http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,13188,00.html
Jackson Camp Chaos
by Joal Ryan
Dec 30, 2003, 2:05 PM PT
On Sunday, Michael Jackson spoke for himself. On Tuesday, it was unclear who'd be doing the everyday speaking for the embattled--and, in the words of one associate, "brainwash[ed]"--pop star.
Jackson is minus a press rep after the high-profile flack quit, or, depending on who's telling the story, was fired.
The shakeup, which occurred Monday, came one day after Jackson, facing several felony child-molestation charges, made a case for his innocence on CBS' 60 Minutes, and almost two weeks after the first reports that a controversial religious group was taking control of the singer's affairs.
Publicist Stuart Backerman told Reuters he resigned Monday "over strategic differences with the way things are going." While Backerman wouldn't specify what the differences were, the New York Times said the rep's clashes were with the Nation of Islam.
The Chicago-based spiritual group, often derided as an extremist organization for the divisive, anti-Semetic rhetoric spewed by leader Louis Farrakhan, is in "full and total charge" of Jackson's business and finances, sources told the paper Tuesday.
This follows reports in mid-December by Us Weekly and the New York Post that said much the same thing. At the time, Backerman downplayed the Nation of Islam's involvement, saying the group's reps were merely among the many individuals who'd offered Jackson help. "There is no truth that we are fired," Backerman told Us Weekly. "It is not true. Nobody has been let go."
On Monday, it was Jackson's A-list attorney, Mark Geragos, who took credit for Backerman's departure. "He was terminated by me personally for talking when I told him not to," Geragos said in the New York Daily News.
While Backerman's no longer around, Geragos is not wanting for company at Camp Jackson. According to the Times, Farrakhan's son-in-law, Leonard F. Muhammad, is working out of the attorney's Los Angeles offices. Geragos did not return a call for comment Tuesday. A secretary at Geragos & Geragos said Muhammad does not have an office at the firm.
Muhammad is the Nation of Islam's chief of staff. A Jackson employee, identified by the Times only as a "senior" staffer, told the paper that Muhammad and other group members are essentially "telling [Geragos] what to do." Another employee told the paper Geragos is "scared to throw them out."
Us Weekly previously reported that O.J. Simpson defender Johnnie Cochran was looking into jumping on board the case.
According to an unidentified Jackson "business associate" who spoke to the Times, the 45-year-old entertainer is even more under the thumb of the Nation of Islam than Geragos. "These people are basically brainwashing him...Everyone is scared of them. They pretty much keep Michael semi-captive," the source told the paper.
The Times said Jackson is a not a member of the Nation of Islam. The New York Post earlier asserted he'd converted to the religion. Jackson has long been associated with the Jehovah's Witnesses.
The Nation of Islam issued a statement Monday saying "it has no official business or professional relationship" with Jackson.
The pop oddity is due to be arraigned on seven felony counts of molesting a child, and two felony counts of plying the same child with an "intoxicating agent" on January 16 in Santa Maria, California. On 60 Minutes, Jackson called the charges "totally false," and said he would "slit [his] wrists" before he'd hurt a child.
The prime-time interview was watched by 18.8 million, making 60 Minutes the TV week's most-watched program, according to Nielsen Media Research.
CBS is looking to ride the Jackson story for even more ratings, announcing a Friday air date for its hourlong special, Michael Jackson Number Ones. The program, originally scheduled to air in November, was postponed after the child-molestation case broke.