MATT CRAWFORD TO CONSIDER BUYING NEVERLAND

We're starting to get a little lost with the Michael Jackson story, to be honest, and tried to straighten it out by writing the keywords on post-it notes and sticking them all over our walls. But whenever we did that, they kept spelling out 'likessmallpps', meaningless gibberish which got us no further. When he knocked back jury duty, he said he was never going to be in America. Then he went to LA to record his charity single.

Apparently. According to Fox News, Jackson fears the jury summons is all a ruse to try and get him back into the US so he can be hit with another child-fidgeting case - although why the prosecutors would try and misuse the jury system in that way but not bother to do anything when he turned up at the recording studio is beyond us.

Meanwhile, Fox sniffily reports that he's put Neverland on the market "as in now, and not six months ago as falsely reported in tabloids." Yeah, Fox - start a global campaign to ensure tabloids don't print false stories and see how long it takes for Rupert to get on the phone...

Some of Jackson's staff at Neverland appear to keep turning up for work despite not being paid:

"Everyone is pissed," says a staffer. "It was one thing when this happened during the trial, but now is a different story."

In May and June, Jackson missed payroll several times, and staffers conducted a work stoppage.

More importantly, Violet Silva, head of security at Neverland and a Jackson loyalist for more than 15 years, quit her job last week. She is now working for former Jackson attorney Robert Sanger.

You wonder how they manage to keep the wolf from the door when they're not being paid. We don't want to raise the spectre of a large barbecue kettle being rolled into the Neverland zoo compound here, but... have you got any other ideas?

And finally, back briefly to that charity single. The Prince of Bahrain's support for the project might have seemed slightly odd to begin with, but... now, we think we see why he happily coughed up for Jacko to record it. It's his:

By the way, “From the Bottom of My Heart” — which is also the title of an excellent Stevie Wonder track on his own new album — was written by the prince of Bahrain. I’m told the prince has had the song for some time and tried to get Jackson to record it back around 9/11.

Jackson, however, opted for his “What More Can I Give,” which was a rewrite of his old hit, “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.”

We just bet he hasn't told the prince of the switch yet - let's hope that Jacko resurrecting his dumped 9/11 song instead of his sponsor's doesn't spoil his chances of settling permanently in Bahrain, the place beyond nasty American prosecutors ("the jewel of the Emirates".)

music michael jackson rupert murdoch neverland fox news