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According to New York Daily News, more than 31 million watched Michael Jackson’s memorial service tribute, the “second” most watched broadcast memorial service after Princess Diana’s.
The memorial service was arranged by concert promoters AEG Live and held in AEG’s Staples Center while the feed to the media was free. AEG Live abstained from selling merchandise to the 11,000 who held free tickets to the service.
In a separate filing, a lawyer for AEG said Katherine Jackson’s legal team had refused to sign a confidentiality agreement that, among other things, barred them from using the information contained in the contract in any legal process other than the probate court proceedings.”While some may construe Katherine’s actions as an “attempt” to get her hands on Michael’s “fortune”, we see a different intent, of Katherine attempting to get answers to AEG Live’s involvement in her son’s death. Answers which could ultimately lead to a massive wrongful death suit filed against concert promoter AEG Live. It’s too early to tell just how hard a hit, if any, AEG’s deep pockets will take after Jackson’s death. AEG purportedly paid estimated $30 million in pre-production costs-$20 million for production, $10 million paid in advance paid to Michael Jackson. Ticket sales for Jackson’s concerts were estimated at $85 million. AEG Live is refunding ticket holders the full price or allowing holders to request a copy of their ticket as a “souvenir” in lieu of a refund. Recouping CostsAccording to the LA Times, AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips has stated that AEG Live is currently seeing a “25% percent retention rate” in refunding tickets while a “40% retention rate” would recoup AEG Live’s “losses”. AEG owns the property rights to videos of Jackson’s “This Is It” rehearsals, which Phillips claims the videos are “all locked up at Staples Center in the vaults”. There’s also a potential Michael Jackson tribute put together by AEG Live to be broadcast on Jackson’s 51st birthday on August 29. Meanwhile, Phillips reported “brisk sales” of Michael Jackson merchandise on AEG Live’s website ironically named “MichaelJacksonLive.com, where ticket holders have been directed to get instructions on how to get a refund. According to Phillips, the Michael Jackson merchandise is “the best” Phillips has seen, “in his life”.
There’s also the issue of AEG Live’s insurance policy on Jackson. A policy which would have allowed AEG to recoup its costs if Jackson were unable to perform. On May 12, Phillips claimed that his company was “well-insured” and that Jackson had passed a physical with “flying colors”. “We have insured the production costs. In order to get the first part of the insurance in place, [Jackson] had to have a physical, and he passed it with flying colors.”Randy Phillips, AEG CEOSince Michael Jackson’s death, AEG has sought to distance itself its ties to Dr. Conrad Murray, a cardiologist who was Michael Jackson’s personal physician and who was with Jackson when 911 was summoned to Jackson’s house. AEG has acknowledged that they hired Murray as Michael’s personal physician for the upcoming London O2 concerts but only because Michael Jackson “insisted”. AEG has also claimed that Michael Jackson did not sign the “contract” concerning Murray’s employment. Meanwhile, Murray’s attorney claims AEG owes Murray two months pay or $300,000. AEG stated that Murray will have to “sue” the Jackson estate.
Jackson's 'Last Man Standing', Dr. Conrad Murray: 'Don't Scapegoat Me'He cited an article in People that mentioned how many of his former patients praised his work, and another that ran at nearly the same time that said he had provided prescriptions to the singer James Brown. Of course, the latter received by far the widest coverage. It’s convinced Murray that the press “is mostly interested in bad news and gossip.”(...)What is your biggest worry? Without hesitating he says, “That I will be made the scapegoat.” For whom? He doesn’t want to blame others, doctors, or business advisers around Jackson, but clearly he has his own ideas of some of those who were responsible for any of the pop star’s problems near the end of his life.I later talked to some of Murray’s defense team. Ed Chernoff, the lead attorney, said he just hoped that the Los Angeles Police would stop leaking and convicting his client in the press. Now that the case is with prosecutors, bound by a judicial code of ethics, he thinks the leaks will stop.