Year: 2006

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Jackson Custody Dispute Goes Public

[b]Jackson Custody Dispute Goes Public[/b] Wednesday, September 6, 2006 By Jessica Garrison Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES — Starting Wednesday, Michael Jackson will figure in another legal circus — this one centering on attempts by Los Angeles Superior Court officials to show that celebrities and other rich people can’t buy special treatment from the legal system when they have business disputes or want to get divorced. For years, Jackson’s custody battle with ex-wife Deborah Rowe seemed to illustrate the opposite point. Despite the media firestorm that accompanied the pop star when he was tried and acquitted last year on child-molestation charges, he managed to keep the custody dispute largely out of the public eye. He did so by hiring a private judge — a service that celebrities and rich people regularly use.

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MTV Awards Suffer Big Hit in Ratings

[b]MTV Awards Suffer Big Hit in Ratings[/b] By Anne Becker — Broadcasting & Cable, 9/1/2006 7:26:00 PM The downward spiral of the MTV Video Music Awards’ TV performance continued Thursday night as the ceremony’s audience plunged from last year and VMA fans headed online. The show, once a ratings juggernaut for MTV, pulled in an average of just 5.77 million total viewers over its three hour telecast starting at 8 p.m., down 28% from the 8 million viewers it averaged last year, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research. Just two years ago, the show brought in nearly double last night’s audience-10.3 million viewers. While still about five times what MTV has averaged in primetime this summer, the show’s TV audience last night is a shadow of the 12 million viewers it once earned. The numbers have to be frustrating for MTV executives who moved the show back to its former home, New York City, after last year’s poor showing in Miami.

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Blaze Menaces Neverland – SBNP

[b]BLAZE MENACES NEVERLAND[/b] DAWN HOBBS, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER August 26, 2006 6:53 AM Black smoke billowed from Michael Jackson’s Neverland Valley Ranch on Friday afternoon as a blaze charred more than 40 acres of the sprawling Los Olivos estate. The fire, which was fueled by light brush and grass, came within 200 yards of buildings, but more than 100 firefighters from Santa Barbara County Fire Department, Vandenberg Air Force Base and the U.S. Forest Service managed to keep it at bay. It’s not known how many animals were in the ranch zoo, which in the past has been home to a menagerie including elephants, giraffes, llamas and a camel, but authorities confirmed that none was evacuated. “The animals are being taken care of and there are no problems with them,” said county Fire Department Capt. Keith Cullom. By 7:30 p.m., the fire was fully contained. Investigators remained on scene until nightfall, attempting to determine what sparked the blaze that had firefighters hiking in over steep hills to stop it from spreading farther across the 2,600-acre ranch.

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Jackson’s Friend Wins Condo Lawsuit

[b]Jackson’s Friend Wins Condo Lawsuit[/b] By Associated Press 8:30 PM PDT, August 18, 2006 LOS ANGELES — A man who was set on fire as a child by his father and befriended by Michael Jackson during his recovery reclaimed a condominium Friday that someone posing as the pop star’s cousin had been accused of bilking from him. A superior court judge signed a default judgment returning the property to Dave Dave, formerly known as David Rothenberg, said his attorney, Brian Oxman. Dave was also awarded $93,000 in damages, according to Oxman, who said he took on the case at Jackson’s request. “This is a case where the most vulnerable was taken advantage of,” Oxman said. Dave, 28, was 6 when his father doused him with kerosene and set him on fire in an Orange County motel room during a custody dispute. More than 90 percent of Rothenberg’s body was burned.