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Did Jacko Leave a Will? Neverland, Beatles Catalog At Stake

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Michael Jackson is just hours dead and days away from being buried, but plenty of questions are being asked.

One of them is: did he leave a will? And either way, who gets the Beatles catalog?

Jackson died nearly $400 million in debt, with three children and two mortgages. And all of it is hinged to his 50% ownership in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the company that contains the catalog of 251 Lennon and McCartney songs from “Yesterday” to “Give Peace a Chance.”

Sony Music has the right of first refusal to buy Jackson’s half of the company. To settle his estate, whoever the trustee and executor are may eventually be forced to make that sale.

Jackson owes HSBC and Barclays Bank over $320 million secured by that asset.

Then there’s the case of Neverland. Colony Capital LLC has the note on the property. It’s unclear how much their refinancing of Neverland gave to Jackson, but it could have been around $25 million over the $23 million on the ranch. It’s what Jackson was living on for cash in the last year. Neverland, now, will be sold.

Jackson has one other asset, his MiJac Music Publishing, which contains his own songs, and those of artists like Sly and the Family Stone.

Of course, there’s also the issue of what, if anything, he’s owed by AEG Live, the company for whom he was supposed to perform 50 concerts. AEG had to insure the shows itself because no one else would do it.

There’s also an outstanding and unresolved problem concerning Jackson’s personal belongings from Neverland. They are currently in storage after last April’s aborted auction. Jackson’s ex manager,’Tohme Tohme, paid off Julien’s Auctions and took everything. Jackson’s estate may have to sue to get it all back. Tohme currently has the key and access to the material — possibly several hundred million dollars’ worth.

And that’s just the beginning. But the first order of business will be finding a valid will. Right now, sources I’ve spoken with aren’t sure who has that, or when it was last updated, or what it reflects. If Jackson’s estate is not in proper order, expect a doozy of a fight.

Michael Jackson’s “Personal Physician” Was No Doctor

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Reports are filtering out’even Jermaine Jackson mentioned it in his statement’that Michael Jackson’s “personal physician” was with him yesterday when he suffered what seems to be massive cardiac arrest.

Some of the reports say that the “physician” was a “Dr. Tohme Tohme.” Let’s hope not.

Mr. Tohme is not a licensed physician anywhere. He told me that himself several months ago. Tohme claims to have been an orthopedist or orthopedic surgeon at some time, but refuses to give any more details.

What he definitely is, is Jackson’s dismissed manager. His website claims he’s also a special ambassador to Senegal. But calls to the Senegalese Embassy proved fruitless in confirming that claim.

Jackson’s other known personal doctor at the moment, and for over 20 years, is Beverly Hills dermatologist-to-the stars Dr. Arnold Klein. Jackson has been seeing Klein often in recent months, ostensibly for a skin cancer. Debbie Rowe, mother of Jackson’s two eldest children, worked for Klein. That’s where they met.

Jackson has otherwise had a parade of doctors over the years, from Dr. Alimorad Farshchian, the Florida vitamin specialist, to Dr. Len Horvitz, a New York physician who treated Jackson’and even hospitalized him’in 1999.

Horvitz told me in 2005 that the hospitalization was due to “exhaustion and dehydration”’a typical Jackson complaint over the years.

Jackson checked into Lenox Hill Hospital in April 1999 under the name “James Walker.”

When he finally checked into Lenox Hill, Jackson was alone most of the time, without any entourage, assistants or pets. Horovitz treated him with IV fluids. The doctor met him because he was answering calls from New York’s Four Seasons Hotel, where Jackson was staying.

“My job was to hydrate him quickly,” the doctor recalled. “I put the IV in myself, and there was no one else around.”

Jacko Album and Singles Sales Skyrocket

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Death has put Michael’ Jackson back on the charts as King of Pop.

He currently has 18 singles in the ITunes Top 100.

On Amazon.com, the top 15 albums are all his. Then 14 of the next 25 are either by Michael, the Jackson 5, or things like soundtrack to “The Wiz.” Ten more Jackson related CDs fill out the numbers 50-100 on Amazon’s top sellers. It’s pretty much the same on the ITunes Top 100 Albums, as well.

Everything connected to Michael and the Jacksons is selling out. Oddly, Michael’s death has had no effect on Janet Jackson’s albums. Janet has been AWOL since yesterday. She remains the only family member unaccounted for.

Michael Jackson’s Last Night: “He Was So Happy”

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Getty photo

Getty photo

Jackson Rehearsed At Staples Night Before Death

Michael Jackson’s last night was a great one–don’t let the tabloid magazines or British newspapers tell you otherwise.

Michael’s manager, Frank DiLeo, sobbing, told me this morning: “The show at the Staples Center was amazing. Michael rehearsed 10 or 11 songs. He sang and danced, not always at full power, but the way you do for a run-through. When the show was over, he called me, but I was in the back getting something. He found me, and said, ‘Frank, I am so happy. He said he was just so happy. He said, This is really our time. He put his arm around me.”

For DiLeo, the memory of that moment will always be reassuring. But the insanity of Jackson’s death, the timing of it, is what is craziest for him. Jackson and DiLeo had not worked together officially for 20 years. In the last couple of weeks, though, DiLeo had re-upped officially as manager. Jackson was very excited about working with him. They had a lot of plans.

Exclusive: Michael’s Missing Doctor, Revealed

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The doctor who left his BMW at Michael Jackson’s house yesterday and rode with him in the ambulance? His name is Dr. Conrad R. Murray.

Dr. Murray, who has offices in Las Vegas and Beverly Hills, had been hired by Jackson to accompany him to London and be there for the balance of Jackson’s shows at the O2 Arena.

A cardiovascular expert, Dr. Murray, 56, was educated at Meharry Medical College in Nashville and trained at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

The Los Angeles Police are looking for him, because Dr. Murray saw Jackson every day, insiders say, even though that doesn’t mean he was giving him daily injections (as charged, broadly, by the Jackson family).

“Dr. Murray is not the problem,” says a source who feels yet another doctor may be at the bottom of the tragedy.

Murray was summoned to the Jackson home Thursday when either a security guard or one of Jackson’s children found him unreponsive. Still, there is uncertainty about what exactly happened. But then Murray was summoned, and he was the one who performed CPR.

Michael Jackson’s Last Will Was Completed in 2002

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The issue of Michael Jackson’s will’containing disposition of assets and appointment of guardians for his children’can finally be addressed.

Sources say that Jackson’s final will was drawn up in 2002, after the delivery/birth/acquisition of baby Blanket aka Prince Michael II. The word is that Jackson’s longtime attorney and adviser John Branca, the man who kept Jackson out of many calamities in the 1980s and 90s, is the executor.

As early as sometime this weekend, Branca may share the contents of the will with the people named in it.

Jackson’s will’if it wasn’t updated at all since 2002’would then not include his feelings about people and events that came later, including his 2003 arrest and 2005 child molestation trial. That could cut both ways for certain people in Jackson’s inner circle. Some of them were helpful when Jackson was in trouble, some were not.

It’s possible that codicils address Jackson’s more recent financial issues including his monstrous debts and mortgages, as well as ownership of his intellectual property.

As far as guardianship of the three children, I am pretty amused by the rampant speculation serving as “news” right now on various blogs. The three children are currently with their nanny at the home of Michael’s mother, Katherine, in Encino, California. She may or may not wind up with them. But Mrs. Jackson’who stood by Michael through thick and thin’is too old to care for three rambunctious children even with assistance. There may yet be people Jackson considered better caretakers of his kids.

And still, the vultures keep circling, going from one useless TV interview to another. Still in the lead is Brian Oxman, a man who barely knew Michael Jackson, was not his lawyer, and was fired from his legal team in 2005 by Thomas Mesereau. I sat and watched, with other members of the press, as Oxman napped during many court sessions. That’s right: he fell asleep in open court, as I reported on April 26, 2005.

Even more unbelievably being used as “experts”: people like Diane Dimond, the ex-Court TV reporter who hated Jackson, sided from the beginning with Santa Maria prosecutor Thomas Sneddon. Dimond’s only sources were in the prosecution. She knew nothing about the defense side of the case, and wound up with egg on her face.

Even worse, if possible, Vanity Fair’s Maureen Orth, who told The Huffington Post’s Katherine Thomson: “I think this ending is great for Michael. He would have wanted to go out this way.” Does she really think Michael Jackson would prefer to have a gigantic celebrity death than to see his children grow up? Surprisingly insensitive considering her own public personal life, I’d say.

One thing’s for certain: Orth, Dimond and Oxman are not in Michael Jackson’s will.

Oscars Succumb to ‘Batman’ Effect, Expand Nominees

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It’s not a happy day in Movieville, at least for some. Yesterday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences surrendered to the big studios. They expanded the list of Best Picture nominees from five to ten.

This you can call “The Batman Effect.” It stems from Warner Bros. abandoning all reason and trying ‘ and failing– to get “The Dark Knight” nominated for Best Picture. They went so crazy for this idea that they all but ignored Clint Eastwood’s fine “Gran Torino,” which should have gained a spot in the top five.

The rule of thumb has been for the last thirty years: blockbusters, movies based on comic books, and cartoons, not to mention sci-fi, are not Oscar worthy material. The unwritten law in Oscar land was, if you made hundreds of millions of dollars, that was reward in itself. Sometimes, a blockbuster sneaked, in, like “Lord of the Rings.” But for the last fifteen years or so, indie pictures, movies of merit with artistic integrity, vied for Oscar nominations.

These films rarely came from the big studios. And the studios didn’t like it. This past year, 20th Century Fox was upstaged by its own Fox Searchlight, which won the Oscar for “Slumdog Millionaire.” In recent years, Miramax took Disney’s steam, Paramount Vantage (now deceased) did the same to big P, Focus clobbered parent Universal, and so on.

What to do? Remember a few years ago the big studios tried to stop screeners being sent to Oscar voters? The idea was that, without screeners, voters wouldn’t see the indie films. It didn’t work, and the screeners all went out.

Now what? The studios have forced the Academy to expand the list of Best Picture nominees to ten from five. If that had been the last year, “The Dark Knight” ‘ a bad, convoluted film that made scads of money ‘ would have neen nominated.

This means that this year, along with five or six well crafted Oscar-obvious films, we’re going to have some fun movies that are no more worthy of a nomination than “Dark Knight.” I’m sure the Paramount art department has already got posters ready for “Star Trek,” Fox is laying out the “Avatar” campaign as we speak, etc. I’ve no doubt the Warners marketing people are high fiving each other with grandiose expectations for “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.”

Look, it’s not going to happen. Academy voters are smarter than that. And this isn’t the Golden Globes we’re talking about. Indeed, I’m afraid the Academy has done nothing here but imitate the reviled Globes. The Academy did not expand any of the acting categories, for example. They couldn’t: those four or five extra movies don’t include award winning performances. (Chris Pine as Captain Kirk for Best Actor? No way.)

So the new expansion is simply a commercial bid to include blockbusters with the real Oscar fare. That way, on Oscar night, maybe more movie fans will tune in. This should be interesting. My guess is, it will last one season. One season of “Twilight: the New Moon” and “Zombieland” up against, say, “Precious,” “Nine,” “Shutter Island,” “Amelia,” and “The Lovely Bones” and that should bring everyone back to their senses, tout suite.

Jacko Rehearsals Move to L.A. Arena

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Michael Jackson: his rehearsals for his London shows have now moved, full throttle, to the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The Jacko crew had to wait until the L.A. Lakers were done with their season. The Lakers won the NBA championship last week. Now it’s time for Jacko.

My sources say that, despite rumors and potential lawsuits, the Jackson extravaganza is taking shape nicely. Michael, they say, is determined to be in shape for the shows. The occasional doctor’s visit or odd public outing is just for publicity.

In preparing for the 50 London shows, Jackson has at last signed former manager Frank DiLeo to oversee the proceedings. DiLeo was Jackson’s manager during the “Thriller” era. He’s also pretty much the only associate of the singer’s who didn’t rip him off, hasn’t sued him, or written anything bad about him.

The Staples rehearsals will proceed until next Friday, when the whole thing is packed up and shipped to London on July 3rd. That will leave a 10 day countdown until the first show at the O2 Arena. Stay tuned…

‘Guiding Light’ Driven Into Ground

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You know, CBS’ soap “Guiding Light” has been forced into cancellation by its owner, Procter & Gamble. The last episode, after 72 years, is on Sept. 18.

P&G used to own several soaps. But they’ve wanted out of the business for a long time. Little by little, they’ve whittled their stable down to two shows. After “GL” is canceled, they’ll just have “As the World Turns.”

One trick for not turning viewer anger into displaced resentment toward P&G brands like Crest and Pringles: Turn the fans against the show so they won’t miss it. In the last few weeks, maybe thinking no one’s watching, the “GL” producers have made the remaining episodes unwatchable. They’ve allowed the actors to use coarse language generally unsuitable to network TV. You can only imagine older fans wincing when they hear “pissed off” or “douchebag” uttered by their favorite characters.

For the last 18 months, P&G has also given “GL” substandard producing. There is constant loud rock music — sort of MySpace reject stuff — playing over dialogue. Most of it is in direct contrast to the scene being played on the screen. (Maybe considering the new low standards of language, it’s a good thing!)

There is also no attention to detail. Yesterday, veteran actor Peter Simon returned to the show playing Dr. Ed Bauer. Behind him, hanging on the wall of his “office” (the soap no longer uses sets, but real locations) was a medical school diploma for some other doctor–maybe the real life physician whose office cheaped-out P&G used for the shoot. If the producers don’t care, why should the viewers? By Sept. 18, P&G must hope, none will be left.

Sad, after all these years. Me, I’ve switched to Colgate Total.