Brown's Trust Owes $70,000 for Funeral

The trust handling James Brown's estate owes more than $70,000 for his elaborate funeral and care of his body for nearly three months before it was laid to rest in March, according to the funeral director who handled the soul singer's arrangements.
"I'm just waiting on them to get some of this mess straightened out," said Charles Reid, manager of the C.A. Reid Funeral Home in Augusta, Ga., which handled Brown's funeral. "I really haven't pushed the issue, even though I'd like to have my money."
Some of the funeral costs have already been paid and trustees have mailed a check to Reid this week covering the outstanding balance, Brown's longtime adviser and trustee Buddy Dallas said Wednesday.
"It was the children that ran up a funeral bill of over $150,000, not the trustees," Dallas said. "We've done our very best to do what we could to accommodate the creditors. There's no great big pile of money or surplus of money just lying around."
Louis Levenson, an attorney for Brown's six adult children, said Wednesday it is the trust's responsibility to pay for the funeral costs, which he considers a "reasonable" amount.
Brown's children filed a motion this week asking a judge to provide accounting records of Brown's trust and estate before and after the singer's death, Levenson said.
Brown's children also filed two other motions Tuesday. One claims Brown's trustees have been trying to sell off some of their father's assets against court orders and the second motion asks a judge to modify his previous order that appointed two special administrators to help Brown's trustees settle his estate, giving them more control.
Dallas called the allegations in the motion "bogus and baseless."
"The trustees and the personal representatives are certainly not going to do anything — as much scrutiny as this has been given — improper, inappropriate and certainly not illegal," Dallas said.
A hearing is scheduled for later this month on the motions filed by Brown's children and a motion filed on behalf of the singer's partner, Tomi Rae Hynie. She is asking a judge to appoint a special guardian for her son, the first step toward determining the child's paternity.
An e-mail and a message left for Robert Rosen, Hynie's attorney, was not immediately returned Wednesday.
Brown died Dec. 25 in an Atlanta hospital and his body was placed in a crypt at the Beech Island home of one of his daughters March 10.
The crypt might not be Brown's final resting place. Brown's family has said a public mausoleum will be built and its location will be announced once it is completed.

Some Prospective Jurors: Spector Did It

Music producer Phil Spector was confronted Tuesday with prospective jurors who declared they had already decided he was guilty of the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.
"Honestly, I think he did it," a young aspiring actress said during jury selection. "I think I'm a fair person but it would be very difficult to forget what I read."
She said she believed celebrities often have things handed to them and as a result they "just act inappropriately."
"I moved out here to be an actress and I have strong morals," she said. "But it's easy to see how you start to think the world is just about you."
Clarkson was shot through the mouth in the foyer of Spector's suburban Alhambra home on Feb. 3, 2003, after going home with him from her job as a hostess at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip. Spector, a top record producer in the 1960s and '70s has pleaded not guilty to murder.
About 100 people are being questioned for jury service after filling out wide-ranging questionnaires a month ago. As of late Tuesday morning none had been removed from the panel.
The next prospect questioned, also a woman, said she also concluded that Spector was guilty. But she said she had served on juries before and thought she could separate her opinions from evaluation of the evidence.
She had written on her questionnaire: "In my opinion Phillip is at fault for her death."
Asked by defense attorney Roger Rosen to elaborate, she said, "If she hadn't gone there she would be alive."
Rosen moved on to a young woman who wrote on her questionnaire: "I think he's guilty, just like O.J. Simpson."
Under questioning the woman said she followed the Simpson case very closely, thought there was a lot of evidence to support his guilt and thought prosecutors did a bad job of presenting the evidence.
As a result, she said, she thought jurors did the right thing in finding there was a reasonable doubt, but she added that she still thought Simpson was guilty.
"In this case, do you equate Phillip with O.J. Simpson?" asked Rosen.
"Yeah, I guess that's right," said the woman.
Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

The Associated Press

Lopez, Anthony to Sue National Enquirer

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Jennifer Lopez and her husband, Marc Anthony, are suing the National Enquirer in European courts over the tabloid's claims they were linked to a drug scandal, their Belfast lawyer said Monday.
Paul Tweed, who specializes in bringing U.S.-based celebrities' libel cases to British and Irish courts, told The Associated Press that actress-singer Lopez, 38, and singer Anthony, 37, were seeking "a six-figure settlement" from the Enquirer, based in Boca Raton, Fla., and its parent company, American Media Inc.
Tweed said the lawsuit would be filed Tuesday in a Belfast court, and in subsequent days in courts in Dublin, London and Paris.
A telephone message left at the National Enquirer wasn't immediately returned Monday. A spokesman for AMI, Richard Balvo, said he had no comment.
"It would be our policy to not comment on it at this time, Balvo said.
The lawsuit also seeks an apology and retraction for an article that appeared in different versions of the Enquirer's U.S. and international editions.
The version published March 12 in British and Irish editions alleged the couple were "caught up in a heroin scandal" — and reprinted a 2004 picture of Anthony standing beside photographer Michael Star, who is facing charges of heroin possession and child pornography in the U.S.
The article quoted an alleged friend of Star as saying Star and Anthony were friends.
Tweed told the AP this was untrue and that Anthony didn't know Star even as an acquaintance. Anthony posed for the 2004 photograph, Tweed said, in keeping with his usual hospitality toward backstage concert fans.
There has been a growing trend in international libel suits brought by U.S.-based celebrities in European courts, where libel laws favor the celebrity, not the publication.
"The First Amendment restrictions in U.S. libel law make it virtually impossible for international celebrities or other high-profile individuals to sue successfully," Tweed said. "But with the advance of the Internet, and with U.S. publications now extending their distribution network into Europe, they must subject themselves to libel laws in these jurisdictions."
Tweed said he received approval Monday from Lopez's Los Angeles law firm, Lavely & Singer, to proceed with the lawsuit.
It will be Tweed's second lawsuit against the Enquirer. In July 2006, he secured a published apology in the European edition of the Enquirer for an article that claimed pop singer Britney Spears was about to divorce Kevin Federline.

The Associated Press

'Tiny Bubbles' Singer Don Ho Dies at 76

HONOLULU -- Legendary crooner Don Ho, known for his raspberry-tinted sunglasses and catchy signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," has died, his publicist said. He was 76.
Publicist Donna Jung said the singer died Saturday morning of heart failure. He had suffered with heart problems for the past several years, and had a pacemaker installed last fall. In 2005, he underwent an experimental stem cell procedure on his ailing heart in Thailand in 2005.
Ho entertained Hollywood's biggest stars and thousands of tourists for four decades. For many, no trip to Hawaii was complete without seeing his Waikiki show — a mix of songs, jokes, double entendres, Hawaii history and audience participation.
Shows usually started and ended with the same song, "Tiny Bubbles," which Ho mostly hummed as the audience enthusiastically took over.
"I hate that song," he often joked to the crowd, adding that he saved it for the end because "people my age can't remember if we did it or not."
Donald Tai Loy Ho, who is Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German, was born Aug. 13, 1930, in Honolulu and grew up in the then-rural countryside of Kaneohe.

The Associated Press