Prince Jackson’s 16th birthday gift: a career
Has a driver’s license, girlfriend and ambition
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—As Michael Jackson’s three children stood onstage at the end of their father’s memorial in July 2009, many wondered how Prince, Paris and Blanket would adapt to the world their father had always shielded them from.
The late pop icon’s oldest son turned 16 this month, and his birthday wish shed light on what his future may hold.
Prince Michael Jackson has a driver’s license, a girlfriend and ambition to start a career in the entertainment industry.
“I’m looking to become well-rounded as a producer, director, screenwriter and actor,” Prince told Entertainment Tonight reporter Brooke Anderson last week.
His interview was part of his first big job, as a special guest correspondent for the show. Prince’s assignment was interviewing James Franco, Zach Braff and Sam Raimi about their movie “Oz the Great and Powerful.”
He begins his second job this week, a guest star role on the CW Television Network’s teen drama “90210.”
While many parents encourage their 16-year-olds to get a job to supply their own pocket money, Prince gets an allowance from his father’s estate, large by any teenager’s standards. It will progressively grow as he gets older, eventually at least 20% of the fortune being managed by the executors his father’s estate.
But Prince has told family and friends that he wants to stand on his own, and not in the shadow of his superstar dad. Being a rising star in perhaps the world’s most famous show biz family, he has plenty of relatives to call on for help and advice.
Aunt La Toya Jackson agreed to help her nephew. Her company Ja-Tail Enterprises, based in a sprawling office in Beverly Hills, California, is representing him, booking his interviews and jobs, according to a source in the company who’s close to him.
It’s what Prince Jackson asked for as a birthday present, the source said.
Some journalists and fans reacted negatively to word that he was entering the work world, suggesting that his father would never have approved. Several sources close to the Jackson family agree that it would not be happening if Michael Jackson were still alive.
Remaining sheltered behind the gates of his father’s mansions and the masks he wore in public as a child was no longer an option after Jackson’s death from a surgical anesthetic overdose nearly four years ago.
The children are living with their grandmother, assisted by cousin T.J. Jackson, in a hilltop mansion in in the same gated Calabasas, California, development that is home to Justin Bieber. Prince and sister Paris, who turns 15 in April, attend a private school. They are both active on Twitter, sharing personal thoughts and photos with the world. People who know them describe them as normal, smart and strong.
An acting role may be more likely for the son of a superstar than a job at a fast-food restaurant, a typical first job for many American teens.
Alan Duke | CNN
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Michael Jackson’s oldest son launched his showbiz career this week with a gig as a guest correspondent for “Entertainment Tonight,” a job his aunt La Toya Jackson arranged.
The first assignment for Prince Michael Jackson, who celebrated his 16th birthday last Wednesday, was an interview with actors James Franco, Zach Braff and director Sam Raimi about their remake of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — AEG Live considered “pulling the plug” on Michael Jackson’s comeback concerts 11 days before the pop icon died, the show’s choreographer testified Tuesday.
Travis Payne, who worked closely with Michael Jackson in his final days, earlier testified that in Jackson’s last rehearsals before his death he was “not at show standards but he was rehearsing, he was processing.”
LOS ANGELES, Calif. —The portrait of Michael Jackson in the last week of his life, painted by people close to him, is a disturbing picture of an emaciated man, unable to sleep or eat, and unlikely to be ready for his comeback concerts just days away.
“Oh, my God, Turkle, I can see Michael’s heart beat through the skin in his chest,” stylist Michael Bush said after a costume fitting six days before his death on June 19, 2009.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A six-man, six-woman jury was seated today in the trial of Katherine Jackson’s $40 billion negligent-hiring lawsuit against the promoters of her late son Michael Jackson’s ill-fated London concert series over Conrad Murray’s work as the pop superstar’s personal physician.
Attorneys in the case still need to pick alternate jurors for the trial, which is expected to last about three months.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Paris Jackson, the 14-year-old daughter of Michael Jackson, is being questioned Thursday about her father’s last days as part of her family’s wrongful death lawsuit against a concert promoter.
In addition, Jackson lawyers told the judge in a court filing this week they were concerned that lawyers for AEG Live, the company accused of liability in Jackson’s death, were “behaving aggressively and erratically” in their questioning of the Jackson children.
