LONDON — AEG chief executive Randy Phillips has reportedly confirmed that the company would be prepared to self-insure Michael Jackson in the event of a shortfall in insurance coverage for all the singer’s concerts.
“We would be prepared to self-insure to make up the dates. It’s a risk we’re willing to take to bring the King of Pop to his fans,” Phillips is quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph.
Phillips added that Jackson is in good health.
“The insurance brokers sent doctors and they spent five hours with him, taking blood tests. He’s a vegetarian, he’s in great shape. The insurance cover, we are working on that now,” he said.
It follows reports on the Reinsurance Magazine Web site, which said there was low demand in the London insurance market for the whole policy to cover all 50 O2 Arena dates promoted by AEG Live, believed to be worth around 300 million pounds ($423.57 million).
The first 10 concerts are said to have been placed on the market at a value of 80 million pounds ($112.95 million). Music and live event insurance broker Robertson Taylor, who is understood to be brokering the cover, did not comment.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Controversial U.S. radio host Don Imus announced on Monday he has Stage II prostate cancer, meaning the cancer has not spread to other organs.
Imus, among the highest-rated radio hosts in the United States, caused a scandal in 2007 when he referred to a mostly black women’s basketball team as “nappy headed hos.” The phrase combines a term for short, curly hair with slang for whore and was widely criticized as racially charged and offensive.
Imus apologized but the comment got him fired from CBS Radio. He has since resumed his “Imus in the Morning” show with ABC Radio Networks, owned by Citadel Broadcasting Corp.
“Last Wednesday I was diagnosed with Stage II prostate cancer … it’s confined to the prostate,” Imus, 68, told his listeners.
“They (his doctors) are predicting they can treat it so that they can cure it,” Imus said.
