BIRTHDAY PAYDAY FOR MICHAEL JACKSON
Pop-prince Michael Jackson reportedly picked up the biggest payday check in music history when he hopped over to London from his Vegas home for a personal appearance at which he didn’t even have to sing!
British tabloids claim he made almost $10 million just to show at the 25th birthday party of Prince Azim, the son of the Sultan of Brunei. His 200 guests were also said to include our new Mistress of Magic, Pamela Anderson who opens tomorrow in the new Beauty of Magic show with Hans Klok at the new Planet Hollywood.
Since the Prince is the son of the world’s richest man, the lavish expenditures didn’t make any dents in the family fortunes (when I visited Brunei for my old Lifestyles TV show, the Sultan was earning $12 million an hour 24/7 from pumping his liquid gas resources into ever-waiting ships!!).
Over $12 million was spent on this two day opulent bash itself with partygoers provided with hot-air balloon rides, spa treatments, shooting, golfing and hovercraft rides. In addition to the birthday cake the prince flew in massive amounts of champagne, caviar, foie gras, Scottish Salmon, filets of beef and enough oysters for 200 large platters, plus $20,000 of exotic fruits!
Guests including Don Johnson, Jerry Hall, designer Roberto Cavallo, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Faye Dunaway were all given birthday bags worth over $20,000 containing diamond jewelry, i-Pods and expensive beauty products.
Michael got the Prince to hire his friend, Dionne Warwick for another $500,000 to sing at the festivities. However, the sneaky British tabloids said that 48 year old Jackson became ill from all the lavish food and drinks—actually, “so plastered that he had to be assisted back to his private cottage where he became sick.”
One onlooker said: “He was as white as a sheet, just a shadow of his former self.” There’s no way to check the truth of that story, but the headlines were pretty blatant about the Prince being disappointed at Michael’s sickness, and that instead of eating the catered feasts the King of Pop sent out for traditional British fish and chips! At the same time the British newspapers “revealed” that Michael had been negotiating for a three year $100-million contract for a proposed Vegas show, but talks had allegedly broken down over the fee being too high and twice as much as Celine Dion’s deal at Caesars Palace. Again, I find that story a little hard to believe! But you can read it all for yourself and draw your own conclusions by clicking both of these direct links and seeing the photos of Michael with Prince Azim.
Meantime, today and tomorrow the largest auction of Michael Jackson and his family’s memorabilia is going on sale in 1,100 lots at the Hard Rock Hotel. This is the auction that Michael tried to block, but wound up settling the court action by winning the return of 20 really prized personal items. The other items, seized to satisfy a business bankruptcy, include the $30 million purchase contract for the Neverland ranch, the trademark military red coat with gold braid, and hidden among numerous documents a telegram from Marlon Brando to Michael.
Henry Vaccaro originally owned the memorabilia and sold it to Florida’s Universal Express Company for $5 million dollars. Now the Guernsey auction house believes it will sell for maybe as much as four times that amount with Lloyds of London insuring them for $100 million.
Although Michael was invited to attend it is highly doubtful he will show up because he’s still highly emotional after being told by his lawyers he simply had no legal right to the items. Bids from around the world are expected on both www.liveauctioneers.com and eBay’s auction site.