Maybe some "one more chance" references would fit here?

"LOS OLIVOS, Calif. -
Michael Jackson got a day's reprieve on a deadline to pay a $100,000 fine and $306,000 in wages he owes Neverland Ranch employees.

Jackson now has until 5 p.m. Wednesday to pay the penalty and remit back wages owed dozens of workers, who complained to the state that they hadn't been paid since Dec. 19.

The 47-year-old pop star could face a state lawsuit if he doesn't comply by then.

Jackson no longer lives at the ranch full-time. He has been living mainly in the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain since being acquitted of child molestation charges last year.

A call to Jackson's spokesman, Raymone K. Bain, for comment wasn't immediately returned Tuesday.

Renee Bacchini, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Industrial Relations, said Jackson was "aware" of the extension. She said such extensions are not uncommon.

The extra day was granted after Jackson's financial representatives contacted the department to say "they are trying to come up with the money," Bacchini said.

"They're trying to work with us," she said.

The 2,600-acre ranch in Santa Barbara County remained virtually shut down Tuesday under an order issued by the labor department last week. Sixty-nine employees were ordered to stop work after it was discovered that their mandatory workers compensation coverage for job-related injuries had lapsed.

Financial representatives for Jackson indicated they are complying with the order and "anybody who's out there on the ranch is not an employee of Michael Jackson," Bacchini said.

A security guard could remain on duty if the guard was paid by a separate company that has workers compensation coverage, Bacchini said.

Similarly, people remained at the ranch to care for the singer's exotic menagerie.

"There are people who are being paid to take care of the animals" but Jackson wasn't paying them, Bacchini said.

Jackson also faces a fine of $69,000 for allowing the workers compensation coverage to lapse. He has 30 days to appeal that fine, which was issued last week."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/a...N5bmNhdA--

Also, for entertainment purposes only (I don't take him seriously at all), here are Friedman's latest comments on all this:

"For a guy who had trouble traveling 45 minutes every day from his home to a courthouse, Michael Jackson is getting around pretty fast these days.

He made it back to Manama, Bahrain, by Saturday night for dinner with Prince Abdullah at a place called The Hunting Lodge. I'm told he chatted up several people who were in for the F1 races, including John Legend .

My sources remain steadfast in their resolve that Jackson had snuck in and out of Los Angeles last week. He did it last November without being detected.

But Jackson seems unfazed by the events at home that could lead to a lawsuit from the state of California over his now shuttered Neverland ranch. When I called The Hunting Lodge while Jackson was there, I spoke to someone else who was eating at a nearby table and had spoken with him. I asked if they had mentioned the Neverland situation to him.

"Michael is here and he's happy. He doesn't want to get into bad things going on at home. That part of his life is over," this person replied.

That indeed seems to be the case. Jackson basically has just today to resolve a total of $500,000 in fines and back pay to employees before the state of California takes action against him. Since no one in the Jackson family has any money other than Janet , they are now all relying on the family's remaining contemporary pop star to come through for them.

But how can the Neverland employees, as well as the folks who work in Encino for Michael's parents, feel about him at this point? While he shuttles around the world on Prince Abdullah's dime, the Neverland staff will be 12 weeks. That's three full months without pay. They no longer have health insurance.

And if the security staff is made to leave by court order on Tuesday, a the bigger question that remains is about insurance. According to statements made by accountant Alan Whitman in a November 2005 deposition, the ranch and Jackson's many possessions are uninsured at this time. In fact, there isn't even an inventory of the various knick-knacks and "artwork."

Meanwhile, it's pretty amusing to read in wire stories that the labor department people up there didn't realize all this was going on until last week. We've been writing about it faithfully since last December, at least once a week. Dean Fryer , the spokesman, told the Associated Press: "People are telling me they haven't been paid from Dec. 19."

Actually, Mr. Fryer, the staff — as I reported — was last paid on Dec. 23, 2005. At that time, Jackson was four weeks behind with the payroll and there was a fear that the staff would not be able to celebrate Christmas. In the meantime, Jackson had the Prince fly in about a dozen friends on his dime, and gave them each lots of expensive presents."



http://www.foxnews.com/st...27,00.html

Hmmmm if I worked at Neverland I might leave with about 3 months wages worth of uninventoried knick knacks.

But seriously, that's pretty unbelievable: the place isn't even insured? However, I've heard before that Neverland is mortgaged, prob as part of his cashflow issues...in fact most likely I read it in RF's column. But wouldn't the lender require insurance on the property?

Oh well, as I said, I regard Friedman's Jacko stuff as entertainment, I wouldn't put much stock in any of it!
[Edited 3/14/06 20:22pm]

why doesn't Michael simply borrow the money from Janet? She's worth millions.

DavidEye said:

Janet is the black sheep of family! She escaped the Jackson web of doom ages ago!

Yeah... that's why she was in court with her brother very often during his trial.
[Edited 3/15/06 1:34am]

I don´t worry about MJ´s financial situation. I am sure, he´ll manage. You may believe otherwise, but he´s not stupid.

Ah, I´ve just noticed. Roger again!!! I am sorry, but the guy´ s more obsessed with him than most fans are.

How the hell is he so broke ,he made millions and millions ..i can't understand how Janet is richer then him ..wtf?!

Poor Janet ,no wonder she comfort eats.

Nikki23 said:

It's crazy,isn't it? Michael just doesn't know how to budget his money.Makes you wonder...where the hell are his accountants?? Are they honest with him? Does he even listen to them?

If Michael had played his cards right,he would be a billionaire by now.Instead,he pretty lost much of his fortune.

DavidEye said:

It is so sad really what has become of him.

DavidEye said:

Maybe they weren't getting paid either and quit!?! Honestly, until this happened I was skeptical that his finances were SO bad, mostly because it was always Friedman reporting it! But when you can't meet payroll for months and don't even pay the workers comp premiums, it's a little worse than a small cashflow problem.

CandaceS said:

Exactly! MJ needs to get himself together,and do a tour or something.ANYTHING to generate some income.I see no reason why he couldn't get a Celine Dion-type Vegas gig,where he performs at the same venue everynight.An artist of his stature could easily make nearly $100 million a year doing that.

That MJ would just stop paying his employees is proof that he does not care about other people. Don't his employees have children? Don't they need food? I bet if his royalty check was late he would be screaming lawsuit. MJ's attitude is fuck the little people - I'm not gonna think about unhappy things. He just walks all over people & doesn't give a damn. Who cares if he sells more cds then anyone else whern he doesn't even bother to pay the people that work for him. What an uncaring bastard. What a shallow undeveloped waste of space he is. His father didn't beat him enough.

thedoorkeeper said:

Do you wish death on Michael?

dag said:

Hmmm, sometimes I wonder...

dag said:

He does write about MJ a lot...too bad most of it seems to be baloney! Well, I guess if he keeps predicting this or that often enough, there's a good chance he'll someday be right, and then he can brag about it.

One of our local R&B stations reported that Michael is indeed borrowing the money from Janet.It's great that she is helping him out of this mess,but he should be REALLY embarassed.At one point in the 80s,he had more money than any other celebrity!

In the end, everything reported on the MJ financial situation is speculation. The stories about janet paying for everything is simply not true. Being given an extension on payin back £500,000 is pretty normal considering you cant just get instant access to that amount of money.

Michael's spending this last year on the whole has been completely minimal, im actually pretty impressed. He has tightened the purse for obvious reasons but at the same time, he isnt totally without money. He earns around £30million a year just from back catalogue stuff, if he keeps on this tight budget for another year his situation will be completely stable.

Also, the Prince is probably paying him after there agreement to do business together. Michael will keep Neverland forever, i cant see him selling it!

I don't know what is financial situation is at this point...there are so many lies and half-truths. He's been broke for a decade now according to some reports. I'm just curious as to why the employees weren't paid and how this whole situation with Neverland came about in the first place. What happened?

A couple of questions:
#1, why in the hell would those people still be "working" without being paid?
#2, why does MJ have such a large expense anyway? He cannot be making that kind of money these days. I just don't believe that he is still making that kind on loot.

DavidEye said:

Exactly.

I guess now Sir Paul might have a chance to get his song catalog back into his own hands...

Sir Paul wont be able to afford the catalogue now, its valued at $1-3billion.

FunkyBrotha said:

I'm wondering how you know how much he spent over the last year, that he makes £30 million per year from the publishing rights, or details of any deal between him and the Prince? What kind of business are they doing together? I know about the charity single, but it's been over six months and that still isn't out. I've not heard of any revenue-generating project that they're engaged in (and the charity single won't make money for them).

As for the difficulty of getting instant access to the sum he owes for these back wages and fines...I guess it IS difficult: if he had access to such money he wouldn't be in this predicament in the first place, eh?

all he gotta do is do a 2hour long show and make all that money up in a bit. MIKE..COME ON!

Looks like Jacko's gonna pay up...new thread here:

http://www.prince.org/msg/8/181341