Branca Remembers MJ

(5-9-2012) At the Venice Film Festival, John Branca (61) and Spike Lee promoted the documentary "Bad 25." Lee would have preferred "Bad 25" to come out on the big screen instead of directly on TV. He worried that nowadays, young people watch movies on smartphones—even on their first viewing. Branca, who had been Michael’s lawyer and is now the co-executor and co-manager of his estate, also shared several memories he has of Michael Jackson. Privately, Branca remembered Michael Jackson as "always very respectful of people," "very fun-loving" and "a bit of a prankster." When Branca got married on December 11, 1987, Bubbles the chimpanzee was a guest. "He was fully dressed in a tuxedo with a pocket square." At the Jackson residence, Bubbles was a great source of entertainment: He copied whoever he saw—including the domestic help. "Bubbles would have his cleaning rag out. And Michael would joke with him: 'Oh, Bubbles, there you are cleaning again!'" Michael was also very close to Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees (he was the godfather of one of Gibb's children) and to Marlon Brando, whose son worked with Michael and still works for the estate, according to Branca. By contrast, Michael and Prince had a "healthy competition" between them. Still, one day, Michael asked Branca to set up a meeting between them to discuss collaborating on the song "Bad." "Michael's vision was that he and Prince would sing this as a duet. 'Who's bad?' and they would sing back and forth." The meeting (which Branca didn’t attend) went badly, and the duet never happened. "Apparently Prince brought Michael a gift, and it was some sort of voodoo box, and Michael was convinced Prince was trying to place a spell on him." After the release of "Thriller," Michael had "a significant amount of disposable income." Not keen on buildings or tax shelters, he started buying music catalogs, including Sly and the Family Stone’s. When the Beatles library came on the market, Michael asked Branca to contact Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney. Ono "said she would be very pleased." McCartney's attorney said he wasn't bidding. After a year, Jackson forked out $47.5 million for the purchase. The songbook is now part of a conglomerate that Branca describes as the biggest music publisher in the world, in which the Michael Jackson estate has a minority interest. Which of the children look likely to follow in his footsteps? "They're a little too young, to predict that," Branca said. Yet he can’t help sharing a foreboding. "Paris is very charismatic, and she's expressed an interest in a film career. I could see her doing that." Asked whether there were financial as well as creative motives behind the 25th-anniversary tribute 'Bad 25,' Branca said: "Yes: It's been widely reported in the press that there was a substantial amount of debt. So we felt we had to address that for the benefit of Michael's children." Source: MJFC / Bloomberg Businessweek