Springtime for Jacko: Logo On Sale Again

Jacko Logo On Sale Again | 'Poseidon': That Sinking Feeling | L.A. Times Drinks Cyndy Garvey's Kool Aid

Michael Jackson’s German logo hits the auction block tomorrow for the second and last time. The auction takes place in Frankfurt at 1:30 p.m. their time. You can read the details at http://www.mjone.com

The logo was created in 1995 for the "HIStory" tour and merchandise in Germany. It can currently be found on a Jackson box set issued by Sony BMG in Deutschland, and other merchandise.

Rath tried to auction off the logo a couple of weeks ago, and a bidder came in with $100,000 USD. But he turned out to be a fan, and had no money, I am told. He is currently being investigated.

And here are the quick answers to questions I keep getting asked: Right now, Jackson is in Bahrain, court jester to Prince Abdullah. Neverland is all but completely shut down, and Jackson has no plans to come home. A June 2 date is set in Los Angeles for his civil trail with former partner Marc Schaffel. Jackson doesn’t have to show up. They can use video deposition which he gave in November — and it’s just great, as you can imagine.

The financial picture is about the same, although his loans have been refinanced. But essentially, unless Jackson goes on tour or does something to earn money, he is still, in real terms, broke. In the UK, a Michael Jackson photobook with poems and lyrics has been a bust, hovering around No. 5,000 on Amazon’s British site.

And here’s a footnote: a new single by Janet Jackson called “Weekend” has been leaked to the Internet. It was not met with much approval, hastening Janet to announce that this was just a “gift” to the fans, and that a “real” single will be released on June 19.

That song, “Call on Me,” is a sampled remake of Sheila E.’s “The Glamorous Life.” In the old days, this was called “covering” someone else’s hit — only now you get a royalty.

'Poseidon': That Sinking Feeling

It’s kind of mind-boggling that someone thought to remake Irwin Allen’s 1972 juggernaut "The Poseidon Adventure." It was a terrible movie, and one of many that Allen foisted on the public, including “The Towering Inferno.”

Allen’s brand of cheesy science fiction was much more at home on TV, where he produced three memorable classics: "The Time Tunnel," "Lost in Space" and "Land of the Giants." They were to culture what Tostitos are to gourmet food. Yum!

I guess no one bothered to explain this to Wolfgang Petersen. The director of “Twister” unveiled on Saturday night a serious take on Allen’s crazy, over-the-top and ridiculous scenario.

He just didn’t get it: “The Poseidon Adventure” was meant to be a joke. But as Mel Brooks showed, Germans aren’t really into the American sense of humor.

Instead of Shelley Winters doing the breast stroke like a blow fish, Petersen gives us Emmy Rossum batting her long eyelashes like a damsel in distress.

The new “Poseidon” is a disaster film, all right. Somehow $200 million was wasted on this baby. It’s nearly unwatchable, and that’s with 12 producers listed in the credits. Imagine that not one of them read the script and thought, "These aren’t characters, they're cardboard cutouts! We should do something about this script."

But I guess by then, the computerizations had been logged in and some real sets had been built and large hoses had been bought at Home Depot.

In his review of "Titanic" nine years ago, Richard Schickel wrote that the movie would sink to its watery grave. He was wrong, of course, but that was because the public hooked on to the love story between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

Here, there is no story other than a strange one between Kurt Russell as a father who is obsessed with his daughter (Rossum). I loved it when Rossum says that her father had been “mayor of New York, when I was a kid.” Hilarious.

You know, back in 1972, Shelley Winters won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for her role. “The Morning After” was the hit theme song, and it won an Oscar.

The cast included Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowall, Stella Stevens, Jack Albertson and a pre-"Dynasty" Pamela Sue Martin.

The characters had back stories, and the whole thing worked in a charming -- if not exactly artful -- way. In this version, it’s almost as if a B-list cast (save for Russell and Josh Lucas) just showed up for work to punch a clock. You get the feeling that someone is always saying, “Let’s just get on with it. You go here, here comes the water, now duck.”

It’s just too cynical, even for 2006. Better they should have made a video game and let the original film stand.

L.A. Times Drinks Cyndy Garvey's Kool Aid

Friday afternoon: the race was on to get our Ron Meyers/Cyndy Garvey story up, and beat the L.A. Times to the punch. It worked. FOX 411 was first. But imagine our surprise when the LAT story finally did go up on Saturday morning. They did just what I feared they would if Meyer’s police report were ever published: they bought it.

I don’t know what happened on Oct. 27, 1988, between Meyers and Garvey. But it would sure seem as though Garvey made up or invented, embellished or exaggerated most of the story so that Meyers looked like he’d beaten her up. Going strictly by that report, Meyers should have been arrested.

But time has played an interesting role in this story. After that night, Garvey and Meyers went their separate ways.

Garvey has blazed a trail through the Los Angeles legal system with similar claims of abuse at the hands of ex-boyfriends. The pattern would suggest that the incident in October 1988 was just the first of many desperate situations which she provoked.

Hers is a tragic and pathetic saga at this point, a shock considering she was Regis Philbin’s first co-host when his talk show premiered in Los Angeles in 1980.

Forget the many cases chronicled in the media prior to now, including one with chef Hans Rockenwagner and another with former cop Kelly Chrisman.

Currently, Garvey is being sued by yet another ex, wealthy businessman Robert Lorsch. This case is a doozy. Lorsch has asked for monetary relief and an injunction against Garvey; the case is set for a hearing a week from today.

The gist of Lorsch’s complaint: the couple’s whirlwind relationship began in February 2002 and culminated two months later with a marriage proposal and ring.

Things went sour after that, but not before Garvey went into business with Lorsch in several ventures.

Their engagement was over by the fall of 2003, but not the litigation. In his claim, Lorsch writes: “Garvey has threatened to, in manner consistent with her past practice of marital and non-marital breakups with her lovers, allege lurid and false alleged 'details' of her relationship with RHL with the specific purpose of attempting to harass and embarrass RHL.”

Lorsch then goes on to remind the court that “Garvey was convicted in a criminal action, in the City of Santa Monica for making a false police report regarding a former lover.”

The man Lorsch refers to is not Meyer, but Rockenwagner. Garvey, in fact, is pretty well-known in Los Angeles legal circles. Under her maiden name, Truhan, she has a long list of cases at the Los Angeles County Superior Court, and a few more under her married name.

Her counter-complaint against Lorsch should be taken seriously, but Garvey’s record will no doubt come into play. And her own version of the events isn’t always favorable to her: she describes herself as a broke and dependent on Lorsch for income as well as love.

In fact, a cursory reading suggests that she accepted his marriage proposal because he promised to revive her career. She alleges physical and mental abuse, as well.

Some poor judge will have to referee yet another case for Cyndy Garvey, but this time there’s a twist: she says that she’s recently survived surgery for uterine cancer.