but michael jackson was a big spender. his estate, as you know, jim, is in the black now. certainly was not in the black when he was alive. it s in the black bauds he s not here to spend that money. not only that, don, when we covered the molestation trial some years ago, it would not have surprised me if he didn t show up one day actually he was late one day. he came in his pajamas. we remember that. he was so frail at that time that i don t think anyone would have been surprised in his life has come to an end then. to say his life came to an end now isn t surprising. when you look at the show that aeg was putting on and look at the physicality of that show, certainly michael jackson couldn t have continued at that pace for the next ten years. so it would be a different kind of a show. so i think it s a very difficult argument for the family to make. i want to bring in paul. i want to ask you, jim brought up the contract, only dr. conrad murray had signed the contract. michael j
if the you look at what aeg was going to pay him over the year and assume he would work for ten years more, i don t know where you re going to get $40 billion. but i think it is about the money because you know who s responsible legally for the death and that is dr. murray. and dr. murray doesn t have any assets. who, then, to go to? aeg, you have to go under the assumption that he was working for aeg. and i agree with paul. i don t think it makes a lot of difference if dr. murray testifies because dr. murray may say aeg was my boss but aeg, as you said in that special, didn t pay him a dime, didn t have an executed contract and didn t act in accordance with an employer at that time. it wouldn t have kicked in until the tour. bottom line, i do think it s about the money. you bring up a very good point when you talk about the billions of dollars, $40 billion. that s a lot of money. here s what they contend, though, jim. they re saying he would have made money from these concerts, prob
it s in the black bauds he s not here to spend that money. not only that, don, when we covered the molestation trial some years ago, it would not have surprised me if he didn t show up one day actually he was late one day. he came in his pajamas. we remember that. he was so frail at that time that i don t think anyone would have been surprised in his life has come to an end then. to say his life came to an end now isn t surprising. when you look at the show that aeg was putting on and look at the physicality of that show, certainly michael jackson couldn t have continued at that pace for the next ten years. so it would be a different kind of a show. so i think it s a very difficult argument for the family to make. i want to bring in paul. i want to ask you, jim brought up the contract, only dr. conrad murray had signed the contract. michael jackson hadn t signed it. aeg hadn t signed that contract. and the crux of which is whether dr. conrad murray worked for michael jackson or w
did come in to testify. there are lots of other sources of information about how he was hired and who hired him. so i don t think it will make that much of a difference. jim, let s talk about the money here. is this case all about the money? we re talking about millions, possibly billions for the jacksons if aeg loses this case. is this really conrad murray seems to believe this is all about the money. aeg says it s all about the money because they re not suing dr. conrad murray. is that what it s about? it feels like that, don. it really does. it s funny, when you talk about the money and you talk about $40 billion being the number we ve heard bandied about, my 15-year-old son said to me, he didn t make $40 million in his lifetime, did he? i said, no, not even close. he was worth $600 million in the estate when he died, and not even that. he was broke when he died. most of michael jackson s wealth at this point, the estate is, in the publishing rights.
personal physician, to be available on the tour. this is a condition precedent for me going on the tour. so they say, okay. he s your doctor, we ll agree to hire him. and then of course conrad murray goes on to kill him by administering propofol. to think a jury would blame aeg for doing exactly what michael jackson asked them to do is a bit farfetched. but the second thing that is important is that if you assumed that he fired conrad murray, that aeg fired him that day that he was killed, does anybody believe that michael jackson just wouldn t have hired him himself to administer the propofol, so no way that jackson survives on ooeither scenario. so there are no damages in the case. aeg is also contending that they were, as you say, paying