A recent GQ article spoofing Michael Jackson has the singer demanding the magazine apologize and pull the issue from circulation.
In a statement released Friday, Jackson's representative, Raymone K. Bain, said Jackson is "furious'' about a series of photos featuring a Jackson impersonator in the magazine's May issue, now on newsstands.
The photos accompany an article called Where's Michael? which documents writer Devin Friedman's quest to find Jackson in Bahrain, the Middle Eastern country where he lives.
In one photo, a Jackson look-alike sits in a darkened movie theater amid a row of children. Another photo shows him standing in the desert draped in a black cloak and headscarf, with his trademark glittery white glove.
The statement said: "Mr. Jackson is furious that his image has been used in such a misleading way, and is demanding an apology from the editors of GQ, and its publisher, Conde Nast. Mr. Jackson is also demanding that the magazines be pulled from newsstands.''
Jim Nelson, GQ editor-in-chief, responded with a statement Friday: "It is very clear that the pictures in the story ... are satirical, whether it's a picture of a Michael Jackson imitator sitting in a Bahraini cinema or an image of The Gloved One standing flamboyantly in the desert."
Jackson, 47, moved to the Gulf state soon after being acquitted of child molestation charges in California last year.
Adding insult to injury, actress Denise Richards, who is seeking a divorce from Charlie Sheen, says she is no longer friends with Heather Locklear, in the next issue of People magazine.
Photos of Richards with Locklear's estranged husband, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, recently appeared in celebrity magazines. One showed Richards kissing Sambora.
"I wish Heather well,'' the 35-year-old said.
"Unfortunately, our friendship had to dissolve and I'm sad about that. The last thing I would want to do is create a media frenzy like this, especially as I'm trying to get through a divorce.''
Locklear, 44, filed for divorce from Sambora three months ago, citing irreconcilable differences.
Richards filed for divorce from Sheen last year after three years of marriage. The couple seemed to have reconciled after the birth of their second daughter, Lola, last year, but in January, they filed legal papers asking a private arbitrator to handle their divorce.
Last month, Sheen was ordered to stay at least 300 feet from his estranged wife and their daughters, 2-year-old Sam and 11-month-old Lola, except during supervised visits.
Richards alleged in court papers that Sheen pushed her, shoved her, and threatened her and her parents.
Sheen, 40, denied the allegations.
From knocked down to knocked up, reports claim that former reality TV star and Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith is pregnant.
In response, Smith's lawyer and spokesman, Howard K. Stern, issued a statement Thursday that makes the matter as clear as a blurred sonogram image.
"If Anna Nicole is pregnant, she obviously doesn't want anybody to know yet,'' Stern wrote. "If she's not pregnant, she's not denying the rumor because she thinks it's funny how much of a stir it's causing. She'll leave it up to you to guess which one it is.''
Smith, 38, has a 20-year-old son, Daniel, from her first marriage. Just this week, Smith won a judgment from the US Supreme Court that allows her to continue to seek part of her late husband's fortune.
Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year. Since then, Smith has feuded with Marshall's son, Pierce Marshall, over her entitlement to the tycoon's estate.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located