Tiffany’s Tour Hits a Sour Note in Court

While 16-year-old pop star Tiffany sang her way across Europe on Wednesday, she very nearly found herself cited with contempt of court in Los Angeles for failing to show up for her own guardianship hearing.

“She simply can’t ignore a valid court order,” an angry Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Hubbell told a half-dozen attorneys who appeared on behalf of Tiffany, her mother Jane C. Williams and her aunt, Julie Abbas. Hubbell ordered the MCA recording star to appear next Thursday, the day she is scheduled to return from a two-week European promotional tour.

Hubbell set the same deadline for a report by an independent attorney he ordered to go over the teen-ager’s recording and management contracts. Williams has charged in court documents that the contracts unfairly award most of the $5 million in record royalties, concert proceeds and other revenue that her daughter has earned, to her manager, George Tobin.

Wednesday’s hearing was scheduled to determine whether Abbas, Tiffany’s temporary legal guardian, would be named as her permanent guardian. This week, Tiffany is in Germany, doing television and personal appearances accompanied by Tobin, MCA representative Maura Robinson and a tutor, according to her attorney, Andrew Garb.

On March 7, Tiffany (whose full name is Tiffany Renee Darwish) filed for legal emancipation, launching a legal battle that, thus far, has involved a dozen attorneys, four judges and several hundred pages of legal briefs, declarations and exhibits.

Emancipation is a little-used legal tactic that allows a minor to act as a legal adult in financial and contractual matters. Tiffany said in her emancipation request that she left home because “my mother is hindering my career and jeopardizing my future.”

Williams has alleged in court declarations that her daughter’s emancipation request is “a disguised attempt for Tobin to obtain de facto custody of Tiffany without proving that parental custody would be detrimental to her.”

Tobin said in an interview that his only interest in Tiffany is as her manager/producer and that he does not seek custody. On April 5, Tiffany’s attorneys obtained a court order naming Abbas, Tiffany’s paternal aunt, her temporary guardian pending the outcome of the emancipation petition.

Hubbell ordered Tiffany to no longer make any travel or career plans without court approval and told Abbas that the singer must appear at the voluntary settlement conference next Thursday.

Tiffany’s debut album on MCA has already sold more than 4 million copies and remains among the top 20 selling albums in the country, according to the trade magazine Billboard.