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Jackson Burial May Be Done in Secret Today (Monday)

Roger Friedman
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Michael Jackson’s private internment may be as early as today (Monday), sources tell me.

And — flash—Lionel Richie is definitely on the program for Tuesday’s memorial service. Jackson songs like “We Are the World” (which Richie co-wrote) and “Heal the World” would make sense on the program. So would “Gone Too Soon,” “Man in the Mirror,” and “You Are Not Alone.”

Stevie, Smokey and Diana should be on the bill or in attendance as well. I hope that Gladys Knight is not forgotten. Motown’s premier songstress discovered the Jackson 5 with Motown’s Bobby Taylor in Gary, Indiana in 1968. Gladys and the Pips were at the top of the charts and their game with “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.”

But back to the issue at hand: Instead of waiting until tomorrow (Tuesday) before the big memorial service at the Staples Center, the Jackson family may have decided to an end run around the press and Michael’s fans.

If so, there will be heightened security at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood. The early ceremony makes sense. It gives the Jacksons a chance to grieve before dealing with the public on Tuesday.

This much sources tell me about Michael’s preparations: his long time and steadfast friend, Karen Faye, has been overseeing how Jackson will look in his casket. Jackson’s veteran costumers, Michael Bush and Dennis Thompkins, have handmade his final suit.

The rest of it: I’ve no doubt “insiders” are already planning to take pictures of Jackson in his coffin, and sell them to the highest bidders. It boggles the mind that there are people so low, crass and despicable. But “Entertainment Tonight” already served up a picture of Jackson on the ambulance gurney, and OK! Magazine published pictures of Jackson after he died. I’m not sure how the people who run those organizations sleep at night.

Jermaine Jackson May Perform at Michael’s Memorial

Roger Friedman
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Jermaine Jackson, the velvet-voiced brother of Michael Jackson, may perform at the end of tomorrow’s Staples Center tribute to the fallen King of Pop.

Sources say that Jermaine will represent the Jackson family, singing Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.” If this comes off as planned and hoped, Jermaine will steal the spotlight from many superstars including Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Usher, Mariah Carey, and Jennifer Hudson.

Twenty five years ago, Jermaine released an album that should have made him a star in his own right. But for reasons that remain unclear, after he had hits, Jermaine’s career fizzled. This should be an extraordinary moment for him.

Meanwhile, as I predicted, Stevie and Smokey are on the show for tomorrow, as well as Mariah’who will undoubtedly perform “I’ll Be There” with Trey Lorenz, plus Lionel Richie. Sources tell me there may be something from John Legend and Akon.

But basically, there is little time for rehearsal or soundchecks with a 10 a.m. start time tomorrow. So the show’live around the world‘will be like one of producer Ken Ehrlich’s Grammy presentations. Hot stuff.

One thing to look for: the appearance of Jennifer Hudson. The very private performer may very well be eight months pregnant, and showing like crazy. There will be lots of talk in the wake of all this. But don’t expect Hudson to discuss it. She’s doing this her own way.

Also: James Hibberd live blogs the Jackson memorial service here.

Allen Klein: The Man Who Didn’t Break Up the Beatles

Roger Friedman
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Allen Klein died yesterday at 77. He was famous for being John and Yoko’s lawyer during the breakup of the Beatles. Needless to say, he came across as a bad guy back then in 1970. Everyone thought he was whispering negative things in John Lennon’s ear. Maybe he was. Who knows?

Klein is also famous for controlling two major music catalogs: those of Sam Cooke, and of the Rolling Stones through 1971.

But back to the Beatles. Klein did play dirty. In Steven Gaines’s great Beatles book with Peter Brown, the Beatles’ publicist, called “The Love You Make,” the authors claimed that Klein caused a scuffle during a contentious meeting that had him, Lennon and Ono on one side and Paul McCartney with his distinguished father-in-law/attorney on the other.

But time does heal all wounds, and in the end Klein got past his Beatle skirmishes. He became an excellent repackager of Cooke’s and the Stones’s catalogs. His company, ABKCO Music & Records, also released Phil Spector’s famous “Back to Mono” box set. Regardless of what Spector has done in his later life, “BMono” remains a seminal document in pop music history.

I have to credit Klein for telling me something very important back around 1990. He pointed out out that because of the Songwriters’ Act of 1927, John Lennon’s heirs would receive larger portions of his publishing royalties than Paul McCartney once their copyrights came up for renewal. He was right, and the law has always vexed Paul, who gets less for songs like “Yesterday” than Ono and Sean Lennon.

ABKCO also released one of the great pop records of all time, “96 Tears,” by Question Mark and the Mysterians. You can see it on their website, www.abkco.com. Allen Klein, rest in peace.

How Could Conrad Murray Meet Jackson in 2006?

Roger Friedman
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We continue to read stories about Michael Jackson’s live-in doctor, Conrad Murray.

Murray’s attorney and others around him insist that the doctor met Jackson in Las Vegas in 2006. They say one of Jackson’s children was ill, and that the doctor was called. Out of the blue.

But the timeline is wrong: Jackson was not in the United States in 2006. He left Los Angeles for Bahrain in June 2005. He didn’t return until December 23, 2006. On that day Jackson brought his family to Las Vegas from Ireland, where he’d been after a stay in France following more than a year in Bahrain.

Could Murray have met Jackson during the last week of 2006? Even that’s doubtful. After checking out his new home and celebrating Christmas, Jackson went to Augusta, Georgia, on December 30th for James Brown’s funeral.

What’s more, sources from Jackson’s camp at that time say none of the children were ill. “And if they were, why would he call a cardiologist?” asks one insider. “A pediatrician, yes.”

So the mystery remains about Dr. Murray: who introduced him to Jackson? And why?

Jackson Burial Will Precede Memorial Service

Roger Friedman
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All weekend, friends and family of Michael Jackson have been busy putting the finishing touches on Michael Jackson’s memorial service set for next Tuesday.

Ken Ehrlich, who produces the Grammy Awards, is in charge, guaranteeing that the show will be a classy event. He’s been working with Randy Phillips of AEG Live. The latter is the company that was producing Jackson’s London shows and also owns Ehrlich’s production company.

Ehrlich, by the way, was negotiating to produce a Halloween TV special for NBC with Jackson the night before he died.

Sources say Rev. Al Sharpton will speak at the service, and Jesse Jackson may as well. It’s still undecided who the musical acts will be on the bill. I wouldn’t be surprised if Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and none other than Little Richard are asked to participate. There’s also a chance that the 3T’s’Michael’s nephews, sons of Tito Jackson, who were included in Michael’s will’would do something as well. Jackson was their mentor.

But Michael’s body will not be at the Staples Center, after all. Insiders tell me that the Jackson family will have a burial service at 8 a.m., two hours before the memorial. The private internment will be at Forest Lawn, the celebrity cemetery in Hollywood. Hopefully, Michael will rest peacefully there with the many dozens of stars including, most recently, David Carradine.

No Jackson 5 (or Six) Reunions Next Week

Roger Friedman
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Despite crazy reports today in the New York Post, the Jackson family is not reuniting to fulfill brother Michael’s gigs in London.

Jackson’s ticketholders are already getting refunds for the London shows, set to begin a week from tomorrow, July 13th. Further, the sets for the show are still in Los Angeles at the Staples Center.

Even more problematic: the O2 Arena has already started booking the lost dates with new attractions.

Also, it’s fairly unlikely that Janet Jackson will be going out on the road with her brothers doing Jackson 5 tribute shows. She has her own, thriving concert career. She’s never mixed that message with the Jackson 5. Her music is totally different, and so is her approach to performance in general.

What might happen: the Jackson brothers doing a tribute/memorial show to Michael and their career with him. It’s funny, because they could have done that years ago, set up shop in Las Vegas at a hotel, and had at it. But the brothers were always hopeful that Michael would join them. It was never going to happen. But hope sprang eternal.

Meantime, the same newspaper reports managed to mix up the Jackson family home in Encino and Michael’s rented home in Bel Air. There’s nothing left in the latter’it’s all been cleaned out by movers.

At the same time, the British press is having a field day printing scurrilous reports about Jackson’s alleged pedophilia’all from sources and witnesses who were discredited years ago. But the British press, like a few U.S. outlets, pays for info whether it’s true or not. Buyer beware when this stuff boomerangs back across the Atlantic. I guess the proper British readers don’t mind that it all reads like pornography!

Debbie Rowe Was Not Targeted By Michael in Will

Roger Friedman
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The most egregious misinterpretation of Michael Jackson’s will, which was released yesterday: that he “dissed” ex wife Debbie Rowe by indicating she wouldn’t receive any money.

This is what happens when lay people get their hands on legal documents. Jackson specifically cited Rowe because at the time, in 2002, he was in the middle of paying her millions as part of their divorce agreement. She was well taken care of, in fact. They each had that understanding.

Because the will was executed in July 2002, it was three years before Jackson’s child molestation trial. A lot changed over the years. At one point, when Jackson’s finances were a mess, he ceased paying Rowe on the court-appointed schedule. Her personal situation was endangered, as I reported at the time. Jackson’s lack of payment then caused a problem with their custody agreement. The other problem in 2005 was that Jackson had been overwhelmed by the Nation of Islam. Rowe ‘ who is half-Jewish ‘ was worried that this could affect her children. It was a bad time.

On January 14, 2004, I first wrote about Rowe’s concerns. Jackson didn’t like that, or the fact that Rowe complained publicly that she had no idea what was going on in his child-molestation case. From the time he was arrested in November 2003′ through his trial in the winter of 2005, she never heard a word from him. In the summer of 2004, Jackson cut Rowe off financially, claiming that she violated their confidentiality agreement by doing a TV interview about her horse farm.

Rowe was incensed, and rightly so: she had always defended Michael. In February 2003, after the “Living with Michael Jackson” TV special raised question about Jackson and children, Rowe went on TV a couple of weeks later and defended him. He didn’t even thank her.

By the end of 2004, Rowe had had her parental rights reinstated by a family court judge.

She nevertheless testified on Jackson’s behalf in April 2005 about his fitness as a parent. Her testimony helped sway the jury to acquit Jackson of child molestation and conspiracy charges. Jackson took the children to Bahrain in the summer of 2005, but sent them back with their nanny, Grace Rwaramba, for a supervised visit a few months later. All custody and visitation issues between Jackson and Rowe were settled, finally, in September 2006. Rowe was also made “whole” at that point, receiving the money that was due her from Jackson.

Why Eminem Keeps Rapping About Mariah

Roger Friedman
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Pictures ran this week all’over the place from the new music video being shot for’Mariah Carey.

Getty Photo

Getty Photo

‘

Brett Ratner, director of the “Rush Hour” movies, is collaborating with Carey on the first video from her new album. The song is called “Obsessed,” and it’s a witty comeback to Eminem’s recent rap on her on his new album.

The Mariah-Eminem saga has turned into a pretty swell feud, with both sides getting in their cracks.

But now Mark Batson, the producer who shepherds Eminem’s albums to completion, tells me it’s not personal at all.

“He just used her name because it rhymed,” Batson told me at the BET Awards last Sunday. “It doesn’t mean a thing.”

In fact, says Batson, “he” ‘ meaning Eminem ‘ “uses most names in songs because they rhyme.”

Well, it’s a theory, but I’m not sure I totally believe it. “Bagpipes from Baghdad,” the “song” in question on Eminem’s “Relapse,” doesn’t use the word “Mariah” to rhyme with anything, actually. But Eminem does call Mariah the “c word” in the song, and mocks her husband and a former boyfriend.

Now Carey gets him back in the “Obsessed” video. By the looks of it, the video is going to be hilarious. Carey is dressed in a hooded gray sweatshirt, Eminem’s trademark costume. Can’t wait to see the actual footage. Let Carey have the last laugh on this twisted piece of work.

P.S. If you can’t get enough of Em, his sequel comes out in December ‘ “Relapse, Valium Two.” Batson says the lyrics in the new one make the ones from the current CD’ many way too unprintable ‘ seem meek. Merry Xmas!

Jackson Private Photos Put On Facebook

Roger Friedman
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Remember the other day when I told you Nancy Malnik found her personal pictures of Michael Jackson all over the Internet? Someone stole them from her Facebook page and sold them to a website. Yikes! Nice friends.

Now Nancy has decided to put all her pics online for free at Facebook. “This way, no one can make money off of them,” she told me. The photos are mostly taken in Florida, with Michael’s kids and the Malniks’ kids circa 2002-2003.

Some of the photos of Michael are priceless, especially ones taken in a supermarket. Talk about worlds colliding!

You can see the pics at Facebook; search “The real Michael Jackson…friend and father.” And thanks to Nancy for making them free to everyone.

Roger Friedman on ‘Larry King’

Roger Friedman
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