Bonnie has some interesting info too:
http://michaelsguardian.blogspot.com/2010/12/presley-branca-grubman-mottola.html
Like swamp mud, the deeper you get down into this the harder it will be to get out. You need a compass (a moral one is preferred) to keep from either getting taken down or taken along. A sad few hold their ground without getting trampled and despite what happened to Michael, he was one of them.
The sheer intensity of the decades long stalking and attacks on Michael should tell any clear thinking person that there is more to the value of this catalog than what has been stated in the press. They aren’t even happy with the ATV, they want Mijac as well and are of complete mind that they are entitled to the theft of someone elses work. Why?
Because it has been going on since the beginning of the music recording industry. Michael was supposed to be easy. They tried to squash him like a bug, but every time they thought they heard the crunch, he came back bigger than before.
In discussing this with people who have done more study on this industry than I have, you realize that a few of the top players have been rotating, but always there. This whole behavior pattern of the people trying to control the music industry really reveals who they are.
I was pointed to a good interview done by Rollo & Grady of Steve Knopper and one of the poignant paragraphs in the whole interview is when Knopper is asked about the players that keep popping to the surface throughout the changes in the industry.
“ . . . backroom-dealing attorneys like Allen Grubman and John Branca. They seem to pop up wherever the money is, too. So if you follow these guys, you can sort of smell where the money’s going in the record business.” Source
Well we can follow them to see where they are going, but more effective I think, is to follow the trail of breadcrumbs to see where they have really been.
Someone discussing this interview with me said:
“I hope people that read this really get part of the picture. It is dirty and messy and there are layers to the evil. Just because something/someone isn't on paper doesn't mean that they are not influencing a situation . . . “ Which is very true. This is why I touched on Grubman yesterday. His name floats around in all this during the course of the last 15 years, in and out of negotiations representing one player or another, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t neck deep in this.
This also really draws attention to the fact that Michael Jackson is not the only victim in this. All artists are, throughout the industry. As an artist, you either shut up, sell out or get trampled. This is what Michael was trying to call attention to. It wasn’t just about what Sony was doing to him, it was about what the whole industry was doing to art and the artists. Michael and Sony just happened to be up on the pedestal as an example, and look what it has turned into. It’s like watching pit bulls unable to let go and they will tear into each other until they either both die or the victor gets the bone. Graphic image, but that is what is going to end up happening.
However, even Michael fans have to be thankful for this battle because had Michael not brought attention to it, eyes would never have been opened.
Michael Deep in thought, Not Knowing Who to Trust
This is a human being that a few greedy and gluttonous Neanderthals tortured, persecuted and tried to destroy in the name of theft of work that did not ever belong to them. This handful of people is trying to position themselves in control of the entire music, if not the whole entertainment industry, and little Michael Jackson gets in their way.
Allen Grubman by some sources, is credited with the actual negotiations for Michael’s renewal contract with Sony in 1991 for $65 million for eight albums and 15 years which should have been ended in 2006. Grubman was good friends with Walter Yetnikoff until Yetnikoff's wild ways caused a falling out.
Source
In this interview, page 2, Yetnikoff, who went through substance rehabilitation explains what his new faith did to his career. You don’t hear or read this in the books and article about him, but it makes me wonder why Michael and Yetnikoff never hooked back up after Yetnikoff cleaned up.
[FONT="] [/FONT]
[FONT="]“Mr. Yetnikoff's own vices were ravaging his body. At the urging of his doctor he checked into rehab in 1989, sobered up and discovered spirituality. After a stint at Hazelden he returned to CBS. A clearheaded Mr. Yetnikoff was not good for business. [/FONT]
[FONT="]''I would go into meetings and ask people to hold hands and say the serenity prayer,'' he said laughing. ''It really freaked people out.''[/FONT][FONT="] [/FONT][FONT="]
Source [/FONT]
[FONT="]Another on the close relationships between Yetnikoff, Mottola and Grubman was in another article about Tommy Mottola here: [/FONT]
[FONT="]“…Yetnikoff assured the trades. "He's hidden that from the world until recently." When Tommy allegedly warned a troublemaker, "You better @#%$ watch it or you're going to be sleeping with the fishes," Walter smiled. He smiled again when in the middle of Grubman's divorce from his longtime wife, who suffered from Multiple Sclerosis, he heard Tommy phone attorney Barry Slotnick, who has represented Vinnie "the Chin" Gigante and John Gotti. "You tell your friend Raoul Felder [a famed divorce attorney, representing Mrs.Grubman] to go easy on Allen." Tommy is said to have advised. "He's part of the mishphoca." A Yiddish term that, in Italian translates as la Famiglia. (Mottola denies both incidents.)” [/FONT][FONT="]
Source [/FONT]
[FONT="]Same source as above, I read this:[/FONT]
[FONT="]“Tommy had been positioning himself to be their leader-in-title as well as in fact. Schulhof knew of his ambitions-"Tommy," he says, "has always been power-hungry"-and knew as well that a number of industry figures were assisting in furthering them. By far the most formidable was David Geffen, the billionaire record impresario and implacable Yetnikoff foe. More than once Geffen had urged Schulhof to get rid of Yetnikoff, and Geffen also urged Michael Jackson, Yetnikoff's most prized act to leave CBS. Jackson was unwilling to do that but did drop several key members of his entourage closely identified with Yetnikoff [/FONT][FONT="](Frank DiLeo was one of them)
. In their place, he installed figures tightly linked to Geffen. Notable among them was an attorney Tommy had recommended to David years before, Allen Grubman.” Source , 9th paragraph down.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Also:
“Tommy meanwhile was doing some negotiating of his own. . . Then, with Grubman, he drew up a fresh contract for Michael Jackson.” Same source as above, same paragraph. This is the 1991, “$65 million”, 15 year contract with the tricky clauses that left Michael in a no-win situation for ever obtaining any sovereignty. Tommy did not want him leaving, but he didn’t want to succeed either. None of them did. Their job was to obtain the catalog. In 1993, they found a crack in Michael’s star-power . . . his love for children and his ability to play to the press, both which they found a way to turn on Michael. I address their interference into Michael’s life using Evan Chandler
here. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Michael with new entourage, new contract and new lawyer[/FONT]
[FONT="]“What did I just agree to???”[/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
[FONT="]From the frying pan into the fire, Michael’s public image takes a huge hit. Just as Michael publicly defends himself from most vicious rumors on Oprah in 1993, then come the allegations and lawsuit. Michael is attacked by both D.A. Sneddon and Evan Chandler, father of the boy accusing Michael of sexual misconduct with a child. A very revealing phone call taped between Evan and the boy’s stepfather thwart any criminal charges but Michael’s advisors tell him to settle and move on against Michael’s wishes. During this time a relationship with Lisa Marie overlaps this legal battle. She is rumored to have also suggested to Michael to settle and get past it. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Ironically in 1993, Michael’s advisors Grubman, Branca and Weitzman ( Weitzman represented Michael during the 1993 allegations) talk Michael into letting EMI manage his catalog, the first step in trying to wrest control of the catalog away from Michael. How they get him to agree is a $70 million advance to help ease the sting of settling with Chandler for a reported $20+ million. Lisa Marie accompanies him on Diane Sawyer to “help” him answer questions about this case.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Presley, Mottola and Branca[/FONT]
[FONT="]In 1995, while still married to Lisa Marie and pleading with her for children, she is rumored to have been key in persuading Michael to sell half his interest in the ATV catalog to Sony for $90+ million. We will cover this in depth another time. But consider this:[/FONT]
[FONT="]Lisa Marie had a recording contract with EMI in 1998, after divorcing Michael. Bandier was head of EMI then. However a completed album was not released until 2003. It took Lisa Marie until 2000 to complete the first album and the new head of Capitol records made her do it over. [/FONT]
[FONT="]“Even after finally signing with EMI Records in 1998, she spent countless hours in the studio, writing songs and getting her sound down, before green-lighting the album, titled "To Whom It May Concern," that hits stores Tuesday . . . Schilling talked to Tommy Mottola, then head of Sony Music, and Sony's Epic division soon offered Presley a contract. But she backed out when she learned she was pregnant with her second child, Benjamin.” [/FONT][FONT="]
Source [/FONT]
[FONT="]Lisa Marie sold 85% of Elvis Presley Enterprises in 2005 to Robert Sillerman, owner of CKX. CKX has the rights to the Elvis name, image, likeness, and trademark, which are currently used in 100 or so merchandising and licensing deals. CKX also gets the publishing rights to 650 songs, but owns the more valuable royalty rights to only the few songs Elvis recorded after 1973. CKX also gets royalty rights to 24 Elvis movies.
Source 650 Song publishing rights included. What songs? Did Sony/ATV sell Elvis rights back to Lisa Marie? [/FONT]
[FONT="]No. Sony/ATV still owns the 50 Elvis songs, listed here:
Source [/FONT]
[FONT="]Since Lisa Marie’s divorce from Michael, the transfer of management of ATV to EMI in 1993, the relinquishing of 50% of the ATV to Sony in 1995 and the divorce from Michael in 1996, Lisa Marie has released two albums: To Whom It May Concern released in 2003 with EMI and “Now What” in 2005 with Capitol Records, owned by EMI.
Source [/FONT]
[FONT="]Lisa Marie’s Son Get’s Record Deal
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...grandson-gets-record-deal-worth-5million.html He’s seventeen years old. [/FONT]
[FONT="]“The 17-year-old grandson of Elvis Presley has been offered a $5million record deal to make up to five albums. [/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
Benjamin has already started recording his first album - but says it will be very different in style to his grandfather's music, who died 15 years before he was born.
Ben, the son of Michael Jackson's ex-wife Lisa Marie, has been offered the deal by Universal, the world's biggest record company.” UMG CEO’s include Dave Morris and Interscope-Geffen-A&M.
[FONT="]Grubman and Branca ties stronger than Branca and Jackson[/FONT]
[FONT="]In searching some suggestions given to me by several people, I looked deeper into Grubman was also well know for double dealing the artist and record labels. John Branca and Allen Grubman, who was also known for backroom dealings, were also very good friends with Howard Weitzman.
Steve: Irving Azoff keeps popping up, and so are some of these interesting, legendary, behind-the-scenes, backroom-dealing attorneys like Allen Grubman and John Branca. They seem to pop up wherever the money is, too. So if you follow these guys, you can sort of smell where the money’s going in the record business. To purchase a copy of “Appetite for Self Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age” Source [/FONT]
[FONT="]And this in the New Yorker write up on “Hit Men . . .”
Source Shows Branca and Grubman as wrestling for Jackson’s business in 1991, but working together on the Goldman Sach’s deal in 2003.
Source[/FONT]
[FONT="]Tomorrow we will discover, from Michael himself, some of the suspicions he had about his marriage to Lisa Marie. Michael never, ever trashed her in interviews, but he had a few words to say nonetheless.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Also, late breaking, but an eyeball or two has informed me that Taaj Malik has been twittering to fans about a meeting of "the fans" on the Sony Lots. I don’t know how true this is, or if this is another attention grab but I was also told that Karen Faye was involved in this. It undoubtedly has to do with the “Michael” Album and the controversy surrounding it. [/FONT]
[FONT="]I hope Teddy Riley is invited. He has severely broken from the uncompromising position they have of “he’s dead”. Some “re-education” is in order . . . he’s freaking them out.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Michael Says to Fans . . . “Don’t Let Go of My Hand…”[/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
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