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Michael Jackson with his mother Katherine Jackson - Source: Reuters -
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Michael Jackson's mother has been awarded custody of the singer's three children and his ex-wife Debbie Rowe was given visitation, formalizing an arrangement announced last week.
In a Los Angeles Superior Court hearing on issues of custody and Jackson's estate, lawyers for concert promoters AEG, which was behind the singer's planned comeback tour, have filed papers asking to be named a party to estate hearings and to be kept informed of business decisions.
Jackson's mother, Katherine, has also asked for more say in guiding the matters of Jackson's estate, which has been valued at more than $750 million but is expected to grow given the huge demand for his music since his death in June.
Judge Mitchell Beckloff is expected to review the two requests soon.
Entertainment lawyer John Branca and music executive John McClain were named executors of the estate in Jackson's 2002 will and have been working to generate more income for the estate.
So far, their work has included permission to reprint Jackson's 1988 autobiography Moonwalk and talks with AEG for the sale of rehearsal video shot in Los Angeles days before Jackson died.
Approving the custody arrangement, Beckloff agreed to provide Katherine Jackson, 79, an allowance paid by the singer's estate and a separate allowance for the three children. The amount was not released.
The Thriller singer had stipulated in a 2002 will that he wanted his mother to care for Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and Prince Michael II, 7.
But after his death Rowe had seemed to consider challenging for custody herself.
Lawyers for both parties says no money has changed hands as part of the agreement.
Dr Klein's surprise
In a surprise move, a lawyer for Jackson's dermatologist, Dr Arnold
Klein, says Klein wants a say on the custody issue because he has
"unique interests" respecting the children.
Klein has been the subject of unconfirmed rumours in celebrity media that he was the sperm donor of Jackson's two children with Rowe, a nurse who once worked for him.
Beckloff says however that the "conclusive presumption" is that
Jackson and Rowe were the parents and that Klein will have to file
legal papers if he wants to press his case.
Rowe, who was not in court, will have the right to visit the eldest
two children but the frequency will be determined by a child
psychologist as she has had little contact with them in the past 10
years.
The biological mother of Prince Michael II, also known as Blanket, has never been revealed.
Rowe's lawyer Eric George told reporters she has "responded with heart, integrity and selflessness" over the custody issue.
Jackson left his estate to a family trust that benefits his mother, children and charities.
The precise cause of his death is still awaiting toxicology
tests and investigations by police and US drug agents into the
possible role of drug use.
