Report: La Toya Jackson in Charge of Michael Jackson's Kids' Careers

Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage(NEW YORK) -- Michael Jackson’s son Prince recently signed on to be a correspondent with Entertainment Tonight -- reportedly under the watchful eye of his aunt La Toya Jackson.

Writing for the New York Post, a close friend of the Jackson family, Stacy Brown, says La Toya has signed all three of Michael’s children exclusively to her Ja-Tail Enterprises talent agency.

Brown claims that while La Toya's siblings battled over the King of Pop’s $2 billion estate following his death, La Toya took Prince, Paris and “Blanket” to the family’s Calabasas, Calif., mansion where, according to a family insider, “they needed comfort with everyone showing their wild side, so they watched television together, they listened to music and they talked about what Mike would want.  Mostly, it was Toya doing all the talking.”

As well as the ET gig, Prince has signed a deal to appear on the CW's 90210.  His sister Paris, meanwhile, has a movie deal that will see her shooting later this year in London.  It’s believed that La Toya will get a standard 15 percent commission on each deal.

She reportedly is also currently negotiating a reality TV show deal, featuring all three kids.  Insiders claim bidding has approached $10 million, with Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network leading the pack.

One potential problem for the 56-year-old La Toya is Paris’ refusal to shoot a reality show, but insiders say La Toya’s power of persuasion over the children is strong.

One source is quoted as saying, "Prince wasn’t exactly eager to do ET, but could you tell?  When the money is on the line, Toya is going to cash in.  I wouldn’t bet against her.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Does Lady Gaga Want to Buy Neverland Ranch?

Ian Gavan/Getty Images for Coty Beauty UK(NEW YORK) -- Neverland Ranch was once owned by an eccentric pop star, Michael Jackson. Could it soon be owned by another eccentric pop star?

Britain’s The Sun is claiming that Lady Gaga wants to purchase a share of the California ranch. A source says, “Lady Gaga is obsessed with Michael.  She’s become good friends with his sister La Toya and would love more than anything else to restore Neverland to its original state.”

The source adds that Gaga would “love to help with the financial costs” of the ranch should it remain with the Jackson family long-term.

Neverland is currently owned by Jackson’s estate as well as Colony Capital, which saved the property from foreclosure in 2008, the year before the King of Pop died.

Michael left Neverland in 2005.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Michael Jackson’s Father, Joe Jackson, Suffers Stroke

GV Cruz/WireImage(LAS VEGAS) -- Michael Jackson’s 83-year-old father, Joe Jackson, said he has suffered a stroke.

He is being treated at an unspecified hospital in Las Vegas.

“I will be fine and I am going home tomorrow,” Jackson told ABC News.

The Jackson family has suffered from other health woes recently.

Matriarch Katherine Jackson’s doctor, in July, recommended she leave Los Angeles because “her health was really bad,” her son, Randy Jackson, told Good Morning America.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

"Michael Jackson: Bad25" Premieres on ABC Thanksgiving Night

Kevin Mazur/WireImage(NEW YORK) -- Michael Jackson: Bad25, a documentary about the making of Michael Jackson's landmark 1987 album Bad, airs on ABC Thanksgiving night. 

The in-depth film was directed by Spike Lee, who traces the King of Pop's creative process as he followed up from the success of his 1982 album Thriller.

Lee first worked with Jackson more than a decade and a half ago, directing the 1996 music video "They Don't Really Care About Us." 

"When I got that phone call and he was on the other line I hung up because I thought it was an impersonator," Lee tells ABC News Radio.  "It was really a big moment in my life when Michael Jackson called me on my phone to do a music video."

Jackson asked Lee to come to California to hear his song, but the new dad had just welcomed his first child home, and couldn't make the trip.  That didn't stop Jackson, though. 

"He came to Fort Greene, Brooklyn, to my house, my brownstone, to play the songs," Lee says.

Jackson had a passion for his craft, and Michael Jackson: Bad25 shines a light on that passion.  In one scene, viewers will see footage of Jackson in November 1986, working on the choreography for the Martin Scorsese-directed "Bad" music video in his hotel room with choreographers Caszper Canidate and Jeffrey Daniel.  

In the clip, Daniel talks about how the three of them developed the iconic dance sequence in the "Bad" video.  He says that he and Canidate would work with Jackson's dancers in the daytime, then the trio would meet back at the hotel, and work together until the wee hours of the morning.

"We'd take turns creating different things, making different things happen," Daniel says.  Each of the guys would get their turn, "but it wasn't like a dance-off," he says.  Instead, the three of them were "inspiring each other and pushing each other to the next limit."

Daniel is one of several people who share their behind-the-scenes stories from the making of Michael's Bad album.  Siedah Garrett is another contributor who appears in Michael Jackson: Bad25.  The singer and songwriter helped pen the duet "I Just Can't Stop Loving You."

In an interview with ABC News Radio, she recalls joining Jackson in the studio to record her part on the track, and remembers that he admired her work on the song.

"So, Michael follows me into the booth and he starts filming me and I remember asking him, 'Why are you doing this?'" Garrett tells ABC News Radio.  "He said, 'Because you have so much emotion and I just love the way you sing it and I wanna sing it like you.'"

Bad was the first album on which nearly all of the songs were written by Jackson.  He co-wrote nine of the album's 11 tracks, and was listed as a co-producer for the entire project. 

"He might not be able to play the guitar riff in 'Beat It,' or 'Billie Jean,' but he can sing it to the guitar player and he'll get the feel that we wants," Garrett recalls.  "He had a human beatbox in his body that was ridiculous."

She says that Jackson was always looking to improve. 

"Like athletes, they love to watch themselves on tape and then better their game.  He was just like that.  He wanted to better himself at every turn," she says.

In addition to interviews with Jackson's collaborators, Lee also did one-on-one interviews with the King of Pop's famous fans.  The list includes Mariah Carey, Cee Lo Green and Kanye West, among others.

Michael Jackson: Bad25 airs on ABC Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Michael Jackson's Personal Assistant Sues AEG

Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) -- Michael Amir Williams, who was Michael Jackson's personal assistant, has filed a class-action lawsuit against AEG, the promoter of Jackson's aborted This is It tour, reports TMZ.com.

Williams alleges that he and many other employees lost a lot of money because This is It never happened due to AEG negligently employing Dr. Conrad Murray.  It was Murray who gave the singer a fatal dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol and was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

According to Williams, AEG should never have hired Murray to begin with, but when they did, they failed to supervise him.

Williams claims in court papers that AEG already agreed to pay Jackson's staff some $7.5 million for the work they did on the tour, but he's asking for unspecified damages.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson Top "Forbes" List of Dead Celebs

Archive Photos/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Forbes has released its annual list of the highest earning dead celebrities, and even after death, Elizabeth Taylor is still hanging out with Michael Jackson.

Taylor tops the 2012 list with an impressive $210 million posthumous purse thanks to sales of her jewelry and her perfume line, nudging out the former King of Pop, who earned $145 million in the past 12 months.

Others in the top five include Elvis Presley -- number three on the list -- with earnings of $55 million, Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, whose estate raked in $37 million, and the late Bob Marley, who earned $17 million.  The list is based on earnings for one year, starting in October 2011.

Here is the Forbes list of the Top-Earning Dead Celebrities in 2012:

1. Liz Taylor, $210 Million
2. Michael Jackson, $145 Million
3. Elvis Presley, $55 Million
4. Charles Schulz, $37 Million
5. Bob Marley, $17 Million
6. John Lennon, $12 Million
7. Marilyn Monroe, $10 Million
7. Albert Einstein, $10 Million
9. Dr. Seuss, $9 Million
10. Steve McQueen, $8 Million

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Janet Jackson Demands Retraction from "Vanity Fair" for Claims She Delayed Michael’s Funeral

Steve Granitz/WireImage(NEW YORK) -- An attorney for Janet Jackson says a story published in Vanity Fair that claims Janet refused to let her brother Michael’s funeral take place until the late King of Pop’s estate reimbursed her for the $40,000 deposit she made to secure a burial plot at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif. is “false and defamatory.”

In a letter addressed to Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter, Jackson attorney Blair Brown demands the magazine “retract its statement that Ms. Jackson ‘refused’ to let Michael Jackson’s funeral take place until the money she put down as a deposit on his burial plot was repaid.”

Brown insists that Vanity Fair publish a retraction explaining that the statement is false, and also demands that the magazine “contact all other media and websites that have re-published Vanity Fair’s false statement and inform them of its retraction and its corrective statement."

In her letter to Vanity Fair, Brown says the article “is replete with additional false and defamatory statements regarding Ms. Jackson.”

The article in Vanity Fair’s November 2012 issue is an excerpt from author Randall Sullivan’s upcoming book, Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park on Sept. 3, 2009, more than two months after his death.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Michael Jackson’s Kids Journey to Dad’s Hometown on His Birthday

Mark Sullivan/WireImage(GARY, Ind.) -- Michael Jackson’s three children spent what would have been the King of Pop’s 54th birthday in Gary, Ind., the town where their father was raised.

For the first time since Michael Jackson’s death three years ago, Prince, 15; Paris, 14; and Blanket, 10;  joined a vigil for their father on Wednesday at the house at 2300 Jackson Street, where Joe and Katherine Jackson raised their father and his famous siblings until 1969. The late singer’s sister La Toya also was also at the vigil.

Jackson’s children were photographed at a casino overlooking Lake Michigan, where Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson presented them with “Team Gary” T-shirts.

“It’s a new experience for us. People are real nice here. It’s amazing how much he was respected and loved,” Prince told a local reporter Wednesday. ”It’s something that amazes me every time I come to a place like this where all these fans gather for him. It’s amazing how much he was respected and loved.”

Paris Jackson took to her Twitter account Wednesday to also express her love for her dad: “Thru my joy & my sorrow, in the promise of another 2morro, i’ll never let u apart for ur always in my heart … happy birthday i love u daddy,” she tweeted.

The memorial events came two days before the 25th anniversary of the release of “Bad,” one of Jackson’s landmark albums, which included such mega hits as “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Smooth Criminal” and the title track.

Bad was the first album for which Jackson wrote nearly all the songs. He co-wrote nine of the 11 tracks — and he was listed as a co-producer for the entire project.  It was also the first album that Jackson toured behind as a solo artist — a tour that cemented his status as a global superstar.

Bad  sold between 35 and 40 million copies worldwide, including 8 million in the U.S. alone.  It was nominated for six Grammys, and won two.

It took more than 20 years for another artist to match that record: Katy Perry did it with her album Teenage Dream.

Spike Lee’s documentary about the making and influence of Bad, which premieres at the Venice International Film Festival Friday, includes one-on-one interviews with Jackson’s confidants, collaborators, choreographers and famous fans, including director Martin Scorsese, Mariah Carey, Cee Lo Green and Sheryl Crow, to name a few.

“This film was done with the cooperation of the Michael Jackson estate so they opened up the archives,” Lee told ABC News.  “We have stuff in this documentary that no one has ever seen.  So it was amazing to me to look at this, to see this stuff.”

The documentary screens at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and airs on ABC close to Thanksgiving.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

TJ Jackson Granted Permanent Co-Guardianship of Michael Jackson Kids

Dave J Hogan/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) -- A California judge Wednesday made Tito "TJ" Jackson permanent co-guardian of Michael Jackson's children along with their grandmother Katherine, but not without some unexpected drama.

A woman claiming to be the cousin of Michael Jackson showed up in court Wednesday to ask the judge to delay the appointment of TJ Jackson as permanent co-guardian of the singer's children.

Despite a plea from the woman, Debra Jackson, Judge Mitchell Beckloff granted TJ Jackson the motion to share guardianship with Michael's mother, Katherine Jackson, of the three children.

The judge made the ruling after also considering a letter submitted by singer Diana Ross, in which the singer said she has met TJ and thinks he has good intentions in caring for Michael's kids.

Beckloff said Ross mentioned in the letter that she is very interested in what happens with the children and that she takes her role in the will as the next guardian in line very seriously.

Earlier, Beckloff heard from Debra Jackson, who arrived with her adult son Anthony Jackson, whom she says the singer helped raise after Anthony's father died. Earlier, Debra and Anthony Jackson submitted a letter to the court expressing their concerns with appointing TJ co-guardian.

Debra Jackson told the judge that she and her son were abruptly cut off from the lives of Michael's three children and that their relationship with the kids had been curtailed. Debra said that not allowing a relationship between her son and Michael's children is "cruel and not in their best interest and well-being."

She described an incident at a birthday party for one of the children in which she and Anthony were asked to leave. She said Katherine Jackson was very unhappy with that order and neither Katherine nor the kids wanted them to leave.

Debra added that she's asked several times for an explanation as to why they have been cut off from the children, but she was never given one.

The letter Debra and Anthony submitted to the judge Wednesday was written last year around Christmas time. It's unclear why they waited so long to file the letter.

Beckloff said he had read and taken their letter into consideration, since the two are relatives. However, he added that he has a very good understanding of what's going on with Michael's children based on the report written by his investigator.

"It's clear to me that the children have a very strong, loving relationship with TJ and that they love the grandmother very much," the judge said.

He then granted the motion for permanent co-guardianship to TJ.

The son of Michael's brother Tito Jackson, TJ had been appointed temporary guardian after Katherine Jackson was suspended amid a bitter family dispute over Michael Jackson's estate. Days later, Katherine Jackson was reinstated as guardian and announced she would be seeking joint guardianship with her grandson, TJ.

Responding last month to the announcement, Randy Jackson, one of Katherine's sons, told ABC News that the agreement was based on "lies."

"In order to obtain temporary guardianship, TJ lied to the court. Rebbie, Janet, Jermaine and I would never harm our mother and we are doing our best to protect her and the Estate knows that," Randy said in an exclusive statement to ABC News.

"The same people that are trying to manipulate my mother are the same people that were involved with my brother when he died," Randy said in the statement. "The Estate is trying to isolate my Mother from her family JUST LIKE THEY DID TO MICHAEL, in order to propagate their lies, financial agendas and to protect a fraudulent will."

He concluded his statement with, "It is my fear and belief, that they are trying to take my mother's life."

In court Wednesday, Beckloff asked Katherine's attorney Sandra Ribera if she was being unduly influenced to agree with the new co-guardianship agreement, to which Ribera replied "absolutely not! Ms. Jackson is well informed, makes her own decisions and wholeheartedly supports this arrangement."

The judge also ordered TJ to consider visitation between the kids and Anthony and Debra. However, he told Debra that the final decision lies with the co-guardians.

"You have a right to be heard as relatives, and I'm going to be mindful of what I heard," the judge said. "There have been lots of conflicts within the family, and the duties of the guardians consist of navigating through these conflicts and helping the children maintain important relationships."

Only TJ and the attorneys were present for the hearing. Beckloff had previously excused Katherine and the children from having to appear.

Also not present in court was a woman named Billie Jean Jackson, who claims she is the biological mother of Blanket. Judge Beckloff said she filed a petition requesting guardianship of Blanket and that he scheduled a hearing for the end of September.

TJ's attorney, Charles Shultz, argued that the judge had already found Billie Jean has no biological relationship to Blanket, but Beckloff said he will have to hear her arguments one more time.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Joe Jackson Drops Conrad Murray Lawsuit

David McNew-Pool/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) -- Michael Jackson’s father, Joe Jackson, has dropped a wrongful death lawsuit he filed against Conrad Murray, the jailed doctor who was convicted in the King of Pop's death.

A request for dismissal was granted Monday, according to court records.  No reason is given for the suit being dropped.

Joe Jackson filed the suit against Murray back in June 2010, on the one-year anniversary of Michael’s death.  When a federal judge declined to hear the case, it was re-filed in state court in Los Angeles.

He'd claimed, among other things, that Murray lied to doctors about giving Michael the drug that caused his death, the powerful anesthetic propofol.

Murray's attorney said in a statement, "We are relieved that the civil suit has been dismissed voluntarily. It has been a miserable three years for Dr. Murray and he continues to pray for the peace and well being of the entire Jackson family."

Still pending is a case brought by Michael Jackson’s mother, Katherine Jackson, against promoter AEG Live, alleging negligence in hiring Murray.  AEG Live was behind Michael's London concerts that he was preparing for at the time of his death.  That case is scheduled for trial in April 2013.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio