Re: Weekends News Aug 7 - 9 (Updatae for August 8, 2009 on post #15)
Michael Jackson News for August 9, 2009:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32346617/ns/entertainment-celebrities/
Katherine Jackson’s lawyer opens up
‘She’s getting her grandma swagger back,’ he says of singer’s mother
NEW YORK - It wasn't just a victory. It was finally a moment of relief for
Michael Jackson's
mother, Katherine, 79, when she won custody of her three grandchildren, Prince, 12, Paris, 11 and Blanket, 7.
And helping make this possible was New York lawyer L. Londell McMillan, whose longtime ties to the Jackson family are as personal as they are professional, giving him a uniquely intimate perspective on Katherine's ordeal.
"After last Monday, it was like a load was taken off of her, and she's kicking her heels a little bit," McMillan tells PEOPLE. "She's got her grandchildren,” they're set. She's starting to rock and roll. She's getting her grandma swagger back
."
The kids have been her saving grace amidst her son's tragedy. "It's been very painful for her," says McMillan. "But she has been busy trying to make sure that these children will be provided for."
Bonding with Jacksons
McMillan, who got his law
degree at New York University after majoring in collective bargaining at Cornell, began working with Michael about four years ago, when Jackson was faced with a breach of contract lawsuit filed by the Prince of Bahrain. "My relationship with Michael was one of trust," he explains.
He also represented Katherine in a couple matters, and built a connection with her. "I lost my mom almost 20 years ago, but [she and Katherine] were similar in being selfless, loving to laugh and being the most loyal person in the room," says McMillan. "Katherine is a wonderful lady."
His other credentials include helping Michael refinance his Beatles catalog, liberating the artist known as Prince from a Warner Bros. recording contract he was famously unhappy with, and founding the non-profit Artist Empowerment Coalition.
As for Michael's children, the lawyer says: "They're in a great spot. They love their grandma. She is a very vibrant and youthful 79-year-old woman. Mrs. Jackson will be the matriarch of love that she has always been for this family."
He also laughs when recalling the oasis of fun Hayvenhurst has been for Michael's kids. "They love spraying water guns on people — especially those in suits," says McMillan. "If you come into their space, you will get sprayed. Oh, they wait for me to turn that corner!"
Growing up with Jay-Z
Before launching his
career representing showbiz legends like Michael and Stevie Wonder, Katherine's lawyer came up through the Bedford-Stuyvesant projects in New York City.
"I went to the same junior high school as Jay-Z and [30 Rock star] Tracy Morgan," says McMillan, who dreamed of going to the NBA or NFL. "We were kids in the projects, running around."
Now McMillan co-owns the New Jersey Nets with Jay-Z, and is something of a hip-hop mogul himself: The publisher-owner of The Source magazine also co-owns a women's shape-wear line, Sliminizer with Kate Liegey, designer of Jessica Simpson's upcoming lingerie collection.
And while the custody case is over, there is much more to be done for Katherine. "She's focusing on making sure that Michael's estate will be protected, preserved and nurtured with her trust, counsel and care," says McMillan. "That's why she wants a seat at the table [regarding his will]. I am
confident that Mrs. Jackson will honor the spirit of what Michael wanted."
http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_13024498
In youth, Pa. man mirrored Michael Jackson
By ANDY VINEBERG Bucks County Courier Times
Updated: 08/09/2009 12:02:29 AM EDT
BRISTOL, Pa.—Nobody could be like Michael Jackson on stage. Few entertainers even tried.
Del Smith was one of the brave souls who did. He's spent much of his life attempting to emulate Jackson's ridiculously prodigious song-and-dance skills.
Not that he had much choice.
From the time Smith began performing for friends and neighbors as a young boy growing up in Bristol, about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia along the Delaware River and New Jersey border, audiences thought of him as Michael Jackson.
Not because he was anywhere near as talented as Jackson—hardly anybody in the world is—but because he looked uncannily like the music superstar.
"Growing up, I must have had a trillion people say to me, 'Man, you look like Michael Jackson,'" Smith says. "I grew up being him. When I got into my 20s, I finally had to ask people to stop calling me that."
Smith, 47, used the resemblance to his advantage, performing professionally as a Jackson impersonator in local clubs during the height of King of Pop-mania—the 1979-84 "Off the Wall"-"Thriller" era.
Jackson was EVERYWHERE at that time, so the ability to sing and dance like him, even a little bit—and, of course, look like him—was obviously a boon to Smith's social life.
"Guys would come up to me and ask if their wives could dance with me," he recalls. "It was so flattering." He met his first wife while performing as Jackson at the old Holiday Inn in Bristol.
"I studied his dance moves, everything about him," Smith says. "I could sing every song he ever made."
Smith lost most of the photos of himself performing as Jackson in a fire, but there's a picture of him sporting an afro published in 1980 that you'd swear is a young Jackson staring back at you from the yellowed newspaper clipping.
Smith first began emulating Jackson in the late '60s, when he was the precocious, charismatic lead singer of the Jackson 5. Smith's parents were musically talented—his mother Marian taught ballet and had performed under the stage name Tangerine—and they encouraged him to show off his own talents and physical likeness to Jackson.
He remembers being asked by his parents to perform for the neighborhood in front of the family's storefront home.
"I didn't mind at the time, but looking back, I can see how he felt," Smith says, referring to the way Jackson's childhood was sacrificed for a career in music.
Smith's last performance as Jackson was six years ago, and it was a surprise to the 300 people in attendance. It came during his wedding day with his second and current wife, Jenny.
He sneaked out of the room during the reception and re-emerged wearing a tux similar to the one Jackson wore on the cover of his 1979 "Off the Wall" album, complete with a white shirt and a white glove that Smith made himself.
He grabbed the cordless microphone and sang the early Jackson 5 classic "I'll Be There" to his new wife.
"It was kind of my last hurrah," he says.
"He helped shape some of my character as a human being—all his charity work and the way he gave back to others," Smith says. "Listen to his songs, and they all have meaning. 'Man in the Mirror'—when I was younger I used to run around and do some dumb songs—and that song hit me so strong."
So it's no surprise that Smith was still in shock days after Jackson's death.
"I'm, like, totally down," he says. "It's like part of our generation has died."
Smith's dancing days are done—"I can't cut a rug like I used to"—so the retired diesel technician spends much of his time building cars. He worked for four years on the 1987 Pro-Street Camaro in his driveway, a car he calls his "Thriller."
Somehow, everything in his life always gets back to Michael.
"It's really heartbreaking that a person who was such an icon is out of our lives," Smith says. ———
http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/jackson-29930-sivia-child.html
Jackson case points to need for wills
Comments 1 |
Recommend 0
August 08, 2009 10:33 PM
By DAN BRANNAN
The Telegraph
Pop star Michael Jackson left behind a musical legacy, but how he handled his will and child guardianship also opened eyes.
Many in the country have pondered their own will/child guardianship situations after Jackson's death.
Statistics show 80 percent of Americans die without a will, leaving no plan in place for who will raise their children and how to distribute assets.
Todd Sivia, an attorney with Sivia Business & Legal Services P.C., offices in Alton and Edwardsville, specializes in child guardianships and living wills. He said he hopes Jackson's death encourages parents to consider whether or not they have a will or child guardianship set up for their families.
"It's always a morbid discussion when you talk about wills and trusts," Sivia said. "No one likes to do it and that is why so many don't do it. You are talking about your death. It's not about what you do during your lifetime, but the legacy you leave for people. Do you want people to have a lasting memory that I had to spend thousands of dollars and go through probate or that this was easy when you die?"
When clients visit Sivia, he gives them a questionnaire, and his firm works to establish child guardians upon a person's death or disability. A standby guardian is established if something happens to a person or their spouse. A short-term guardian also is appointed and an exclusion of guardian letter is established.
Instructions are given to caregivers about which guardian to reach if something goes awry.
"If a situation happens where they are out and they tell a baby sitter they will be back by 10 o'clock from dinner and a movie and they don't show up, the baby sitter calls police," Sivia said. "The police come out and take custody of the children and call DCFS. They make assumptions and hopefully they are right. In my children's guardianship program you give directions to the baby sitter on who to call. The permanent guardian may be in Delaware and can't get there for a few hours, so sometimes neighbors are established as temporary guardians."
Michael Jackson also had a large amount of assets in his estate and much of that will likely have to go through probate, Sivia said.
"In a living will and trust, about 90 percent of the time people can avoid going through probate," Sivia said. "There are so many cases when people die at a young age. No one believes it will happen."
Sivia said Jackson will be remembered as a great pop star, but also will be referenced in legal circles by some of the rights and wrongs of wills and child guardianship plans.
"There will be a lot of unnecessary legal fees and costs," he said. "The kids are torn. We have to look at the kids. It's not about anything but the protection of these kids."
2U9BKeZYjg9ww~~_35.JPG)
