Morning Report - News from Aug. 23, 2002

POP/ROCK

Apparently, Michael Now Leads Jackson 4

The bomb was dropped at a recent Siegfried & Roy concert in Las Vegas. Ducking backstage, Michael Jackson had three children in hand.

The older two were his 5-year-old son Prince Michael and 4-year-old daughter Paris. And the last? “This is my third child,” the singer announced, according to the Sept. 2 issue of People magazine. Producer Gary Pudney, who met the boy in April, says the child is named Prince Michael II--though Jackson often refers to him as “No. 3.”

Other than that, mystery shrouds the 6-month-old infant, as it does much of Jackson’s life. A close friend told the publication that the child was not adopted but “conceived the natural way.”

Still, there has been no word on the identity of the toddler’s mother. Speculation has focused on Jackson’s second wife, Debbie Rowe, with whom he had his first two children. The ex-dermatologist’s assistant accompanied him on two recent trips to Las Vegas, helping him ring up a tab of $7,000 at a local magic shop.

A spokesman for Jackson’s publicist, Dan Klores, said the firm does not comment on the singer’s personal life.

Mills Accepts Damages

in Charity Libel Suit

Former Beatle Paul McCartney’s new wife, Heather Mills, has accepted $76,000 in damages from a British newspaper that claimed she was being investigated for charity irregularities, her lawyer said this week.

The money was offered to settle her libel claim after a May 12 article in the Sunday Mirror alleged that the Charity Commission was investigating her over money collected on behalf of an Indian earthquake victim in 2001. The newspaper will also pay Mills’ legal costs.

Mills, a former model who married McCartney in an Irish castle in June, turned to raising money for the limbless after losing her left leg below the knee in a motorcycle accident in 1993. More recently, she and McCartney have campaigned against land mines.

In a statement, Mills’ lawyer said that his client felt vindicated and planned to donate the damages money to the charity Adopt-a-Minefield UK.

Sunday Mirror spokesman Chris Wade said the newspaper published the story in good faith. “We accept that aspects of it were not correct, and we are happy that we’ve now been able to resolve that matter.”

MOVIES

Europeans Heading Out to See More Film Fare

The European film market, boosted by rising living standards and increased leisure spending, is experiencing a surge in box office.

According to a new report, 1 billion tickets were sold in 2001, and the upward spiral is expected to continue for the next four years.

Though “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and “The Lord of the Rings” were the most successful films in the international arena last year, home-grown films also performed well. “Contrary to popular belief, multiplexes have not caused further Americanization of European cinema,” Dodona Research reports.

According to the BBC, more than 75% of the admissions were concentrated in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Still, the biggest strides were made in the smaller nations. From 1995 to 2001, Portugal’s box office skyrocketed by a hefty 255%, the Czech Republic by 229%, and Poland by 214%.

The average increase among all European nations during that stretch was 76%.

THE ARTS

Underground Museum Coming to Beijing?

Over the last five years, caretakers of Beijing’s Forbidden City drew up secret plans for a three-story museum under the sprawling palace, to display some of the 1,052,653 imperial artifacts currently in storage.

Seeking to avoid criticism, they lobbied behind closed doors for approval and a budget, according to the London newspaper the Independent.

But when Southern Weekend, a Chinese weekly newsmagazine, exposed the project, the critics weighed in, saying the proposed construction would weaken the foundation of the city’s most famous landmark.

The project’s proponents are standing firm. They argue that building underground has been successful in Paris’ Louvre Museum and in Beijing’s own subway system--and that because it eliminates the need for air conditioning and external decoration, it’s very cost-effective.

QUICK TAKES

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights to the controversial Mexican film “The Crimes of Father Amaro,” the tale of a priest who impregnates a young woman. The movie, which had a record-setting opening in Mexico last weekend, is expected to be released here later this year....Danny Huston will star as one of two detectives investigating crime in Los Angeles in Dick Wolf’s new version of “Dragnet,” premiering on ABC in January....USA Network has renewed “The Dead Zone” for a second season....Gil Cates, producing director of the Geffen Playhouse, will direct his first play since 1999: David Eldridge’s “Under the Blue Sky,” opening Sept. 18. A tale of love and sexuality among academics, it will star Sharon Lawrence and Willie Garson....A guitar once burned onstage by Jimi Hendrix and later owned by Frank Zappa is being sold at a London auction house in September, priced at $535,000.