TonyVanDam said:

Please stop perpetuating the myth that Prince has publicly acknowledged Michael's death, because he hasn't come remotely close to doing so.

We already established that CopyCat....moving on.

TonyVanDam said:

For sure, he played Billie Jean at another soundcheck as well (I believe it was Portland in 2002, maybe someone else can confirm) and apparently he said it was a great song when it was played "with a good band"

NastradumasKid said:

A friend of mine went, she said it was beautiful, she was clowning him because he was teasing her, saying she had a potty mouth and she said "Aww come on, Michael, you know when you get mad, you say muthafucka and shit and damn too!" and they both ended up laughing


a fan was able to go when Michael opened the doors to fans one day. She had eaten a bunch of cotton candy, popcorn and soda and got sick on one of the rides, when she got off, she looked and saw Michael laughing his ass off at her

bboy87 said:

Man, that's cool I bet MJ be swearing like a damn sailor, but has he ever cursed ANYONE out??
[Edited 7/19/09 22:14pm]

bboy87 said:

This picture is fly !I am going to call it "Picnic with Michael Jackson"

NastradumasKid said:

I recall Lisa Marie Pressley saying that he swears

NastradumasKid said:

THIS IS STYLE RIGHT HERE !!!

utopia7 said:

More like, "I'm gonna get on top of Michael jackson and ride the hell out of him like a rodeo show" picture.

utopia7 said:

He reminds me of someone.....

Jackson Assets Draw the Gaze of Wall Street

http://www.nytimes.com/20...f=business

A handful of major financial firms have made inquiries into buying the Jackson estate’s 50 percent share of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the company that controls most of the Beatles song catalog, according to people briefed on the matter. Among them are Colony Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Plainfield Asset Management and the media mogul Haim Saban, these people said.

Sony/ATV is by far the most valuable asset in Mr. Jackson’s estate, and his 50 percent stake could be worth as much a $500 million. Mr. Jackson bought the majority of the Beatles catalog in 1985 for $47.5 million, after an informal chat with Paul McCartney about the wisdom of buying song catalogs.

Since then, Sony/ATV — formed from a 1995 partnership with Sony — has bought up the rights to thousands of songs from artists, including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Beck and Taylor Swift. In recent years, it made a big push into TV production, helping to balance out its radio business.

“Sony/ATV’s really started to gain greater value in recent years,” said Barry Massarsky, a music industry consultant who has done work for Sony/ATV and its rivals. “I’m very bullish on its prospects.”

John G. Branca, the entertainment lawyer who structured Mr. Jackson’s initial purchase of the Beatles catalog and is now one of two executors of his estate, declined to comment by e-mail on Sunday, saying only that the Jackson stake in Sony/ATV “is not for sale.”

Mr. Branca and John McClain, a music executive, will make decisions about the estate, pending confirmation at an Aug. 3 court hearing in Los Angeles.

Still, that has not stopped financiers from approaching Jackson family members and Sony, people briefed on the discussions said. Some of these firms already have a connection to the Jackson family.

Colony, for instance, is a co-owner of the Neverland ranch, Mr. Jackson’s former home. The firm’s chairman and chief executive, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., has contacted representatives of the family, these people said. Plainfield, which lent money to Mijac, an entity that owns Mr. Jackson’s own songs as well as those from the likes of Sly and the Family Stone, has also contacted the family, these people said. (Mijac has an estimated worth of $50 million to $100 million and is likely to grow with the pickup in album sales since his death.)

Mr. Jackson nearly lost his stake in Sony/ATV — and his family’s fortune — in 2006. He was days away from filing for bankruptcy when Howard Stringer, the chief executive of Sony, dispatched his chief financial officer, Robert Wiesenthal, to Dubai to broker a last-minute lifeline for Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson was living in the emirate at the time and quickly spending cash.

“His finances were in complete shambles,” said Duross O’Bryan, a forensic accountant at the consulting firm AlixPartners who served as an expert witness at Mr. Jackson’s 2005 child molestation trial. “There were serious issues with regards to his ability to meet debt when it comes due.”

The deal, negotiated in Mr. Jackson’s suite at the Burj Al Arab hotel, saved the singer from bankruptcy. In return, Sony took greater operational control of Sony/ATV and received an option to buy half of Mr. Jackson’s share.

Despite earning hundreds of millions of dollars over his lifetime, Mr. Jackson was well known for having a mountain of debt, born of expensive indulgences like the sprawling Neverland estate, costly music and tour productions and art and antiques buying sprees. The estate still carries $400 million to $500 million in debt. Barclays holds about $300 million of debt against the Jackson estate’s stake in Sony/ATV.

It remains possible that Sony could seek to use its option, leaving the Jackson family with a 25 percent stake in the business. Some of the private equity firms have proposed teaming with Sony to buy the remaining stake from the family, these people said.

A spokeswoman for Sony said the company was not interested in selling its stake. Representatives for Colony, K.K.R. and Mr. Saban declined to comment. A representative for Plainfield could not be reached for comment.

Speculation about the Jackson stake in Sony/ATV swirled at the Allen & Company retreat for media moguls in Sun Valley this month. Several attendees said Mr. Stringer had fielded inquiries into the possibility over dinner. Mr. Saban made an informal inquiry then, these people said.

The stake is likely to continue to grow in value, and some members of the Jackson family have pondered the merits of selling. Still others have proposed eventually cobbling together a consortium to buy out Sony’s share in the publisher.

angel345 said:

I guess that's not so surprising but at the same time it never seemed to be in his nature to swear.

NastradumasKid said:

bboy87 said:

i heard that mj had visitors sign confidentiality clauses not to talk about the ranch. now that he's gone and the ranch is no more, i think there should be a book done based on the memories of all the people who met mj there, what they did, the stories they could tell. it would go a long way towards breaking down all of the lies about the ranch and mj. (especially the lie that the ranch was all about boys; i note that your friend is a girl .)

Countthedays said:

HA maybe but so many things I could pick on out of that but i'd have to write them down as I watched it to remember them all.

I wanna have someone read my face, I wonder how much that would cost
[Edited 7/19/09 22:31pm]

bboy87 said:

Thanks for posting this bboy87. I really enjoyed this.

bboy87 said:

THAT is cool.

NastradumasKid said:

I agree with you

angel345 said:

Or....just....."On want to go down on Michael Jackson in the middle of the field like Apollonia did to Prince" picture. OKay, let me shut up.
[Edited 7/19/09 22:42pm]

mookie said:

i think this is a myth promulgated by mccartney; didn't mj purchase the catalog with sly and the family stone before atv? was mccartney advising him then?

also, i notice that the media is back to stating that mj still owns 50%, not 25% as they stated a few years back.

however he came to own it, it is doubtful that the executors will have to sell atv. money is pouring into the estate because of mj's record sales. according to another article, his masters revert back to him in 2012 so his estate will soon be reaping the bulk of the profit. in the same article, they mentioned that branca could negotiate a good deal for distribution of any future releases, which would definitely sell through the roof. $50 million dollars are already on the table to distributre the concert rehearsal footage. and now that he's gone, there is no more entourage, security, etc. - at least not to the degree that mj felt he needed it, so there will not be as much money going out. whatever the repayment terms of his loan, mj seemed to be current on it so there is no reason to believe that the executors won't continue to honor that obligation.

i just think this is more speculation on the part of the media.
[Edited 7/19/09 22:51pm]

angel345 said:

but at the same time, jam and lewis recently stated that mj refused to swear in "scream". but on the same cd, he sings in 'this time around', he's taking no sh*t. so maybe there were some words he wouldn't use(?).

Copycat said:

Excuse you, but I was already giving corrected info on page 2 of THIS thread. Pardon me for being a f***ing human being that can make an honest mistake sometimes.

TonyVanDam said:

Yo Son, calm down, I established that a long time ago to that silly guy. it's gonna be okay .

bboy87 said:

bboy what's this?

NastradumasKid said:

It's hard to tell when we have a small percentage of die-hard purple passion-flavored Kool-Aid drinking Prince fans that go out of their way of negatively criticizing other fans (especially MJJ fans) at every opportunity.

Somehow the conspiracy realist side of me is really starting to be "convince" that maybe (just maybe) a few of these "Prince die-hards" are too damn happy that Michael is dead.

Just saying.

utopia7 said: