Michael Jackson to Perform in Court Again
This time it’s a UK court as Sheikh family sues him for bilking them
By Jeffrey Jolson
Jackson: facial hair bigger surprise than more court time
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/20/08 — Michael Jackson is appearing in courts more often than on a stage in decades. The latest will be in London, where the former King of Pop is being sued by a real king’s family who allege the singer took them for $7 million dollars and did not deliver an album or autobiography.
Jackson’s lawyer said Thursday Jackson, 50, will appear is case versus sued by Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Khalifa, the second son of the king of Bahrain, who says Jackson reneged on a contract to record a new album and write an autobiography.
Jackson says the money was a gift, and related to his publicized ties with the Sheikh.
Jackson spent time in Bahrain as a guest of the royal family following a 2005 trial at the end of which he was acquitted of child molestation charges.
After earlier reports the he would not moonwalk in London courts for health reasons, “Mr. Jackson is intending to travel to this country…and will be available to give evidence to your lordship,” Jackson’s lawyer Robert Englehart told the British High Court in London.
The singer is expected to take the witness stand on Monday.
Op-ed: What is sad is that Jackson, whatever his odd, perhaps demented mind may have brought on - he was a songwriter and performer that the world loved, maybe even needed during the height of his times. Without opinion to inexcusable legal charges in the past, why does a songwriter stop writing, in spite of demons inside, common to the creative mind? This reporter cannot stop writing, even for a day, regardless of if a dime of income is coming in, or my writing was just for myself. So why does the top song scribe of the 80s, despite any shame, stop writing? There may actually be a secret album that the Sheikh believed in. Writers write.