Michael Jackson will be back in court later this month - though this time he'll be there on video, and the issue of contention is money. As previously reported, former Jacko associate Marc Schaffel is suing the singer over alleged unpaid loans, fees and royalties. Schaffel claims he loaned Jackson money that was never repaid, that he is owed fees and expenses for work he did for the singer, and that he is due a cut of the proceeds from two television specials Jackson made in a bid to bolster his reputation in the fallout that followed the Martin Bashir TV assassination.
The case is due to go to court on 26 Jun, though Jackson is unlikely to attend in person. Apparently he has made videotaped depositions which will be shown in court and, for the time being at least, it seems unlikely Jackson will be ordered to the witness stand. Most of those people due to be called will be accountants and lawyers who have worked on Jacko's financial or business affairs, which should make for quite a dull case by comparison to the criminal trial that considered those child abuse allegations - although Schaffel himself may provide some insights into what was going on in the Jackson camp when those allegations first surfaced because, still a confidant of Jacko at the time, he had a number of dealings with the family of the singer's accuser.
That said, while the nitty gritty of the case may prove to be quite dull, there should still be considerable media interest in the case because it might throw some light onto Jacko's financial status - an area of much media speculation during and since the child abuse trial. Plus there is seemingly an incredible amount of bitterness between the two sides in this case which will mean lots of bitchiness, outside the court room at least, which should provide a more interesting angle for the media looking to cover the case (it's the angle we plan to take, that's for sure).
In fact, the bitchiness has already begun with the pre-trial briefings. Schaffel's lawyers are busy portraying Jackson as a spendthrift who frequently ignored the advice of his financial advisers making extravagant purchases he just couldn't afford. In his pre-trial brief, Schaffel's lawyer Howard King claims Jackson cheated his client out of millions. He writes: "Jackson carried no credit cards, wrote no checks, carried no 'walking around money' and had people attending to his every need. Jackson hired competent advisers to make business decisions, then frequently ignored the decisions being made and incurred expenses without regard to any rational limits or accountability, as though funds were endless. Jackson was a master of assuring his advisers that the success of any particular plan would ensure that adviser a lifetime position working for Jackson. However they were frequently dismissed when Jackson did not want to take their advice to rein in his profligate spending or terminate other activities that were damaging to his image and career. Although the public may perceive Jackson as a soft-spoken artist concerned only about his creative endeavours, the evidence at trial will show that Jackson is a master at manipulating the people around him".
Given the tone of King's brief, the response from Jackson's legal people is, needless to say, pretty harsh on Schaffel. They claim it is he who swindled their client out of money. Their pre-trial brief reads: "To say that Schaffel is an unsavoury character would be an understatement. He is a professional swindler and pornographer with a long history of dishonest, immoral and manipulative behaviour. This case is deceptively simple. Stripped to its essentials, it is an accounting case, albeit one with an overlay of fraud, deception and self-dealing on the part of plaintiff Marc Schaffel."
Insiders say we can expect more of this kind of bitchiness as the case reaches court. I can't wait.