Michael Jackson has closed the house on his Neverland Ranch and laid off some of the employees there, but has not completely shuttered the sprawling estate, the pop star’s spokesman said.
“It is public knowledge that Mr. Jackson currently resides in the Middle Eastern country of Bahrain,” Jackson spokeswoman Raymone Bain said late Thursday in a statement. “He therefore decided to close his house and reduce his work force.”
The action came a day after state labor officials announced that Jackson had agreed to pay his Neverland Ranch employees hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages, avoiding a lawsuit by the California Department of Industrial Relations.
Employees who received their back pay on Thursday were told they were being laid off because Jackson had shut down the ranch, the syndicated television news magazine “Entertainment Tonight” reported on its Web site Thursday.
But Bain indicated the ranch was still operating, at least on a limited basis.
‘Dukes of Hazzard’ star held for drunken driving
Tom Wopat, who played Luke Duke on the TV series “The Dukes of Hazzard,” faces a drunken driving charge in northern New Jersey, authorities said Friday.
Wopat was arrested in Ringwood and charged with driving while intoxicated and reckless driving, said Bill Maer, a spokesman for the Passaic County sheriff’s department.
He was pulled from a Ford Bronco Wednesday night after hitting orange traffic cones and nearly striking a Ringwood police car sent to an accident, Maer said.
Wopat, 54, of West Milford was released into the custody of his girlfriend, Maer said.
In recent years, Wopat has worked on Broadway.
Tupac Shakur will live for all eternity in wax
Tupac Shakur will join the ranks of celebrities sculpted in wax at Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas, the city where he was killed in a drive-by shooting nearly 10 years ago.
The 55-pound figure will go on display April 5 at The Venetian hotel-casino, it was announced Thursday. The slain rap star will be depicted shirtless, sporting a bandanna and proudly displaying his tattoos.
Shakur’s precise measurements are being reconstructed by sculptor Jeni Fairey – the woman behind the museum’s wax Beyonce – with the help of photos provided by Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur.
After a viewing in Las Vegas, promoters say they plan to take “Tupac Eternal” on the road. It’s bound for Madame Tussauds galleries in New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, China, and London, and is expected to be exhibited at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Atlanta.
From Herald news services
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