Jackson estate makes $30M payment to mother, kids (AP)

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson's estate has generated more than $310 million in the two years since the pop singer died deeply in debt, enabling executors to distribute a preliminary payment of $30 million to Jackson's mother and children, and to unnamed charities, according to recently filed court documents.

Executors also disclosed Tuesday that Jackson's mother, Katherine, is putting the family's fabled Encino compound up for sale and wants the executors to negotiate the purchase of a new residence for her and the children, Paris, Prince and Michael Joseph Jr., known as Blanket.

The Encino property, where Jackson grew up and where several of his siblings lived in a cottage near their parents' home was appraised at $4.15 million in 2010 but has since undergone extensive renovation. Katherine Jackson and the children moved out and have been living at a leased Calabasas home that is for sale for about $10 million. The executors said Katherine Jackson has identified a number of homes in that price range that would suit her needs and that of the children.

The executors said the trust and the California attorney general's office, which is representing charities as beneficiaries of the estate, have been pressing for distribution of funds.

The executors, John Branca and John McClain, filed a detailed accounting of finances since Jackson's death on June 25, 2009. By the end of last year, the estate had produced more than $310 million in gross revenues. "Since that date, the estate assets have continued to generate additional income," the executors said.

Notably, they said they were able to refinance and secure the estate's interest in the Michael Jackson music catalog, Mijac, and the Sony/ATV publishing catalog, which includes portions of the Beatles catalog.

They said they reduced debt obligations by more than $90 million and refinanced loans at lower interest rates. They also benefited from the release of the posthumous concert film, "This Is It," and said they were able to pay off dozens of approved creditors' claims as well as Jackson's income taxes. Some creditor claims remain open, according to the documents, but the deadline for filing claims against the estate has passed.

"For a number of reasons, including without limitation, pending litigation and a pending estate tax audit, the estate is not yet in a condition to be closed," the document said. They listed cash on hand of $90 million.

They indicated that the $30 million was a preliminary distribution to the trust and more would be forthcoming in the future.

A hearing for a judge's approval of the plan is set for Sept. 28.

Jackson's death remains in the news as his doctor, Conrad Murray, is set to go on trial on involuntary manslaughter charges. He is accused of negligently administering the anesthetic propofol.

Jackson died of an overdose of the drug he was using for sleep. At the time of his death, he was due to launch a concert tour in England. Rehearsal footage for that concert was the basis of the movie "This Is It."

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Winslet helped rescue Branson's mother from fire (AP)

LONDON – Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet helped rescue Richard Branson's elderly mother from a fire that destroyed his Caribbean home.

The Virgin Group boss said in his blog that he wanted to offer "many thanks to Kate Winslet for helping to carry my 90 year (old) mum out of the main house to safety." He joked that Winslet "was wondering when a director was going to shout 'CUT!'

In a separate statement Tuesday, Branson praised Winslet's two children, 10-year-old Mia and 7-year-old Joe, who were also staying in the house when it caught fire. He called them "two of the bravest kids I've ever come across."

Branson said he was staying in another property around 100 yards (meters) away with his wife, Joan and son Sam, 25. He said Sam noticed the main house in flames and ran over to make sure all the guests had got out. Branson said he also jumped out of bed and ran over to help.

"I tried to get some sympathy for the fact that I'd jumped out of bed naked and rushed to the Great House in pitch darkness and hurricane force winds and ran straight in to a cactus bush," Branson said. "The sympathy was not forthcoming for my injuries."

Branson said the fire broke out around 4 a.m. Monday during a tropical storm with lightning and high winds. He said Tuesday that there is still smoke rising from the house.

Branson, 60, bought the island in the early 1980s and began building the Great House in 1982. He also has developed an exclusive eco-resort on the island showcasing renewable energy technology.

His daughter Holly, who was staying at the house along with Winslet, was due to get married there in December. Branson said the wedding would still take place on Necker Island, and said guests may camp on the beach if the house is not rebuilt in time.

Winslet, 35, shot to international stardom with her appearance opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in James Cameron's "Titanic," and sealed her reputation with a best actress Academy Award in 2009 for "The Reader."

Winslet's spokeswoman, Sara Keene, confirmed the actress was on the island and was unharmed. She said Winslet had no comment.

Her two children are from marriages to directors Jim Threapleton and Sam Mendes.

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Actress Richards now mother of 3 (AP)

NEW YORK – Denise Richards has added a third little one to her family, this time through adoption.

The 40-year-old actress recently adopted a newborn baby girl. Richards named the infant Eloise Joni after her mother, who succumbed to cancer four years ago. Richards' representative, Jill Fritzo, on Wednesday confirmed the adoption.

Richards has two daughters by her ex-husband Charlie Sheen. The actress and former model says 7-year old Sam and 5-year old Lola couldn't be happier with their new sister and feel blessed.

Richards and Sheen had a turbulent marriage that Richards wrote about in a memoir, scheduled to be released in July.

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Mandela hails Sisulu as 'mother' of South Africa's people (AFP)

SOWETO, South Africa (AFP) – Nelson Mandela praised anti-apartheid heroine Albertina Sisulu as "the mother of all our people", as political leaders and thousands of ordinary South Africans mourned her death.

President Jacob Zuma, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Zambian independence leader Kenneth Kaunda and Mandela's wife Graca Machel were among the 3,000 people at Sisulu's funeral in an historic Soweto football stadium.

Notably absent was Mandela himself, who at 92 is increasingly frail and rarely appears in public. He delivered his condolences in a message read by Machel, calling Sisulu "one of the greatest South Africans".

Albertina Sisulu died on June 2 at her Johannesburg home at the age of 92. Her husband Walter was Mandela's political mentor, and their decades of marriage endured endless harassment by apartheid authorities to stand as one of South Africa's great love stories.

After the funeral service, she was buried in a nearby cemetery in a plot next to her husband, who died in her arms in 2003. The four-hour funeral and the burial that followed were broadcast live on television.

Albertina Sisulu was one of Mandela's last surviving contemporaries, a fact he acknowledged with obvious grief in his statement.

"The years have taken the toll as one by one friends and comrades passed on. Every time it seems as part of oneself is being cut off," he said. "None of those cuts could have been more painful than the loss of this dear friend, you, my beloved sister."

"You provided leadership and exercised power with quiet dignity. Through your selflessness and dedication, through your moral authority and sincere humanity, during and after the struggle, you rightly earned to be the mother of all our people," Mandela said.

His statement was greeted with rapturous applause, singing and dancing in the crowd, which lasted for several minutes before the service returned to the more solemn proceedings marked by hymns and prayer.

Zuma took the podium, singing the anti-apartheid hymn "Thina Sizwe", before hailing her as a model of integrity in the face of persecution.

"One of the most steadfast, dignified and disciplined pillars of our struggle has fallen, an era has ended, and the nation is devastated," Zuma said.

"Despite the persecution, Mama Sisulu remained an epitome of grace, dignity and discipline. She did not let bitterness engulf her heart. She remained focused on the mission of achieving freedom and justice," Zuma said.

Government provided 500 buses and seven trains to ferry people to Orlando Stadium, a landmark that was often a focal point in the apartheid struggle but was recently modernised for the football World Cup.

During her life, Sisulu was hounded by the apartheid authorities, repeatedly jailed, and "banned" -- a penalty that limited her movements and her visitors.

But she lived to experience the end of white-minority rule, serving one term in the new non-racial parliament herself and seeing her children rise to top positions in government.

Her daughter Lindiwe is defence minister, her son Max is the speaker of the National Assembly, and another daughter Beryl is ambassador to Norway.

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Media hunts mother of Arnie's love child (AFP)

BAKERSFIELD, California (AFP) – The media spotlight turned on the mystery woman with whom Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a love child, kept secret by the movie star turned politician for over a decade.

Reports identified her as Mildred Patricia Baena, who was a housekeeper for Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver for two decades before retiring in recent months.

The former California governor admitted Tuesday to fathering a child with a staff member over a decade ago, but only told Shriver after he left office in January, triggering their separation announced last week.

Media including the TMZ celebrity news website identified her as Baena, publishing multiple photographs and triggering a journalistic manhunt to find the woman herself.

She was tracked down to her home in Bakersfield, a city 100 miles north of Los Angeles, but there was no sign of life in her single-story house where a media camp quickly developed.

Schwarzenegger and Shriver announced their separation last week, four months after the former "Terminator" star left political office.

They gave no reason for the split at the time, but on Tuesday Arnie revealed he had told his wife about the child he had fathered with another woman, a long-term member of the couple's household staff.

The former bodybuilder's estranged wife Shriver, a daughter of the Kennedy political dynasty, issued a statement Tuesday asking for privacy during a "painful and heartbreaking time."

It is not the first time the marriage has been strained by Schwarzenegger's relations with other women: it came under the spotlight notably during the 2003 election which he won, amid reports of his history of groping women.

The couple, who met in 1977 and married in 1986, have four children, aged between 14 and 21.

Since January Schwarzenegger has started to return to show business, unveiling plans for a "Governator" comic book and animated TV show, and reportedly signing for a new film in the "Terminator" series.

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Prince Charles urges US not to overtax Mother Nature (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Britain's Prince Charles warned Wednesday at a US conference debating the future of food that unsustainable farming methods are overtaxing nature and pushing the global food system into crisis.

"In some cases, we are pushing Nature's life-support systems so far they are struggling to cope with what we ask of them," the heir to the British throne, who is a long-time advocate for sustainable food production, told some 700 people packed into a meeting hall at Georgetown University.

"Soils are being depleted, demand for water is growing ever more voracious and the entire system is at the mercy of an increasingly fluctuating price of oil," the prince said in the keynote speech at the "Future of Food" conference.

Charles was joined by the son of a peasant farmer from Mexico who now advocates for farmworkers' rights, a professional basketball player turned organic farmer, a pediatrician working to promote healthy diets for low-income families and others in calling for a change to the way Americans produce and consume food.

But the prince was the only speaker to be given a standing ovation that set the wooden Flemish-Romanesque meeting hall rumbling.

The world's food producers must urgently "create a more sustainable approach to agriculture... that is capable of feeding the world with a global population rapidly heading for nine billion," the prince said.

"Can we do so amid so many competing demands on land, in an increasingly volatile climate and when levels of the planet's biodiversity are under such threat or in serious decline?" he said, urging Americans to lead the way in fixing the global food system, which has already reached crisis stage.

"The way we have done things up to now is no longer as viable as they once appeared to be," the prince said, urging the world's food growers to take "some very brave steps," including developing "more sustainable, or durable forms of food production."

"I have no intention of being confronted by my grandchildren, demanding to know why on earth we didn't do something about the many problems that existed when we knew what was going wrong," Charles said on the second day of a whirlwind visit to the United States.

The Prince of Wales kicked off his official visit to the United States Tuesday -- just days after the pomp and ceremony of his son Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton -- with a visit to an urban farm in a gritty, deprived Washington neighborhood.

He also visited the US Supreme Court and met US service members who were wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Zsa Zsa Gabor, 94, Could Become a Mother Again

According to an astonishing new report from CNN, ailing 94-year-old Zsa Zsa Gabor could become a mother again if husband Prince Frederic von Anhalt has his way.

Gabor would have a child via an egg donor, artificial insemination and a surrogate mother, von Anhalt tells CNN.

"I've gone through the initial steps of donor matching and blood work and next week the donation process will begin," he says.

Gabor's daughter Francesca Hilton, the Hollywood fixture's only child and often a vocal counterpoint to stepfather von Anhalt, told CNN, "That's just weird."
"In life you need something to live for," von Anhalt says. "If my wife passes away before me, I have nothing to live for."

Gabor has been in and out of the hospital numerous times in the past year, enduring a hip replacement and eventually a leg amputation.

"I'm a retired guy," von Anhalt says of a new child. "I can take care of it."

He tells CNN that Gabor spoke about having a child with him when they wed 25 years ago; she reportedly revisited the topic with her husband recently.

"One reason is their desire to have someone carry on the famous Gabor name," CNN writes. "None of her two sisters left an heir and her only child does not use the Gabor name."

That info, via Prince Frederic, seems suspect; Francesca Hilton tells CNN her full name is in fact Constance Francesca Gabor Hilton.

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