Source: Jackson’s doctor to be arraigned Friday
LOS ANGELES: More than seven months after Michael Jackson’s death from an anesthetic overdose — and following days of heightened speculation — the pop singer’s doctor will be arraigned Friday on a charge connected to the death, according to a person familiar with the planning.
Dr. Conrad Murray is set to be arraigned at a courthouse near Los Angeles International Airport, the person, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation, told The Associated Press Wednesday. The possible charge was not disclosed. However, two law enforcement sources have told the AP that prosecutors plan to charge Murray with involuntary manslaughter.
Los Angeles County district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said she could “neither confirm nor deny” that Murray would appear Friday afternoon at the LAX courthouse.
She noted that the office has a policy of filing charges in the court district where the alleged crime occurred. Jackson died June 25 at a rented mansion on the west side of Los Angeles. The LAX courthouse handles criminal cases in the western portion of LA.
Murray, who has a practice in Houston, came to Los Angeles last weekend and has been strategizing with his team of defense attorneys. Lead attorney Ed Chernoff said his client was ready to surrender to authorities in the event a charge is filed.
Court says ‘80s hit `Down Under’ copies kids’ song
SYDNEY: Australian band Men at Work copied a well-known children’s campfire song for the flute melody in its 1980s hit “Down Under” and owes the owner years of royalties, a court ruled Thursday.
“Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree” was written more than 70 years ago by Australian teacher Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides competition, and the song has been a favorite around campfires from New Zealand to Canada. The teacher died in 1988, and publishing company Larrikin Music owns the copyright to her song about the native Australian bird. Larrikin filed the copyright lawsuit last year.
“I have come to the view that the flute riff in “Down Under” ... infringes on the copyright of Kookaburra because it replicates in material form a substantial part of Ms. Sinclair’s 1935 work,” Federal Court Justice Peter Jacobson said. He ordered the parties back in court Feb. 25 to discuss the compensation Larrikin should receive from songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert and Men at Work’s record companies Sony BMG and EMI Songs Australia.
Adam Simpson, Larrikin Music’s lawyer, said outside court the company might seek up to 60 percent of the royalties “Down Under” earned since its release — an amount that could total millions. “Down Under” and the album “Business As Usual” topped the Australian, American and British charts in early 1983. The song remains an unofficial anthem for Australia and was ranked fourth in a 2001 music industry survey of the best Australian songs.
Men at Work won the 1983 Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Paul McCartney’s son announces first UK tour
LONDON: Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney’s son James will tour Britain for the first time later this month, NME music magazine reported Wednesday.
The 32-year-old, son of McCartney and his first wife Linda who died in 1998, has spent much of the last two years recording his debut album, although no release date has yet been announced.
He said that the Fab Four, one of rock’s most successful acts, was among his main influences. “The music was inspired by The Beatles, Nirvana, The Cure, PJ Harvey, Radiohead — and all good music,” he said.
“It is basically rock’n’roll, clean-sounding and vocal. The words on the album refer to spirituality, love, family, trying to sort out one’s life, and many other things. I have written the songs over a 10-year period.” His tour kicks off on Feb. 25 in Liverpool, the Beatles’ birthplace, and ends on March 20 in Cardiff.
Leif Garrett arrested for heroin possession
LOS ANGELES: Former teen idol Leif Garrett was released on bail on Wednesday, after being arrested and booked for heroin possession by police who saw him “shaking and sweating” on a subway platform, a law enforcement spokesman said. Garrett, a 1970s child actor and pop star whose disco-era hits included “I Was Made for Dancing,” was arrested on Monday when police approached him on a subway platform in Los Angeles because he was exhibiting “pronounced symptoms” of drug dependency, such as “shaking and sweating,” said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the L.A. sheriff.
Officers searched Garrett and found he possessed heroin, Whitmore said.
The actor is due in court on Feb. 24 to face charges in the case.
Garrett, 48, has battled drug abuse for years, and in 2006 he was arrested for possession of heroin and sentenced to 90 days in jail after opting out of drug treatment.
In the 1970s, he covered songs like “Surfin’ USA” and “The Wanderer,” and regularly was featured on the covers of teen magazines like Tiger Beat.
In 1998, a number of his songs were compiled and released in an album, “The Leif Garrett Collection.”
Most recently, he had a supporting role in 2005 film “Popstar,” playing a janitor.
— Compiled from agencies
