THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013
PAGE 7
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MUSIC
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Randy Jackson and Rebbie Jackson, background right, brother and sister of late pop star Michael Jackson, arrive at a court-house for Katherine Jackson's lawsuit against concert giant AEG Live in Los Angeles yesterday. An attorney for Michael Jackson's mother says AEG Live owed it to the pop superstar to properly investigate the doctor held criminally responsible for his death.
Michael Jackson's mother sues concert company
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Concert giant AEG Live failed in its duty to properly investigate the doctor who treated Michael Jackson because it was concerned about its own fortunes, an attorney for the singer's mother told a jury Monday morning.
"You're going to hear the whole story about what happened in the death of Michael Jackson," Panish said.
"His stirring voice, his musical genius, his creativity and his generosity and his huge heart was extinguished forever," attorney Brian Panish said in opening statements of a civil lawsuit filed over Jackson's June 2009 death. Katherine Jackson is suing AEG claiming it failed to properly investigate the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter over Jackson's death.
Panish made his remarks in an opening presentation filled with slides detailing the case against AEG, which was promoting Jackson's planned comeback concerts, "This Is It."
Jackson's mother, brother Randy and sister Rebbie sat in the front row of the courtroom as Panish detailed aspects of Jackson's life.
An attorney for AEG is expected to begin addressing the panel later Monday.
Millions, and possibly billions, of dollars are at stake. A jury of six men and six women will determine any damage award.
AEG denies it hired Murray and its attorneys have said they could
Katherine Jackson sued the company in September 2010, claiming it failed to properly investigate former physician Conrad Murray before allowing him to serve as Jackson's tour doctor. She is also suing on behalf of her son's three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket.
not have foreseen the circumstances that led to Jackson's death at age 50. A jury convicted Murray of giving Jackson a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol in 2011. The hospital-grade anesthetic was being administered as a sleep aid.
Panish told jurors they would be putting together a puzzle, with three pieces being Jackson, Murray and AEG Live.
He told the panel that Jackson suffered from addiction to prescription medications and Demerol at times during his life, and the problem increased when he was keeping up a rigorous schedule. Panish cited a 1984 accident that injured Jackson during a Pepsi commercial suit as causing the singer tremendous physical pain throughout his life.
"Over the years Michael family's and people who knew him believed he had a problem with prescription medication," Panish told jurors. He said the only group that would claim they didn't know about Jackson's addiction issues were AEG and its executives.
The lawyer showed a brief clip of Jackson rehearing for the "This Is It" shows and a clip of the singer dancing in the early stages of his presentation. He also showed footage of 1999 show in Munich in which Jackson was performing when a bridge dropped 50 feet with the singer on it. Despite pain, Jackson continued performing, Panish said.
Panish also detailed Murray's money problems, including an impending foreclosure and other debts. AEG also had issues as well, the lawyer told jurors, saying the company was feeling intense pressure from concert promoter Live Nation.
Panish said Jackson turned to Demerol to relieve his pain.
He said AEG saw the Jackson
shows as a way to make a lot of money and better compete with Live Nation.
He said the company was so concerned with getting Jackson to perform, "They didn't care who got lost in the wash."
Jurors listened intently to Panish's presentation, and a couple nodded their head as the attorney detailed Jackson's achievements, including his Super Bowl appearances, successful concert tours and other milestones.
Panish also showed jurors several emails between key AEG executives discussing Jackson's condition in the months before his death.
Panish told jurors they would have to determine who was responsible for Jackson's death.
The lawyer displayed a March 2009 email before a press conference featuring Jackson, in which AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips wrote to the former CEO of AEG'S parent company, Tim Leiweke, that Jackson was drunk and refusing to address fans.
"This is the scariest thing I have ever seen," Phillips wrote Lieweke. "He is an emotionally paralyzed mess riddled with self-loathing and doubt now that it's show time. He's scared to death."
Panish said Jackson's behavior was just one of several warning signs that the company ignored before MJ's death.
"Michael paid the ultimate price. He died," Panish said. "Michael has taken responsibility."
Jackson's mother and his two oldest children, Prince and Paris, are listed as possible witnesses. An AEG attorney said Monday that the company intends to call Murray as a witness.
Murray did not testify at his criminal trial.
Pop culture parody web series delivers high-quality humor
COMEDY
MCCLATCHY TRIBUNE
CHICAGO — Anyone with a cellphone and a laptop can make a Web series. But it's tough to pull off something that looks professionally made. Not when there's barely any money involved. There is a huge opportunity here for indie filmmakers, especially those inventive enough to shoot great-looking videos on nonexistent
looking into budgets,
to step in and
make a make name
for them-
selves.
my life trying to insert myself into the majority. And, like them or not, one of the greatest majorities in pop culture right now are the Kardashians."
Plenty of comedy videos emanate from Chicago. Few, though, are as sharply produced as
Logan and Mirza have been smart enough to develop a narrative that credibly exists independent of the Us Weekly wormhole where the Kardashians typically exist. This character is bitter and sardonic. She's a mess. And she's
"... I don't want this to be mean. There's so much mean comedy out there. That's not our intention."
"Kam Kardashian," a satire of pop culture and minority status as seen through the eyes of hard-drinking, hair-brained schemers. It began its second season this month at kamkardashian.com.
That's a ripe premise. Mirza created the character for an audition, and the idea took on a life of its own. (She and Logan are also the show's co-writers.)
Filmmaker Ryan Logan and theater actor Fawzia Mirza (who stars) created the series last year, centering the action on a fictional long-lost lesbian Kardashian sister who has been "cut off, kicked out and left to tend for herself" — banished to Chicago and relegated to black-sheep status.
"I have about four different layers of minority status," Mirza said. "I'm queer, I'm Muslim, I'm Pakistani, and I'm a woman. I've spent
FAWZIA MIRZA
Actress
saddled with that famous last name. Except for a brief tag at the end, the show's creators avoid the mistake of casting actors to play recognizable celebrities. That would kill the illusion. Mirza really looks like she could pass for a Kardashian.
"I'm someone who looks a certain way," she said. "Am I the most TV-friendly looking person? No. And my castability in Chicago is limited. This was about, let's create our own stuff and tell our own stories, and cast people who look real and who are funny."
According to Logan, the first season was made with no budget at all. They raised $5,000 on Kickstarter for the second season (which they shot in February), but even that is a negligible sum.
name out there. We want to show people what we can do. If something looks too videolike, we try to change it, because we want it to look cinematic."
"Ryan Logan is basically a one-man-band post-production house, so he does all the work," Mirza said.
That TV-ready gloss makes a big difference in terms of watchability. It's performed and edited with a real instinct for comedic timing. You're not distracted by second-rate production values. It's the kind of work that should get Mirza and Logan noticed outside Chicago. Someone should throw a little money at this team and give them a bigger platform. The crossover potential is substantial.
"A lot of people might think, 'You're making a Web series, so make as simple as possible,' Logan said. "But you're putting your
There's a real confidence at work in the series that's evident from the start (the first episode, called "The Gay One," features Kam knocking back shots of whiskey and ranting to an unseen bartender), but it wasn't until Episode 3 that the series found its voice with the addition of Inboden. At its best, the show is like a latter-day version of "Laverne and Shirley"
The Kardashians themselves have not acknowledged the series.
"But wouldn't that be great if they did?" Mirza said. "It definitely falls under parody, so if I did get a letter from them I would be a little nervous, but I'm sure I would be able to find an attorney who would love to take on the case because it would be fantastic and absurd. But one of the things Ryan and I strive for is, I don't want this to be mean. There's so much mean comedy out there. That's not our intention. It's too easy to mock the Kardashians. I'd rather Kam take the brunt of the jokes."
New episodes of "Kam Kar-dashian" are posted every Wednesday.
FILM
MCCLATCHY TRIBUNE
Then the pilot asked him why he'd been yelling obscenities at his crew. And added that he'd left the toilet unflushed.
The pilot then asked a half-dozen uniformed police, FBI and TSA agents to remove Bevivino.
Middle East.
Movie celebrates iconic store
CRIME
It covers an entire city block of New York's Fifth Avenue, a Dover marble and bronze citadel of consumption at its most conspicuous. Bergdorf Goodman is shopping at its highest end, a fashion arbiter at the oh-so-exclusive retail level, the capital of aspirational America. From its exquisite designer salons to its ornate street level windows, ornate expressions of consumerism as public art, it is a monument, in its own way, to the American Dream.
"Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf s" is a love letter to this New York institution, a celebration of its place within the fashion food chain and those designers who know that when they've been accepted there, their fortune is made.
According to a police report, a flight attendant told an investigator that Bevinino had gone to the restroom after asking for the drink:
Man detained for unflushed toilet
“(He) came back out with a smile on his face and began using profanities. (Name redacted) passed by the restroom and saw that Bevivino left the door open and did not flush the toilet.”
Salvatore Bevivino, 52, a business manager for Genentech, boarded a Virgin America flight on April 28, 2012. After the plane reached cruising altitude over Indiana, he pushed the call button and asked for a soda.
According to the suit, a male attendant told Bevivino that if he
Brevivino said he had no idea why he was detained. Initially he believed that his Italian complexion may have caused him to be mistaken for someone from the
The suit, which seeks $500,000 in damages, was filed last week in the Northern District of California.
When another attendant passed a minute later, Bevivino made the request for a second time and asked why they couldn't deliver a drink like other airlines. After Bevivino said he would contact Virgin America a third attendant brought him the soda.
wanted a drink he would have to use a computer touch screen installed on the back of the seat.
PHILADELPHIA — A passenger who flew from Philadelphia to San Francisco was detained on arrival by federal agents after a vindictive flight attendant claimed he had not flushed a lavatory toilet, according to a federal suit.
The aircraft landed at San Francisco International. But as Bevivino began to disembark he was pulled aside by the plane's captain "as a person of suspicion."
Snippy personal shopper Betty Halbreich keeps an eyebrow everraised at whatever you're wearing when you arrive, knowing she'll send you back out the door poorer but stylish.
Designers from Lagerfield to Mizrahi, Wu to Vera Wang sing its praises and recall the rituals they endured and the wheeling and dealing that went on to get their foot in the door there, winning the acceptance of fashion director Linda Fargo.
We hear about the Christmas Eve back in the '70s when John Lennon and Yoko Ono dropped $400,000 (in '70s dollars) on furs
Filmmaker Matthew Miele has made a worshipful, often playful documentary about the history, the people, the couture and the class of this worldwide icon of money-is-no-object shopping.
The police report notes the captain didn't believe he or his flight crew ever felt threatened.
MCCLATCHY TRIBUNE
Wherever this store sits in the retail hierarchy, there's nothing extreme and little that's biting or funny in the way director Matthew Miele presents it. Despite inventive ways of showing the history, it's a dry wallow in high fashion lacking the drama, wit or bitchiness of the Anna Wintour documentary "The September Issue."
Here is Bergdorf's, "Scatter My Ashes" says, "Look upon it in wonder." And we do, even if we wish the tone was more Joan Rivers and less Miss Manners.
The characters — heirs and managers and shoppers and celebrity fans (Joan Rivers, Susan Lucci) and designers (the Olsen twins among them) — may be overly coiffed and coutured. But they're never caricatures.
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