Vanity-Fair: MJ`s Family: Inside Their Desperate Attempt to Oust Estate Executors

[Ashtanga]

This will turn into a hot mess........ :fear:

 

[Justthefacts]

Problems I see with this story. If Janet paid money for Michael's plot who bought the other eleven the Jacksons bought? The lawyer said their was no will and trust when he looked through papers well maybe it was because Branca did not have Michael's will another lawyer at his firm did maybe that is why you never saw it Mr Legrand. And for the love of cheese and wine Michael fired Branca in 03 and rehired him 03 gosh research is your friend

 

[shelly_webster]

How did he explain the fact that the jackson knew the existence of that will the day MJ died.

 

[la_cienega]

^ He likely doesn't even realize that aspect of the story.

His research seems incredibly thin and hollow and half assed.

 

[shelly_webster]

I don't believe the delay of the burial has something to do with Janet, the autopsy was finished only at the end of August.

 

[elusive moonwalker]

The delay was more likely to do with thome trying to get jermaine to have mj taken to the ranch. than janet. the life insurance of several mill was paid out very quickly if i remember right. Her getting her deposit back makes no difference to when a funeral haps. its not like she was refusing to pay for the whole thing..nothing knew about latoya jeff and the money. heard that all before

so hes talked to trent for the book and we can see where paris got the wrong info about metzger supporting murray from.

and the old story of he sacked branca. yeah and then he rehired him. so branca never told kj he was sorry for her loss. well he wasnt the one doing deals with a porn film maker as soon as her son was burried!

nothing knew in this book and i doubt not much that is credible either. he doesnt seem the brightest when it comes to research.just another saddo trying to cash in

 

[Bubs]

That part is true that Janet loaned money for burial plots but I wonder as Michael only needed one, so who is going to be buried in extra 11 plots? If the extra ones were meant for family members, I find it rather tacky that Janet asking money back from the estate that other members can be buried in the same place and at Michael's cost.
I don't know if Randall's story is true but I'm looking forward to see how Janet and her PR team are getting their knickers twisted again, especially if he writes about granny-napping episode

If anything, I hope he writes about "Wild-fire of Madness" episode, that will make Jackson's go bonkers.

We all knew that some members of Jackson's were like hyenas on carcass after Michael died. No wasting time there.

There are some truths in his book too:
"They hoped to gain control of their brother’s fortune, which would follow Prince, Paris, and Blanket wherever they went."

“She personally was offended that John Branca never once said how sorry he was for her loss. The man was cold, Mrs. Jackson thought, just as Michael had described him: ‘My son had told me and the kids that he never wanted Branca to be any part of his business ever again.’”

Katherine can think what ever she likes about Branca, entertainment business is cutthroat business, you have to be tough, and she should know it. After all she sold their own kids to that business. Funny that they claim Michael hated Branca, why did he hired him? He had plenty of time to issue a statement, pr-release or fire Branca but none of that happen!

 

[ivy]

I don't think Autopsy has any effect on this much delay. They had returned to body to the family within weeks and the body was in the jurisdiction and control of the family, they could have buried him earlier.

The last time the coroner took hair samples and palm prints was August 6. That alone makes it that Michael could have been buried at least a month earlier.

Also from the accounting documents we can see that Janet was reimbursed by Estate on September 2 2009 for $49,372.50. This is one day before the funeral / burial but I would think that the plans & invitations etc would have started sometime before that - before Janet was reimbursed. (Estate's first payment about funeral was on August 31st to Forest Lawn to buy the plots)

I don't think what to think of this article. I don't think Sullivan researched that well and is making up stuff. I mean sure Michael could have been buried at least a month earlier but I don't think reimbursement of Janet was the thing that held it back.

 

[shelly_webster]

"The last time the coroner took hair samples and palm prints was August 6. That alone makes it that Michael could have been buried at least a month earlier."

Yes but not before and we know nothing about the 2nd autopsy.

 

[shelly_webster]

“She personally was offended that John Branca never once said how sorry he was for her loss. The man was cold, Mrs. Jackson thought, just as Michael had described him: ‘My son had told me and the kids that he never wanted Branca to be any part of his business ever again.’”

Katherine can think what ever she likes about Branca, entertainment business is cutthroat business, you have to be tough, and she should know it. After all she sold their own kids to that business. Funny that they claim Michael hated Branca, why did he hired him? He had plenty of time to issue a statement, pr-release or fire Branca but none of that happen!

Maybe he just doesn't like the Jacksons.

 

[ivy]

"The last time the coroner took hair samples and palm prints was August 6. That alone makes it that Michael could have been buried at least a month earlier."

Yes but not before and we know nothing about the 2nd autopsy.

second autopsy was done long before that. it's written in the autopsy report when they had went to get hair samples , the body had been through 2 autopsies and have been in the control of the family & mortician for some time.

 

[shelly_webster]

second autopsy was done long before that. it's written in the autopsy report when they had went to get hair samples , the body had been through 2 autopsies and have been in the control of the family & mortician for some time.

Ok, but they have no reason to bury him before that if the people from the 1rst autopsy report still needed hair samples. I just meant it makes sense to wait until everything is over.

 

[ivy]

^^

they didn't know people needed hair samples, if was an after thought on the coroner's part. but still they could have buried him at least a month earlier. Anyway that's not the main issue here.

 

[shelly_webster]

^^

they didn't know people needed hair samples, if was an after thought on the coroner's part. but still they could have buried him at least a month earlier. Anyway that's not the main issue here.

Agreed, but I really have problems to believe that part of the story.She hated her brother so much that she let him in a freezer for 3 months just because she wanted her 40000 dollars back?

And they have the nerve to criticize Branca for being cold?

 

[pug]

I think Branca should be cold and without sentiment when it comes to dealing with The Jacksons.

 

[ivy]

Agreed, but I really have problems to believe that part of the story.She hated her brother so much that she let him in a freezer for 3 months just because she wanted her 40000 dollars back?

And they have the nerve to criticize Branca for being cold?

oh I don't believe that part of the story either. Like I said Janet was paid one day before the funeral but probably the date & preparations had started a lot earlier than that. Although Michael could have been buried at least a month earlier I don't think money was the issue there. It's most probably that they couldn't make their mind about where to bury Michael and so on.

I think Branca should be cold and without sentiment when it comes to dealing with The Jacksons.

After seeing the events for the last years, reading statements and letters I think Jacksons - at least some- have high levels of entitlement. They see themselves as an extension of Michael and the only ones that can speak for Michael and make decisions in his name. I think they also see Branca or anyone else as people that are working for them, people that is supposed to do whatever they say whenever they say it.

And I think Branca not taking orders is the problem. The sentence that they mentioned without the context "I'm Michael Jackson now" seems like a disagreement in which Branca refusing to do what they wanted and pointing out to them he's the one with the decision making power - not them.

I also find it quite funny that how they complain about Branca's behavior , how he didn't say he was sorry for their loss , how he didn't attend the funeral and so on. Jacksons conveniently forget that at the same time they had already started a campaign against Branca badmouthing him as a person Michael did not want around, someone he fired, someone had wrongdoings and so on. It's quite rich that at a time and still they were in full force slandering and defaming Branca they were also expecting him to be nice and friendly with them.

 

[marc_vivien]

The new Michael Jackson book excerpted in Vanity Fair looks like a clip job. As well, author Randall Sullivan seems to have depended on the most questionable of the Jackson so called “insiders” as his sources. They include Brian Oxman, who was never Michael’s lawyer, was fired by Tom Mesereau during the 2005 criminal case, and is now disbarred finally after many sanctions by the California Bar Association; Howard Mann, a Toronto online gaming entrepreneur who recently lost a major case to the Jackson estate; and Tohme Tohme, Michael’s short-lived manager currently being sued by the estate.



No one I’ve talked to associated with the Jackson estate, or the real “inner circle” has spoken to Sullivan. His book is being published by Grove Press, which sold the rights to Vanity Fair. The magazine can’t know that Sullivan’s sources are highly suspect, or that much of the material they’ve got from him comes other sources including this column. Sullivan never covered Jackson during his life, wasn’t around during his trial or its aftermath, but now pitches himself as an expert.



Sullivan also seems to be, at least in the Vanity Fair excerpt, on the side of the Will-doubters. This is the group that thinks Michael Jackson’s Will was forged or invented. I liken them to the Obama birthers.



Sullivan cites this column toward the end of his excerpt in the new Vanity Fair, but really–most of the stuff in this story comes from other places. It’s a clip job. I suspect his book will be much the same. Look for the fingerprints of other disgruntled ex-Jacksonians.

http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/10/0...ooks-like-clip-job-read-original-stories-here

 

[elusive moonwalker]

oh the irony coming from roger!

 

[Bubs]

Agreed, but I really have problems to believe that part of the story.She hated her brother so much that she let him in a freezer for 3 months just because she wanted her 40000 dollars back?

And they have the nerve to criticize Branca for being cold?

I don't know Janet personally but I read the message that Junior made public. Kids asked to talk to their granny, she replies "Don't let them, please". That's cold and that itself makes me believe Janet being capable of something like Randall wrote to his book. I'm not saying it's true what Randall S wrote, but it is believable.

After seeing the events for the last years, reading statements and letters I think Jacksons - at least some- have high levels of entitlement. They see themselves as an extension of Michael and the only ones that can speak for Michael and make decisions in his name. I think they also see Branca or anyone else as people that are working for them, people that is supposed to do whatever they say whenever they say it.

Great post and I think you described them perfectly.
That their sense of entitlement is unbelievable. I remember Joe saying in one interview when he was asked about one of his endorsement that estate made him to stop it, he said: "Michael is my son, I can whatever I want to" or something similar. They can do what ever they like on own , use their own image to sell stuff, but not using Michael. Michael created the Michael Jackson, and he wanted executors to look after his image etc. after he is gone.

 

[ScaredOfTheMoon]

After the kidnapping incident I put nothing past the Jackson family and that includes Janet. They no longer get the benefit of the doubt from me. I don't know if the funeral was delayed becuase of Janet wanting her money back but it sure wouldn't surprise me if that was the case considering how she acted this summer.

 

[jamba]

"I also find it quite funny that how they complain about Branca's behavior , how he didn't say he was sorry for their loss , how he didn't attend the funeral and so on. Jacksons conveniently forget that at the same time they had already started a campaign against Branca badmouthing him as a person Michael did not want around, someone he fired, someone had wrongdoings and so on. It's quite rich that at a time and still they were in full force slandering and defaming Branca they were also expecting him to be nice and friendly with them." IVY's post.
And they had also gone to court the Monday after Michael's death and had Katherine named as Executor on the grounds that there was no will, even though they had spoken to Branca, who had said he would meet them on Wednesday to go over the will. So they knew there was a will and before the Branca meeting, while he was out of town on vacation, they jumped into court ahead of him. I would be pretty cold myself if I were Branca. They totally ignored what he told them in the phone call--yes, there is a will--and created more headache for him. They are consistently spending huge amount of money in their lawsuits, including against the Estate, and Michael's Estate has to foot the bill. It seems to be the case that "We are Jacksons" has come to mean "We own Michael." So very sad.

About the delay for the burial, I do not know if Janet held things up, but I wish I knew why they didn't bury him for so long. He died June 25th and wasn't buried til Sept. 3rd. I thought it was very disrespectful to wait so long. Can anyone suggest why it took so long?

 

[marebear]

This whole thing makes me sick. I don't know what is true or not but the one thing I see and bothers me is that it never says how devastated the family was that Michael died. They have to go to his house immediately and do whatever and he just died that day. I am just tired of it all and it makes me sad. It feels like nobody cared (just the kids) that Michael died. They all should have been together at the family home and the guards or whoever can go to the house and pick up the kids things. Instead of it being like some race to get the money, get the papers and so on. It's sick.

 

[ScaredOfTheMoon]

This whole thing makes me sick. I don't know what is true or not but the one thing I see and bothers me is that it never says how devastated the family was that Michael died. They have to go to his house immediately and do whatever and he just died that day. I am just tired of it all and it makes me sad. It feels like nobody cared (just the kids) that Michael died. They all should have been together at the family home and the guards or whoever can go to the house and pick up the kids things. Instead of it being like some race to get the money, get the papers and so on. It's sick.

It makes you wonder who were looking after the three grieving kids when their grandmother, aunts and uncles were busy robbing their house out of all their daddy's money.

 

[jamba]

"Ronald Williams, of Talon Executive Services—a private-security company that dispatched a team to Michael Jackson’s rented château in Holmby Hills on the night of his death—tells Sullivan that hours after Jackson died, La Toya and her boyfriend, Jeffre Phillips, arrived at the house demanding to be admitted. “We’re family and we should have access to the house,” they reportedly said.

Sullivan reports that mother Katherine Jackson also arrived that night and entered the house, where she telephoned Grace Rwaramba, the recently terminated longtime nanny to Michael’s children. According to Rwaramba, Katherine said, “Grace, the children are crying. They are asking about you. They can’t believe that their father died. Grace, you remember Michael used to hide cash at the house? I’m here. Where can it be?” Rwaramba described Michael’s standard practice of hiding his cash in black plastic garbage bags and under the carpets. Talon describes seeing La Toya and her boyfriend loading black plastic garbage bags into duffel bags and placing them in the garage. (La Toya would insist that nearly all of Michael’s money was gone by the time she arrived at the Holmby Hills house.)

The next morning, Janet Jackson arrived with a moving van and demanded to be admitted. A few hours later, the truck exited through the front gate with Jeffre Phillips at the wheel. Katherine Jackson and her daughters made it clear that they wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. “They camped out for most of a week,” Williams tells Sullivan, leaving and returning “whenever they felt like it.”

ok, here the family is acting fast at a time when Branca is on vacation and apparently no one knew what the will was or what it said--or did they? If Katherine and her daughters and Jeffre camped out for most of the week, which has been said before, then it explains why they went to court the Monday after Michael died to claim there was no will (although Randy had spoken to Branca on the phone and been told there was a will and maybe more details b/c the '02 will was the same as the other ones, leaving everything to the children, with Katherine as Guardian and beneficiary only during her lifetime). So this explains perhaps the speed, the search for the cash, the moving van, the staying there a week.

Karen Moriarty says in her book that Michael always had $3 million in cash in case his children were kidnapped and he did not want to hassle over getting the cash from banks or anyone else. So maybe this was the cash in the black plastic bags?

 

[Bubs]

It seems to me that Jackson's have one way mirror. They can point finger to someone else and say he is cold, he is robbing this and that from Michael, Michael was used by some shady people, yet they themselves do exactly the same as they accuse other people for doing for Michael. So easy to point fingers to others but there are fingers pointing right back at them. Jackson's display hypocrisy at it finest form.

 

[jamba]

And yet they say things like 'we lost a brother, to us he was family,' as if saying their grief is way more than anyone else's could possibly be! I think they acted fast before Branca got back from vacation and submitted the will to the probate court, b/c it would have been harder to do what they did afterwards. They acted at a time of maximum confusion. The whole thing with Janet is so strange. Here people thought she was closest to him b/c of the Scream collaboration, the Legend award presentation, their apparent closeness in the family, but it seems there was no closeness at all, at least on Janet's side, and she was actually angry at Michael for things in the past.

 

[marebear]

She wasn't close to Michael anymore. When she does say nice things it's when they were kids and that time she brings up. People say Michael wasn't the normal one but looking at his family they are the ones that do things and make you question their minds. Their behavior is not normal. Some of them were willing to turn on Katherine their own mother and question her competence for money. Who lies about their mother having a stroke? What I have seen the last 3 years make me wonder how sincere their support of Michael was during the trial and if there was an agenda on their part and even at his memorial. Was it real to them or a show? I am sorry to offend anyone but you really don't know what to believe anymore with his family and their sincerity. I hate thinking any of this because i want to believe Michael's family loved him but they make it hard to see that.

 

[la_cienega]

It seems to me that Jackson's have one way mirror. They can point finger to someone else and say he is cold, he is robbing this and that from Michael, Michael was used by some shady people, yet they themselves do exactly the same as they accuse other people for doing for Michael. So easy to point fingers to others but there are fingers pointing right back at them. Jackson's display hypocrisy at it finest form.

I think it's because they see in others what they know they themselves are capable of doing. If they would act in such a sinister manipulative scheming way, they suspect everyone else must also be like them.

It's like Randy's letter, the whole thing could read like a confession if you change a few words around.

 

[Bubs]

^^ I agree, perfectly said.

I'm looking forward Janet's pr person to issue another statement on behalf of her that it wasn't her that was holding up Michael's burial. The story seems to be getting more and more coverage.

To be brutally honest, they get what they deserve. Last 3 years has been absolute horror, in terms what they have said in their interviews and what have they done since Michael died. What goes around, comes around.

 

[Soundmind]

the brothers were negotiating the reality tv program at that time ; it was in their best interest to delay the funeral till they got a proper deal. they signed the deal on August 25 and within week he was buried.