Video editor Ian C. Lewis sued Prince and his company, Paisley Park Enterprises for the amount of $1,000,000 in exemplary damages. Apparently, Lewis says that Prince never paid him for editing work and never returned some of his equipment. Last month, a trial was held that included a testimony from Lewis saying that he deserved to be paid. However, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued an order last week that Prince would only have to pay about $58,000. Lewis had also claimed that Prince and his company broke a $25,000 computer but the judge denied the claim since no receipts were provided.
When you die is when even more people come after your money. With the passing of famed opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, a lot of questions have come out regarding his estate. According to Italian Law, half of the estate is given to the deceased’s widow and the other half to the children. But the late tenor had 2 wills drafted as he was still dealing with his cancer. The first will followed Italian law. However, it only spoke of his 2nd wife and his four daughters. His 2nd wife now claims that the family has come to friendly terms on how to divide his estate though no details have been provided. A judge is expected to confirm the new deal by the end of July.
Did you know that heart disease is the #1 killer of American women? That’s according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. And that’s why Barbra Streisand just donated a cool $5 million to LA’s Cedars-Sinai Medical for women’s heart education and research program. The diva’s gift will fund the Barbra Streisand Women’s Cardiovascular Research and Education at Cedars-Sinai and for the expansion of the hospital’s research efforts. Of the donation, Barbra said “Women need to be educated about female cardiovascular disease and the medical community must be propelled toward change. Just like with breast cancer the impetus must come from women themselves striving to become empowered to reduce their risks for heart disease.”
Here’s another case of music royalty about to lose their castle. The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin’s Detroit mansion may be lost to the taxman. The said property is worth $700,000 for which Aretha owes a total of $19,192 in back taxes through 2007. The Queen says that she will pay up by the March 31 deadline. Tsk. If she paid on time, it wouldn’t have gotten this big. It was a $445 outstanding bill from the 2005 tax season that pushed for the foreclosure proceedings. The Queen can’t lose her castle! Oh well, if things go bad for Aretha, maybe Tina Turner would let her crash in her castle in Europe.
The man behind the boy band phenomena of the late 90s Lou Pearlman struck a plea deal with prosecutors on Monday morning in his federal bank fraud case. He has changed his plea to guilty on Thursday after initially proclaiming his innocence to allegations of defrauding banks out of more than $100 million. He is also suspected of stealing another $300 million from investors making it understandable why fraud victims want Pearlman to reveal where their money is stashed. Sentencing won’t be for a while but I have no doubt that he’s going to the slammer for a good long while.
Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur and Will Smith – the different sounds of these guys pretty much run the gamut of the music industry. Yet they are being tied together by one big lawsuit. An old-school bluesman is suing the 3 musicians claiming that they all stole his song ‘Different Strokes’ without paying proper tribute or loot.
Sylvester ‘Syl Johnson’ Thompson, who played with Junior Wells and Howlin’ Wolf among others, alleges in the copyright infringement suit that Jacko’s ‘Blood on the Dance Floor’, Wills’ ‘Who Stole the DJ’ and Tupac’s ‘Peep Game’ all borrowed from his 1967 hit ‘Different Strokes’. He’s claiming that he hasn’t seen one cent from any of them and is seeking unspecified damages.
I think Biggie and Diddy said it best that the “mo’ money you come about, the mo’ problems you see”. James Brown’s problems are even following him to the grave. Five of the music legend’s kids are trying to get their late father’s will scrapped in an attempt to get money for themselves that he had marked for his grandkids and needy children.
They are alleging that their father’s ex-advisors used undue influence to get him to create charitable trusts to help themselves but the will shows that the trusts leave money for the education of Brown’s grandkids. Buddy Dallas, one of Brown’s advisors, calls the charges “an act of desperation.”
The ex-manager of the group Blondie is claiming that his former charges and its record label owes him some money after all these years. Pete Leeds claims that they changed the way they pay him, cheating him out of a bundle of cash. And he says that he wants his due.
In papers filed in New York Supreme Court, Leeds says that after 28 years, Deborah Harry and the rest of the band are taking out more money before they pay him than they used to and won’t even show him how they’re calculating the new royalty scheme. Leeds is suing for breach of contract and interference with the 1979 contract.
Usually, the saying goes like ‘kiss and make up’ but this time around, it’s a case of KISS and pay up. The costumed rockers are seeking for $900,000 in unpaid performance fees from a Vancouver concert promoter who allegedly promised to let them perform all night but then failed to secure a venue.
In the documents filed with the Supreme Court of British Columbia, lawyers for Gene Simmons and the rest of the band contend Big Mountain Concert Company for pulling the plug just 12 days before a planned September 2007 concert in Whistler, BC which resulted in “injury to their respective reputations”.
Garth Brooks, who edged out Elvis Presley in 1999 for the title of best-selling solo artist of all time, only to lose it five years later, reclaimed the crown from the King Monday The announcement was made on the eve of the release of Brooks’ latest collection, The Ultimate Hits, due out Tuesday. Ok Garth is not a bad country singer. In fact I like him… But the man could never hold a candle to Elvis. Mass production, distribution, and all might have helped him sell more records but there is no comparison between Elvis and Brooks. They don’t even sing the same kind of music. Someone has way too much time on their hands. Elvis will always be king!!! He might have the numbers and he might have made an ever lasting impact too which is evident from his awards and records but truly we should lay to rest this question, no matter what happened for the next fifty years there never going to be someone better and greater than Elvis Presley.
Rock legend Elvis Presley has overtaken Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain as the biggest earning dead celebrity. The Jailhouse Rock hit maker topped the Forbes magazine poll with earnings of $58 million during 2007. Cobain, who pushed Presley off the top spot last year after Widow Courtney Love sold a portion of his recording catalogue, does not feature in the 2007 list. Elvis is the undisputed king of all music and I’d rate him 1 on popularity ahead of another music legend Ray Charles too. Means the kind of attention Elvis draws is something that cannot be even imagined. Even the popularity of the Beatles is awesome but Elvis as a single performer leaves you awestruck. I’m not fond of rating dead celebrities on any matter but I think it is important to note that the two dead Beatles on the list, who made up half the group, out earned Elvis by far. I wonder how much The Beatles as a group earned.
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