. This is in fact what she is trying to do now.

However you have probably noticed that Valerie Wass used the argument that Michael did not die of a respiratory failure but of a cardiac arrest. Dr. White heavily relied on this version too during the trial but it was also thoroughly disproved by Dr. Shafer.

But how is the situation different in case it was a heart arrest and not a breathing failure?

NO CARDIAC ARREST

You have seen that all above scenarios were based on the assumption that breathing stopped first and ten minutes later a heart arrest followed.

This assumption has an explanation. Propofol does not affect the heart at all and acts on the brain only. And if brain activity stops it no longer sends a signal to the lungs to breathe and this is how the catastrophic scenario is triggered off.

All scientific community knows that propofol acts on the brain and not on the heart, and the doctors who testified at Murray’s trial completely ruled out a heart arrest as a complication of administering propofol.

However Dr. White said that in some cases the heart arrest could still be possible. Indeed, despite the coroner’s conclusion that Michael’s heart was clean of atherosclerosis and was surprisingly healthy and strong, accidents do happen. The possibility of this accident is probably as tiny as the chance of a brick falling on your head now but in theory it is still possible, isn’t it?

Though doctors say that this scenario never happens even in hospitals, unless the patient previously had a heart problem, in theory anything is possible and it is on this virtually non-existent scenario that Dr. White based his assumptions.

But what difference does it make whether it was a breathing failure or a heart arrest?

The difference is a fundamental one – when breathing stops first, propofol has full ten minutes to break up until the heart stops beating, and if the hearts stops first no metabolism takes place and all propofol that was in the body remains there as it is.

Do you remember the two pictures of Dr. Shafer’s simulations? On both pictures the dot line showed that propofol in the blood initially rose to a very high level – even in case of 25ml only – so if the heart stopped at that particular moment, the level of propofol in the blood could indeed be very high.

Only one doctor insisted that it could be a heart arrest

In the circumstances when all doctors say that it could be only a breathing arrest resulting from a huge quantity of propofol, but one doctor (Dr. White) says that it was a heart arrest resulting from the initial 25ml only, there was no other way to prove that Michael received too much propofol that caused his death but look into its level in the urine.

THE FINAL ARGUMENT

You remember that urine always keeps at least a little of propofol which gets there while the body is still functioning, and if the patient dies it simply stores the propofol already excreted into it. This way the bladder acts as a depositary of the propofol collected before, when the patient was still alive.  If propofol manages to get into the bladder in its original form it does not metabolize there and is stored as it is as metabolism takes place in the liver only.

The amount of propofol in Michaels’s bladder found on autopsy was 0,15 micrograms per ml which multiplied by the amount of urine recovered (approx. 500ml) made up 82,5mcg (micrograms).

This is a very tiny figure, especially if you consider that one microgram (mcg) is equal to 1/1000 of milligram (mg) and this indeed shows that practically all propofol is broken up by the liver and very little non-metabolized propofol reaches the bladder.

On the surface it looked like a huge amount of propofol (200mg or more) infused in the blood could not produce the tiny quantity of only 0,0825mg in the urine. Logic suggested, at least to Dr. White, that if the propofol quantity found in the urine was tiny a similar tiny quantity should have been administered into the patient’s blood too.

However propofol is known to be vanishing extremely quickly and Dr. Shafer managed to find exact information about how much propofol vanishes and how much of it stays, and what is the exact ratio between the quantity injected into the patient’s blood and the quantity of unchanged propofol reaching the bladder.

Usually propofol reaches the bladder in a metabolized form with only a tiny fraction of original propofol going there, and at first scientists could not differentiate the original form of propofol from its metabolites. But eventually scientists learned how to differentiate the molecules of propofol in is original form from the molecules of its metabolites. And according to their estimations the amount of the original drug getting into urine is indeed incredibly tiny. They found that only 0,004% of the quantity of the original propofol infused into blood goes into the bladder.

And the autopsy report showed propofol in Michael’s urine exactly in its original form.

Now the only thing we need to do is take a calculator and see how much propofol was given to Michael if 82,5micrograms of it remained in the urine and this quantity made up only 0,004% of the original amount given. If 82,5mcg makes up 0,004% how much will be 100% of it?

My calculations brought me to 2062500 micrograms =  2062,5mg =  206ml of propofol.

This means that on the basis of the highly accurate scientific estimations we learned that the 82,5mcg of unchanged propofol in the urine could be produced only if Murray injected 206ml of propofol into Michael’s blood.

This amount is more than two bottles 100ml each and this quantity should have dripped into Michael’s blood while he was still alive as urine is produced only by a living body.

This makes all Valerie Wass’s talk about Michael dying of 25ml ignorant, foolish and absurd. And though it would be ridiculous to go on looking into Wass’s theories further her self-injection idea is still worth discussing in order to silence all innuendoes about it.

NO CHANCES FOR A SELF-INJECTION THEORY

There is absolutely no way that Michael could make any injections himself.

The first thing we need to remember is that the moment a patient tries to self-inject himself with propofol he becomes unconscious almost immediately. However since an injection may be a bolus one and reaching the brain takes at least a minute we will disregard this argument as not a definitive one and proceed to the rest.

The primary reason why the self-injection scenario could never happen is that in order to inject himself with at least 200ml of propofol which he actually received, Michael would have had to make himself two boluses 100ml each and do it by means of one of the two 10cc (100ml) syringes found in the room. And this means that first he was supposed to make himself a lethal injection by pushing all 100ml at once and if he survived it for some reason then he was supposed to repeat it the second time. Even the way it sounds it is totally ridiculous, so let me not comment on things which are impossible in principle.

The situation becomes even more impossible as Michael’s fingerprints were never found on any of those syringes, saline bags, propofol bottles, etc. In fact no Michael’s fingerprints were found on any of that medical equipment. As a side note let me state that someone else’s fingerprints were found on the empty saline bag with a slit on it but for some reason the prosecution did not explain whose fingerprints they were.

Lidocaine comes in 10ml bottles

Wass’s scenario is all the more impossible as propofol is usually diluted with lidocaine, a local anesthetic which makes the injection less painful. Propofol gives a terrible burning feeling, so injecting it in its pure form hurts very much. This is why propofol is always diluted with lidocaine.

Murray said that he diluted propofol and lidocaine in the ratio of 1:1 and if we are to believe his words we need to double the initial number of two 100ml syringes of propofol and arrive at a conclusion that the number of 100ml syringes was not two but four. Let me remind you that after each of them the patient was supposed to be dead already.

So self-administering propofol via a syringe was impossible as none of the scenarios are workable.

But could he make it via a drip then? And what difference does it make from the syringe self-injection version? Could Michael stand up after the first 100ml bottle and replace it on the IV stand with another one, and then still one more?  And can anyone stand up and replace one bottle with another one without leaving any fingerprints on both of them? And can anyone administer propofol to himself without lidocaine? Or replace one bottle with another one if he has already died from the first bottle? No, the whole thing is so ridiculous that it is not even worth discussing it any more though there are a dozen other reasons why Michael could not do it himself.

However there is a point in Murray’s theory which I always wondered about.

LIDOCAINE

You have probably noticed that Murray said that he diluted propofol and lidocaine in the ratio of 1:1.

Over here Murray is either telling us a big lie, or is betraying to us his complete ignorance of medicine. Mixing propofol with lidocaine in the ratio of 1:1 is simply unheard of and is similar to using Michael as a rat for most cruel experiments.

Lidocaine is never used in the equal proportion to propofol. The usual ratio is 1:10 (one part of lidocaine to 10 parts of propofol), and it is due to its minimal use of this local anesthetic that lidocaine comes in vials of 10ml only.

Murray most probably spoke of the incredible 1:1 ratio to conceal the fact that he had given Michael huge portions of propofol. The lidocaine bottles found in the room included two empty vials 10ml each and three more vilas, two of which were half-full. The cumulative quantity of all lidocaine used should be at least 25-30ml.

Among many other things the number of lidocaine bottles found in the room may testify to the fact that Murray was making syringe anti-pain injections several times, each time starting with a new bottle. Let me remind you that lidocaine is generally used for making the initial injection as when the patient is put under the drip he does not feel the pain anyway and no longer needs lidocaine. However over here there may be variants so let us not get stuck on it.

As I have said even a rough estimation of lidocaine shows that its cumulative quantity given by Murray to Michael was at least 25-30 ml and if we apply this quantity to propofol following the usual ratio of 1:10 we will come to at least 250-300ml of the propofol administered to him.

But could Murray indeed dilute propofol in the proportion of 1:1 as he said he did? I doubt it very much. Unless he was indeed using Michael as a rat for his experiments this outrageous thing is never done. The most I’ve seen in the science literature is 1:9 (9 parts of propofol mixed with one part of lidocaine) but even here scientists argue that it is dangerous as the effect of propofol could be diminished:

There have been reports in the literature indicating that the addition of lidocaine to Propofol in quantities greater than 20 mg lidocaine/200 mg Propofol results in instability of the emulsion which is associated with increases in globule sizes over time and (in rat studies) a reduction in anesthetic potency. Therefore, it is recommended that lidocaine be administered prior to Propofol administration or that it be added to Propofol immediately before administration and in quantities not exceeding 20 mg lidocaine/200 mg Propofol. http://www.drugs.com/pro/propofol.html

So since the 1:1 ratio is hardly possible, let me repeat that the most probable reason why Murray said he diluted lidocaine with propofol in equal parts is to create the impression that he administered propofol in the amount not higher than that of lidocaine.

Lidocaine could be easily calculated by the police on the basis of the vials left and if they had derived the quantity of propofol following the standard dilution formula this alone could have told them how much propofol was used.

I’ve also looked into whether it is safe to give 25-30ml of lidocaine (or almost three full vials of it) in one injection diluted with 25ml of propofol Murray said he gave. And from what I’ve read it looks like it is a grave lidocaine overdose.

And the symptoms of lidocaine toxicity are no small matter – they include a respiratory failure, coma or cardiac arrest:

Symptoms of Lidocaine toxicity

The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources for Lidocaine toxicity includes 27 symptoms including the following:

Restlessness  Dizziness Blurred vision Vomiting Convulsions Depression Respiratory failure Coma Myocardial depression

http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/l/lidocaine_toxicity/symptoms.htm#symptom_list

So after reading all this what are we supposed to think of Valerie Wass’s attempt to revise Murray’s case? That in addition to propofol Murray was poisoning Michael with lidocaine too and wanted to provoke a respiratory failure, coma or cardiac arrest by overdosing him?

Or that Murray injected propofol only by a syringe? But then, judging by the quantity of 200-300ml Michael received, it means that he kept injecting syringe after syringe until Michael accumulated the huge dose and these injections continued even after the heart stopped? So does Wass want us to think that Murray committed a premeditated murder?

It would be really great if Wass stopped retelling us Murray’s stories she so faithfully believes in but tried to make Murray give truthful answers to questions we are indeed interested in. For example, why was there a murmur of voices and a cough heard by Murray’s girlfriend on the phone when supposedly there was no one else there but Murray?  Or why were all video tapes from Michael’s home erased except for the moment when Murray arrived? And whose fingerprints were found on the saline bag with a propofol bottle inside it? And why doesn’t Murray tell us if anyone else entered the house after he arrived there?

In short we would want to hear the truth and in case Valerie Wass really wants to do something for her client she should make him tell it instead of silencing him. Because due to people like Dr. Shafer we already know what Murray did to Michael and don’t want to hear any of his (or her) lies.

HOW MUCH PROPOFOL WAS IT?

The amount of propofol administered to Michael that night must have been gigantic. Judging by lidocaine alone it was enormous. But the key evidence in this respect is the level of propofol in Michael’s blood and urine.

Roughly speaking the concentration of propofol in the blood mainly points to the amount of propofol Michael received after his death. Why? Because while the patient is alive most of the Propofol going into the body is breaking up and if it accumulates in the body it accumulates rather slowly. After propofol stops dripping everything that accumulated fully breaks up within the next 5 minutes. Even if there is a breathing arrest the heart goes on beating for a period twice as long (10 minutes), and within this time all propofol should be gone from the system.

However all Michael’s tissues were loaded with propofol – he had propofol in every organ, even in his eyes. And this means that the drip did not stop. Propofol freely flowed into his body saturating him after his death with no one looking at him or taking care.

And the level of propofol in the urine shows how much propofol Michael received while he was still alive. Urine is produced only when the body is functioning, and this is when the residual propofol equivalent to 200ml went into the bladder. And it seems to me that this amount should be added to the propofol which accumulated in Michael’s blood after his death.

How much propofol does it make all in all then? 300ml? Or even more?

And after that Valerie Wass says it was 25ml only?

Notwithstanding the depressive feeling which the analysis of Michael’s last days produces on many of us, we still need to put into order a few more things we know about AEG Live. Rereading the articles of the period I ask myself a lot of questions and surprisingly, many of them begin to acquire clear answers.

Michael Jackson and Tohme

To those who haven’t been following us let me make a short summary first. The 50 concerts disaster took place without Michael’s direct involvement and was arranged for him by AEG Live and Thome Thome who called himself Michael’s manager but never acted in his interests. Thome claimed they had an arrangement with Michael that he would not get into Michael’s creative process while Michael would not get into the way Tohme ran his business.

“We had an agreement,” Tohme continued. “I would never interfere with his creative decisions and he wouldn’t interfere with my business decisions.”

http://www.today.com/id/31740617#.UUFxuBeeNEI

Since Tohme was holding Michael’s general power of attorney he thought himself free to arrange anything for Michael without his consent or at least well-informed consent. Even if they did notify Michael of the general idea of what they were doing, I am afraid that by March 2009 little depended on Michael anyway – his life was so much controlled by Barrack and Tohme (and later by AEG) through his obligations stemming from the Neverland deal that he could hardly dispute any of the big trio’s decisions.

Let me remind you that business with AEG Live was a condition set by Tom Barrack for “saving” Neverland. The word is in quotes as the essence of the deal is acquiring Michael’s property at a price lower than the market price. I have found the market price estimation of Neverland made by a local real property agent but will post it at a later time not to distract attention from the main topic now.

And the main topic now is AEG Live. The convenient setting created by Tohme and Barrack allowed AEG Live to take advantage of Michael for their own ends – after the initial ten concerts sold out within minutes greed overwhelmed AEG Live so much that there was no more stopping them.

They added forty more concerts without ever thinking whether the 50-year old performer would be able to do them. To me more exact, judging by the emails they exchanged between themselves, they probably thought that he would not  make even a single concert, so in the long run what did it matter whether it would be 30 extra concerts or even 40? What really mattered was a million tickets sold and the fact that in case of a cancellation Michael Jackson would pay for it with his assets, while AEG Live will forever enjoy the fame of someone who wanted to “save” Michael Jackson, only this miserable creature failed it…

Sharon Osbourne recently confirmed what we suspected all along – the cancellation scenario was no less profitable to AEG than the concerts themselves, and it still remains to be seen which of the two scenarios suited AEG Live even better:

Sharon Osbourne has been called to testify in the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial.

…Speaking on ‘The Talk,’ she said, ”There were people at that company who knew he was not well but didn’t care. Whether he performed or not, they’d still make money. I had conversations with people who said exactly that. I will tell people who said it.” http://www.mjworld.net/news/2013/04/07/sharon-osbourne-to-testify/

Michael Jackson and Tohme

So they knew that Michael was not well, but did not care and therefore tried to squeeze from him the maximal profit. To do so they set the impossible 50 dates and did it in close cooperation with Tohme who acted as their close ally behind Michael’s back:

AEG’s Randy Phillips told CelebrityAccesss that they have been working with Dr. Tohme Tohme in connection with all of Michael Jackson’s dates.

http://encore.celebrityaccess.com/index.php?encoreId=184&articleId=30345

The number of 50 was only half the problem for Michael. The much bigger problem was too little time between the shows. A break of one day only between the dates was obviously not enough for a man with huge insomnia problems who needed more than average time to regain his energy for the next show.

Michael was speaking of his insomnia quite freely and he no doubt discussed it with Tohme and AEG Live, saying that his absolute limit was 2 shows a week –  however none of them listened. The schedule was set following a show/day off pattern and when Michael realized the scope of the disaster he fired Tohme.

But this did not help. Tohme stayed as he was an indispensable element to the big trio – to AEG Live in the first place who in their turn were heavily assisted by Tom Barrack:

The Los Angeles Times reported this past weekend that banker Tom Barrack, who runs Colony Capital, is heavily involved in Michael’s massive show-business comeback. Barrack’s company has major ownership interests here in the Las Vegas Hilton and the Stations Casino group.

http://www.mjfanclub.net/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1895:fyi-sorting-out-all-the-michael-jackson-rumors&catid=85:latest-news&Itemid=82

WHO WAS MICHAEL’S MANAGER?

Did any of you ever wonder why no information about Tohme’s dismissal ever reach the media? There was a lot of usual mocking speculation about the mess in Michael Jackson’s affairs and three different people claiming they were sole Michael’s managers, but all of it was habitually explained by Michael’s “bizarre” ways. They preferred to make fun of it while the matter could have been clarified in the easiest way possible, just by Michael or AEG Live announcing to the press that Dr. Tohme was replaced by another manager.

However Michael could not announce a thing like that and AEG Live did not want to.

In fact even after the March dismissal of Tohme Randy Phillips still kept introducing him as Michael’s manager, thus humiliating Michael beyond measure and showing to everyone around his total disregard for Michael’s decisions.

No announcement was ever made because Tohme’s powerful backers made it impossible for the news of Tohme’s dismissal to reach the press. They were intentionally suppressing all mention of it and were probably taking pleasure  in the resulting confusion as it was adding to Michael Jackson’s “bizarre” image which was only to their advantage.

This is it outtakes: No one knew what was going behind the scenes

On April 2, 2009 when this article was published no one could even imagine what a sad drama with Michael and his managers was going behind the scenes:

Will Michael Jackson’s Real Manager Please Stand Up
April 2, 2009

ATLANTA (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Rowe Entertainment appears to have sparked a controversy after they issued a press release through Champion Management, announcing that Leonard Rowe was going to be assuming management duties for the prodigal King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

Sources close to the matter have told CelebrityAccess that Rowe had joined forces with Michael Jackson’s father Joseph Jackson to convince Michael to let them assume handling the artist’s business affairs but that they had been rebuffed by the singer.

On the other side of the issue, Frank Dileo maintains that Rowe’s press release was less than factual and that they manage Jackson.

A spokesman for Dileo told CelebrityAccess that they would release a statement along with AEG to address Rowe’s claims next week and suggested that legal action may be in the offing.

However, AEG’s Randy Phillips told CelebrityAccesss that they have been working with Dr. Tohme Tohme in connection with all of Michael Jackson’s dates. Mr. Phillips went on to say that they are currently contemplating no legal action against Rowe and that they aren’t planning any press releases.

Rowe is known for his work as a tour promoter and has worked with a number of artists including Marvin Gaye, however his most recent spate of publicity stemmed from a string of lawsuits late last year over an R. Kelly tour that Rowe promoted.

According to court documents, Kelly accused Rowe of selling shares in Kelly’s “Double Up” tour to investors without Kelly’s permission, despite a contractual stipulation that barred such sales. The court agreed and awarded Kelly $3.4 million over the matter.

Kelly’s suit wasn’t the only litigation to stem from the tour and the investors who’d purchased the non-existent shares in the tour filed suit against Rowe as did singer Ne-Yo, who won a $700,000 judgment against Rowe after he was dropped from Kelly’s tour after only two shows.

Rowe was also part of a group of African-American promoters who attempted in 1998 to sue a number of entertainment firms, including CAA, WMA, Clear Channel Entertainment, APA and the HowardRoseAgency for $700 million, alleging racial discrimination. Several of the firms opted to settle but the case was finally rejected by the court in 2005.

Mr. Rowe did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

http://encore.celebrityaccess.com/index.php?encoreId=184&articleId=30345

The question of who was Michael’s manager is relatively easy to decipher now. We just need to remember that since AEG Live was in full control of Michael Jackson’s life it was them who took decisions who would be his manager. After firing Tohme Michael most probably invited Leonard Rowe (or agreed to invite him following his father’s insistence), however Randy Phillips refused to deal with Rowe and confronted Michael with a sort of an ultimatum suggesting Frank Dileo as a compromise variant that would suit both sides.

From Tohme’s revelations to Randall Sullivan we know that AEG Live did not consider Frank Dileo a person capable of creating trouble for AEG Live, so they agreed to keep him by Michael’s side as a harmless old buddy who “made Michael laugh” and reminded him of the good old times they had once enjoyed together.

As regards Leonard Rowe they didn’t think him to be a serious opponent either as his candidacy was indeed not free from a certain ambiguity, but Rowe was capable of creating problems for AEG and this is why they pressed Michael into dismissing him.

The person of their choice was Tohme Tohme. This is really who AEG Live was ready to deal with and actually went on cooperating with.

Leonard Rowe’s own account of the story is fitting this picture perfectly well (his book and the dates will be quoted here from the blog:  thttp://loveformichaeljackson.wordpress.com/category/tohme-tohme/)

March 21, 2009 Michael Jackson asks Leonard Rowe to come and work with him and to keep an eye on what AEG was doing and watch over his finances. (WRHTMJ – pg. 125)

March 25, 2009 Leonard Rowe appointment letter signed by Michael Jackson:

Randy Phillips/AEG address

Dr. Mr. Phillips

Please be advised that effective from the date of this letter, Mr. Leonard Rowe is my authorized representative in matters concerning my endeavors in the Entertainment Industry (or financial overseer only). All such matters concerning me shall be directed to Mr. Rowe (pertaining to finances [not legible]/and the 02 shows in london this can be revoked at any time) who shall act in my stead, until and unless I revoke this authorization.
Please extend every courtesy to Mr. Rowe.

Sincerely yours,

Michael Jackson

State of California

County of Los Angeles

On March 25, 2009, before me personally came Michael Jackson, known to be to be the individual described in and who execued the foregoing, and acknowledge to me that he executed it.

________________________________

Notary Public

*the information in parentheses is handwritten on the letter by Michael Jackson and the “not legible” in brackets is something handwritten in the letter that cannot be made out by this blogger. Misspelled words remain the same in the Notary Public paragraph as they are in letter provided by Mr. Rowe. Michael Jackson allegedly signed the letter. There is no notary public signature on the letter provided. (WRHTMJ – pg. 131)

In his book Leonard Rowe mentioned a very important point I did not know of –  every leg of the show should have a separate signed contract by the artist before the tickets are put on sale (or it can be done as a signed Appendix to the general agreement). Needless to say, the AEG contract had nothing of the kind:

For starters, AEG sold out fifty shows but the contract between AEG and Michael does not mention fifty shows, it speaks only of thirty-one shows. In fact, Michael told me personally that he only originally agreed to do ten shows but evidently, contractually this number was increased to thirty-one. Surely a company the size of AEG, with their in-house attorneys, that promotes hundreds of concerts every year, would surely know the simple fact that every show or leg of shows must have a signed contract by the artist before the show is put on sale. But AEG had no signed contract with Michael for fifty shows. These additional shows put increased pressure on an already sick and frail Michael Jackson, whom they knew would never want to disappoint his fans by not performing. (WRHTMJ – pg. 159)

Rowe says that Randy Phillips refused to work with him and practically blackmailed Michael Jackson by threatening to “pull the plug” if he didn’t give in. This is the second time we hear about the threat to “pull the plug” or cancel the shows attributed to Randy Phillips – the first time it was at Murray’s trial when Kenny Ortega read out his email to Phillips. Randy Phillips said that he never heard the expression:

Randy Phillips knew he had to do something about me, when Michael asked me to come and work with him and to watch over his financials and other business affairs. This also included the shows that were scheduled for London. Michael told me that Randy Phillips had said to him that he refused to work with Leonard Rowe, and that he was calling in Frank DiLeo to manage him. If he didn’t accept this, then he was going to pull the plug on everything. He knew he had Michael trapped. From that point on, Michael and I began speaking a lot less often. I received a phone call from Michael a day or so later and he said to me, “I want you to meet and work with Frank DiLeo.”

Rowe makes a very important observation which fully coincides with my opinion of AEG’s contracts with Michael Jackson and Conrad Murray – Randy Phillips had a tendency to make things he wanted them to be without having a signed contract in place. This manner is extremely deceitful as it either creates the impression that the matter is fully agreed on and only some formal papers remain to be finalized (Murray’s case) or conversely, that nothing is yet finalized and there is plenty of time to look into details before making the final contract (Michael Jackson’s case).

As to Frank Dileo I think that he was the candidate who suited both AEG and Michael and therefore Michael must have easily agreed to Frank. He could also do it simply to avoid more pressure from AEG, especially in the face of the threat to “pull the plug” and demand all the advances back:

…Randy Phillips and Frank DiLeo claim that Michael had hired Frank DiLeo to be his manager and he was to replace me. I never heard any of this form Michael. When it came to Michael Jackson it appeared that Randy Phillips had a tendency to make things like he wanted them to be without having a signed agreement or a contract in place. I have asked numerous times where is Frank DiLeo’s management contract signed by Michael. They surely would have one if that was Michael’s wish, but it wasn’t. In my opinion, this was an act forced on Michael by Randy Phillips. Michael told me himself that he would never hire Frank DiLeo again. He could have hired Frank DiLeo before he signed an agreement with me but he didn’t. In my opinion, and the words of Michael, this was a move being forced on him by Randy Phillips in an effort to get rid of me. (WRHTMJ- pgs 144-147)

I was told by Michael Jackson that Randy Phillips had called him for a mysterious meeting. At this meeting, Michael said he was told that AEG refused to work with Leonard Rowe, and that he had to get rid of me. They were calling in Frank DiLeo to manage him and take my place. If Michael did not agree they were going to pull the plug on everything and demand payment of all the advance money that AEG had provided him. They knew that they had Michael Jackson where they wanted him… (WRHTMJ- pg. 183)

http://loveformichaeljackson.wordpress.com/category/tohme-tohme/

No wonder that when Michael was inviting Frank Dileo he laconically worded it as: “It’s a little messed up” which was a gross understatement of course:

By the time DiLeo returned, Jackson’s inner circle had shriveled practically to nothing — no lawyers or accountants, for example — with the July kickoff of “This Is It” just weeks away, DiLeo contended in an exclusive interview.

Only  Jackson’s then-manager, the “mysterious Dr. Tohme Tohme,” as the press sometimes described him, remained, DiLeo says. And soon Tohme Tohme’s status turned murky.

“Look, come back, it’s a little messed up,”’ said Jackson, as DiLeo remembers it.

http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/michael-jackson-5-return-branca-22424

No, it wasn’t just “a little” messed up. It was a terrible mess and judging by the way AEG Live was taking decisions for Michael, ignoring his opinion and controlling his life and business affairs it was it more like keeping him a hostage than having equal cooperation with him.

HOW MANY SHOWS WAS IT?

The short answer is 10 shows. The long answer will involve an explanation.

From Frank Dileo we know that the letter of intent passed by AEG Live for their contract with Michael was read out to him three times. The “readers” were most probably Thome’s lawyer Joel Katz, AEG’s lawyer Kathy Jorrie who also drew up Murray’s contract, and the third one was most probably Thome himself. What is important is that there was no lawyer by Michael’s side to represent his interests at the negotiations.

Irrespective of the number of times the AEG contract was read out, hearing it was no good. Imagine this contract as an algebra formula containing lots of unknown X, Y and Z whose definitions should be looked up in a certain Appendix where they are explained in ancient Chinese, and you will probably realize that for the ear this contract was totally incomprehensible.

Difficult puzzles like that should be first spread out on a desk, thoroughly analyzed, compared back and forth, and only after all that you will probably grasp half of what it is.

However with Tohme’s invaluable help on January 26, 2009 AEG Live managed to have those unfinished documents signed.  I call them unfinished because the letter of intent addressed to “Dear Dr. Tohme” closed with a hope they would sign a definitive agreement soon and carried two Michael’s signatures which did not match. The documents also contained a promissory note for the advance paid to Michael by AEG. The advance was backed up by the assets of Michael Jackson Company LLC which was run by Tohme Tohme at the time. This way all of it ran a full circle and left no escape for Michael Jackson.

The number of shows the AEG contract contains is the number no one has ever heard of - 18 shows. Strange as it might seem but this number Michael Jackson could have even heard. Why I think so is because Michael wanted  two shows a week at the most and if we divide 18 shows by the 9,5 weeks between July 26th and September 30 stated in the contract it would make exactly two shows per week as Michael expected.

So those 18 shows were probably the only final number of shows Michael was counting upon.  The papers said that 18 shows could be increased to 31 under certain circumstances but only after obtaining the approval of the Artist’s company, which was absolutely no problem as it was run by Tohme as you understand.

However Michael never talked even of 18 shows and insisted that it was 10 only. The family knew of the arrangement:

Jackson’s family are aghast and say in private that they don’t think he can [do the shows]. His mother Katherine felt comfortable with him taking on ten dates, which was the initial plan. But she and the rest of his family were stunned when he seemed to be pressured by the demand for tickets into adding a further 40 shows.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1170856/As-concern-grows-voice-health-mental-state-ask-Has-Jacko-40m-date-disaster.html

Is Katherine Jackson right when she says that initially it was ten shows only? Yes, she is.

In fact ten shows is the only correct number as only 10 shows were initially insured by Lloyds.

INSURANCE

On March 5th the Wall street Journal said that it had details of Michael Jackson’s deal and that Michael Jackson was not committed to play more than the original 10 shows:

The Wall Street Journal has the details of Jackson’s deal with AEG Live…..[ ] Mr. Jackson would then have the option to add more dates in Europe, Asia and finally North America. But he is not committed to play any shows beyond the original 10, and would in any event not reach the U.S. before 2011.

The confirmation of 10 shows by the insurers is a fundamental and top important fact rarely mentioned in the press though it can still be found in some sources. Randy Phillips himself disclosed several times that the insurance covered only 10 concerts and initially it was for the first 23 days only. Let us divide 23 days by the show/day off pattern established by AEG and Tohme, and you will see that it makes exactly 10 or 11 shows.

No wonder that the doctors chosen by the insurance company said that Michael passed his medical examination with flying colors. They tested his health for four and a half  hours and determined that he would perfectly cope with 10 shows (and no more).  I never doubted those findings because essentially Michael was a healthy man who could have done even more shows if he had been given enough time to restore his energy and get enough sleep between the shows.

Randy Phillips said that the doctors who examined Michael’s health were independent and this means that they were chosen by the insurers:

Asked about concerns over Jackson’s health in recent years, Phillips said Jackson had passed a four-and-a-half hour physical examination with independent doctors.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2009/03/05/uk-jackson-idUKTRE5234ZI20090305

According to Tohme the medical examination took place sometime in February and by March 15^th AEG Live the insurance for the first 10 dates had been ready. The problems with it  appeared only when AEG was blinded by its greed for a million tickets and added 40 more shows:

AEG Struggling To Insure Michael Jackson’s Farewell Concerts

Hilary Lewis|March 15, 2009

Tickets for Michael Jackson’s farewell concerts at London’s O2 arena may have sold out in a record five hours, but it’s taking promoter and venue operator AEG Live much longer to find someone willing to insure all of the King of Pop’s dates.

NY Daily News: AEG has lined up insurance for the first 10 dates, but may be forced to self-insure the rest of the performances at the O2 arena between July and February.

Chief executive Randy Phillips said he isn’t worried.

“The insurance brokers sent doctors and they spend five hours with him, taking blood tests. He’s a vegetarian, he’s in great shape,” he said.

“We would be prepared to self-insure to make up the dates. It’s a risk we’re willing to take to bring the King of Pop to his fans.”

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-03-15/entertainment/30028493_1_dates-aeg-live-asap

The increase in the number of shows was an unwelcome surprise to the insurers – 50 shows involved a much more demanding regimen, were connected with much higher risks and evidently required a more thorough physical check up.

The reason for their doubts was not so much Michael’s health but the grueling seven-month run of the shows. In fact the situation was even worse than the insurers imagined it – the run was a combination of two enduring marathons with a three months break between them. The insurers realized the difficulty of such a grueling schedule for a 50 year old man and showed a much more responsible approach to this matter than AEG Live, though of course all they were thinking of was money too. In the middle of March the matter was not resolved yet:

MARCH 15, 2009

AEG CAN’T INSURE LONDON CONCERTS…

Telegraph:

AEG Live, which organised the star’s programme starting in July, said the company is “still negotiating” with insurers, but insisted it is willing to take on the risk of Jackson falling ill.

Insurance sources told trade magazine Reinsurance that the appetite to cover the risk was low after the schedule was extended from an initial 10 days. They said concerns existed over the 50-year-old’s health and the gruelling seven-month run.

The company is understood to have managed to secure cover for the first 10 dates, worth about £80m, with the additional dates likely to take the policy towards £300m.

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/michael-jackson-imposter-aeg-cant-insure-london-concertsscalper-tickets-selling-4klawsuit-filed/

The amended variant of the insurance policy was effective as of April 24th and covered 30 shows, but only ON CONDITION Michael Jackson underwent a second medical examination

So what Michael said about going to bed thinking it was 10 and waking up to 50 was absolutely true. Moreover the same can be applied to the insurers too – they also thought they were insuring for 10 shows but were soon facing 50 instead.

Only Lloyds could not tricked as easily as Michael Jackson was and the insurers agreed to increase the cover to 30 concerts as their final insurance policy showed it (it was agreed in April).

This agreement was most probably obtained on condition that Michael Jackson underwent the second medical examination – in London this time.

Since Randy Phillips always talked of the insurance for the first 10 dates as a finalized matter and never made any reservations about repeated physical examinations for it, we can consider it an undisputable fact that the need for a second medical examination arose only due to AEG’s increase in the number of shows.

This means that if AEG had not imposed on Michael Jackson those 50 concerts, no second examination would have been required, and Conrad Murray would not have spent half the night exchanging emails with the insurers and would have probably not left his patient unattended. And if he hadn’t left him Michael would probably be alive now.

WHO DID MURRAY WORK FOR?

So whose orders was Murray fulfilling – Michael’s or AEG’s? And in whose factual employment was he if he was taking care of AEG’s business when his duty as a doctor demanded looking after his patient?

Michael refused to provide medical records for the past 5 years for the second examination demanded by the insurers and was of the opinion that one physical was quite enough. I can imagine how insulted he was by the insolent way AEG increased those shows in the first place and was all the more insulted by the resulting need to do a second medical examination. After all this was happening solely due to AEG’s insatiable appetite – Michael never wanted those 50 shows, so why should he bend over backwards to fulfill their orders now?

Many of us are wondering whether it was Murray’s obligation to follow AEG’s instructions and spend half the night settling the insurance matters instead of taking care of his patient. Well, you remember that the central point of Murray’s agreement with AEG Live was “performing the Services reasonably requested by the Producer”.

One of those requests came from Kathy Jorrie on June 18, 2009. She sent Conrad Murray his contract with AEG  for final revision and in the same message also asked him to assist them in obtaining the medical insurance for AEG Live:

Kathy Jorrie of AEG Live to Conrad Murray: “AEG is arranging to obtain cancellation insurance in connection with the O2 performances. Is this something you can assist us in obtaining for the insurance company?” June 18, 2009

Murray did not refuse them. He was hoping to have his contract with AEG Live finally signed and was surely  unwilling to break its terms as he wanted very much to receive the money AEG owed to him since May 1.

The email from Kathy Jorrie thanking Murray for agreeing to assist AEG Live in obtaining the medical records came on June 23d, so they were discussing this matter just on the eve of Michael Jackson’s death.

Kathy Jorrie to Conrad Murray: “Thank you for agreeing to assist…” June 23, 2009

Murray was arranging those papers either as a favor to AEG Live or as “performing the Services reasonably requested by the Producer”.

And it was during performing those services for AEG Live that his patient stopped breathing and Murray did not even notice it.

Some will say that even if Murray had not been busy with the AEG papers that night he would have talked to his girls instead and this we cannot fully rule out of course, but no speculation should distract us from the hard fact that Murray was taking care of the AEG insurance that night solely because he was fulfilling AEG’s orders.

And it seems that we even know why they were in so much hurry with the insurance.

Only one article reported this very strange fact.  This article was dated June 26^th 2009 (the next day after Michael’s death) and said that the physical for obtaining the insurance was to take place that very day  which was  June 26!  When reporting this incredible news the paper referred to sources within Lloyds:

26 Jun 2009

By Katherine Blackler

…Sources also told Reinsurance that Robertson Taylor, the specialist music and entertainment arm of Oxygen Insurance Brokers, is the broker for Michael Jackson’s UK concerts that were due to take place in London later this year.

However, it is believed by many today that the claims may not be as high as originally believed as cover had only been secured for the event of ticket refunds, not for profits. According to sources current estimates for claims stand at around £100m.

A Lloyd’s spokesman said: “We can confirm that some insurance for Michael Jackson’s concerts has been placed in the Lloyd’s market, but any losses are not likely to be significant.”

Robertson Taylor was unable to confirm of deny the rumours today due to confidentiality issues.

According to sources within Lloyd’s, Michael Jackson was also ironically due for a physical today in an attempt to secure life insurance cover.

http://www.postonline.co.uk/reinsurance/news/1406311/claims-cancelled-uk-michael-jackson-concerts-cost-industry-gbp300million

So if we are to believe this article and a source within Lloyds, the physical examination was to take place the very next day Michael died??

How is it possible if they were talking of an examination in London only? I have no answer to it at the moment but the sources within Lloyd’s should know what they are saying, shouldn’t they?

And I see nothing ironic about it either. All these coincidences are becoming really too much.

Does this strange fact add a new shade to our understanding of the situation around Michael prior to his death? I am afraid it does, and very much so, however I’m not ready to elaborate on it further yet. Thinking of various possibilities it might involve is really too depressing, so let’s look at another problem instead.

WHY DID THE 50 SHOWS DISPUTE ERUPT ONLY IN JUNE?

Though the 50 dates were set in the first decade of March the dispute over them reached the press only in June 2009 when Michael disclosed to his fans how unhappy he was with the schedule. It was totally uncharacteristic of Michael to reveal his problems to anyone at all and this makes me think that there were some circumstances that prompted Michael to be so unusually outspoken with his fans.

The media reported the dispute on June 5 -6, 2009, so for full three months since March Michael was keeping silent:

Michael Jackson Is Thrilled With 50-Date Comeback Concerts

June 6th, 2009 8:40am

The promoters behind Michael Jackson’s comeback have slammed reports the pop superstar is angry he has been signed to perform 50 London concerts.

Jackson was reported to have protested the length of his run at the British capital’s O2 Arena this summer while talking to fans outside a rehearsal session.

He reportedly told them, “I don’t know how I’m going to do 50 shows. I’m not a big eater; I need to put some weight on. I only wanted to do 10, and then take the tour around the world to other cities. I went to bed knowing I sold 10 dates, and woke up to the news I was booked to do 50.”

But Randy Phillips, the CEO of producers AEG Live, insists Jackson’s comments were fabricated.

He says, “This is not true; Michael Jackson was thrilled at selling 50 shows. The size and scale of this show would not be possible without an extended run, which Michael has been fully on board with from the very beginning. He has not agreed to a world tour at this point, however, he can at any time.”

http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/06/06/michael_jackson_is_thrilled_with_50_date

Now it looks almost incredible that Randy Phillips reacted to the news of Michael’s dissatisfaction by claiming in full earnest that Michael was “thrilled” to do 50 concerts and that his comments were “fabricated”.

The fact that Michael was resentful of the way AEG forced him into those extra dates leaves no doubt whatsoever, but it is a bit surprising that the dispute erupted only at the beginning of June. The crisis took place three months earlier, so why did it surface only in June?

One of the reasons for that might be the unpleasant discovery Michael made about AEG with which the conversation with the fans started. He found out that through a Viagogo broker AEG was selling the best seats at exorbitant prices and Michael’s most devoted fans had to stay somewhere in the back as they could not afford to pay hundreds and even thousands of pounds for a ticket. The seats affordable to them were for the furthest rows only as they were sold at the face value of £50-75.

Though selling secondary tickets was mentioned in their contract as AEG’s “responsibility” Michael Jackson knew little or nothing about the price of secondary tickets. His ignorance of the matter is clear from the fact that he did not even realize that the area around the stage would be seated and that fans would not be allowed to stand there as was customary for his shows.

Talitha, a devoted fan put down in her blog their discussion with Michael of the tickets problem during their meeting on May 29th. Let me repeat it here again:

“They did the schedule wrong“

The first indication I got that he wasn’t entirely happy with the tour was on 29 May, which was his last day of rehearsal at Center Staging. He spoke with a European fan who told him that we were unable to buy tickets to all the This Is It shows, firstly because everyone was limited to buying only four tickets per credit card and also because all the best tickets had been sold to a secondary ticketing site called Viagogo, which was selling them for hundreds or even thousands of pounds.

Normally the biggest fans are at the front because they arrive first and wait the longest, not because they fork out the most money. But the only tickets we could buy at face value, of £50 to £75, were for seats that were the furthest from the stage. (Note that artists usually get a percentage of the FACE VALUE of tickets sold so Michael might have gotten £20 for a ticket that sold for £1,000!)

After speaking with this fan about the tickets, Michael called the other nine of us into the studio. This is the conversation that took place, as I wrote it down that evening:

MJ: I love you, I love you, I love you. I wanted to tell you that I didn’t know that the concerts were seated. I didn’t know about that and I’m going to do something about it. They did that without my consent. They just did it for obvious reasons.

All of us: To make money, we know. We know it’s not your fault.

Jill: We know how complex this is and how many people are involved.

MJ: They did the schedule wrong too. It was supposed to be show, day off, show, day off, show, day off.

Jill: We are worried we won’t be able to keep up with you.

MJ: (laughs) I put everything I have into the shows. I work so hard. But I’m only one person. There is only so much I can do. (sounding emotional)

Me: Michael, please don’t push yourself too hard. Please look after your health. You are more important than anything. You don’t have to do all 50 shows. If it’s too much, just cancel them. Don’t let anyone pressure you into doing anything you don’t want to do. Only do what you want to do. It’s YOU who we love.

MJ: Oh thank you, you’re so sweet, thank you. Bless you all. I also wanted to say that I’m sorry that we don’t put the window down sometimes but it’s for security reasons. I know you all wait for me and I love you so much.

All of us: Don’t worry, we understand Michael. We love you. We love you more.

MJ: Thank you for your love and thank you for your loyalty.

He clasped his hands together, bowed his head, and stood there in silence for a while. We could feel his energy reaching out towards us, filling the room.

Unfortunately someone betrayed Michael by selling him out to a British tabloid, which reported some of the things he had said to us (and I believe to this other fan) the next day. AEG were quick to issue a statement denying the validity of the story.

http://www.michaeljacksonthelastangel.com/michael-jackson-this-is-it.html

The importance of Talitha’s evidence cannot be overestimated. It has several extremely important details which did not attract attention at first sight but have suddenly acquired a new meaning after everything we’ve read and seen.

A new point to what has been discussed here is that Michael says that “It was supposed to be show, day off, show, day off, show, day off” which looks like he thinks that the problem was fixed and the grueling schedule is no longer a threat.

But this is absolutely not the case. We have seen the final schedule and the only changes made there concerned postponement of the first shows until a later time while the pace of the shows essentially remained the same. This makes me think that even at the end of May Michael was still gravely misinformed about the true state of affairs with his schedule.

Another important point is that Michael was so far away from the business side of those concerts (or so misinformed by his partners) that he did not know the elementary fact that the concerts were seated.  Kenny Ortega presented it as an advantage – they allegedly did it so that Michael could see the faces of his fans:

“The show was a huge production, but it was also very important that Michael had these moments with just the audience,” says Ortega. “He would say, ‘I want to be looking into the faces of my fans who have waited for weeks and months to be here.‘ So we developed a seating arrangement so that thousands of fans could be close to Michael.” Adds Payne: “One of our goals was to create those times that the fans had Michael all to themselves.”

http://www.people.com/people/package/gallery/0,,20287787_20314448_20693839,00.html

However Michael said that AEG Live did it without his consent and “he was going to do something about it”. Well, doing something about it means that he intended to discuss the matter with AEG Live, didn’t he? Now we can imagine what that conversation was like – by the bullying way AEG Live is openly behaving towards the Jacksons and their lawyers now we can imagine the way they talked to Michael then, when no one was looking and not a single person would say a word of support for him.

One more thing we learn from Talitha is that the front tickets were sold for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and the usual face value tickets were scarce as all the fans present at that conversation (nine or more people from the US and Europe) could buy tickets only to the furthest rows despite their undoubtedly heroic efforts to get the best seats.  And this means that the costly “secondary” tickets made up probably the overwhelming share of the total number of the seats closest to the stage.

All of it makes me think that Michael had a hard conversation with Randy Phillips sometime after June 5^th when the news of his talk with fans was published in the press. This might have had some impact on their further relations, later rehearsals and could even be a reason why he missed some of them.

Making a video for “They don’t care about us” (June 2009) at Culver Studios

The MJJ Timeline blog tells us that exactly at that time Michael went to Culver City and its studios to shoot the so-called Dome project which consisted of seven works, so this is probably where Michael relaxed a little after a confrontation with Randy Phillips:

June 01-11 :

In Culver Studios in Culver City, Michael shoots The Dome Project which consists seven works: Smooth Criminal (Jackson inserted into classic 2D black-and-white film noir chase sequence); Thriller (3-D movie starting in a haunted house with a ghostly image of Vincent Price, then moving into a graveyard where the dead awaken); Earth Song (3D short film featuring little girl who wanders through rain forest, takes a nap and dreams of the splendor of nature, and awakens to find the natural world has been devastated); They Don’t Care About Us (a/k/a Drill, 2D film in which a sea of soldiers march in unison; 10 male dancers replicated hundreds of times); MJ Air (3-D movie in which a 707 jet pulls into the frame; hole was to open in screen for Michael Jackson to enter; jet flies away); The Final Message (3-D movie of little girl from rain forest embracing the earth); and The Way You Make Me Feel (2D theatrical background featuring male dancers fashioned as historical construction workers.

Making Smooth Criminal at Culver Studios (early June 2009)

By the way if all this was indeed happening on June 1-11 how could Michael attend the rehearsals if all this time he was busy with the videos?

There is one more point I noticed in Michael’s words to the fans.  Sounding emotional Michael said that he was putting everything into the shows and worked really hard, but he was only one person and “there was only so much he could do”.

What does this remark supposed to mean? To me it conveys Michael Jackson’s utter frustration with the way things were organized and the progress the show was making. He was doing his best, working hard but there was too little he could do alone, as all the rest depended solely on the producers …

Indeed it was May 29 already, only a month before moving the show to London and it was the last day of their stay in Centre Staging near Burbanks as Talitha recorded in her notes.

But even from what we saw in This is it,  at the end of May-beginning of June the show was still in the very basic stages of its production.

To be able to compare the various episodes from the documentary with the venues for rehearsals I’ve found their photos and the way they looked inside. It was important to find out which rehearsals were made where and what efforts were put in the production process by both parties.

REHEARSALS

Central Staging in Burbank – the rehearsals were held at its Sound stage One

The first place where the rehearsals started was Central Staging in Burbanks which is a one-storey building reminding you of a big hangar. It is dark, spacious and flat as it has no stage, and the TII episode where Michael says to Michael Beaden that he wants his music to sound exactly the way he wrote it is coming from exactly that place.

Even from that episode we can grasp that at that production stage the musicians were still rehearsing music and no dancers were anywhere to be seen. Michael was rehearsing his dance steps individually with Travis Payne in a separate studio, next to SoundStage One which was a place for general rehearsals (see the floorplan please).

Central Staging floorplan. Soundstage One was the place for general rehearsals. Michael for rehearsing in a separate studio with Travis Payne and one more choreographer.

From the LATimes article dated May 12, 2009 we learn that Michael went to those rehearsals four mornings a week and spent 6 hours in the Soundstage studio.

The article mentions dancers too but in a roundabout way – Randy Phillips says that Michael had no difficulty in keeping up with dancers half his age “during the rehearsals”, however there is no specific date when the rehearsals started and when the dancers were selected.

The only specific date we learn is that Kenny Ortega was hired for the job only “this Monday” which should be sometime around May 11-12^th.

You will probably share my amazement here that AEG Live hired the director of the show only a month and a half before moving it to London.  

I assumed that this should have been done months before the show while a month and a half sounds a little too late, especially considering the grandiose plans they were having.

From other sources we learn that the casting for dancers was done also around the same time (or even later).

This vagueness in reporting is very characteristic of the way AEG was informing the media of their production process. It is even explained in the article below by the rehearsals being “a closely guarded secret”.

The article is long but is provided here in full to show how thorough the authors were in reporting the story:

Michael rehearsed with Travis Payne in a separate studio at Burbanks

Michael Jackson rehearses near Burbank airport

Tue May 12, 2009| Harriet Ryan and Chris Lee

Four mornings a week, an SUV with darkened windows bears Michael Jackson through the gates outside a nondescript building near the Burbank airport. He spends the next six hours on a soundstage in the company of 10 dancers and pop music’s best-known choreographer.

The details of rehearsals for Jackson’s upcoming concerts in London are closely held secrets, but what’s at stake for him is not. The ambitious schedule of 50 sold-out shows could turn out to be the final, sad chapter of Jackson’s storied career — or one of pop music’s all-time greatest comeback stories.

When — or if, in the view of many industry skeptics — Jackson takes the stage at the O2 Arena July 8, it will be his first extended concert run in 12 years. Doubters cite his long hiatus from performing, health problems, a onetime prescription pill addiction, age — he is 50 — and his reputation for flaking out on performances and business deals.

But the concert promoter, Los Angeles-based AEG Live, insists that Jackson is prepared mentally and physically and that the show, called “This Is It,” will break new ground in both artistry and sheer cost. The production budget is “north of $20 million,” a price tag that will include as many as 22 different sets, said Randy Phillips, the company’s chief executive.

“It’s going to be the biggest, most technologically advanced arena show — and the most expensive — ever mounted,” Phillips said.

On Monday, the company announced that choreographer and director Kenny Ortega, the force behind the movie “Dirty Dancing” and the “High School Musical” series, as well as Jackson’s Dangerous and HIStory tours, has signed on to direct and design the shows. Ortega agreed to work around his schedule as director of the planned remake of the 1984 movie “Footloose” to take on Jackson’s shows, according to AEG.

In a statement, Ortega called Jackson “the greatest entertainer of our generation” and said he was eager to collaborate with him again. “My answer without a beat was nothing could keep me away,” he said.

In Ortega, Jackson chose someone who has achieved what he could not — continuous cultural relevance after great success in the 1980s. He tapped as the show’s choreographer and associate director Travis Payne, who worked with Jackson in the mid-1990s. Payne’s recent work includes routines for Beyonce and Madonna, as well as a “Dancing With the Stars” tribute to Jackson.

Also involved are younger choreographers who rose to prominence translating Jackson’s style for a new generation. Todd Sams, who has worked with Usher, is collaborating on the show, according to a representative, and Rich & Tone Talauega, a duo who have choreographed Chris Brown’s moves, were present for auditions last month.

The two-day casting call drew 700 dancers to downtown Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre. “They were from the elite agencies across the world — London, France, New York,” said Australian dancer Nandy McClean, who was not chosen. “There were hip-hop dancers and jazz dancers. You could tell a lot of them were crazy Michael Jackson fans who grew up watching him.”

In the end, eight men and two women were selected. Jackson attended the second day of tryouts -- one agency head compared the experience to basketball players auditioning for Michael Jordan.

“Dancing for an artist who is so amazing and who everyone looks up to was the best feeling of my life,” said Atlanta dancer Victor Carter, who did not make the cut. “He perfected the profession.”

Jackson is taking a hands-on role in coming up with routines, according to Ortega and Phillips. The singer is developing a move that he hopes will be as distinctive as the moonwalk, Phillips said. “He’s working on it,” he said, refusing to say more: “I’m sworn to secrecy.”

When the public last got an extended look at Jackson — during his 2005 molestation trial — he appeared in no condition for a grueling concert schedule. He was hospitalized during the proceeding, his clothes hung on his gaunt frame and at times he seemed to have difficulty walking. He later acknowledged an addiction to painkillers.

But AEG’s Phillips said Jackson had “filled out” by last November, when discussions about the London concerts began. He said a four-hour physical with an independent physician this spring found no medical problems. In preparation for the shows, Jackson is doing aerobics with a personal trainer and has had no difficulty keeping up with dancers half his age during rehearsals in Burbank, Phillips said.

Those practice sessions occur in secrecy, thanks to security patrols and confidentiality agreements. There have been rumors, especially in the British media, that the production will include a duet with Jackson’s eldest son, Prince Michael, a stage filled with Jackson look-alikes, and a cast of monkeys and elephants.

Beyond denying the last report — “No animals. No animals!” Phillips said — producers are tight-lipped about what the 20,000 fans in the arena will see. Jackson will perform between 18 and 22 songs. Some choreography will feature aerial dancing similar to routines by Cirque du Soleil, he said.

The singer has said he will sing his hits, telling a March news conference, “I will be performing the songs my fans want to hear.”

The concert preparation has not been spared the lawsuits and threats of suits that seem to be a given in any dealings with Jackson. Last week, he was sued by his former publicist and the actress who co-starred in the 1983 “Thriller” video. On Monday, a New Jersey concert promoter sent a cease and desist letter, alleging the London appearances violated terms of an agreement to play a Jackson Five reunion concert.

Phillips said the claim was “meritless” and had not affected rehearsals.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/12/entertainment/et-jackson12

There are abundant articles saying that on May 12th casting was still in the final stages for the dancers and even the band, and if this is true it means that two months before the show there was still no team!

The article below for example, says that “last week” thousands of dancers arrived for the casting, and this makes it around May 10. The text gravely contrasts to the dates provided byAEG  in This is it documentary – over there they claimed that the auditions were made on April 13 or a month earlier.

There is so much make-belief in the whole story that even this picture dated May 12th shows Kenny Ortega as if he is fully engaged in the production process though in fact he was only just hired:

Michael Jackson Gets Ready For Tour

3:29pm UK, Tuesday 12 May 2009

Michael Jackson has been photographed getting ready for his historic 50 concerts this summer.

Last week, thousands of dancers flew in from every corner of the globe including Japan, Australia, South America and Europe to audition for Jackson – all of them were chasing their dream of winning a spot to perform on stage with their idol.

Kenny Ortega, the renowned Director, Producer, Choreographer and creative talent is hard at work collaborating with Michael Jackson in the overall design and direction for the upcoming This Is It concert shows.

Even after the selection process narrowed the competition from thousands of submissions to over five hundred top international dancers, there was still no dance space large enough in Los Angeles or New York to house the auditions.

This is it documentary claims  that auditions were held on April 13th or a MONTH EARLIER than the date reported by the press. The media said that the dancers flew to Los Angeles in the first decade of May 2009

The producers ended up booking LA’s Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE, part of the site where the Grammy Awards are held each year, to handle the unprecedented numbers of performers who flocked to these auditions.

In receiving the phone call from Michael to lead the team, Ortega said, “My answer without a beat was nothing could keep me away.

“Collaborating with Michael on the Dangerous and HIStory tours were two of the greatest creative experiences of my life, to be invited to partner with him again is a dream come true.”

Ortega goes on to say, “I had just finished a World Press tour for High School Musical and was about to start a new film. In accepting the invitation I had to move a few mountains to clear my schedule, but I’m thrilled to say I’m fully on board.”

Casting is in final stages for dancers and the band.

http://news.sky.com/story/692709/michael-jackson-gets-ready-for-tour

Casting is in the final stages for dancers and the band? Isn’t it amazing that on May 12 newpapers report that casting is in the final stages for dancers and the band, while This is it presents it as if the same was made a month earlier – on April 13?

There are numerous other sources of the period saying that the director of the show and the dancers were chosen in the first half of May only. At the same time Michael was not only rehearsing but was also fully engaged in an aerobics course with a personal trainer and was even completing it.

May 12, 2009 11:30

Michael Jackson enlists ‘High School Musical’ director for London O2 shows

Michael Jackson has enlisted ’High School Musical’ director and choreographer Kenny Ortega to collaborate with him on his forthcoming gigs at London’s O2 Arena.

….Phillips claimed that Jackson had undergone a four-hour physical with an independent physician this spring, in which no medical inadequacies were found. The singer is supposedly currently completing an aerobics course with a personal trainer.

Full story: http://www.nme.com/news/michael-jackson/44599

Another piece of news reported at that time said that the initial two days of auditions for the 1000 dancers were followed by three more days of auditions for the remaining 500 dancers and this is why the final day of choosing the dancers was actually May 19th!

The further we look, the later the dates are, and the clearer it becomes that AEG Live is definitely hiding from the public the fact that the auditions were held a month later than they are telling us in that make-belief documentary:

This Is It: Jacko Picks Comeback Gig Dancers

3:43pm UK, Tuesday 19 May 2009

Twelve dancers were finally chosen in May 2009

Twelve lucky dancers have been given the opportunity of a lifetime by being chosen to join Michael Jackson on stage for his comeback concerts in London.

The performers were picked from thousands of applicants from all over the world – 500 of which were invited to attend three days of auditions in Los Angeles.

Jackson himself was there to pick the final twelve, alongside show director Kenny Ortega and associate director and choreographer Travis Payne.

Oretega, who also worked on Jackson’s Dangerous and HIStory tours, said it was a tough decision to make.

“The level of dancers that we saw at the auditions was incredible,” he said.

“Michael was extremely hands on throughout the process in working with the dancers and selecting the final candidate.”

The singer begins his 50-date residence at the 02 arena on July 8th.

Concert organisers have rejected recent press reports suggesting Jackson had cancer.

“As usual, Michael Jackson is a magnet for preposterous and unverifiable stories in the media,” Randy Phillips, president of AEG Live, said in a statement.

“He is in great health, working tirelessly on creating the greatest live performance of his career, and does not have skin cancer.”

He also dismissed suggestions the show would include elephants.

Philips has promised an ‘inspiring’ show and ticket holders coming to see the 50-year-old singer return to the stage “will not be disappointed”.

He said: “From the special effects to the quality of the dancers and musicians, we are setting a new standard for major arena shows.”

Michael Jackson will be joined on stage by dancers Charles Kapow, Ricardo Reid, Tyne Stecklein, Misha Hamilton, Mekia Cox, Nicholas Base, Danielle Rueda-Watts and Christopher Grant – all from America.

Timor Steffens from Germany, Australian dancer Shannon Holtzapffel and Canadians Daniel Celbre and Devin Jamieson will also be showing off their dancing talents.

http://news.sky.com/stoy/693949/this-is-it-jacko-picks-comeback-gig-dancers

With all this fabrication of facts, false dates and make-belief stories  it seems that AEG is indeed setting a new standard for interaction with the public…

This rehearsal must have been either at Central Staging (up to May 29th) or the Forum (June 1-21st)

Another article, dated May 20, 2009  reports that Michael is still rehearsing 6 hours every day, this time together with the dancers.

A lot of noise is made about the delay in the shows which is already considered full Michael Jackson’s blame though now we know that the director of the show was hired only a week before that and it is no surprise that AEG is now lacking time to complete the production process by the deadline.

What is also interesting is that Frank Dileo who in May 20th was actually an acting manager for Michael Jackson is named here as his “former” manager with no word said about Tohme being fired. Michael could not have worded it himself so it is clear that this misinformation could come only from AEG Live.

As is usual the case the article is full of doubts and sad predictions concerning Michel’s ability to perform which now seem to me the result of some “private” disclosures from the same AEG Live:

Michael Jackson’s London Shows Already Delayed

by Josh Grossberg Wed., May 20, 2009 12:56 PM PDT

Is the King of Pop already fizzling out?

No doubt to the delight of British bookies who predicted the shows wouldn’t go on, Michael Jackson announced today that he was pushing back the dates for his heavily hyped comeback concerts set for this summer in London.

His 50-show residency at the O2 Arena, dubbed “This Is It,” had been slated to kick off on July 8. The new start date—at least for now—is July 13.

And what exactly is the reason for the delay?

“There’s nothing nefarious,” Randy Phillips, CEO of concert promoter AEG Live, said in a video news conference Wednesday. “There’s nothing going on with his health. This is strictly a production issue.”

AEG claims the “massive and technically complex show,” which will feature special effects, live animals, intricate illusions, stunt work, elaborate costumes and plenty of dancing, is requiring more prep time than originally planned.

Performances set for July 10-14 will now be rescheduled for next March, likely ticking off those fans who thought they had the coveted seats to Jackson’s first live shows in more than a decade. 

Jackson is said to be rehearsing six hours a day in a Los Angeles studio with eight dancers—six men and two women—handpicked from dance companies from around the world.

He is also working with the same magician who created illusions for Britney Spears’ Circus tour.

The 50-year-old entertainer stands to earn upwards of $50 million if he manages to fulfill the entire sold-out residency.

But even if the production gets squared away, there’s a chance Jackson could be derailed before taking the stage. Rival promoter AllGood Entertainment is threatening to sue the performer for breach of contract for refusing to participate in a Jackson family reunion show with the rest of his brothers and sister Janet. According to the terms of that deal, Jackson had allegedly agreed to a noncompete clause barring him from any other live concerts before the family show.

At a top-secret meeting with family members and business associates last week, Jackson said he won’t do the family act. He claims his former manager signed the deal with AllGood without the Gloved One’s permission. AEG Live has called the claims “meritless” and said the London shows will go on.

Full story: http://uk.eonline.com/news/124962/michael-jackson-s-london-shows-already-delayed

Now that we know that all this time Michael was working really hard and it was his partners who were dragging their feet, the meaning of Michael’s words is becoming much clearer:

• “I put everything I have into the shows. I work so hard. But I’m only one person. There is only so much I can do”.

But now we also know that AEG was aware of the fact  that they started too late and this is why now they are trying to mask it by extremely dirty tricks in an attempt to convince the public that they started just at the right time and their work schedule was splendid.  The lies they are resorting to are simply unheard of – the comparison of the actual articles published at the time with the This is it episodes citing totally different dates shows that AEG Live is not even above forging the dates!

The way I see it it was only when AEG realized how serious Michael was taking his training sessions and how thorough he was in getting ready for the shows that they started the production process at all. In fact it looks like they were intentionally dragging their feet waiting for him to “fizzle out”.

For the sake of accuracy I need to note that despite the overwhelming information about the casting for dancers and hiring Ortega done in May only, there are also some reports that Ortega was working for the project already in April. The same refers to the auditions too.  There is no explanation I can give to this discrepancy except making a supposition that in April Ortega was involved as a consultant only and that an early start of the auditions was intentional disinformation on the part of AEG Live.

Do we have any reasons to believe that AEG Live is capable of intentional disinformation? Yes, we have and we have already seen proof of it. But this is not all.

FURTHER FABRICATIONS

In a recent LA Times article I noticed a picture from This is it with a wrong date attached to it and realized that AEG is again trying to make us think that they started early enough to complete the show on time.

To “prove” it they are providing us with a picture shot in the last days of June and pretend that it was made as early as May 2009.

The photo was taken by Kevin Mazur in the Staples Center on June 23 or 24, but is now carrying a comment that was made on May 28, 2009 thus sending us to a month earlier.

The comparison of photos from the respective venues shows that the May date is forged.

May 28^th is impossible even in theory.

At the end of May Michael and the musicians were still rehearsing in the dark hangar of Central Staging in Burbank, after which they moved not even to the Staples Center but to the old Forum in Inglewood.

May 29^th was the last day of their rehearsals in Burbanks and to confirm that on May 28th Michael was still in Burbanks let me quote Talitha once again though she is not the only one who is mentioning it:

The first indication I got that he wasn’t entirely happy with the tour was on 29 May, which was his last day of rehearsal at Center Staging.

Here is Soundstage One of the Central Staging in Burbanks:

Central Staging does not even have a stage

Please compare it with the above photo carrying a fake May 28^th date attached to it and tell me whether it looks like one and the same building?

Absolutely not!

The surface of the stage is different, the lightning is different and actually Central Staging in Burbanks does not even have an elevated stage!

At the Forum

After Burbanks the team moved to the Forum, an old arena of the same configuration as the O2 arena in London where some other episodes of This is it were shot too.

But even the Forum venue looks decidedly different from the stage in the Staples Center where Kevin Mazur’s photo was taken – firstly, the Forum has seats around the stage, and secondly the lightning and other props are totally different from everything we see at the Staples Center.

The Forum – you can see the seats behind Michael

At the Forum they stayed for almost a month and finally moved to the Staples Center on June 22nd where they had the two final rehearsals. These were shot by two high-definition cameras and when Michael asked Randy Phillips why he was doing it, Phillips said they should archive his historic comeback.

To me it looks like they were already preparing themselves for a movie and in view of Michael’s eventual death (which also accidently fell  just on the eve of his second medical examination) the whole thing begins to acquire really sinister touches:

“I said, ‘We’ve got to archive your comeback because this is going to be historical,’ and [Jackson] agreed,” Phillips says. “We never expected it to be a movie. This was really for his personal archives—and also to be B-roll and behind-the-scenes footage that probably would have been a DVD concert film.”
http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/news-and-features/features/movies/e3i148e1ece59e59865865f25b91b4c048f

It was in those two last days in the Staples Center that Kevin Mazur’s photo was taken though now AEG Live tries to present it if it was during the early stage of the rehearsals.

But why are they faking the date?

Because they don’t want anyone to know that at the end of May- beginning of June the show was absolutely not ready though it was supposed to move to London only a month later. Even at the end of June, when they were already speaking of  “dress” rehearsals the costumes were not ready, the videos were not yet finished, the robot from which Michael was to step out in the opening scene was only a project and some stage acts like that aerial thing were in the early stage of rehearsing too.

What AEG Live does not want the public to know is that they made an inexcusable delay in producing the show and this was either due to their poor organizational skills or hope that Michael Jackson would not live up to his word and cancel the shows without them even having to go into the trouble of arranging the rehearsals.

However when they realized that Michael was really focused and was getting ready in full earnest, they suddenly recollected their duties and drove everyone into a mad race trying to catch up and compensate for the time missed, doing it largely at the expense of Michael Jackson again.

The arrow in the bottom right-hand corner is pointing to the name of the venue where this rehearsal was taking place. IT IS STAPLES CENTER and it is here that Michael was photographed on the last days of his rehearsals

Though the topic of rehearsals is far from finished let me close it for today with the impressions of Kevin Mazur (that very photographer) of seeing Michael performing.

After the dreary earlier places the Staples Center must have inspired Michael very much indeed. It gave him the right feeling he remembered so well from his earlier times.

You will also notice that Kevin Mazur’s recollections are accompanied by the Getti pictures evidently taken on the same day when Kevin Mazur was making his picture (now dated May 28^th).

The only difference between them is that Michael is wearing a different cover shirt on top of the same red shirt and a black T-shirt underneath it. This he could have changed during the break, so to me it does look like it is one and the same day in the Staples Center.

The other difference from Mazur’s photo is that the Getti images say that they were taken during Michael’s last performance and not a month earlier as AEG Live and the LATimes now assert it.

Here are some excerpts from Kevin Mazur’s story:

Michael Jackson’s last interview: The tragic singer’s final moments

By Tom Bryant

Getty: It was Michael Jackson’s last performance

… Michael Jackson whooped with joy as he rehearsed on stage for his comeback tour.

Thrusting his arm in the air after one of his trademark twirls, he cried: “I feel so alive – can you feel it?”

The superstar, who died of a heart attack just hours later, told photographer pal Kevin Mazur: “This is where I belong. Why oh why have I left it so long?”

Pointing to the lighting gantries high above the stage at LA’s StapleCenter he grinned broadly as he triumphantly declared: “This is where I belong.”

And he was still buzzing as he took a break from rehearsals and chatted to his old pal, photographer Kevin Mazur, 48 – who unwittingly captured some of the tragic singer’s final moments.

Kevin, a friend for 20 years, says Jackson, 50, was elated as he prepared for his spectacular This Is It tour.

He says the singer bounded on stage in a dark grey suit and headpiece, shouting: “Come on – let’s make this happen!”

He then performed one of his familiar spins, before proclaiming: “This is where I belong.” Turning to his friend, he beamed: “Can you feel it Kevin? Why oh why have I left it so long?”

After a stunning rendition of Smooth Criminal in which he danced in front of an illuminated 50ft montage, Jacko admitted: “I am so excited.

“We need a bit more work on a few more songs but we’re so nearly there. This is what it’s all about. Me being on stage.”

The pumped up star added: “The only thing missing is my fans, my people, my family – and they will come.

“I know they will. I am so happy with how things are going. Can you feel it! Can you feel it!”

Kevin watched spellbound as Jacko performed his entire set for an hour and a half until nearly midnight. He sang 12 songs, stopping only briefly to wipe his brow with a white towel strategically placed at the side of the stage.

At one point, Jacko blew a kiss into the auditorium, announcing: “This is me. The true me. I feel so alive. I feel as though I want to perform forever.”

Kevin said: “He was like an expectant father pacing up and down the stage. He was just so focused.

“Between songs, he burst into laughter and joked around with his dancers and the director. I have never seen him so happy.

“But there was a cool professionalism about him. He was there to do a job and boy, did he do it well. It was incredible.”

Kevin said highlights of the frenetic set included a Jackson Five medley, Black or White and Thriller.

Once he was finished, Jacko calmly went back over the list – and started re-doing the songs he felt needed improving.

…“He had this incredible energy. He was happy, laughing and having fun with the dancers. He looked like the same old Michael to me – the one I’ve known through the years and grown to love.”

…Kevin says the overriding feeling from the rehearsals was Michael’s sense of duty to his fans. He said: “He was such a perfectionist. He had that spark about him – that desire to create something special and give people the very best he could.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/michael-jacksons-last-interview-the-tragic-403559

P.S.

You won’t believe it but the most smashing proof that the media and AEG are fabricating the evidence in favor of AEG has arrived from the LA Times newspaper itself.

On April 16th I left a comment there saying that the date of their picture was wrong and when I looked up the same article today I’ve found that they replaced the first photo with a different one.

The second (current) photo is carrying a fake date again as it refers to the same May 28, 2009 , only this time the LA Times made a grave mistake of attaching the fake date to a photo which 3 years ago was labeled by Getti images as “Michael Jackson’s last performance”.

Indeed these attempts to forge pictures in full view of everyone are simply incredible. The latest fake masterpiece from the LA Times is here:  http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-ln-la-jackson-aeg-20130410,0,5459012.story:

The photo from Staples Center with a FAKE  date attached to it

And here is the same picture from Getty images taken 3 years ago.

Getty describes it as Michael Jackson’s LAST performance and the picture is coming in the article devoted to Michael’s FINAL moments in the Staples Center:

The original photo said that it was Michael Jackson’s last performance  June 24, 2009

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/michael-jacksons-last-interview-the-tragic-403559

I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT I SEE…

Recently I went to the MJJ Community forum to find out the latest news about the trial. What I found there surpassed anything I could ever imagine – those active in the thread about the AEG trial were pouring hate and spite on the heads of Katherine Jackson and her family without saying a single word of reproach to AEG.

The pretext was a plausible one – they don’t want the media to trash Michael Jackson’s good name, only in order to do it they are ready to let go of the company which actually brought about Michael’s death.

DEATH and CHARACTER ASSASSINATION

In their opinion the company is not to blame (“it is business, you know”) and the one who is to blame is the man’s own mother who lost her son and wants some justice and legitimate questions answered (“she is an enemy and her family sucks”).

They cannot wait to see Katherine on the stand to see her “web of lies exposed” and hope that AEG is “doing their homework well”. In fact losing the case to AEG is the outcome many are even hoping for.  They advise AEG on how to form their strategy and reduce the amount of money for this greedy woman in case of the catastrophe of her winning the case:

AEG’s strategy should be to go after her and her real motivations for filing this lawsuit.

By showing her contradictions and lies to the jurors, AEG might be able to reduce the amount of money (in case AEG loses) jurors are willing to award Katherine. If AEG shows the lies, contradictions, Katherine’s own responsibility to MJ, her greediness for money will portray her in bad light, so I think it might help AEG reduce the amount she’ll be awarded if any, at least I hope so.

Do these people know what they doing?

Most of them do not. They were brainwashed by AEG’s propaganda into thinking that poor AEG “has to” drown Michael Jackson in order to defend itself and it will be solely Michael’s mother who will be to blame for it.

However assassinating the son in order to defend oneself from his parents’ accusations is absolutely not a necessity. And character assassination of Michael Jackson is what AEG is actually doing.

Shifting all the blame onto Michael’s mother is top hypocrisy and the most shameless deceit. If character assassination of Michael Jackson is the only argument AEG can present to the jury to explain their negligence towards him it means that there is nothing else they have to say in their defense.

Some fans advise Katherine Jackson, “stay quiet, know your place, take it as it is, the estate is paying you money so what else do you want?” And the loudest call for punishing Michael’s mother, want her to get what she “deserves” and are ready to be at full service of AEG’s lawyers to drown in mud both this woman and her “deadbeat cubs” whom they detest and despise.

And all this in the name of preserving Michael Jackson’s legacy.

What disgusting hypocrisy and disgusting way of thinking of those who call themselves “fans” of Michael Jackson.

These people think and impose on others the idea that it is all about money and pretend not to know that there might be other concepts like “justice”, “dignity”, “loss”, “pain” and other similar motives which may be driving other people in their search for the truth – Katherine Jackson, for example.

It is indeed deplorable that due to some circumstances Katherine is unable to have her case handled by the criminal court – filing criminal charges against AEG is not her prerogative and all attempts in this respect have evidently failed. It is also very unfortunate that her civil suit against the company was stripped of its many crucial points. It is equally sad that a much more substantiated Joe Jackson’s suit in its amended version was dismissed for a reason that two members of the family cannot sue one company and that Katherine’s suit was chosen over Joe’s as hers came prior to Joe’s.

Now the whole AEG case is hanging on one thread only – that of AEG negligently hiring Murray. And it isn’t Katherine’s  fault that everything else was dismissed – it is her tragedy that the legal system closed its eyes on many of the key matters and dismissed the charges which could have been of real significance to the case.

Living where I live makes me perfectly aware of how difficult it is to fight the system which nips in the bud every single voice of dissent. So I can imagine how difficult it is to beat a multi-billion corporation which has numerous ways of influencing decisions in a place where they are also seen by many as a local tzar.

Only one little hope has been left now and this hope is that at least through their contract with Murray the AEG corporation will answer for driving Michael Jackson to death by their “business” which boiled down to making maximal profit on Michael’s name, humiliatng him and ignoring his requests and decisions, and the eventual taking advantage of him and his genius.

THE JURY

Who will be to blame if Katherine loses? AEG’s propaganda machine of course because the jury are human beings too and may also be brainwashed by AEG’s daily character assassination of Michael Jackson. They do not live in a vacuum and are susceptible to public opinion too which may be a totally involuntary process.

The more the public and the media tell them horror stories about Michael and the more Michael’s “fans” trash his mother for her claims against AEG, the less they will be inclined to sympathize with Michael himself and his bereaved mother.

So when the MJJ Community “Senior Staff” was telling me that the jury will be guided by the truth of the matter only and what people say in their forum is in no way influencing public opinion it was a very big lie and an utterly hypocritical statement.

In fact what is more or less forgivable for ordinary fans who have lost their way in the jungles of AEG and media propaganda is not forgivable for the forum Senior Staff who are big professionals and are therefore perfectly aware that their alleged unbiased approach and their quiet nod to the incessant dirt against Katherine on the forum pages is creating a big slant in favor of AEG, which this corporation will undoubtedly appreciate.

SENIOR STAFF

Disbelieving the picture of ruthless Katherine’s harassment I saw on the AEG thread of the MJJ Community forum I finally expressed my astonishment why some fans were advising AEG lawyers how to form their strategy against Katherine and wondered whether they understood what they were doing.

You won’t believe the effect this small remark produced on the Senior Staff maintaining this forum. They dropped everything they were doing and handled my humble persona only.

They behaved as if it was totally unnatural for a Michael Jackson supporter to say a word of support for Michael’s mother and say a word of truth against AEG. While everyone was trashing Katherine it was perfectly okay for the Senior Staff to keep silent, but when I raised my voice against AEG I was immediately restrained not to violate the “innocent until proven” formula.

AEG is innocent to these people while Katherine Jackson is evidently already guilty like hell.

What it means is that in a fan forum which by definition should be biased in favor of Michael’s opinion everything is happening exactly the opposite way – support of AEG is encouraged and protected from stray people like me, but Michael’s own views about AEG are disregarded and trashing his mother sees no objection as “the world of humans is far from ideal”, you know.

Of course it is in the power of the Senior Staff admins to correct human nature a bit, however they refrain themselves from this task.

The opinion of Senior Staff is actively supported by other proud members of the community (“proud” in terms of regalia and status) and this means that even four years after Michael’s death the forum is so masterfully maintained that up till now its ordinary members do not realize what horrible harm AEG did to Michael Jackson and that it was actually them who contributed to his death.

In fact even Michael’s own words about what AEG did to him are no guidance for these people:

I’m really angry with them booking me up to do 50 shows. I only wanted to do 10, and take the tour around the world to other cities, not 50 in one place. I went to bed knowing I sold 10 dates, and woke up to the news I was booked to do 50.”

Neglecting Michael’s wishes and ignoring his opinion was actually typical of AEG‘s attitude towards Michael but is generally untypical of Michael’s fans. However if you remind these fans of all the “good” AEG did to Michael they will defiantly reply that they are not to be told what to think, even if you are expressing your opinion only and never use the word “should”.

The “innocent until proven guilty” formula itself is perfectly correct, even in application to AEG Live, only the Senior Staff does not explain why in order to implement this formula it is indispensable to drag through the mud the other side of the dispute and why a simple balance of forces is not being maintained there – Michael’s mother and family may be freely trashed, ridiculed and stigmatized while a single voice elaborating on the legitimate claims against AEG should be almost immediately silenced.

This is equivalent to allowing on TV only Michael Jackson’s detractors and denying any chance to his supporters before the 2005 trial, only in the reverse variant of course, as the party to defend itself this time is AEG Live.

And yes, the only person telling the truth about AEG was silenced there – they blocked me as they simply could not tolerate my voice against AEG for more than two days running and my questions were regarded by them as an unbearable insult to their morality.

“IT WAS ONLY BUSINESS”

The people in the forum do not have any claims to AEG as they regard it as “only business”. In their opinion AEG could demand anything of Michael in the same way an employer demands discipline at their workplace.

However for some reason their efficient Senior Staff failed to explain them that Michael was not in AEG’s employment – he was AEG’s partner who was also supposed to pay full production costs and was guaranteeing the show by the duty to repay all $40 million back in case something went wrong.

A partner is no employee. The most that can be expected of a partner is fulfillment of his obligations under the contract and nothing else than that. And Michael’s obligation was to do only a first-class show and not a rehearsal. If they considered his performance second class they could complain, but not before that.

So it was solely Michael’s business how to get ready for the tour and AEG could not demand anything of him, let alone set him conditions, read riot acts and declare tough love threatening to “pull the plug” if he did not oblige.

In short even though AEG behaved like masters towards Michael Jackson he was not in their employment. In contrast to that Conrad Murray was to report to AEG as he was to perform their services as “requested”, and they were to make sure he did nothing else but what was expected of him. However exactly this AEG failed to do. Instead they monitored Michael Jackson though in his case they had no right to.

In short both contracts were twisted and adjusted to their immediate needs.  Where they were obliged to interfere they did not, and where they had no right to interfere they did.

Michael’s word could be trusted because he himself was fully answering for the shows by all his assets. Yes, by ALL of them because if Michael did not repay the first $40 million back in case of a cancellation AEG was to sue him for loss of profit and 50 vacant dates. The latter sum would be some $100 million even by the lowest estimate on the basis of the average face value tickets of $80-$100 per seat in a 20,000 seat O2Arena and the number of shows being 50.

Michael’s own and his children’s well-being were the best guarantee that he would perform – so all talk by the media and AEG about the possibility of his “freaking out” was malicious speculation which actually betrayed their innermost hopes – they themselves were most interested in cancellations and hoped to implement this variant at the first opportunity that presented itself.

And while they were actually dragging their feet Michael was already rehearsing “his ass off” at home and in the studios without the crew yet joining him. Some sources say that he began training as early as March 2009. And if Michael preferred individual rehearsals to public ones I can perfectly understand him too – being a perfectionist and shy after 12 years of non-performing Michael wanted to show himself to the public at his best, when he was absolutely sure of his skills or felt well enough to perform.

The owner of CenterStaging in Burbank says Michael started working in March 2009 (while AEG as you remember hired Ortega and dancers only in May):

“He was trying, and succeeding, in structuring the biggest, most spectacular live production ever seen,” said Johnny Caswell, co-owner of CenterStaging in Burbank, California, where Jackson worked on the show from late March to early June before shifting rehearsals to larger venues, according to the paper. “By the time he left my facility, he had graduated through several studios and was on a soundstage taking up 10,000 square feet,” Caswell said. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1614882/michael-jacksons-last-tour-rehearsal-details-revealed.jhtml

Michael had to both build his stamina and spare his energy for the shows, and his individual plan of getting ready for them was not to be disputed. No one could know better than him when he was ready and no one should have imposed any conditions on him in this respect. His refreshed skills were demonstrated in their full brilliance at the last two rehearsals and even if Michael was ready to or wanted to perform full scale only on the days of his choice his desire should have been fully respected.

His schedule was his individual business which he alone was structuring for himself and absolutely no one was allowed to encroach on its secret formula. The most they could ask of him was attending the rehearsals for making decisions over some production issues as he was also a co-director of the show (yes, he was though you would have never guessed it by the way they treated him), but as to the dancing and singing he could have perfectly watched everything off stage. Twisting Michael’s arms and setting him conditions wasn’t “business” – it was encroaching on his most fundamental rights.

I repeat – under their own contract Michael’s sole obligation was to do a first class show and not a rehearsal, and all claims to Michael could have been made only after the first show. AEG would not have lost anything this way as the ultimate responsibility for the shows was still lying on Michael’s shoulders.

However simple explanations like the above are for some reason regarded by the Senior Staff of the fan forum as unacceptable. You are either accused of hypocrisy (for criticizing others for criticizing Katherine but allowing oneself to criticize AEG) or will be instructed not to digress and keep to the lawsuit on Murray and AEG which is the current topic.

However when you did speak on the current topic and mentioned that Murray spent half the night exchanging emails with insurers and this was done following AEG’s requests, this was not approved either. You can never please the Senior Staff of the forum as absolutely nothing of what you say is suiting these people.

TWO INSURANCES, TWO DOCUMENTS

Under his contract with AEG Murray was supposed to perform only the services requested by the Producer. This explained in whose employment Murray was and whose instructions he was really following. Kathy Jorrie mentioned at Murray’s trial that Murray wanted to perform services for Michael Jackson, but the final contract still stuck to the Producer variant preferred by AEG.

So when at the end of June Kathy Jorrie, AEG’s lawyer asked Murray to take care of Michael’s medical records, Murray obliged and took care of it not paying attention to his patient. This absolutely does NOT absolve him of his guilt as under NO circumstances he was to leave his patient, but the fact still remains that Murray did spend half the night when Michael Jackson died running on errands from AEG.

The discussion over the reasons why AEG needed a second medical examination was the most heated discussion I had with the Senior Staff which made me wonder why my views over this issue were so vehemently opposed.

The Senior Staff explained that this was Lloyds’s condition from the very beginning of the deal, and I said that it was not. We were talking about two different documents – the first insurance had been ready by the London news-conference in March already. It covered the first 10 shows and according to Randy Phillips himself was firmly in their pocket (which means that no addition physical examination was required).

And the second insurance policy replacing the first was made in April and had to be arranged due to AEG increasing the shows. The Insurance Journal explained that the policy was signed in April:

By Anthony McCartney | June 7, 2011

Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London sued AEG Live and Jackson’s company, claiming the concert promoter has failed to provide necessary medical information and details about the physician charged with the singer’s death.
The suit states Lloyd’s issued a non-appearance and concert cancellation policy in April 2009 — roughly two months before the pop superstar died.
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news…/07/201668.htm

The second insurance was half-obtained for 30 dates only and had several new conditions set by the insurers – like medical records, a new medical examination and doctors attending the rehearsals, and it was this new AEG’s policy which Murray was so unsuccessfully attending to in the night of Michael’s death.

The Senior Staff sneered that I doubted the veracity of Lloyd’s documents, and I said that I didn’t – they simply presented the final variant of the insurance policy as there was no need to present the first, however only two consecutive insurance polices can explain why already in March Randy Phillips was talking of the insurance as a fully decided matter and later one some half-finished document suddenly appeared.

If 10 dates were later corrected and turned into 30 where can I see the corrections please in the final document presented by Lloyd’s?  And since there are none, it is clear that the final policy is a separate document. The first one was probably cancelled as too many terms had to be changed, and this first insurance policy we have never seen.

If they had not increased the shows there would have been no need of the new insurance, and Murray would not have been running with the papers on the night Michael died.

In addition to the above the first insurance policy also proves that Michael agreed only to 10 shows, however at this stage the Senior Staff was already warning me that I do not listen to what I am being told and it was evidently then that my future on their fan forum was already decided.

The Senior Staff told me that increase or no increase it was not unimportant anyway. I disagreed. The number is extremely important as firstly, 50 shows were decided without Michael knowledge and this testifies to how neglectful of Michael’s opinion AEG was, and secondly, it sent Michael into a tremendous stress immediately after that London press conference as a result of which he lost all sleep.

It was due to this terrible stress-factor that he could no longer sleep naturally and badly required Propofol. If there had been no increase and no stress there was a chance that Michael would have gone without it at all.

This was met with a point blank question from Senior Staff how I can explain that Michael always used Propofol (why are they so sure of it I wonder?) and why Michael took drugs before the show described by Cascio.

By then it looked like a full-time interrogation either on a Topix forum or in the courtroom presided by the Senior AEG Staff,  but I nevertheless answered – if Michael went for a rehab in 1993 for Demerol it does not necessarily mean that he used it in 2009 (no traces of it were found in his body), and the situation with Propofol is the same.

If Michael did use Propofol some time before it does not mean that in this particular case he would have done it too. When in Ireland he did not use it, when in Las Vegas he did not use it, and if he had had a comfortable schedule of 2 shows a week at the most there was a chance that he woud not have used it now either (or at least in case of emergency only).

ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS DO AS HE REQUESTED

In fact this is the essence of my main claim to AEG. All they had to do was listen to Michael and do as he requested. Tohme and Gongaware knew of Michael’s insomnia full well (who didn’t?) however they intentionally ignored his wishes and set the impossible regimen of the shows for every other day.

The regimen sent Michael into a shock and it was then that his huge stress started. It lasted for full four months until his dying day. Witnesses say that after realizing how grueling the schedule was Michael fell into a panic and it was this pressure that killed him:

You won’t believe it but the way AEG fully ignored Michael’s wishes did not produce any impression on any of the people in this fan forum courtroom.  Some said  “nevermind” to the number and regimen of the shows,  some said that the claims of the show/day-off pattern were false but they did not care anyway, and some said that 50 shows were for 9 months, evidently implying that the average number was 5-6 dates per month.

This reminded me of Randy Phillips’ formula that “on the average” it was a very comfortable schedule which was probably the way it was presented to Michael Jackson too, only the “average” numbers do not mean anything and are terribly misleading – the number of shows the fifty-year old Jackson was to perform following a show/day-off/show/day-off regimen was actually 38 as this schedule shows:

First they set 10 dates, then added 16 more. All show/day-off dates are in bold type except those which come after a period longer than 1 day. If you add them up you will have 38 shows following the show/day-off schedule:

July 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30
August 1, 3, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26, 28, 30
September 1, 3, 6, 8, 10.

A few days later 24 more were added:

September – 21, 23, 27, 29
January 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 23, 25, 27, 29
February 1, 3, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24

At this point the Senior Staff was already seriously annoyed by me and said it was time to return to the main topic. I said I thought it was exactly the main topic.

AEG ignored Michael’s most fundamental request – he just wanted enough time for sleep between the shows, however they created a schedule which for Michael with his insomnia was impossible to implement.

In short if there had been no stress about the future he would have not asked for Propofol already then, at the stage of rehearsals, and nothing would have happened on June 25.

Michael’s death was predetermined at the time when AEG and Tohme were ruthlessly setting the schedule the way they liked best, totally disregarding Michael’s insomnia problems. And what is especially abhorrent is that they did it intentionally as both knew of Michael’s troubles, worries and requests.

And if the Senior Staff of the fan forum does not care about it, it does not mean that Michael’s mother does not – she does care and very much so. Since AEG Live drove Michael Jackson into that stress INTENTIONALLY she wants them to answer for it – in this or that way, even if it is only money which is at stake (which is probably the only language AEG Live is able to understand).

If these “fans” were bothered about the way AEG treated Michael Jackson they would also care about those dates, however they are evidently paying lip service to him only and all their worries about Michael’s tarnished image are mere pretence on their part. I expressed this idea to the Senior Staff but by then yours truly was already blocked.

What they are doing there now I don’t know – most probably they go on trashing Katherine for her audacity to sue AEG. They are surely standing on the guard of AEG’s innocence and are evidently still of the opinion that Michael’s mother is the only person who ever sued.

The Senior Staff does not approve of suing in general and to tell you the truth I don’t either. However in the absence of a possibility to put AEG behind the bars the civil suit is okay too.

THE FUTURE

The jury are also human beings. The more AEG propaganda they hear the more of it they will absorb. And tomorrow this propaganda will be blasting from every cannon possible – from the press, TV and commentators like Diane Dimond. This cannonade will unfortunately not bypass the jurors. In the courtroom they will also be subjected to a barrage of tabloid horror stories told to them by AEG thus turning the trial into a freakish show.

Will it be Katherine’s guilt? Absolutely not. The media reaction is nothing of Katherine’s doing and is solely done by those who harassed her son for many years and the powerful corporation which contributed to Michael’s death and used him for their own greedy ends.

Do fans have the right to drag Michael’s through the mud and tell her to shut up? And can you tell a parent of an assassinated child to keep quiet and don’t bother the assassins for fear that “it will be worse”? WHAT can be worse for a mother than losing her son?

Michael’s fans can be the only counter balance to the huge propaganda machine which is currently working against Michael’s mother, family and children.  What will the jury think if they come to forums where Michael’s own fans are trashing the family and side with AEG? Could the poison spread there by Michael’s “fans” turn into that last touch necessary for the juror to take a decision that the case is bogus and AEG is not to blame? This outcome is very much possible and those who guide the fans in their choices are evidently relying on it very much indeed despite the neutrality they officially profess.

I am not asking the fans to support Katherine if they are still in doubt. All I am speaking of is being at least neutral, refraining from working for the big anti-Jackson propaganda machine, giving Katherine an equal chance and letting the jurors decide on their own.

If Katherine Jackson loses Michael Jackson’s image will be tarnished and AEG will happily resume their usual practices with a double force. Now they will know that if they could do it to Michael Jackson they will be able to do it to everyone else.

If Katherine Jackson wins Michael’s image may be tarnished but the offenders who turned the last four months of his life into sheer misery will have to pay. They will be taught a lesson and will now think twice before making profits on other people’s tears, misery and humiliation. Winning from AEG will probably restrain even some tabloids which will be reluctant now to undergo the same procedure as AEG.

The outcome of this case depends on Michael’s fans too. Their influence on public opinion now has become so big that it is impossible not to notice it or disregard. And jurors are the same people like us who are also affected by public opinion whether they notice it or not.

Fans should decide for themselves whether corporations like AEG Live will go on with their inhuman policies towards artists and take advantage of people’s vulnerability like they did it with Jackson. Or whether the corporations should give up their bullying ways and develop an ethical approach to people Michael represented and whose future saddened him very much, when he was reflecting on the fate of other artists.

Michael said he did not want to end up like James Brown or Jackie Wilson:

“Not the way James Brown or Jackie Wilson did, where they just killed themselves. I wish James Brown could have slowed down and been more relaxed and enjoyed his hard work.”

Whether Michael Jackson will really become one of these people or will win over the corporation even in his death  may depend on the choice the fans make. And this is why Michael’s fans are so closely monitored, guided and kept an eye on – it is their choice now which may determine the future.

It is you who decide.

Let me provide you with information about the first day of the trial and make some spontaneous notes on the way.

My previous opinion of AEG has now been only enforced – this bulldozer rolls over people’s bodies and then hides all the traces by littering the place with blatant lies. Some of their lies are noticeable even in their attorney’s opening statement.

The Jacksons’ attorney Brian Panish

However my resentment with AEG does not mean that I do not have reservations about the Plaintiff’s manner of presenting their case either.

If we assume that the information is adequately reported by the ARC7 Court News people who tweet it from the court premises, the first impression you get is that the Jacksons’ lawyers spring from their own judgment of Michael which may be not often correct. This most probably reflects the preconceived notions of the family too whose worries about Michael always seemed to me over-exaggerated and often misplaced.

Over here I am not surprised as parents often tend to think that their children misbehave when they are not looking, and by assuming the worst alienate their children from themselves, and this is why the fact that Brian Panish is basing his strategy on some of these assumptions does not seem to the best way to handle the case.

A much better one would be to show AEG’s fraudulent manipulations with the contract and their deceit of Michael about the dates, their sabotage of Michael’s decisions and their own slowness in the production process and all the rest of it which turned Michael’s happy anticipation of the concerts into a deep anxiety which lasted for months.

However I also understand that since the matter was reduced by the judge to medical issues only, Brian Panish’s strategy can now be a forced decision, the only one left to him for lack of other possibilities, which makes me suspect that the powers opposing Jacksons counted exactly on this scenario. What they are doing now looks like a ridicule of Katherine: “So you wanted justice? Then we’ll make you feel sorry that you did. The territory chosen for the battle is all ours, so see what we will do…”.

Evil and malice always act that way – they know your vulnerabilities and force you into silence by threatening to hit where it hurts most. This is why many prefer to stay away from the fight even if they crushed your bones and made a feast on your remains. But if you keep silent then it will mean that they will always have their way.

So accepting the “bad points”  from the start of it, with making no bones about it, may not be that bad a strategy after all. It deprives the other side of the pleasure of declaring it first.

The other conclusion I make from the first day is that Brian Panish’s concept of AEG’s intentions and goals is different from my own assessment of it, however I do not object – Jacksons’ attorneys have access to much more information and may know better, and over here I am willing to listen and do not aspire to knowing the whole truth.

AEG’s attorney Marvin Putnam: “We’re talking about Michael Jackson,” Putnam said. “This is a man who would show up in pajamas. This is a man who would stop traffic and get out and dance on top of his car. This is a man who would go to public events with a monkey named Bubbles. This is a man who said he slept in an oxygen chamber.”

The first day also made it clear that AEG has given up all pretence now and is showing to the world its true face. Now it is not stopping at nothing in order to drown in the mud the genius whom they previously sang the praises of.

Their expressions like “he had a deepest dark secret no one knew of” immediately paint the picture of some catacombs where the villain must have been burying people alive, while in reality Michael Jackson’s problem was just a total inability to sleep,  sometimes for several days running and this necessitated some medicine in order just to survive. Normal people will look at this problem with sympathy and it is only AEG and people like them who will feign horror at a mere mentioning of it.

Why don’t all these people discuss Liz Taylor or Mick Jagger in the same manner though both of them admitted drug escapades? Probably because they were awarded knighthood, praised for their excellence and are looked upon by the public as awesome stars, idols and even legends? And all this while Michael Jackson the insomniac should be called the most despicable names?

In short all of it is about hypocrisy again.

When they try to trap you into their hypocrisy nets don’t hesitate to pull it away and snatch its ugly mask off the faces of these fake moralizers.  They’d better looked at themselves and revised their whole system of values before throwing mud at Michael Jackson. He was the biggest victim of their hypocrisy and now needs a break.

As to the Jacksons’ lawyers I wish they had a chance to take a different line of resistance. However even if they can’t, I am praying that the winner in the case will still be the truth. And the truth may well turn out to be different from anything both parties are discussing here.

Despite all the mess of it by God’s will the truth may reveal the sparkling beauty of Michael Jackson’s nature, his honorable character, his pure intentions akin to a child and the enormous love he had for people despite the extreme hardship and pain inflicted to him by other humans since the first years of his life to his dying day.

*  *  *

At the moment the reports of my favorite LA Times are rather decent and well-balanced. The only inaccuracy I noticed in their latest article is that Michael allegedly agreed to 50 shows (he didn’t).

The headline explains the reason why Michael used Demerol at all, and this information should be known to the general public so that they don’t make the mistake of thinking that it was for recreation purposes. In fact it was the excruciating pain of the burn and the scalp surgery that followed it which introduced Demerol into Michael’s life. For those who don’t yet know it let me say that the plastic surgeon was stretching Michael’s scalp and the pain of it had to be dulled by Demerol as the process of it was taking months. This is how it started:

Jackson‘s drug use started after Pepsi commercial, attorney says

By Corina Knoll and Jeff Gottlieb

April 29, 2013, 11:36 a.m.
With fortunes and reputations at stake, attorneys began opening statements Monday in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom where a powerful entertainment giant stands accused of playing a critical role in the death of entertainer Michael Jackson.

The wrongful-death suit filed by Katherine Jackson and her grandchildren — Prince, Paris and Blanket — accuses AEG of negligently hiring and controlling Dr. Conrad Murray, who administered a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol to Jackson shortly before he was to begin his “This Is It” comeback concerts in London.

Brian Panish, the attorney representing the pop singer’s mother and children, told jurors in opening statements Monday that Jackson had developed a problem with prescription medication and at times became “dependent” on the drugs.

Jackson, the attorney said, also suffered from anxiety that “became more prevalent when he was going through a rigorous schedule.”

The entertainer’s drug problem, Panish said, took off in 1984 when he suffered second and third-degree burns while filming a Pepsi commercial.

The wrongful-death suit contends the entertainment firm threatened to end Jackson’s career if he failed to come through with the concerts and ordered Murray to keep the performer on track.

Philip Anschutz, owner of AEG

AEG, which owns Staples Center in addition to other arenas and sports venues, maintains it was Jackson who insisted that Murray come on board as his doctor.

The trial begins after three weeks of jury selection in which potential jurors were vetted to determine whether they were even able to sit on a case that could last up to four months. Six men and six women were impaneled last week, and six alternates were also named.

As in life, Jackson’s eccentric lifestyle is expected to take center stage as attorneys poke though the entertainer’s once-massive fortune, his voluminous medical history and the final days when he was attempting to pull off what was being sold as a series of stunning comeback concerts in London.

While Jackson had only agreed to 50 dates in London, AEG proposed a three-year worldwide tour in which one executive estimated ticket sales could exceed $450 million. Billboard magazine estimated AEG’s profits would hit $115 million for the London shows, with Jackson earning $1 million a night.

According to the contract between them, AEG advanced Jackson close to $30 million, which included a $15-million line of credit, a $5-million advance, $7.5 million to cover production costs to mount the shows and rent for a $100,000-a- month Holmby Hills mansion.

According to the lawsuit, if the singer failed to generate enough money to pay back the loans, AEG could seize his assets, among them a valuable song catalogue that includes songs by the Beatles, Aretha Franklin and the Jackson family.

The lawsuit contends that AEG knew of Jackson’s fragile health but put “its desire for massive profits from the tour over the health and safety of Michael Jackson.”

“Three loving children lost their father, a loving mother and father lost their son, the Jackson siblings lost their brother and the world lost its most celebrated entertainer,” the complaint said.

A central question will be who actually employed Murray: Jackson or AEG?

The Las Vegas doctor, deep in debt himself, was supposed to be paid $150,000 a month. Murray, who worked with Jackson for two months to prepare him for the concerts, signed a contract the night before Jackson’s death but it was never signed by AEG executives nor the singer.

The entertainment firm, along with company executives, argues that it was Jackson who hired Murray and insisted on keeping him as his doctor.

Tim Leiweke, AEG’s CEO (now dismissed)

AEG is an influential political player in Los Angeles, stamping its reputation by building L.A. Live and Staples Center and now working with the city to construct a downtown NFL stadium to help attract a pro football team. But the company has been in upheaval for months, with owner Philip Anschutz putting it on the market and then just as suddenly pulling it off.

The list of potential witnesses in the wrongful-death case is guaranteed to bring out the paparazzi and gossip traffickers. Jackson’s mother and father, sibilings and other relatives — close to 20 Jacksons in all — are expected to testify. So are Michael Jackson’s children.

Also on the witness lists are performers Diana Ross and Prince; Quincy Jones, who produced Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album; filmmaker Spike Lee; Jackson’s former wives, Debbie Rowe and Lisa Marie Presley; AEG owner Anschutz; and one-time Hulk Lou Ferrigno, who was Jackson’s trainer.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-michael-jackson-aeg-20130426,0,4057600,full.story

While Michael Jackson was having his problems AEG was having his own.  Brian Panish, the Jacksons’ lawyer says that AEG’s problem was that they weren’t not No.1  in the concert business and evidently could not live a happy life until they took the upper hand over their competitor Live Nation.

Peter Lopez, Michael Jackson’s attorney. Committed suicide in April 2010. No weapon was found beside his body

Let me note in this connection that Live Nation was also brought to Michael Jackson. The person who introduced them to each other was Michael’s lawyer Peter Lopez, however Tohme who was managing Michael’s affairs at the time drove the company away as he was “unimpressed”.

Tohme Tohme was Michael Jackson’s manager in 2008-2009

Tohme spoke about it to Randall Sullivan whose book is now quoting Tohme on half of its pages. See how Tohme pretends that it was Lopez who suggested AEG (while in reality AEG was imposed on Michael by Tohme’s friend Tom Barrack who set it as a condition for the Neverland deal) and how Tohme “was unaware” of Randy Phillips courting Michael for almost two years by the time Tohme entered Michael’s life.

Here is an excerpt from Randall Sullivan’s book:

“Lopez first set up a meeting with Live Nation that left Tohme unimpressed. “ I don’t like those guys,” he recalled telling Lopez, who then suggested AEG. Tohme claimed to be unaware of Michael’s previous meeting with Randy Phillips, who had never entirely given up on signing Michael to an AEG Live contract. What really moved things along was a phone conversation between a pair of billionaires, Barrack and Anschutz.”

Immediately after Anschutz got off the phone with Barrack, he called Randy Phillips and asked him to meet with the Colony Capital CEO to talk about what it would take to secure a commitment from Michael Jackson to perform a series of concerts at the O2 in London. Barrack passed Phillips on to Tohme, who suggested that the AEG Live chief meet him for a drink at the Hotel Bel-Air.

AEG’s CEO Randy Phillips

“ So we sat, we talked, I liked him,” Tohme recalled. “ He will do anything to have Michael Jackson. He said that. I said, ‘We need advances, we need this, we need that. Let me think about it and talk to Michael.” Phillips’s stock got a boost when Dennis Hawk, the attorney who had been brought in to assist Tohme in managing Michael’s affairs, told Jackson and Tohme that Phillips was “a classy guy” who could be trusted to help put on a show that would be everything they hoped for.”

It is especially after reading about Randy Phillips being “a classy guy” that the article below looks like a refreshing breeze:

Jackson lawyers paint AEG as ruthless, greedy

By Corina Knoll and Jeff Gottlieb

April 29, 2013, 1:29 p.m.

The attorney for Michael Jackson’s family painted entertainment powerhouse Anschutz Entertainment Group as a gang of ruthless executives concerned only with becoming No. 1 in the concert business and caring nothing about the singer’s well-being.

Attorney Brian Panish began his opening statement Monday in the Jackson-AEG suit by talking about Jackson’s addiction to prescription drugs.

He also mentioned Dr. Conrad Murray, the debt-ridden doctor who administered the fatal dose of propofol to Jackson and was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

But it was AEG, Panish said, that completed the puzzle in Jackson’s 2009 death.

“Michael had a problem, Dr. Murray had a problem and AEG had a problem,” Panish told the jury of six men and six women in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Monday.

AEG’s CEO Paul Gongaware

“You know what AEG’s problem was? They were not No. 1 in the concert business but they wanted to be.”

The attorney said the company wanted to exploit Jackson to catch up to their competitor in the concert business, Live Nation, at all costs.

“You don’t do that with white gloves,” Panish said. “You do what you gotta do if you want to be No. 1 in this rough business of concert promotions.”

The wrongful-death suit against AEG was filed by the singer’s mother, Katherine — who was in the courtroom Monday along with Michael Jackson’s siblings Rebbie and Randy — and his three children. Jackson died on the eve of what was to be a comeback series of concerts in 2009.

The suit accuses AEG of pushing Jackson beyond his limits and being responsible for hiring and controlling Murray.

“There were no rules,” Panish told the jury, when it came to furthering AEG’s success. “It didn’t matter what it took. … AEG had a problem and they wanted to fix it and they didn’t care who got lost in the wash.”

Using slides and photos, Panish quoted from emails among AEG executives that surfaced last year as evidence of the attitude. In one, AEG Live President and CEO Randy Phillips described screaming at Jackson, whom he called an “emotionally paralyzed mess,” before a news conference.

“Forget about helping Mr. Jackson,” Panish said. “The show must go on.”

Murray’s involvement only created a downward spiral for Jackson because the doctor’s “financial condition made him susceptible to pressure and created a conflict between his patient’ needs and AEG’s needs,” Panish said.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-jackson-aeg-20130429,0,3881562.story

Here is a link to the page containing all LA Times articles on the trial:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/lanow/la-me-ln-aeg-jackson-wrongful-death-trial-20130422,0,2325741.storygallery

And here is a link to the tweets sent by the staff of AVC7 Court News during every trial session: https://twitter.com/ABC7Courts

I’ve brought together all the tweets for the first day of the trial and to make them more readable rearranged them in a chronological order. The points that looked most important to me were marked in bold type and some seemed so important that were marked red:

	ABC7 Court News ‏@ABC7Courts
1	Judge Yvette Palazuelos is not allowing live tweets from the courtroom. We’ll bring you all the details of the trial as soon as we can
2	This is a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Katherine Jackson, Prince, Paris and Blanket accusing AEG of negligent hiring of Dr. Murray
3	AEG denies any wrongdoing, saying they haven’t even hired Dr. Conrad Murray. They claim Michael Jackson was the one who hired the doctor
4	Jacksons attorney, Brian Panish and his team, is already in the courtroom. AEG’s attorney Marvin Putnam and his team just entered the room
5	AEG Live CEO, Shawn Trell, is present too. No members of the Jackson family arrived yet.
6	Reporters are lined up outside the courtroom ready to go in. Can’t take pictures inside the courthouse, fyi.
7	Katherine Jackson, Randy and Rebbie just entered the courtroom. Several lawyers, bodyguards and sheriffs escorted the family.
8	When Katherine Jackson walked the hallway, some MJ fans told her: “We love you, Mrs. Jackson” and she replied “We love you more!”
9	Some Michael Jackson fans had tears in their eyes.
10	Courtroom is filled to capacity. Dr. Conrad Murray’s appellate lawyer, Valerie Wass, is also present. She says her client is innocent!
11	Randy and Rebbie walked the front door of the courthouse. You can watch all the coverage on @ABC7 Eyewitness News at 11am, 4, 5, 6, 11pm PT
12	Judge Yvette Palazuelos is on the bench right now. However, I see the jurors in this case are hanging down the hall.
13	Several Michael Jackson’s fans hanging out in the hallway outside the courtroom. One man has a MJ Immortal t-shirt.
14	Brian Panish just exited the courtroom, along with Randy. Bathroom break. Judge is hearing motions still. Opening to begin shortly.
15	Jury walking into the courtroom now. Opening statements to begin shortly.
16	They were escorted by the courtroom assistant. Opening has begun.
17	@TRUTH_ETERNITY We cannot take pictures inside the courthouse and in the hallways. No cameras allowed in the courtroom.
18	Watch @ABC7 Eyewitness News at 11am, 4, 5, 6, 11pm for the latest updates, video of arrivals, news conferences. We’ll post stories online 2
19	We’ll tweet pictures of the outside of the courthouse during lunch break, in about an hour or so.
20	From outside the hallway through a little windows on the courtroom’s door I see presentation of MJ’s video; mention of Pepsi commercial
21	Brian Panish, attorney for the Jacksons, is showing a video presentation to the jury. There was a slide showing drug Demerol.
22	@TrueNewsZone Live tweeting from inside the courtroom is prohibited. We’re tweeting from the hallway.
23	@Lady_Rebel_ No, only Randy and Rebbie are present with mother Katherine Jackson.
24	There’s a slide up now showing the relationship between Michael Jackson & Dr. Conrad Murray. Jury to decide who hired Dr. Murray: AEG or MJ?
25	Panish showing slide of drug Propofol. It says MJ was given the powerful anesthetic almost daily for six months [weeks]
26	Panish showed jurors slide of the agreement between MJ and AEG, that AEG was to provide “producers” for the tour.
27	Morning session over. Plaintiffs halfway through their opening statements. Katherine, Randy and Rebbie out of the courtroom. Jurors out too
28	Dr. Conrad Murray’ appellate attorney, Valerie Wass, tells @abc7 if doc will testify. Watch her on Eyewitness News pic.twitter.com/YD6ySkvJOD
29	Media outside the courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/4U41yln1Ij
30	Another angle pic.twitter.com/nPe14gA8CX
31	Yet another angle outside courthouse. pic.twitter.com/bD0HKnwvbC
32	Here’s what happened in court this morning: prior to the jurors coming in, the parties had housekeeping matters to discuss.
33	AEG’s attorney said Jacksons attorneys handed them 200 slides improperly labeled. It was slides the plaintiffs wanted to use during opening
34	Defense objected to a form of independent contractor that they say was not generated by AEG.
35	Defense challenged plaintiffs slide that’s says “It’s undisputed that Michael Jackson loved his kids.”
36	Defense says it is disputed whether there was a meeting of the minds about a supposed contract with Dr. Murray.
37	Judge said she wants to find out if Dr. Conrad Murray will testify. He’s on both of witnesses list. Defense said they intent to call him
38	Plaintiffs say the claimed Jacksons’ statements of damages, $40 billion, is attorneys calculation, not the assertion by Jackson family
39	Plaintiffs say the amount of $40 billion is only a notification to defendants as to their amount of exposure.
40	The courtroom was sooooo jam packed, it felt like a sardine can! Attorneys had to climb out of their seats to approach the judge!
41	Katherine, Randy and Rebbie sat in the first row. Panish said MJ was an athlete and a dancer and over time there was wear and tear
42	Panish: there’s no dispute MJ went to various doctors for Demerol. He also had problems with sleep and sought Propofol.
43	Panish: Propofol doesn’t provide restful sleep. Many doctors would not give him Propofol at home, since it needed equipment, crash cart
44	Panish: his family believes he had problems w/ prescription meds. The only ones who will say they never heard anything about it is AEG
45	Panish: the evidence will show in April Dr. Murray stockpiled Propofol in anticipation of treating Michael for the tour.
46	Panish: the evidence will show that Conrad Murray had an oral contract with AEG.
47	Panish: MJ would get daily doses of Propofol for six weeks in May and June, leading up to his death
48	Panish: LAPD searched Dr. Murray’s car and found a business card, an envelope and a contract between AEG and Dr. Murray
49	The business card was of Brandon Phillips, the CEO for AEG.
50	We’re on a 15 minute break. Plaintiff finished their opening statements about half an hour ago. Defense has began their presentation
51	It is a short break, so I’ll tweet as much as I can. All the details at the end of the day for sure.
52	Katherine Jackson took a bathroom break. On her way back into the courtroom she interacted with the fans in the hallway again.
53	Panish in his opening: AEG had a problem. They were not number 1 in the concert business. Live Nation was. They wanted to catch up
54	Back in the courtroom. More updates soon and on @ABC7 Eyewitness News at 4, 5 and 6pm, PT.
55	Panish: there was no risk to AEG, since the production (of the tour) would be secured by MJ’s assets, which included the Sony catalog
56	Panish: “he is 50 but he’s going to dance his ass off.”
57	Panish: the mindset of AEG was that the show must go on. He said jury will have to decide on who to believe.
58	Panish described to the jury a series of emails where AEG executives talk about backing off the show would be a disaster.
59	Panish said they wrote to each other that MJ made to the This is It press conference but was locked in his room
60	Panish continues saying the execs wrote that MJ was emotionally paralyzed, mess riddled with self loathing and doubt. He is scared to death
61	Panish: evidence will show MJ requested a doctor… plus opiates. Paul Gongaware talked to Dr. Murray and closes the deal.
62	Panish showed a clip of Gongaware saying they didn’t investigate Dr. Murray and he had no supervision.
63	Panish showed the jury an email from Gongaware: “We want to remind him (Dr. Murray) that AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary”.
64	Email continues: “We want him (Dr. Murray) to understand what it’s expected of him.”
65	Panish showed email from Kenny Ortega: “MJ didn’t have a good Friday, he’s not in great physical shape, I believe he’s hurting.”
66	Kenny email: “my concern now is that we brought the doctor in the fold and have played tough love… He appeared quite weak and fatigued”
67	Ortega to Phillips: there are strong signs of panic, anxiety and obsessive-like behavior. I think the very best is to hire a psychiatrist
68	Phillips to Ortega: his (MJ) doctor is extremely successful (we checked everyone out) and does not need this gig, he’s unbiased & ethical
69	Phillips to Ortega: you cannot imagine the harm and ramifications of stopping the show now.
70	Panish said AEG executives lied, since they didn’t check Dr. Murray, who was in financial distress. But AEG wanted the show to go on.
71	Phillips email after meeting at MJ’s house: doctor was fantastic and I think Kenny’s hysteria will be in check once MJ was alert/attentive
72	Panish said AEG had $17.5 million in insurance and before MJ does they were trying to secure more insurance.
73	Email when AEG was putting together This is it movie: make sure we take out shots of MJ in red jacket… He looks too thin, skeletal
74	Panish then showed a handwritten letter MJ wrote for Katherine Jackson. It’s called “Mother, My Guardian Angel.”
75	Panish told jurors they are not looking for sympathy, they were looking for the truth and justice.
76	Panish: no 1 will come here and say MJ wasn’t a great father. Atty played a song Michael wrote 2 his kids called “A beautiful thing to see”
77	Panish said MJ made his kids wear masks because he didn’t want his children to be recognized.
78	Panish said defendants made up that the family was trying to recover $40 billion in special damages. He says it’s $1.5 billion economic loss
79	Panish: AEG hired him (Dr. Murray), AEG was going to pay Murray. They didn’t pay him because they stiffed him.
80	Panish said Dr. Murray signed the contract the day before MJ died. AEG had not signed it yet, but said it was not unusual to work without 1
81	Panish: they took advantage of a sick man. No doctor ever gave MJ Propofol at home until Dr. Murray. AEG needs to pay the price.
82	Marvin Putnam, attorney for AEG, did the opening statements for the defendants. He began introducing his team and AEG executives.
83	Putnam told the jury to look at the evidence, what it actually says. “This case is about the choices we make; and the responsibilities”
84	Putnam: evidence is going to show public MJ was very different from private MJ. MJ erected a wall between him and his family, staff
85	Putnam said MJ kept his public and private life separated. He had 40 years to perfect that; he learned very well the cost of being exposed
86	Putnam: we’re going to show you some ugly stuff. Why? AEG Live, Paul Gongaware, Randy Phillips were sued, it’s not going to be pretty
87	Putnam said MJ’s death was a big event, he was a public figure, talented, lived in front of us. It was tragic, he was loved all over
88	Putnam said it took 2 months to find out what caused MJ’s death. MJ had died of overdose of something called Propofol.
89	Putnam: as with MJ’s life, MJ’s death was anything but typical. Death was classified as homicide, Murray found guilty of manslaughter
90	While the world had not heard of Propofol, Putnam said, Mr. Jackson had. Evidence will show he had been using the drug for years.
91	Putnam said MJ had a decade-long Propofol use. AEG didn’t know about it, how could’ve they know? They didn’t make MJ’s medical decisions
92	Putnam said that everyone knew MJ abused painkillers, since Michael announced it in 1993, ended the tour and entered rehab.
93	Even his family wasn’t sure what was going on at time. They tried intervention and failed. Why? Because MJ was an addicted, said Putnam
94	Putnam: MJ fooled everybody. He made sure no one, nobody, knew his deepest dark secret.
95	Putnam showed a clip of This is It movie two days before MJ died. He argued MJ was amazing, attentive, great performance
96	Putnam takes the jury back to the 2000s, when MJ went through a hideous criminal trial accuses of child molestation. He was acquitted
97	In 2007, Putnam says MJ approached AEG with the idea for a come back. But he decided he wasn’t ready.
98	In 2008, MJ approached AEG again. He was now prepared to go forward, Putnam said, even though he hadn’t toured for about a decade.
99	Putnam described MJ’s lavish lifestyle and that he was spending more than he was making. By 2009 he was $400 million in debt
100	He had to bring in some money, Putnam said, so he had to go back Mas do what MJ does best: perform. There was no performer like MJ
101	Putnam described for the jury how a concert happens. The producers advance money so the artist can put the show on the road.
102	Once show is in full swing, the artist pays back the producers and they split the profits. MJ was to get 90% and AEG 10%, Putnam said
103	Putnam then talked about who is Randy Phillips and Paul Gongaware. Phillips deals with the artist, good schmoozer, Gongaware is the techie
104	Putnam said AEG decided 2 tour in London because they didn’t know what kind of response MJ was going to have and he had large fab base there
105	Production advances, to cover mutually-agreed production costs was $7.5 million, Putnam told the jurors, saying it was MJ who Jose the staff
106	In Feb 09, MJ was required to do a physical exam in order to get insurance. It’s called non-appearance insurance, Putnam said
107	MJ was seeing by a doctor chosen by the insurance company and he determined MJ was healthy, no sign if drug use, Putnam said.
108	Putnam says MJ told Gongaware he was going to bring his personal doctor to the tour with him. He was talking about Dr. Murray.
109	Putnam: MJ expected AEG to assume the payment for Dr. Murray just like he did with everyone else.
110	Putnam: it was not AEG’s choice who Mr. Jackson’s doctor is. It’s a personal choice by Mr. Jackson and he chose Dr. Murray
111	Putnam: AEG never paid Dr. Murray anything. They did budget it. He then played audio of Murray’a interview with LAPD, saying MJ hire him
112	In the interview with LAPD, Dr. Murray said he was an employee for Michael Jackson but paid through AEG.
113	Putnam went back to the addiction to painkillers issue again. He said MJ would get minor cosmetic or dental procedures and get the drugs
114	Putnam showed a slide called Doctor Shopping, where he identified 45 different doctors who treated MJ.
115	Putnam said MJ was very secretive even with his own doctors. He wouldn’t tell one doctor about what the other doctor was doing
116	Putnam said MJ resisted all attempts to get help. Family tried interventions, he turned down rehab and denied he had any addiction.
117	Putnam: Mr. Jackson got very good at hiding his addiction. He didn’t let anyone see it, not his staff, not his children. This was private MJ
118	Putnam: sometime in 1990s MJ began using Propofol. This was a big secret, so secret no one knew, not even his doctors.
119	Putnam said a nurse named Debbie Rowe knew about it; saw doctor give MJ Propofol on tour. She wanted to make sure she was there & MJ woke up
120	Putnam then showed the floor plan of MJ’s house. He said no one was allowed in MJ’s bedroom, not even the housekeepers. Only Dr. Murray
121	Putnam said that at night MJ would lock his bedroom’s door so no one had access to the room. He said it wasn’t for AEG to look into Murray
122	At the end, Putnam asked the jurors to wait until they hear all the evidence from both sides before making a judgement.
123	Putnam said he didn’t talk about their claim for money damages because he thinks there weren’t any.
124	Putnam: this case is about personal choices. There’s no question MJ’s death was horrible, but evidence will show you it was not AEG’s making
125	Session ended 40 minutes after the regular schedule. Jurors are ordered to return tomorrow at 10 am PT
126	Judge ordered attorneys to be there earlier to discuss two notes sent but jurors. Don’t know the content of them.
127	First plaintiffs witness is LAPD detective Orlando Martinez. He’s going to testify about his interview with Dr. Murray and who hired him
128	We’ll be in court again tomorrow and will tweet as soon as we can. Catch all the latest developments on @ABC7 Eyewitness News
129	Thank you!
	https://twitter.com/ABC7Courts

Here are some short notes on the above:

Well guys, it is only starting and we need to steel ourselves for what comes next.

The benefit of it is that now we at least know how nasty they could be to Michael Jackson when in private, and what it must have been like when Randy Phillips had several “arguments” with Michael and “screamed at him so loud the walls were shaking”.

I hope that by the end of the trial everyone will know how they treated the best performer in the world.

* * *

April 30, 2013

So the very first check of the database showed all Murray’s problems.
Why didn’t AEG do the same?
Or probably they did and liked what they saw? After all Randy Phillips said that “they checked everyone out” and told Kenny Ortega not to worry?

And after that AEG speaks of Michael’s “dark secrets”?
And what about theirs?

*  *  *

I said it too soon about the LA Times – now they have also stepped on the slippery road of biased reporting. First a certain “fan” said to them that the case “is not about justice but about who is going to make money” and now they happily report her words in each of their articles.

Never knew that the dubious opinion of some “fans” was so valuable to the LA Times that they would make so much fuss over it.  This makes me feel proud that I am no “fan” but Michael Jackson’s supporter.

Here are the tweets of ABC7 Court News reporting Day 4 of the AEG trial:

DAY 4 of AEG trial

*  *  *

Believe it or not but out of the above I was mostly impressed by the different way the ABC news and the LA Times presented the small piece on who would stay in the courtroom to support Mrs. Jackson.

ABC7 Court News said the following about it:

• “Judge Yvette Palazuelos: “Mrs. Jackson should have one person in support with her in the courtroom.” Rebbie was allowed to stay.

And the LA Times turned it into an impressive statement to effectively end their article with:

• “I think Mrs. Jackson should have at least one support person in the courtroom,” the judge said”.

I checked my reaction several times and each time it sounded to me like there was no one else but one person support Mrs. Jackson in that courtroom. The same phrase in the ABC variant did not convey anything of the kind – there was no “at least” there and this was not how their text ended.

I recently guessed that when you read the article you need to go immediately to the end of it. The ending is the essence of it all, it leaves the lasting impression on the reader and though may fully contradict the text prior to it will imprint on the memory its most important conclusion. This way a mere couple of words or a question mark at the end may doubt or even erase everything said prior to that.

So it is absolutely no chance occurrence that the LA Times is turning that “only one person in support of Mrs. Jackson” phrase into an effective ending – this way they are sending a hint that the case is frivolous and if even no one in the courtroom is supporting it (as the judge said) no one beyond the walls of the courtroom should do it either:

Family tried to get Jackson to stop taking drugs, detective says

By Corina Knoll

May 2, 2013, 4:00 p.m.

Michael Jackson’s family tried over and over to talk with the pop singer about his drug abuse and attempted one intervention at his Neverland retreat, a Los Angeles police detective who interviewed Michael Jackson’s mother testified Thursday.

Det. Orlando Martinez said that when he interviewed Katherine Jackson on Dec. 9, 2009 — months after Jackson’s death — she told him  she had never met nor known about Dr. Conrad Murray until her son died. Murray, who gave the singer a lethal dose of propofol,  is now serving a jail sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

“Mrs. Jackson stated that she last spoke with Michael at his residence on Carolwood approximately one and a half weeks prior to his death. When asked if Mrs. Jackson had ever met Dr. Murray she stated that she had not and didn’t even know who he was until after Michael’s death.

“Mrs. Jackson was asked if she or any other family members ever attempted to do an intervention with Michael as it relates to painkillers or any other drugs. She stated that there had been one attempted intervention at Neverland on behalf of Janet, however Michael didn’t want to participate.

“Mrs. Jackson stated that she had been informed Michael had been taking drugs, however she had no idea which drugs, and she had never seen Michael take any drugs. Mrs. Jackson stated that the family attempted several times to help Michael however he would have nothing to do with it. She further stated that she had asked Michael if he was taking any drugs and Michael denied it.

“When asked if Michael had any chronic medical conditions that she was aware of, Mrs. Jackson stated that he had problems sleeping and that his back frequently bothered him. She stated she thought the back pain was a result of falling off of a stage during a performance.”

Katherine Jackson has been present at the trial since it began Monday, stepping out of the courtroom only when a paramedic described finding the singer on his bed.

Jackson’s mother and the singer’s three children are accusing the entertainment company of pushing the singer beyond his physical abilities and of negligently hiring and controlling Murray, who gave Jackson a fatal dose of propofol.

On Thursday, defense attorneys objected to Katherine Jackson being accompanied by her daughter Rebbie, who, like many of her siblings, is on the witness list.

Judge Yvette Palazuelos overruled the objection. “I think Mrs. Jackson should have at least one support person in the courtroom,” the judge said.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-jackson-drugs-20130502,0,1402767.story

An impressive  ending indeed. And you asked about the ways they do it to us.

As to the essence of the “drug problem” let me repeat what I already posted in the comments on the article.

The problem of Michael’s drug addiction is highly exaggerated and since his mother and siblings knew nothing of the true state of affairs they were the first to fall for the media gossip.

Michael Jackson is celebrating Paris’s birthday in Las Vegas. People Magazine, April 2007

When Michael returned from Ireland in December 2006 he was healthy, invigorated and clean of any drugs, but the media thought otherwise, and unfortunately the family believed the media and not Michael. They attempted an intervention though there was no other reason for it except the nasty media gossip. The intervention was all the more insulting to Michael because all this mistrust was coming from his own family.

At the time he was seen in a wheelchair, but this could have been a flare of lupus from which he suffered all his life and which is an incurable disease. It flares up in time of stress and trouble and goes into remission when everything is quiet. The family had no idea about Michael’s lupus as this information was uncovered only recently and confused by all those  wild guesses assumed the drug version as the media conveniently suggested it.

Las Vegas again

However neither the media reports, nor the family’s interventions prompted by the media “information” are proof enough that Michael was indeed taking any drugs, at least at that time.

It was Michael’s biggest problem and even a tragedy that no matter what he did everyone thought only the worst of him, family included.

Let me remind everyone of Michael’s promoter Jack Wishna who also complained about the family’s unreasonable behavior, especially Joe Jackson, but never saw any drugs around Michael and never saw or heard him to take any when he was in Las Vegas in 2007 and 2008:

January 8, 2010

“It was December 23rd 2006, it was the day before Christmas Eve and we arranged it where a private jet would pick Michael Jackson up in Dublin, Ireland, and take him directly to Las Vegas,” Wishna said in an interview for Access Hollywood and Las Vegas television station KVBC with correspondent Alicia Jacobs.

And Wishna revealed the vision he shared with Jackson.

“When he came off that plane, it was the old Michael Jackson of the ‘Bad Tour,’ type thing, it was the Michael Jackson that I grew up with,” he said.

And although Jackson’s use of prescription drugs became big news after his death, Wishna said he never saw any of that kind of stuff around.

“Never saw any drugs,” Wishna said. “Never saw any intravenous, or needles or anything like that. Never met any doctors around Michael.”

Naming their project “RockCity,” Jackson was going to be required to perform just three days a month.

But once he was settled into his new home with his children and the comeback collaboration was underway, Wishna said Jackson’s behavior turned erratic.

“As he stayed in Las Vegas, he started to get debilitated while he was here and debilitated from a mental health standpoint, debilitated from a physical standpoint,” Wishna said.

“The family started to, you know, bother him again… His father Joe. It just started – a lot of the weirdness started to come back,” he continued.

Wishna said he often had to conduct damage control, especially after one night when Jackson watched a fight, incognito in a wheelchair.

“My phone rings… It’s The Associated Press and the person on the other end of the phone says Jack, ‘What do you know about Michael being in a wheelchair last night with a coat over his head and sunglasses over his coat,” Wishna recounted. “If you say, ‘Michael, why did you do that?’ That’s the way he wanted to go out and if he wanted to go out that way, that’s the way he wanted to go out.”

Eventually, Wishna came to the decision that the negative publicity surrounding Jackson’s antics were detrimental to the success of “RockCity.”

“This was probably about June of 2007 and I said, ‘Michael, I think we should shelve it. I think we should put it on the shelf, come back to it when you are’ — these are the words that I used – ‘mentally, physically, and vocally capable of being a part of this project,’” he explained.

Wishna was both right and wrong. As the world discovered from “This Is It,” Michael’s vocals and dance moves were at the top of his game, but his drug abuse tragically sabotaged it all.

“I believe Michael was troubled every single day of his life,” Wishna said. “I believe that contributed to his untimely death.”

http://www.accesshollywood.com/jackson-confidant-jack-wishna-opens-up-about-michael-and-the-tour-that-never-was_article_27503

Jack Wishna’s explanations of the wheelchair prove to me only one thing – he had no idea about Michael’s lupus and its flares, or otherwise he would not have so easily brushed it off.

However the essential fact in his story is that he did not see any drugs. Michael’s health must have been indeed frail as otherwise he would not have used the wheelchair but the reason for it was evidently not drugs, but something else.

My personal opinion is that it was the stress of coming back home and seeing all the usual media spin that did not change a bit since the time he left the US. After the the 2005 trial his nervous system was completely ruined and all the worry and fear of seeing people judging him again was sending him into a state of a nervous wreck.

In this connection I’m tempted to quote some of Karen Faye’s Facebook messages:

• Michael was afraid to be judged again. I have answered this over and over. The trial devastated his self esteem in which he never recovered. Some people think “super stars” are ‘super human” … they are NOT. They hurt and bleed just like you. How would you be after the trial?????

• Yes LOOK tabloids… look what you have done. Display what you have done to Michael in your trashy magazines. Print your guilt!!!!

TRASH ABOUT THE MESS

Day 4 of the AEG trial started for me with a shock of having to read miles and miles about Michael’s “messy” room.

In one more LA Times article Corina Knoll described the mess with so much relish that I very much regretted my earlier good opinion of the paper – the speed with which the LA Times is turning into a tabloid is amazing.

More than half of the article is devoted to what they call a “peek into Michael Jackson’s private life” describing his premises as “messy”, “strewn all over with clothes”, full of “cardboard boxes lined up”, “books piled up on the floor”, “more cardboard boxes overflowing with clothes” and a “rumpled bed”.

In their opinion the bed where a man just died should necessarily be a tidy and pretty sight.

And not a word – not a single word –  is said about the fact that in the days before his death Michael Jackson was simply packing for his long stay in London which was to start a few days later, around July 3.

One does not have to be a genius to recall this simple fact. All the LA Times had to do was report the news from the courtroom as it was, without overlooking anything said there. And Brian Panish did ask there if the witness remembered that Michael Jackson was packing for a move to London and the witness acknowledged that he did.

ABC7 CourtNews tweeted his questions to Detective Martinez and his laughing answer about it being no crime:

• “Panish asked if having messy room is against the law according to the penal code? Martinez laughed and said no.

• As to the moving boxes, Panish asked Martinez if he knew MJ was planning to go to England the first week of July. He said yes.

But this is what the ABC7 CourtNew said and the LA Times absolutely failed to report, and the fact that they didn’t say a single word to explain the reason for the mess, but devoted six full paragraphs to its description, is turning their story  into a piece of valuable evidence about them.

They called it a peek into Michael’s private life, but instead gave us a peek into the kitchen where the media is baking its news about Jackson.

Now they themselves showed us how they are doing it and what a deep and dark agenda they have against Michael. They demonstrated it by cutting off anything that might explain Michael’s actions and using the rest of it for exaggerating it out of all proportion and allowing your fantasy to do the rest of their misinterpretation.

Collages are made not only by the LA Times

This is no objective reporting. This is a cut-and-paste job where you take a photo of a man, cut off anything that might be pleasing to the sight, photoshop it  by attaching some garbage to it, and then say – “This is the real him”, while what you actually see is a nasty collage only.

Why they are doing it – for ratings, money or out of their big and selfless love for guys like AEG, does not really matter. What matters is the fact itself – they are eager to cover Jackson with dirt and paint a picture of him that will be suitable for  AEG only. And AEG is interested in Michael Jackson’s character assassination because they have nothing else to say in their defense, and this is why they are now making these dirty but irrelevant statements.

Indeed how can the packing process on the second floor of Michael’s home be relevant for the case accusing AEG of negligent hiring Murray? In the opinion of the LA Times it evidently can:

 Photos of Jackson’s messy, clothes-strewn bedroom shown to jurors

By Corina Knoll

May 2, 2013, 1:39 p.m.

In a case that attorneys promised would dive into Michael Jackson’s personal life, jurors were shown photographs Thursday of the eccentric music legend’s messy, clothes-strewn second-floor bedroom in the rented mansion where he died.

Although the foyer of the Holmby Hills home was pristine — a lavish, open space with ornate gold frames — and the dining room boasted flowing white curtains around giant windows that allowed in streaming sunlight, the second floor presented a scene that was radically different, jurors were told in the wrongful-death case brought by the singer’s family against entertainment firm AEG.

On June 25, 2009, the day of Jackson’s death, the master bedroom on the second floor was in disarray, Los Angeles Police Det. Orlando Martinez testified. The curtains were pulled and the fireplace was on.

A portable rack was jammed with hangers of clothing. More clothes were strewn about the room, including on the rumpled bedspread. On a desk were stacks of what appeared to be DVDs and papers. Books lay in piles on the floor. Lining the hallway floor that led from the bedroom to the master closet and a bathroom were piles of clothes.

Inside the closet was a globe, shopping bags, a dress form with a red coat trimmed in black, and cardboard boxes that overflowed with even more clothes.

Papers were strewn about the star’s bathroom, which had another cardboard box stuffed with clothing. Bags and towels lay scattered about. Inside the inlaid marble bathtub were additional towels. Nearby sat fancy glass bottles filled with liquids.

Although merely a peek into Jackson’s private life, the photos presented during the fourth day of the case could foreshadow what’s to come in a trial expected to last four months.

The suit filed by Jackson’s mother, Katherine, and his three children accuses concert promoter AEG of pushing the singer beyond his physical abilities and of negligently hiring and controlling Dr.Conrad Murray, who gave Jackson a fatal dose of propofol and is now serving a jail term for involuntary manslaughter.

On Thursday, the family’s attorney played a phone message to Murray left by Jackson’s manager Frank DiLeo on June 20, 2009.

“I’m sure you’re aware he had an episode last night. He’s sick. Today’s Saturday, tomorrow I’m on my way back. I’m not gonna continue my trip. Uh, I think you need — I think you need to get a blood test on him today. I — I — we gotta see what he’s doing. All right. Thank you.”

Brian Panish, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said he believed that DiLeo had spoken with an AEG executive just prior to making the phone call.

Five days later, Jackson was dead.

Martinez testified that on the day of the singer’s death, he went to Jackson’s home, which boasted a movie theater, workout room, dance area and a wine cellar.

Although the entryway was immaculate, the second floor — where Jackson had been found by paramedics earlier that morning — was a deep contrast.

A search warrant and affidavit said that no adults besides Jackson were known to live at the location and that the staff was only allowed to be present on the ground floor. Martinez testified that the chef was allowed to leave food outside a door upstairs.

Martinez said that when he arrived, Jackson’s children and his brother Randy were at the home. He also saw three cars, including Murray’s BMW.

Investigators attempted to reach Murray but the doctor did not answer his phone or return calls, which seemed suspicious, Martinez said.

“If it was a medical emergency or a natural death, why would he be refusing to speak with us? Why would he leave the hospital after he was asked to stay? Why would he not go back to pick up his car?” Martinez said.

Murray was tracked through his cellphone and found in Santa Monica. Detectives interviewed him two days after Jackson’s death.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-michael-jackson-bedroom-aeg-20130502,0,3325050.story

I remember one of Michael’s friends saying that Michael had so little help at that time that he had to pack his things himself. Moving house is a difficult job as it is, as each of us knows, but when you have to rehearse in the daytime, struggle with insomnia the whole night through and have to pack things during the little time left, it is simply mean, indecent, vulgar, foolish and absurd to derive pleasure from trashing the person for the clothes lying about his room waiting to be packed.

June 21st was Sunday, and the next day June 22nd the show was moving from the Forum to Staples Center. Michael had two spare days and must have used them for packing his things for London. On June 23d he told his chef Kai Chase that he had packed and was ready to go. The boxes with luggage were indeed lining up the premises as those “messy” photos confirmed.

Michael said to Kai Chase:

She said she had already filled out paperwork and submitted a copy of her passport to the Jackson staff and expected to leave for London on July 3.

On June 23, she said Jackson told her: “I’m packed and I’m ready to go.” Two days later, he was dead.

http://www.michaeljackson.com/it/node/103968

The process was far from finished of course and the reader who answered my comment in the LA Times added to it that Michael was known to be having a clear-out at that time and giving away his clothes and personal items to other people which was another reason to hang them out and look:

Pen-dragon57 at 12:52 AM May 3, 2013

Good point  -  Jackson was to stay in England for around 9 months – anyone who has ever moved home will know how chaotic a time that is… boxes everywhere.  Jackson was also known to be having a clear-out at the same time, and gave away many clothes and personal items in preparation for the move.  I see nothing sinister in his private quarters being in a muddle at this time.

The house Michael Jackson lived in from end of December 2006 to beginning of 2008

If this packing problem is still a sore point with those who listen to AEG’s trashy stories repeated by their media collaborators, let me inform you that the realtor who rented a mansion to Michael Jackson in Las Vegas said that he left the house in an impeccable condition, professionally cleaned. The realtor called Michael a complete gentleman.

I wish the same could be said about the AEG people and journalists dancing to their tunes. Here is the story about Michael’s house in Las Vegas and the realtor who disproved the media lies:

Inside Michael Jackson’s Bedroom

by Whitney English and Natalie FinnTue., Jul. 14, 2009 9:03 PM PDT

So this is what it looks like.

E! News scored an exclusive tour of the Las Vegas mansion the King of Pop rented while negotiating a possible comeback gig—and though any personal items belonging to the eccentric artist are long gone, it’s still fascinating to put a place to the increasingly odd face.

Here’s the scoop we got from realtor Zar Zanganeh, who leased the 10-bedroom house to Jackson in 2006 and 2007 and is now showing it for seller Carolyn Mullany Coldwell Banker Premiere Realty:

Jackson obviously wanted to keep his kids close to home—that’s where they played and went to school, and a security team was on hand at all times to keep them safe.

Vegas businessman Jack Wishna, who was trying to get a Sin City concert residency rolling for the Thriller artist, told E! News this week that Jackson and his three children all slept in one room.

Zanganeh maintained that Prince Michael, Paris and wee Prince Michael II (aka Blanket) had their own bedroom next to their dad’s 2,000-square-foot suite—and that’s where they slept, on three separate beds.

Albeit three separate beds squished together in a room meant for one bed.

“Michael slept in his bed every night as far as I know,” the realtor said. “There were plenty of times I came over and he was still in bed. He always came out of this room,” he added, motioning to the master bedroom. “The kids were right next door.”

Zanganeh did not dispute, however, Wishna’s story about Jackson leaving his Christmas ’06 tree up until the day his family vacated the home the following summer—but he put a much sweeter spin on it.

“He liked it so much he left it up for his entire stay,” he said simply, adding that rumors of Jackson leaving a mess behind when he moved out were totally false.

“He left the property in great condition, professionally cleaned up. He was a complete gentleman,” Zanganeh said.

The gated residence—replete with tennis and basketball courts, a  playroom, three office suites, au pair quarters and an impressive yet eerie backstory—has remained empty since the most storied branch of the Jackson family called it home.

http://uk.eonline.com/news/134156/inside-michael-jackson-s-bedroom

The article corrected the media spin about Michael’s housekeeiping ways, however introduced us to another spin concerning the“sleeping in one room” issue. With these people it never stops – you put out one fire but they immediately ignite another one for you.

JACK WISHNA’S TESTIMONY

No, Jack Wishna did not mean anything like that. He just said that he saw several mattresses brought together into Michael’s master bedroom so that he and his children could jump and play there. And as if knowing what would start after these words Jack Wishna quickly added that all of it was quite innocent:

“I’m looking around the house for him and I go into the master bedroom and there’s no mattress on the bed. I go into another bedroom, there’s no mattresses on the bed. I finally open up a room that was kind of like an empty room and all the mattresses are on the floor lined up so Michael can sleep there with the three kids,” Wisha said.

However, Wishna was quick to note the impression left by the unusual sleeping arrangement was purely an innocent one.

“They can play. They can jump up and down. That’s Michael,” he added. “He was very comfortable in that Romper Room-type environment.”

Wishna also insisted Jackson tried his hardest to be a good dad.

http://uk.eonline.com/news/134025/m-j-slumber-partied-with-his-kids-kept-joe-out

Jack Wishna spoke about Michael’s life-style with a smile and understanding, adding that that one part of Michael was a creative genius while the other was that of a 13-year old and that he was a child at heart.

Jack Wishna speaks on http://uk.eonline.com/news/134025/m-j-slumber-partied-with-his-kids-kept-joe-out

Though the article is actually nasty it has a good video called “Michael’s former Vegas promoter, Jack Wishna, lets us in on the private, family-oriented style of the King of Pop”, where free from any media embellishments made around his words Jacks Wishna says what he really says:

• “He loved those children more than anything else in the world. He was a great father. In the 22 thousand square foot mansion there were beds in every room. The master bedroom was probably bigger than the size of my house and he took all the mattresses off all the beds in all the rooms, put them into one room so that he can sleep, play, jump up and down on the mattresses with his three kids, and they all will be together in one room.

• I always said that Michael was very creative, tremendously creative on one side of his brain. On the other side he was always thirteen, he was just a child at heart, he was always a child, he acted like a child. If he was in a room and part of the room had adults and part of the room had children he would gravitate towards the side with the children. He loved children, he loved his children, he would be most comfortable in that environment”.

And it was due to Michael’s trust of a “thirteen-year old” and belief in the good of others that he let “wrong people come into his life”. As we know Jack Wishna regretted very much that he had brought Michael back to the US:

Wishna was working with Jackson on a permanent Las Vegas show, but during the seven months he lived here, it became clear Jackson was in no physical shape to take on such a project.

“The wrong people came into his life and ultimately caused his demise,” says Wishna.  “One part of his brain was tremendously talented in terms of music and creativity, the other side of his brain was very trusting like a twelve year old”

“Over the years I always thought that maybe if I didn’t move Michael from Ireland back to America, back to Las Vegas, that maybe Michael would be alive today,” says entertainment power broker Jack Wishna, president of Rockrena, Inc.  http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/133419218.html

It would be wrong to assume that Jack Wishna was speaking only of Conrad Murray. No, he referred to all those who came into Michael’s life also in 2008 – Tohme, Barrack and AEG Live. They “whooed” Michael into their deal and it was due to that that Wishna had to withdraw.

Wishna was very apprehensive of the upcoming concerts and shared some of his concerns with the media. A thing or two of his very cautious statements leaked into the press after Michael’s death. I’m very grateful to Wishna that upon realizing that Michael was not fit for a series of concerts he thought of other projects which did not involve Michael’s direct participation (the Cirque du Soleil project and others).

This way he did exactly the opposite to what was done by AEG. They also saw Michael unfit for the shows but decided to make use of it instead of helping Michael. So when you read Tohme (in Sullivan’s book) and he throws there Jack Wishna into a pile of some “parasites” please don’t believe them – Wishna was a very decent man.

And Wishna was clearly resentful of what AEG was doing to Michael. If  he had lived to be a witness at the current trial he would have spoken up in support of Katherine Jackson against AEG. Unfortunately Jackson Wishna committed suicide – he was found in his car in his garage intoxicated by carbon monoxide as the autopsy determined.

But if he were alive he would repeat to the jury the following words and would probably tell them much more:

 ”It’s Going to Be a Disaster”: Associate Says Jackson Was Too Weak for Major Comeback

by Whitney English and Natalie FinnFri., Jul. 10, 2009 8:16 PM PDT

One of the dreamers who tried to reboot Michael Jackson’s career says the late King of Pop wasn’t fit enough to hit the stage for the “greatest comeback show ever” two years ago, let alone this summer.

“It would have happened had I assessed that Michael was capable mentally, emotionally, vocally to do it. At the end of it, we decided no, he wasn’t,” Jack Wishna, president of consultancy CPAmerica and the orchestrator of Jackson’s return to the U.S. after a year spent living abroad, exclusively tells E! News.

The idea that they danced around from mid-2006 to mid-2007, and again earlier this year, was to have Jackson in residence at a Las Vegas hotel, where he’d star in a concert spectacular called Michael Jackson Presents that would also feature guest appearances by the latest R&B hitmakers.

…But though concert promoter AEG Live said that Jackson passed a physical with flying colors earlier this year, Wishna maintains that the 50-year-old artist had been in a “weakened state” and wasn’t able to do three shows a month in 2007, much less maintain a more rigorous schedule now.

“He would get hurt if he had to do a regimen of performances,” Wishna said. “You really have to be fit to go up on stage to do that.”

So, earlier this year, he and Jackson instead discussed creating a show in the guise of LOVE, Cirque du Soleil’s ode to the Beatles, that the King of Pop would not actually be in.

But then, Wishna said, he found out Jackson had hooked up with AEG for his London engagement.

“He said it should be fine,” Wishna recalled. “In my heart I knew he didn’t get better from the time I was with him. He was thin and weak. It’s going to be a disaster. I would never put him into a show that way. I don’t know who the doctor is that certified him for it. I didn’t think [Jackson] was capable of doing it.”

…”Michael has a lot of people around him that cut deals and sometimes Michael doesn’t even know what those deals are,” he added. “So many people have been around him. At every turn it’s like he’s his worst enemy because of the people that are around him.”

Full story: http://uk.eonline.com/news/133691/it-s-going-to-be-a-disaster-associate-says-jackson-was-too-weak-for-major-comeback

As Jack Wishna will no longer be able to testify let us remember his last words as his evidence in the case of Katherine Jackson against AEG:

• “Michael would get hurt if he had to do a regimen of performances,” (this is a reference to  50 shows and their impossible regimen)

• “I would never put him into a show that way” (his opinion of AEG – only they were capable of a ruthless thing like that)

• “Michael has a lot of people around him that cut deals and sometimes Michael doesn’t even know what those deals are,”  (this may be true for all the three of them – due to Tohme Michael did not know his deal either with Tom Barrack or AEG Live).

I wish Jack Wishna could testify at this trial. His voice would have been a strong one.

ANOTHER WITNESS

Another person who can tell us a lot about Michael and the way he was treated by AEG Live is Karen Faye. Reading her messages (in muzikfactory blog here) I am amazed to see how much of what Karen Faye said then is fitting into our own understanding of the situation now.

Now we know that it was a must for Michael to have enough rest between the shows as he had grave sleeping issues which aggravated during the concerts. He would not sleep for a day or two after the show and there is no way AEG could not know about it when they were setting the schedule. Karen Faye says:

• Yes… he had sleeping issues for a long time. He had a difficult and complicated life. His sleeping issues were even worse during performing live concerts. His adrenaline would surge through his body during the performance. Sometimes it would take a day or two for him to fall asleep after the performance.

Like all the rest of them Karen Faye was hired in May only, though some preliminary discussion took place in March. Then they seemed to ignore her for weeks, so what she says about the dancers starting in April may not be necessarily true. Like many others she may simply not know and may be repeating the AEG official version. She joined them in May  so what was happening in April must have been told to her by Kenny Ortega or Randy Phillips. The dancers could be saying the same too – all of them had confidentiality agreements and were obliged to follow AEG’s orders.

And they are talking of some confidentiality agreements signed for MJ? They have not seen the AEG concentration camp security!

Like all the rest of them she is thinking the worst of Michael in terms of drugs. “She began to see the signs of drugs” though how long had she not associated with Michael before that ? Twelve years or more? So how could she really know? Her talk about drugs is a mere guess:

• My first call from Michael was on March 15^th. M.Bush’s first contract was April 11^th. I was not put on staff until May 14^th. I feel like I was being ignored for weeks. There were many meetings with other staff. Dancers, musicians and back up singers began at Center Stagin in April. Michael began to rehearse and work out at home in April. When Michael was younger and working, this would have been enough time for him. Michael did not get on stage and start working with his performers until mid June. Michael seems reluctant to begin. I began to see warning signs of drugs and continued weight loss. The rehearsals on the 23 and 24 were the most productive up to that point.

Michael invited Kenny Ortega to do the show. Karen is telling us news that it was Ortega who was responsible for the great damage caused to Michael’s back during the concert in Munich. At least Michael held Ortega responsible for the fall of the bridge there. Ortega left the scene not to confront the tragedy and didn’t apologize for the drop which was evidently the result of his negligence. Michael regularly spoke about it hoping that Ortega would apologize to him one day and when Ortega finally did sometime in 2009 it was one of the first things Michael told Karen about.

So Ortega is no angel but has an advantage over AEG as he is human and not a machine like them:

• I was in shock as I saw the bridge in free fall with Michael on it. I was just outside his quick change room. I ran screaming towards the stage and security grabbed me and held me back as the bridge disappeared down past the edge of the front of the stage, I saw the horror on the other performers, but the music kept going. The audience was still transfixed. I saw one arm… then a leg, then his body climb back on stage… he finished the song. He made it back to the dressing room. His heart was beating, he seemed in a trance. We need to get you to the hospital, I said. “NO, I can’t, I can’t”… he ran back out and finished the show. When he returned to the dressing room after the last note.. he collapsed. Security picked him and up and got him to the hospital. I couldn’t sleep that night I couldn’t get any response to how he was. The next day, he called me from the hospital. I asked “why didn’t you stop?” he replied, “Turkle, I couldn’t… all I could hear was my father’s voice… DON’T DISAPPOINT THE AUDIENCE”.

• Actually, Michael held Kenny Ortega responsible and Kenny left the Munich very quickly without confronting the tragedy. Michael told me Kenny finally apologized when Michael asked him to help him with the O2 shows. This was always something Michael would bring up on a regular basis… ‘you know Turkle, Kenny has never mentioned or apologized for dropping me”. And when I came back to work with Michael again this year, one of the first things he said to me was “Kenny finally apologized.”

Kenny Ortega was to do the show in London and then leave the production. After that Michael would perfect the show and fine tune it, fixing the choreography. To us it means that the promoters needed even more time than we initially thought: 

• Michael asked Kenny to do this. Michael didn’t like his choreographic style (thought it was too “VEGAS”) but Kenny has great skill in bringing people and productions together. Michael said he could always change, and fix the choreography. Michael usually would fine tune the shows after Kenny left the production. Kenny would stay a week or so, and leave and go on to his next project. Then Michael would streamline the show.

• The show would be in place before Kenny would leave, of course. Michael didn’t need to “assume” anything … he would just perfect things.

The only big difference from the way I see the situation is that Karen, like Jack Wishna earlier in 2007, says that Michael’s condition was too frail. I explain it by the fact that she started seeing Michael only in April 2009 and this was already the time when things were growing worse with each new day. I am more than sure that the process started with the shock Michael experienced in March over setting the dates and this became the reason for his incessant and never-ending worry.

• Yes. It was difficult to find the “old Michael” after I reunited with him in April 2009. I only saw glimmers. That is what kept me believing there was a chance he could do these shows. I believed once he felt the stage and his fans cheering him … we would get Michael back. It was my prayer.

Like everyone else – Kenny Ortega, Frank Dileo and the family – she also assumed that he “began taking drugs”. It was nothing different from the media reports of the time, and it seems that only AEG were not (officially) noticing that something was indeed wrong:   

• The week before Michael’s death, the crew was starting to ask questions.. about Michael not showing up and not rehearsing as he should be, not taking off his sun glasses. The excuses WE gave was “he was tired”… only half the truth. I personally could not tell strangers (dancers) that I thought he started taking drugs.. that I was worried sick about his weight. I told Kenny and Frank Dileo. I was hoping he would improve in the next two weeks before we left for London, and then the week and a half in London before the first show. I thought we had time to get on track. He showed marked improvement the 23 and 24th. We had hope. Then he died.

The next message from Karen Faye is amazing. It says that Doctor Murray told them to give Michael “tough love”. Whose words can Murray be repeating here and is it possible to assume that he could say so callous a thing about his employer? And after that people are doubting that Murray was actually working for AEG and not for Michael? And is it typical of a doctor to talk about his patient that way at all?

No, all I can think of in this connection is that Murray was fulfilling another of those requests from his AEG bosses.

Since this message comes before the rehearsal when Kenny Ortega massaged Michael’s feet and eventually sent him home (on June 19^th), it means that Murray told everyone to play tough love on Jackson even before that rehearsal.  This is why Ortega referred to “tough love” in his email to Randy Phillips that night and “bringing the doctor in the fold”. At Murray’s trial Phillips put a blank expression on his face and said he heard about it for the first time.

Karen Faye wrote about it:

• Kenny told me that Doctor Murray told us to give Michael “tough love”.

• While Kenny was cutting his chicken and massaging his feet, I was infuriated that I was getting so many mixed messages. In my opinion, this was not a healthy situation.

Everything Karen Faye is describing in her messaged testifies to the fact that Michael’s nerves were terribly on edge. He was angry and upset with his partners for their treatment of him as if they were his masters – though they did not have a single right to talk or behave to him like that .

They were not facing any risk and all their worry was sheer pretense. However the pressure on Michael was real and demanded some medication. The propofol or whatever Murray was feeding him was having a terrible physical effect and was making things only worse. Karen did not know a thing about what was happening, but assumed that “Michael was taking drugs” – though these drugs were given to him by the very doctor who told them to play tough love on Jackson.

Well, Murray was not in her employment, so how could she know? However if we only imagine for a moment a hypothetical situation that Michael was, you will  immediately realize that for the one who manages the doctor it is simply impossible not to know. The very least AEG could have done was just pay attention to the state Michael was in, but they never did:

I was begging for a physiologist [psychologist], because of Michael’s state of mind was not right. He could not sleep, he was angry (for not having any control), he was showing signs of taking drugs, OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder] and his body was always ice cold, and loosing weight rapidly. It was a matter of six days from the time I was sending emails, sounding the alert and when Michael was dead. Four of the six days, he was not at rehearsals, and I hadn’t seen him.

AEG preferred not to notice or react though Karen was writing them emails:

..”It is very clear to me by the responses here that people who do not “really” know Michael, think he looks fine. Maybe to corporate businessmen who weren’t sensitive to Michael, never even bothered to notice his condition. BUT, I wrote the emails and had discussions (not with Randy Phillips, because he wasn’t available to me. He just recently told me, he was ‘shown’ my emails, and was aware of my concerns, before Michael died) with others who were responsible for Michael and the O2 shows”

This is it movie was made by AEG to absolve themselves of the guilt and create an idyllic picture of the events. Frankly, they did not manage to do it anyway as all the disturbing signs of distress are still there. Though we are happy to see Michael on stage in the final moments of his life, the movie is still a very painful document of lies, mistreatment and Michael’s suffering visible even to the naked eye (remember the episode of his complaining about a fist in his ear and Ortega’s rude answer to him – something like “you’ll have to”). At the time of Karen’s message there was no wrongful death lawsuit filed yet:

• If there was evidence of abuse, they would be liable for a wrongful death lawsuit. In my opinion, that is what this movie is really about … to absolve the guilty. The ones speaking the loudest and most about Michael being healthy are the guilty ones.

Karen confirms our understanding that all this talk about the rehearsal footage being for Michael’s home is sheer crap. Michael never gave permission for that footage and was probably even suspicious why they were shooting him with two high-definition cameras. But his opinion wasn’t  respected and he had no power to object. Imagine how Michael must have been humiliated by all that neglect for his wishes:

• Camera crew was hired by AEG. Michael asked Michael Bush where they came from. All other projects that Michael ever did, the camera crews were hired and payed by MJJ Productions. Michael did not have the control over ‘This Is It’ like he did with other projects. He did not have the money to do it himself and he didn’t have the power to object.

It seems that their recording the footage was no small matter for Michael. From Michael’s questions we see that he was worried about it and hurt him because they were again doing it without his approval. This was how their cooperation started (when they set those 50 shows without asking him) and this is how it was going on with it – it was the same non-stop humiliation at every stage of it:

• MB told me that MJ asked him who gave the permission to film the rehearsals. I believe MB answered that AEG was doing it. Usually, Michael has his own documentary crew shooting. This way Michael owns it and can edit and show what he wants the world to see. He often released his footage for “the making of” projects, behind the scene footage but he was in complete control of the footage. I thought that the crew that was shooting rehearsals was doing it FOR Michael when I saw them. It wasn’t till Michael was gone, MB [Michael Bush] told me, the film crew was AEG, and MJ didn’t approve of it.

It is painful to read how angry and upset Michael was about the way he was treated by AEG – they looked at him as if he was nobody, though the whole success of the tour depended on him and him alone:

• It only further shows me that Michael had very little control of the situation… which why he was so angry in the last days… He kept saying “Why can’t I choose?”

Karen is the second person (the first was Frank Dileo) who says that the fateful “contract” with which everything started was read to Michael and not studied by him. Besides the fact that understanding it by the ear is impossible even in principle, this also makes me sure that they read out to him a preliminary version only. Without reading the final version he would not have signed it – no one would:

• AEG was even paying his rent, food and children’s schooling. All the expenses would have been reimbursed out of Michael’s share of the concerts. He signed a contract that was admittedly READ to him.

Karen says AEG showed little concern for Michael and used him as a commodity. Indeed, it manifested itself already in January, when they included all those highway robbery terms into their contract, and was repeated again in March when Randy Phillips and Tohme sold the shows.

And of course he was a commodity to them.This type of a schedule is not created for human beings to fulfill them. This type of a schedule is for machines only (“They treat me like I’m a machine”) or for those whom you do NOT want to succeed. Everything they had heard about Michael’s health before must have told them that they should not even bother about the actual concerts. And Karen says they knew or thought that he was unable to do the shows.

What Karen Faye does not know, however,  is that had it not been for that fraud and the stress of it Michael would have made those concerts. I am absolutely positive of it:

• ..The movie is not the entire truth… Please know there was a very dark side. A side that showed little concern for Michael the person. It was about Michael the commodity. He was trapped by circumstances, to do this shows, a show he was mentally, and physically unable to do… and they knew it.

• I don’t want you not see the movie. Everyone was robbed of Michael from ever creating again. These are his final days… but they do not tell the entire story. There is a very dark truth that you are not seeing. The head of AEG said it in his own words… this will clear us of any wrong doing. Why would anyone say that …. If no wrong doing ever occurred?

And the next message shows that Karen knows what kind of people she is dealing with. This places all those strange suicides of Jack Wishna, Peter Lopez and Frank Dileo’s coma and death (following an accidental overdose of anesthetic) just into the right context which is now almost impossible to overlook: 

• If something happens to me… it will not be an accident.

• Look at all these liars… these vultures. It is getting harder and harder to get the truth out there. I am only one small girl. They have the money and power to CRUSH the truth.

After Michael’ s death these people did their best for no one to ever know the truth about their everyday bullying of Michael. They tied everyone with confidentiality clauses which prevent people from using the right to free speech, tell the truth and stand up for it. Instead they coerced people into telling lies. AEG calls it  “business” while the right word for it would be an oath of silence taken by some criminals so that no one ever knows of their common crime. 

• I have some Legal issues. Randy Phillips is getting very angry with me and is emailing me I must stop. I need to remain on a “private” page”. I have a confidentiality clause in my AEG contract. 

• No… not closing. I guess the truth is making him nervous. He (Phillips) says my comments are “defamatory, damaging, and not factual”.

• I have been asked to stop posting some of my opinions here by Randy Phillips. I have a confidentiality contract with AEG. I am being accused by Randy Phillips of creating this site. They are asking me to remove it from my FB pages.

• They have been addressing me with emails, their lawyers and Frank Dileo.

• I am not removing this page. Nor am I going to remove anyone’s opinion about INI. Everyone is entitled to their point of view and opinion.

“I don’t know why the dancers are lying” (http://muzikfactorytwo.blogspot.ru/2011/08/karen-faye-facebook-comments-about.html)

In fact Karen Faye did have to remove the page. As I  said now all her messages are quoted by the muzikfactory blog.

I hope she will repeat all this and much more when she testifies at the trial.  And we will probably even hear it  - of course if the media is so kind as to report it corectly, please.

Suppositions like Karen Faye’s (drugs, etc.) are probably the ugliest of the facts you will hear from AEG’s lawyers during the current trial. Now that you have heard them are you still afraid that anyone will know ?

Or would you like to make AEG answer for turning Michael Jackson’s last months and days into a complete nightmare? If they had not squeezed him and his life like others squeeze a lemon into their tea before sending it into a garbage bin he would be alive now.

All they had to do was to keep their promise and arrange 10 shows only, set for him at a comfortable pace of two shows or even one show a week, sell tickets at a level worthy of Michael’s name at a market price which in terms of money would have brought  the same (official) revenue for 50 concerts, and arrange for those who can’t afford it a chance to see the concerts live on the Internet on a pay-per-view basis. And if these conditions were fulfilled Michael would be perfectly alive now. Moreover once he had had a taste for it he would have even agreed to more concerts, in other cities of the world following the same comfortable pattern. He would have made much money, the show would have turned into a great movie, the debts would have been paid and life in general would have taken a totally different course.

And I am more than sure that he would have made it it. I am also sure that they (AEG Live) could also have made it happen if they had really wanted to. The only thing they needed to do was give a little damn for a human being like Michael Jackson.

WHAT TO EXPECT NOW

AEG’s lawyer, Marvin Putnam

AEG’s lawyer Marvin Putnam constantly repeats that Michael was a grown-up man and had to take responsibility for his decisions.

This we heard a hundred times already, so I suggest Mr. Putnam explains to us instead why the sharks going after trusting people like Michael always demand that he should answer for whatever was done to them, while the sharks themselves are totally unwilling to take responsibility for any of their actions?

It is simply not clear why those who were deceived and betrayed are responsible for their actions, and why those who betray and deceive are not.

Considering Mr. Putnam’s one-sided manner of thinking it is no wonder that AEG hired this particular lawyer for this particular case. However there was one more reason for it – the primary focus of Marvin Putnam’s legal practice turns out to be nothing but the “media in defense of their First Amendment rights,” according to his own official biography:

“Marvin Putnam is the lead lawyer for AEG Live, defending against the wrongful death suit. The primary focus of his legal practice is “media in defense of their FirstAmendment rights,” according to his official biography”. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/29/showbiz/jackson-death-trial-opens/

And since the First Amendment is all about freedom of expression Putnam’s official motto should be read as follows:

• “Media in defense of their right to express themselves”.

This makes it clearer why the media is holding its breath in wait for the ugly facts promised by Mr. Putnam. These facts will enable the media to express its beautiful self, after which Mr. Putnam as their attorney will defend them in their right to tell the lies and dirt about Jackson.

Isn’t it a marvelous match for all the three of them – the press, AEG and their lawyer?

But even despite so much love and understanding between all the parties I am still not ready to be intimidated by the ‘ugly facts” they are doing to tell us about Michael Jackson. By now we know Michael too well not to be afraid of any of their facts about him – as long as they are true of course.

However it is exactly their ability to tell the truth which I question very much indeed now. The unfortunate experience with those photos has taught me to look with grave mistrust at everything they will be saying and doing now.

Well, has it changed anything for me personally?

No, it hasn’t.

Will it make me retract my support for Katherine Jackson and go over to the AEG side?

No, absolutely not.

If they don’t tell the truth we will.

On May 8 a phenomenal thing happened at the AEG trial. Alif Sankey, the co-producer of the This is it show was giving her testimony and one of her statements came as an answer to the shock of Wade Robson’s accusations which were raging all over the tabloid press the same day. 

She mentioned Michael saying that he heard God speaking to him and those words were so disturbing and were evidently said in such a way that she and Kenny Ortega cried after hearing that: 

Michael Jackson: ‘God keeps talking to me’
By Alan Duke CNN
May 08 2013

… Michael Jackson told his tour director days before he died he was hearing God’s voice, a producer testified Wednesday.
“God keeps talking to me,”Jackson said.
Those words spoken to Kenny Ortega and Jackson’s frail appearance were so disturbing that it caused Ortega and associate producer Alif Sankey to burst into tears at a rehearsal.
Sankey testified that she and Ortega cried together after Jackson left. On her way home, Sankey stopped her car to call Ortega “because I had a very strong feeling that Michael was dying.”

http://www.clickondetroit.com/entertainment/Michael-Jackson-God-keeps-talking-to-me/-/1718940/20068188/-/view/print/-/aqarjl/-/index.html

In fact Michael said that he could not understand why God was talking to him, so his words were devoid of any exaltation or elation on his part:

Jackson believed God was talking to him, producer testifies

By Corina Knoll and Jeff Gottlieb

May 8, 2013, 

Michael Jackson’s behavior and gaunt figure were so troublesome to a producer that she told the director of the “This Is It” concert series that she believed the singer was dying and should be immediately taken to a hospital.

Alif Sankey also testified Wednesday that the director for the concerts told her Jackson believed God was talking with him.

Sankey recalled that on her way home from rehearsal one night, she pulled her car over and called Kenny Ortega, who was directing what was to be Jackson’s comeback tour. It was only days before Jackson’s first concert was to take place.

 “I said, ‘He needs to be put in the hospital now,’ ” Sankey said. “He kept listening to me because I kept going. I kept saying, ‘Michael’s dying, he’s dying.’”

Sankey, who was emotional and paused during her testimony, said she begged Ortega to do something.

“Please, please. I kept saying that. I asked him, ‘Why is no one seeing what I’m seeing?’ ”

Sankey testified that the previous night, Jackson had been at rehearsal for a costume fitting but was sent home because he “was not looking good or feeling good.”

Afterward, Sankey said that Ortega was worried about Jackson, who mentioned God was speaking to him. Both became emotional after discussing their concern for Jackson.

“[Michael] didn’t understand why God was speaking to him. We were both crying. We were crying because he seemed — he was not speaking normally to Kenny.”

A few Jackson fans in the courtroom sniffled throughout Sankey’s testimony.

The civil suit was filed by Jackson’s family who allege that concert promoter AEG was responsible for hiring and controlling Dr. Conrad Murray, who administered the fatal dose of propofol to Jackson in 2009.

Sankey said after being copied on an email from an AEG executive about Murray that she had believed the doctor was paid by AEG.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-jackson-god-20130508,0,5711980.story

So Michael said he didn’t understand why God was speaking to him…….

At that moment of immense trouble over Wade Robson’s sudden claims this news from the AEG trial immediately set my mind at peace. Who else but Him could arrange things in such a miraculous way that exactly at the time when so much dirt was streaming from every tabloid we suddenly heard a word from a producer about God speaking to Michael and him being incredulous that he was hearing him? 

With so much craziness around Robson now  it is like hearing a calm and peaceful voice which says to all of us – stay quiet. They are doing their best to distract attention from themselves. They want you to get stuck in all this dirt while the real truth is here, at this trial which will be neglected if you stray and don’t pay attention. This is actually the sole purpose of it all and what they want most.

They have thrown a huge stink bomb into the crowd and are making us terribly busy with it. I myself spent full several days looking through the dirty news and rereading all those testimonies, and I am really sorry that I lost so much valuable time and now have to catch up with the news from the trial.

However since Wade Robson’s and Blanca Francia’s testimonies were re-examined I still need to turn them into a post just to remind you of what Robson and Francia said in 2005 adding a couple of my thoughts on the way. 

But this will be it. The AEG trial is going on and it is the main thing we need to focus our attention on without any further distraction. It is there that the truth is being told and since they so terribly don’t want us to hear it, it is all the more reason to go there and listen to it. 

WADE ROBSON’S CLAIMS

For some reason I never liked the expression of his face

Wade Robson’s “molestation” story came as a big shock but on the other hand there was also a feeling that something of the kind could be on the way.

Since the AEG trial started they have already thrown the first few heavy stones into Michael Jackson, and even warned us that the trial would be about “ugly stuff”, so we could expect much dirt and and it was only the extent to which they were ready to go that we didn’t know of.

Now we realize that they can go really far. What was done to Wade Robson and how much money already exchanged hands we can only guess at but by the way his story is developing it looks like Robson is indeed …hmm….doing a big favor to the party opposing the Jacksons family.

The timing is telling it all. Wade Robson waited for full eight years after he testified at the 2005 trial and suddenly broke his claim for money to the Estate when all time limits for making any claims had already expired and did it just a couple of days after the first testimonies in court (the first witnesses in the AEG case testified on April 29 and Robson’s lawyers filed their claim on May 1).

To say that it is suspicious is to say nothing at all – the timing is blatantly clear and transparent. The idea of it was to make a preemtory nuclear attack against those who had the gall to raise their feeble voices against a powerful corporation, ask them questions and make them answer some of these questions in court.

The lawyers for the Estate as well as Thomas Mesereau, Michael’s attorney at the 2005 trial, had the following to say about Wade Robson’s “case”:

Wade Robson SLAMMED By Michael Jackson Attorneys Over Molestation Claims

by Free Britney at May 8, 2013 9:35 am.  Updated at May 8, 2013 9:38 am.

Wade Robson is blatantly lying in claiming Michael Jackson molested him as a child, according to past and present attorneys for the late King of Pop.

Robson, a 30-year-old choreographer, knew Jackson well as a young boy, and says in a just-filed legal claim that the King of Pop sexually abused him.

In response, Howard Weitzman, the attorney for Jackson’s estate, hit back hard, telling TMZ that “Mr. Robson’s claim is outrageous and pathetic.”

“This is a young man who has testified at least twice under oath and said in numerous interviews that Michael never did anything inappropriate to him or with him.”

Wade Robson did in fact testify in Jackson’s 2005 molestation trial that Michael did not abuse him. The singer was famously acquitted of all charges.

“Only now, nearly four years after Michael has passed away, this sad and less than credible claim has been made,” Weitzman added, incredulously.

“We are confident that the court will see this for what it is.”

Wade is asking a judge for the green light to seek compensation from Jackson’s estate, even though the time frame for filing such grievances has expired.

Sources say Robson is claiming he suffered from “repressed memory” and that’s why he didn’t file his creditor’s claim against the estate on time.

Tom Mesereau, the attorney who successfully defended MJ in the 2005 trial, also criticized Robson, saying such a belated claim “must be just about money.”

Mesereau says Robson was strong and unwavering in his testimony that Jackson never touched him, and never cracked during intense cross-examination.

Robson admitted he slept in Michael’s bed as a child, when he was a frequent Neverland Ranch guest from age 7-14. However, he defended the singer.

Michael was affectionate and would often kiss him on the cheek, Wade said, but never touched him in a sexual manner or behaved suggestively.

In fact, while Robson was on the stand describing this, he passionately told the court more than once, “I’m telling you that nothing ever happened.”

Mesereau reiterated, “Michael never touched Robson inappropriately in any way” and scoffed at the notion that he suffers from any repressed memory.

http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/wade-robson-slammed-by-michael-jackson-attorneys-over-child-mole/

In fact Thomas Mesereau used even some stronger expressions:

MJ MOLESTATION LAWYER
AEG Might Be Behind
New Molestation Claims

“AEG might be behind new molestation claims” Thomas Mesereau calls TMZ

Tom called in to “TMZ Live” moments ago, claiming the timing of Wade’s accusations is extremely suspicious — considering the legal battle currently raging between Katherine and AEG … the concert promoters behind MJ’s 2009 “This Is It Tour.”

Katherine and Michael’s children are suing AEG, claiming the company is responsible for MJ’s death by negligently hiring Conrad Murray to care for the singer … and potentially BILLIONS of dollars are at stake.

Mesereau insinuates Wade’s accusations are motivated by money … specifically a payoff from AEG, which is currently on a mission to trash Michael’s reputation.

We reached out to AEG for comment — so far no word back.

http://www.tmz.com/2013/05/08/michael-jackson-wade-robson-aeg-tom-mesereau-katherine-jackson/

The AEG lawyers sort of feigned surprise that Robson’s allegations are tied to their case. Indeed what can they have in common?

What I found very interesting is that on the one hand Robson wanted the documents sealed, but on the other hand his lawyer Gradstein suddenly started going about spreading horrendous rumors about Michael. He called him a “monster” and said that every “normal person” knows that this is the case. This is not the way respectable lawyers behave even if they have to speak for their clients. Generally such loud statements require proof and lawyers usually keep themselves within civil limits and even adhere to the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” unless the opposite is proven.  

On Michael Jackson Podcast where Thomas Mesereau gave a 40 minutes long interview to the “Positively Michael” team  http://www.blubrry.com/positivelymichael/1753102/michael-jackson-podcast-by-positivelymichael-tom-mesereau-interview-about-wade-robson-claims/ and said that Robson’s lawyer made a “ridiculous” statement.

No matter how “sure” this lawyer is of his case, I personally will believe nothing but the photographs (if they have them) as after so many years of allegations against Michael Jackson and their research all other “proof” can be taken from the Internet now, up to the most intimate details unfortunately – so no more stories or fake descriptions, please.

In the Positively Michael interview Thomas Mesereau once again emphasized that the time for filing a creditor’s note had expired so the judge may very well refuse Robson to proceed. Mesereau says that the Estate has tremendous evidence to defeat the case and this evidence includes Robson’s depositions in 1994 and his adamant testimony at the 2005 trial, as well as his numerous public statements.

In this article Thomas Mesereau also notes that the case will most probably go nowhere:

The details of the new allegation are sealed by the Los Angeles probate court where Robson’s lawyer filed the claim last week, according to a court document obtained Tuesday by CNN. The deadline has long passed for creditors to file claims against Jackson’s estate, but Robson is asking the probate court to allow him to file a late creditor’s claim. The sealed documents include an affidavit from Dr. David Arrendondo, a San Francisco-based child psychiatrist, the filing said.

“It’s absurd,” Tom Mesereau told CNN Tuesday. “He was one of the strongest witnesses for the defense at Michael Jackson’s criminal trial in 2005. He was adamant under oath that he had never been molested at any time. He withstood very aggressive cross-examination by the prosecutor. He stood his ground and never wavered in saying Michael Jackson had done absolutely nothing improper to him.”

In fact, while Robson was on the stand he passionately told the court:

“I’m telling you that nothing ever happened.”

Mesereau said Robson was strong and unwavering in his testimony – adamant that Michael Jackson never touched him.

Mesereau added that it was “suspicious timing” for the claim to be filed at the start of the trial of the Michael Jackson wrongful death case, in which Jackson’s mother and children are suing concert promoter AEG Live for a lot of money. He thinks such a belated claim “must be just about money”. And Mesereau scoffs at any notion that Robson suffered from repressed memory and is only coming forward now.

Back in 2005 Joy Robson, the mother of Wade Robson, testified when called as a prosecution witness.

“I’ve known Michael for a long time. I’ve spent many hours talking to him about everything. I trust him. I trust him with my children.”

A spokesman for the Jackson estate said the executors may issue a statement later.

Source: MJFC / CNN / TMZ http://www.mjfanclub.net/home/index.php?view=article&catid=85%3Alatest-news&id=5962%3Amesereau-comments-on-robson-changing-his-story&tmpl=component&layout=default&page=&option=com_content&Itemid=82