Big stuff yesterday as Michael Jackson's ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, the mother of his two eldest children, filed secretive sounding papers yesterday in Los Angeles family court.
Today you will read breathless accounts of how Rowe is demanding custody of Prince and Paris, that she has her doubts about Michael's parenting skills and is worried that the Nation of Islam is going to mistreat her kids because they are Jewish by birth. (Rowe converted to Judaism for her first marriage, I am told.)
None of this true, my friends. I know what Debbie Rowe wants. Debbie Rowe wants respect. That's RESPECT. And so far she's not getting it from Michael Jackson.
Rowe in fact does not want full time custody of Prince and Paris. What she wants, I am told, is for Michael to start including her in his inner circle as his child molestation case proceeds. Believe it or not, Jackson has not spoken to Rowe since the news of the scandal broke back on Nov. 17, 2003. Not a word, not a phone call. You might ask, how dumb is Jackson? Shouldn't he be making sure this woman is happy?
"Yes," says my source out here in Los Angeles. "But you are talking to a wall."
What Rowe wants: actual scheduled visits several times a year with those kids, which is not unreasonable. She wants to know that the kids are safe, and that Jackson is healthy, mentally and physically, so he can care for them. She wants someone in Jackson's camp to return a phone call. So far, no one has.
So that's the big story of Debbie Rowe. No full time custody, that's not what this is about. Frankly, it would seem like she's sending a message to Jackson. The problem is, he's not receiving it. Maybe someone rational can explain this to him. This is the kind of case he can make go away. Or can it blow up into something else.
Meantime, much as I love them, George Rush and Joanna Molloy of the New York Daily News sort of got it wrong yesterday about Michael Jackson's assets ? i. e. song catalogs ? being sold or used for collateral. Jackson's own catalog, called MiJac and administered by Warner Chappell Music, is not being sold for any reason. It has been used in the past to borrow money against, and it will be used again for the same reason. Yes, it is worth about $100 million, but that's an asset that Jackson must and will retain. The catalog contains his own songs like Billie Jean and Beat It, as well many hundreds of others including the hits from Sly and the Family Stone.