F Marc Schaffel

The executive producer of Michael Jackson's aborted "What More Can I Give" single sold the rights to the charity project for $1 million to a Japanese company and kept half of it for himself. The transaction was negotiated quietly in February between F. Marc Schaffel and Tokyo-based Music Fighters Corp., just three months after Jackson's advisors fired Schaffel when they learned that he was tied to the gay pornography business.

Michael Jackson's latest legal drama ended Friday with Santa Monica jurors holding their noses as they awarded the singer's former business partner $900,000 while ordering the producer to pay the pop star $200,000. At the conclusion of a trial peppered with accounts of international skulduggery, lavish spending and lurid pasts, jurors said they overlooked unappealing qualities of both parties to rule on the merits of the various financial claims.

The Michael Jackson circus is traveling to Santa Monica. Jury selection in a $3.8-million financial dispute between the pop star and a business associate, former pornographer F. Marc Schaffel, was set to begin Monday in a courtroom in the beach city but was postponed until Wednesday.

The Michael Jackson circus is traveling to Santa Monica. Jury selection in a $3.8-million financial dispute between the pop star and a business associate, former pornographer F. Marc Schaffel, was set to begin Monday in a courtroom in the beach city but was postponed until Wednesday.

Michael Jackson's latest legal drama ended Friday with Santa Monica jurors holding their noses as they awarded the singer's former business partner $900,000 while ordering the producer to pay the pop star $200,000. At the conclusion of a trial peppered with accounts of international skulduggery, lavish spending and lurid pasts, jurors said they overlooked unappealing qualities of both parties to rule on the merits of the various financial claims.

From nowhere he emerged, an unknown in the music industry--with one big exception. He was a friend of Michael Jackson. In the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, F. Marc Schaffel was traveling in new circles, assembling a choir of superstars to sing with Jackson on a fund-raising single that would be sold through McDonald's Corp. Jackson had made Schaffel executive producer.

Michael Jackson borrowed $2 million from a finance company at 4%-per-month interest to make a charity record for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, one of his lawyers acknowledged Tuesday during testimony in a business dispute between the pop star and a former associate. The loan was one of several accounts of the pop superstar's unorthodox business practices that have surfaced as Jackson has been in court fighting claims that he owes F.

The attorney for a man suing Michael Jackson for $3.8 million questioned the pop star's former business manager Friday about specific expenses his client incurred while working for the singer. In his second day of testimony in a Santa Monica courtroom, Allan Whitman agreed with attorney Howard King's reckoning that Jackson at some point owed $664,000 to plaintiff F. Marc Schaffel for his share of proceeds from TV broadcasts and video sales of two productions about Jackson.

A Santa Monica jury on Thursday watched a videotaped deposition of Michael Jackson insisting that he knew little about his own business affairs and had no idea that a close associate now suing him for unpaid fees had been a pornographer. "I was shown a videotape by the lawyer, and I was shocked," Jackson said of the revelation that F. Marc Schaffel had made gay adult films. "He was in that whole circle, and I didn't know."

In a videotaped deposition played for a Santa Monica jury Friday, pop star Michael Jackson said he was insulted by the accusation he would take money from a business associate to go on shopping sprees or buy jewelry for Elizabeth Taylor. "I work for what I get," Jackson told lawyer Howard King during the video, which was projected onto a screen in the courtroom. "Don't make like I'm begging from anybody. I have pride."

The executive producer of Michael Jackson's aborted "What More Can I Give" single sold the rights to the charity project for $1 million to a Japanese company and kept half of it for himself. The transaction was negotiated quietly in February between F. Marc Schaffel and Tokyo-based Music Fighters Corp., just three months after Jackson's advisors fired Schaffel when they learned that he was tied to the gay pornography business.

From nowhere he emerged, an unknown in the music industry--with one big exception. He was a friend of Michael Jackson. In the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, F. Marc Schaffel was traveling in new circles, assembling a choir of superstars to sing with Jackson on a fund-raising single that would be sold through McDonald's Corp. Jackson had made Schaffel executive producer.

A Michael Jackson charity single to benefit victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was abandoned by the pop star's advisors after they discovered that the song's executive producer had ties to the gay pornography business, according to documents obtained Thursday by The Times and sources close to the charity effort. As part of his bitter feud with Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

As Michael Jackson watched the destruction of New Orleans from a palace in the distant desert kingdom of Bahrain, he saw an opportunity to help others -- and has since been trying to organize an all-star charity recording that just may end up helping his flagging career as well.