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.
June 9 to June 15 A photo of two men riding trendy high-wheel Penny-Farthing bicycles past a Qing Dynasty gate aptly captures the essence of Taipei in 1897 — a newly colonized city on the cusp of great change. The Japanese began making significant modifications to the cityscape in 1899, tearing down Qing-era structures, widening boulevards and installing Western-style infrastructure and buildings. The photographer, Minosuke Imamura, only spent a year in Taiwan as a cartographer for the governor-general’s office, but he left behind a treasure trove of 130 images showing life at the onset of Japanese rule, spanning July 1897 to
One of the most important gripes that Taiwanese have about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is that it has failed to deliver concretely on higher wages, housing prices and other bread-and-butter issues. The parallel complaint is that the DPP cares only about glamor issues, such as removing markers of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) colonialism by renaming them, or what the KMT codes as “de-Sinification.” Once again, as a critical election looms, the DPP is presenting evidence for that charge. The KMT was quick to jump on the recent proposal of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to rename roads that symbolize
On the evening of June 1, Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) apologized and resigned in disgrace. His crime was instructing his driver to use a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon. The Control Yuan is the government branch that investigates, audits and impeaches government officials for, among other things, misuse of government funds, so his misuse of a government vehicle was highly inappropriate. If this story were told to anyone living in the golden era of swaggering gangsters, flashy nouveau riche businessmen, and corrupt “black gold” politics of the 1980s and 1990s, they would have laughed.
In an interview posted online by United Daily News (UDN) on May 26, current Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was asked about Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) replacing him as party chair. Though not yet officially running, by the customs of Taiwan politics, Lu has been signalling she is both running for party chair and to be the party’s 2028 presidential candidate. She told an international media outlet that she was considering a run. She also gave a speech in Keelung on national priorities and foreign affairs. For details, see the May 23 edition of this column,
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