Fab Morvan

Milli Vanilli's Rob Pilatus admitted Thursday in Los Angeles that neither he nor partner Fab Morvan sang a note on the duo's multimillion-selling 1988 album "Girl You Know It's True." Pilatus' admission came after the pair was fired Wednesday by their German producer Frank Farian and after officials at the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences said that they may review the group's 1989 Grammy as best new artist. Milli Vanilli could lose the award, an unprecedented action.

The legal fallout from the Milli Vanilli fiasco continues, with no end in sight. A U.S. Circuit Court judge in Chicago is expected Jan. 29 to grant final approval to an unprecedented settlement to resolve a class-action fraud lawsuit filed in November, 1990, against Milli Vanilli front men Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, Germany-based producer Frank Farian and their record company.

Officials of Arista Records knew that pop duo Milli Vanilli's Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan did not sing on their 7 million-selling "Girl You Know It's True" album before the duo won the 1989 Grammy Award for best new artist of the year, a group member and a former manager said Friday. The allegations contradict claims made by a spokesman for the record company earlier, after record producer Frank Farian and Pilatus admitted the performers did not sing on the album.

Robert Pilatus remembers the morning six weeks ago when he climbed onto the railing of his ninth-floor balcony at the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood and tried to muster the courage to jump.

"And now the Moment of Truth!" says Frank Farian, creator of Milli Vanilli, inventor of Rob and Fab, the pretty faces who--can you believe it!--people actually thought were singing. Farian, the German producer who blew the whistle last month on his own fraud, swivels around from his 84-track mixing console, the Pontiac-size machine on which Milli Vanilli was really made, and furnishes the promised honest-to-God truth. It's a record album.

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences revoked Milli Vanilli's 1989 Grammy for best new artist on Monday, marking the first such action in the 33-year history of the recording industry award. The Burbank-based academy's board of trustees took action after admissions last week by Milli Vanilli performers Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan and their German producer, Frank Farian, that the photogenic pop duo did not sing a note on their album, "Girl You Know It's True."

Radio stations declared themselves "Milli Vanilli Free" and former fans signed petitions denouncing the pop duo Friday after it was learned they didn't really sing on their hit 1988 debut album. "People are mad," said disc jockey Paul J. Roberts of WQQK-FM in Nashville, Tenn. "After we made the announcement we took 120 calls in about an hour and 40 minutes."

It's less than a week after pop duo Milli Vanilli revealed that they did not sing on their Grammy-winning album or in their live appearances, but repercussions from the hoax are already beginning to be felt throughout the music industry. The Grammy, for best new artist of 1989, was revoked Monday by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, an Oakland woman has sued the group for fraud and legislators are proposing to outlaw undisclosed lip-syncing.

The biggest embarrassment in the Milli Vanilli affair is that the lip-syncing duo was awarded a Grammy in the first place. In picking Milli Vanilli as the best new artists of 1989, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences voters were simply seduced by record sales.

The fans were not amused. The "we were never fans of that techno-pop garbage" people were not surprised. The hip were not paying attention. But everyone had something to say.

Two multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuits filed against Milli Vanilli's record company have been denied certification by a federal judge in Philadelphia.

"And now the Moment of Truth!" says Frank Farian, creator of Milli Vanilli, inventor of Rob and Fab, the pretty faces who--can you believe it!--people actually thought were singing. Farian, the German producer who blew the whistle last month on his own fraud, swivels around from his 84-track mixing console, the Pontiac-size machine on which Milli Vanilli was really made, and furnishes the promised honest-to-God truth. It's a record album.

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences was correct in demanding back the Grammy it awarded Milli Vanilli this year. But the difficult part is still ahead. What do you do now with the award for best new artist of 1989? Here are the options facing an academy subcommittee that will meet on Dec. 5 in New York: * Declare no new winner, which would leave a blank space in future Grammy programs as a reminder of the deception in the Milli Vanilli case.

"One of the weird psychological things about doing what we did is that after you perform 100 concerts, slowly but surely you begin to believe you really are the singer," Robert Pilatus said. "It screws you up. You're out on stage and you catch yourself thinking that it really is your own voice." Milli Vanilli's first European tour started Sept. 5, 1989, and lasted 10 weeks.

On Aug. 30, 1989, Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan met with top officials from Arista at the World Trade Center in New York.

We haven't seen any "Honk if you sang on Milli Vanilli's record" bumper stickers . . . yet. But given the rate Milli Vanilli jokes and gags are proliferating, you should probably check out the car in front of you. Judging by how quickly the nation's comics have jumped on the Milli Vanilli joke wagon, the lip-syncing duo may have a wing of their own in the Easy Target Hall of Fame--right beside Leona Helmsley, Donald Trump and Dan Quayle.

G irl you know it's . . . Girl you know it's . . . Girl you know it's . . . Girl you know it's . . . It was Robert Pilatus' and Fabrice Morvan's worst nightmare come true. There they were dancing and moving their lips in front of 15,000 fans. And the sound system broke down. The machine wouldn't say the word true and, like a scratched record, began to repeat the opening lyrics of the lip-syncing Milli Vanilli's "Girl You Know It's True."

Robert Pilatus remembers the morning six weeks ago when he climbed onto the railing of his ninth-floor balcony at the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood and tried to muster the courage to jump.

G irl you know it's . . . Girl you know it's . . . Girl you know it's . . . Girl you know it's . . . It was Robert Pilatus' and Fabrice Morvan's worst nightmare come true. There they were dancing and moving their lips in front of 15,000 fans. And the sound system broke down. The machine wouldn't say the word true and, like a scratched record, began to repeat the opening lyrics of the lip-syncing Milli Vanilli's "Girl You Know It's True."

It's less than a week after pop duo Milli Vanilli revealed that they did not sing on their Grammy-winning album or in their live appearances, but repercussions from the hoax are already beginning to be felt throughout the music industry. The Grammy, for best new artist of 1989, was revoked Monday by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, an Oakland woman has sued the group for fraud and legislators are proposing to outlaw undisclosed lip-syncing.