If TMZ hasn't screwed up and confused Symbolina for Prince Jackson, the celebrity TV show is reporting that the Minnesota Prince — who never worked with Michael Jackson — may be called to testify in the Jackson family's $40 billion wrongful-death lawsuit against concert promoters AEG Live.
The lawsuit filed by Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, and the late entertainer's three children alleges that the concert promoter was negligent in hiring and supervising Dr. Conrad Murray, who was working as Jackson's personal physician at the time of the singer's 2009 death just weeks before the "This Is It" tour was scheduled to begin.
Although Murray is scheduled to be interviewed Tuesday on CNN by Anderson Cooper, the doctor has told CNN he'll assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination if he has to testify in the AEG case. Murray did not take the stand in his involuntary manslaughter trial. He's currently serving time for that conviction handed down after testimony about how Murray carelessly used the hospital drug propofol to treat Jackson's insomnia.
"According to docs filed earlier this month, Katherine's legal team plans to call nearly 100 witnesses ... with one of them being Prince," writes TMZ. "It's curious, since Prince and MJ never collaborated, but we're hearing Katherine's legal team believes Prince had a bad experience with AEG in the past that could be relevant. Can you imagine Prince on the witness stand?"
No, I cannot.
Prince adroitly avoids court appearances. His lawyers usually get him out of them. His stealth arrivals and exits to Minnesota locations — where (on rare occasions) he's actually shown up for scheduled depositions — have been exceptionally covert.
Of course, with Los Angeles leaking information like a sieve, a very entertaining photo op game of cat and mouse could take place between Prince and the pappsters should Symbolina actually be enticed or ordered to make a court appearance.
In another curious matter related to this trial, TMZ claims to have "obtained legal docs in which Katherine Jackson, Blanket, Paris and Prince [Jackson's children] argue ... it's irrelevant for a jury to hear evidence about the conception of the three kids. Specifically, they believe AEG has no right to delve into their biological parentage." WOW. If AEG plays hardball on this, the public could learn what I suspect about Jackson being the bio-dad.