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Just two weeks after the death of Michael Jackson, Randy Phillips, CEO of AEG Live, producers of what were to be Jackson’s 50 sellouts at the O2 Arena in London, still has not caught his breath. Among the most recent developments for Phillips, AEG Live and parent AEG, was the successful planning and execution of Jackson’s memorial at the AEG-operated Staples Center in L.A. on Tuesday.
“To me, the success of [the memorial] is measured by the fact that I think we were able to really humanize my friend and erase those caricatures that the press had created of him. If there is one thing I could point to it as to why it was successful, it would be that.”
Phillips noted that the event was “one of the largest broadcasts ever in the history of the world, right up there with Princess Diana’s funeral, maybe even bigger because of the Web now.” According to Nielsen Media Research, the memorial service for Jackson on Tuesday totaled a combined 20.5 household rating with 30.92 million viewers in the U.S. on the 19 networks carrying it from approximately 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
In offering a free media feed from the event to the world and refusing to sell merchandise at the event, AEG declined to monetize the memorial, despite the huge losses they have incurred following Jackson’s death. “This was a memorial service,” Phillips said. “In fact, it was really a funeral, because the casket and the body were there. We took the high road. I’m not saying this because I drank the AEG Kool-Aid, but that’s the only way this company knows how to work.”
That’s not to say Phillips and AEG have not taken their shots in the wake of Jackson’s death, from giving fans the option to keep their tickets to This Is It (with no refund) to selling merchandise on the This Is It website. “One thing I’ve learned in taking this job is you can’t please everybody,” Phillips says. “There will always be critics and skeptics and all that, but we did the right thing for my buddy. We buried him with dignity.”
The memorial featured moving and sometimes magnificent performances by such artists as Usher, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Hudson and Lionel Richie. While AEG owns this intellectual property, Phillips says there are no immediate plans to offer content, digital or otherwise, from the memorial.
“First of all, we didn’t know what it was going to be, how well it was going to come out,” Phillips says. “There may be [some sort of release], but we really haven’t thought about that. We’d have to go back to the speakers and the artists and get their permission.”
Even if there were video or audio released from the memorial, “we wouldn’t do anything without the estate,” says Phillips. “Michael was our partner in life, he’s our partner in death through his estate.”
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Judith Cohen is an art teacher in the New York City school system. Three years ago, Cohen was charged with using abusive language when one of her students cut her with scissors.
As a result, school officials “banished” Cohen to off-campus office space – what the city calls temporary reassignment centers – where she now spends her days painting watercolor portraits of fellow teachers while still receiving her annual salary.
Cohen is just one of more than 700 New York teachers receiving full pay while awaiting the results of disciplinary hearings for infractions that range from lying to sexual misconduct to ‘allowing a child to wear a hat in a classroom.’
According to city officials, teachers are sent to reassignment centers – called ‘rubber rooms’ by the educators and their union - because their union contracts require they be allowed to continue in their jobs while their cases are being heard.
“It is extremely difficult to fire a tenured teacher because of the protections afforded to them in their contract,” New York school spokeswoman Ann Forte told the Associated Press.
Once ‘banished’ from the classroom, teachers spend their days playing scrabble, doing yoga or planning their vacations. Teachers are not only paid their full salary – most earn $70,000 per year or more - they also continue to follow the school calendar for weekends, holidays and the summer break.
City officials told the AP the contract does not permit teachers to be given other work.
Teacher David Suker, accused of throwing away a student’s test sign-in sheet during an argument, has spent the past three months in a Brooklyn reassignment center.
“It’s sort of peaceful knowing that you’re going to work to do nothing,” Suker told the AP.
Suker’s three months in the rubber room pales in comparison to time served by other teachers. Since the cases are heard by just 23 arbitrators who work only five days a month, some teachers spend two or three years in the reassignment centers. Others have been there for five years or more.
“No one wants teachers who don’t belong in the classroom,” Ron Davis, spokesperson for the United Federation of Teachers, told the Associated Press. “However, we cannot neglect the teachers’ rights to due process.”
New York is not alone in paying teachers not to teach. The Los Angles district has nearly 200 teachers assigned to ‘rubber rooms’ and the city of Philadelphia sends teachers awaiting disciplinary action to what officials call “cluster offices.”
“They just sit you in a room in a hard chair,” Mary Shapiro, a retired Philly teacher told the AP. “And you just sit.”
Karen Horwitz, founder of the National Association for Teacher Abuse, said educators awaiting disciplinary hearings are typically sent home – with or without pay. She also said some school districts find non-classroom work for teachers’ accused of misconduct.
Once their hearings are over, the teachers are either sent back to the classroom or fired.
Judith Cohen’s hearing took place two months ago.
“I’m awaiting a decision from my hearing,” Cohen told the AP. “It was over on April 29… and here I sit, waiting, and waiting and waiting…”
According to the Associated Press, the New York City Department of Education estimates the practice of the ‘rubber rooms’ costs taxpayers $65 million a year.
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BLUEFIELD — A Northfork woman says doctors at Community Radiology of Virginia failed to diagnose her with breast cancer after an imaging test.
Jacqueline Wallace filed a complaint March 10 in McDowell Circuit Court against Community Radiology, Gary W. Wright, Dr. Stephen Raskin and Dr. Valery P. Sobczynski.
According to a letter Dr. Abbott Huang sent to Wallace’s attorneys, Wallace felt a small pea-sized lump in her right breast on Dec. 7, 2006. The following February her husband was concerned the lump was getting larger — “about the size of the end of a middle finger,” the letter says.
In turn, Wallace says she had an imaging test performed at Community Radiology in Bluefield, Va., on March 16, 2007.
On March 20, 2007, Community Radiology issued a report to Wallace, stating that the imaging appeared normal and that there was no evidence of cancer, according to the complaint.
About eight months later, Wallace went for her annual Pap smear test and mentioned the lump in her right breast was growing larger, according to the letter from Huang. Her doctor requested an ultrasound that was performed on Dec. 17, 2007.
A mass was found, and doctors performed a biopsy of the tissue imaged in the March test. In the tissue, doctors found a mass that was indeed cancerous, the complaint says.
Sobczynski was the radiologist responsible for reading the March test and initially determining Wallace was free of cancer, the suit states.
“From a radiologic point of view, the mass seen in the right breast was perceptible on the study of March 16, 2007,” Huang’s letter says. “Given the history of the mass, an ultrasound should have been performed on the initial study date. This reflects a deviation from the standard of care within a reasonable degree of medical certainty.”
Because doctors at Community Radiology failed to find the cancer, Wallace says she has endured emotional pain and suffering, plus physical pain, lost wages, emotional distress, economic loss and permanent disfigurement.
However, Community Radiology contends the complaint against it should be dismissed.
Although it does admit to releasing a report to Wallace saying there was no evidence of cancer, Community Radiology says it included a warning in the report.
“Defendant denies that that is the entirety of the information contained in the report and affirmatively states that the report further states that some patients with breast cancer have normal mammograms, in addition to other information,” its answer to Wallace’s complaint states.
In addition, Wallace was wrong in naming Raskin as a defendant in the complaint because of his ownership interest in Community Radiology, the center states.
In fact, Raskin, who performed the radiology services at Community Radiology, had no ownership interest in the company. Instead, he had a contract through Community Radiology and was responsible for contracting with other radiologists who may have been needed to fill in for him, it says.
Community Radiology is asking the court to dismiss Wallace’s complaint against it with prejudice and to award it attorneys’ fees and other relief the court deems just.
In addition to Community Radiology and the two doctors, Wallace names Wright as a defendant in the complaint, saying he is the president and chairman of Community Radiology. But Wright contends he, also, should be dismissed as a defendant in the case because he does not own Community Radiology.
“Rather, Community Radiology of Virginia is owned by CROV Holding, a Virginia company,” the suit states. “In turn, CROV Holding is owned by PG Diagnostic Acquisitions, Inc. Mr. Wright, a Florida resident, owns PG Diagnostic Acquisitions, Inc.”
In addition, Wright argues has no contacts with West Virginia and so the state’s long-arm statute does not apply to him.
“Mr. Wright, a Florida businessman connected to the Virginia parent company of Virginia company Community Radiology does not solicit any business whatsoever from West Virginia patients,” his response to the complaint says. “He has no contact whatsoever with the State of West Virginia.”
In her complaint, Wallace is seeking unspecified damages, plus other relief the court deems just.
Wright and Community Radiology have removed the case to federal court because of complete diversity of citizenship between them and Wallace and because Wallace is seeking more than $75,000.
They say Raskin’s and Sobczynski’s citizenships do not matter because the two doctors have not been served.
Eric M. Franci and Steven Mancini of Lewisburg will be representing Wallace.
Elizabeth S. Lawton and Jason Wandling of Shuman, McCuskey and Slicer in Charleston will be representing Wright and Community Radiology.
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