Tommy Mottola uses dirty tatics against MJ!!!




I got this from Fox News from an anti-MJ supporter who is actually defending MJ and saying that Tommy Mottola really is shonky! It just goes to show how nasty these record label owners can get when they artists don't tow the line!

Michael Jackson
Saturday, July 13, 2002
By Roger Friedman


Tommy Mottola and Michael Jackson |

Mottola Steps Up Spin War on Jacko, Implicates Producer

Don't believe the stories you're hearing this weekend about why
Michael Jackson's charity single isn't coming out. Sony Music's new
excuse is that the single was shelved because it was suddenly
discovered that the executive director of the project had a porno
past.

But record and video producer Mark Schaffel – whom this column has
interviewed off and on since last October (see Fox 411 archives) –
tells me that his ties to adult videos were severed prior to working
on this project. In any case, porno video directors often work with
pop stars. Case in point: I can tell you that squeaky clean teen idol
and heartthrob Britney Spears has often worked with infamous porno
director Gregory Dark. So have Mandy Moore and other teen pop stars.

Most importantly, Sony's Tommy Mottola has stepped up the spin war
with Jackson in the last 24 hours, emphasizing the latter's so-called
sexual weirdness and the racism issue. But what's really going on
here is a wholesale attack on Jackson to destroy him once and for
all. It's a scorch-the-earth scenario in which the victim and all his
associates are ruined.

For example: Schaffel, sources say, was told last fall that Mottola
and Jackson's manager Trudy Green hired a private eye to dig up dirt
on him when they were afraid that Jackson was listening to Schaffel's
advice about his career. Jackson has all but dismissed Green and HK
Management as his official managers. "He didn't think they were doing
enough to push the new album, Invincible," Schaffel says. "And they
were mad at me."

According to sources, Schaffel's friends were contacted by the
private eye: "The only thing they were able to dig up was the porno
stuff and now they're using it."

Mottola is not adverse to using private detectives. As I reported in
1998, Mottola's former business partner Randy Hoffman once went
surreptitiously "wired" to a meeting with a potential witness in a
plagiarism case involving Mariah Carey. The detective sat outside in
a car listening while Hoffman tried to lead the witness into
recanting a story that would embarrass Mottola and cost Sony
millions. Luckily the witness kept to his story.

Forget about porno or any other spin coming out of Sony this weekend.
What's clear now is that Sony never wanted "What More Can I Give" to
be released. The corporation didn't care about the money it might
raise for the Sept. 11 victims. (Instead they released "The Concert
for New York" and an album of standards by all their artists except
Jackson.)

Schaffel, in an interview with this columnist, says that last fall
when "What More Can I Give" was being planned, Sony execs Michelle
Anthony and Polly Anthony (no relation to each other) called him and
in a heated conversation accused him of advising Jackson in tactics
to push the single.

"They didn't want 'What More Can I Give' competing with Invincible.
They didn't want them to buy the charity single and then find it
wasn't on Invincible."

The cancelling of "What More Can I Give" had nothing to do with
MacDonald's disapproving of Jackson, Schaffel says. "They didn't
consider it a Michael Jackson record," he says. "They thought of it
as an all-star tribute." Ultimately MacDonald's had to back out, he
says, because Jackson missed the delivery date and the fast food
company was preparing for its holiday promotions.

This column also reported several months ago that Jackson, in
borrowing of millions of dollars, had taken a $2 million loan from
something called Royalty Advance Funding in Beverly Hills. According
to sources, we now know that the loan was for the making of "What
More Can I Give." Jackson was forced to borrow the money when Sony
refused to pay for the recording and Jackson had already committed to
the project.

Ultimately other Sony artists – such as Celine Dion, Ricky Martin,
Gloria Estefan, and Destiny's Child, all of whom sang on "What More
Can I Give?" – are now being penalized by Mottola's failure to
cooperate with Jackson's charity project.

Yesterday I reported that Jackson may soon reveal e-mails from
Mottola in which the head of Sony Music threatens his livelihood and
career unless Jackson does what he's told. I suppose the question now
is why Sony Music – and Sir Howard Stringer, the venerable head of
Sony Entertainment USA – isn't more interested in why two superstars –
Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson – have been forced out of the Sony
Music Group. It seems particularly strange since album sales are in
decline and there are fewer stars than ever to go around.

According to a source, only Stringer would be able to make an
investigation stick. "The people in Japan who own Sony are old and
they're isolated. They don't follow American newspapers or gossip
columns. If they want to know what's going on, they ask Tommy. If
something goes wrong, Tommy goes over there and explains it to them.
The Japanese are clueless."

So, the plot thickens...

Cloudbuster said:

It's MICHAEL JACKSON WEEKEND on VH-1...yayyy

Smoothe Criminal...Remember the times...Now that is "Lord of the dance"...

Now, I know that Fox News just LOVES to muckrake, but this whole Jackson/Mottola thing is getting uglier and uglier by the HEARTBEAT.

If you'll pardon me, I'm gonna go tie my hair up in pigtails, put on my roller skates, call myself Tootie and hold a glass up to the door and get a good listen. OH DRAMA.

Anxiety said:

have fun.

I would take with a grain of salt any story with comments prefaced with "sources say" or "according to sources". Who exactly are these "sources"? Seems to me that in this battle between Sony and MJ each side could easily get out the side of they story they want via their well placed "sources"

Just another sad part of this soap opera. And yeah, this article sounds suspicious to me, but then again, these are two people I really could care less about.

MJ hasn't recorded a solid record in a decade, and Tommy M is the devil. They'll probably spend millions suing each other. God bless em' both.

fonkywonder said:

what's up Fonky? I think the World of You as you know.you always bringing it on.it's getting Ugly by the Minute but I think MJ is gonna Be Alright when this is all Said&done.as for Tommy He has spent too Much watching Scarface&the Sorpranos,Goodfellas,etc... i'm glad to see MJ stand up to Tommy's Bully tactics.I hope MJ keeps His Half of ATV&His Half of Sony Publishing&just chills.get back to Musical basics,do a Tour that Reflects on Him as a Artist&Leave the Explosives for Spellberg&get back to Basics.but don't lost the Swagger! also do a spot with His Brothers.not only has Tommy ran MJ off Sony but also Jamreiqui(Sp),Yab Yum Traci Edmonds Label(Babyface's Wife)Jon B,Mairah Carey&Her Crave Label,Luther Vandross as well have been Ran offamong others.

Cloudbuster said:

Yes it does, maybe this is why Mariah went insane maybe she knew about all this.