This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2011)

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2011)

John G. Branca (born 1950) is an entertainment lawyer^[1] who specializes in representing rock and roll acts, as well as independent investors, music publishing catalogs, and independent music labels. He has represented 29 acts in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, The Jackson 5, Carlos Santana, Aerosmith, The Beach Boys, ZZ Top, Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees and The Doors, which is believed to be more than any other entertainment attorney.

Other clients have included Alicia Keys, Berry Gordy, Dick Clark, Dr. Dre, Justin Timerblake and the Backstreet Boys. Among his clients outside the music world: Forbes magazine, Penthouse magazine, Playboy magazine, investor Ron Perelman, MCI and Mike Tyson.

In recent years Branca has been involved in the sale of some of the music industry's most prestigious publishing catalogs, including Berry Gordy's Jobete Music, Leiber & Stoller, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization.

Branca was also involved in the formation and sale of Interscope Records, the sale of Rhino Records, and represented Rick Rubin and his American Recordings label. He also has served as counsel to numerous music industry investors, including Vivendi, Matsushita and Richard Branson.

As a partner in the law firm of Ziffren Brittenham,^[2] Branca is one of a handful of attorneys to have been included in all editions of the prestigious Best Lawyers in America.^[3]

Background[link]

Branca was born in Bronxville, New York. His mother, Barbara Werle, was an entertainer and Harvest Moon Ball winner who danced on The Ed Sullivan Show. She moved to Los Angeles when Branca was four to pursue her show business career. Branca lived with his father, also named John, who later served as the New York State Athletic Commissioner. (His uncle, Ralph Branca, pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers for many years, including the 1947 World Series.)

At age 11, Branca moved to LA, and at 13, started a rock band, The Other Half, for which he played guitar. Three years later, he played with a band that occasionally opened for The Doors at LA’s Hullabaloo Club.

He majored in music at Los Angeles City College before transferring to Occidental College. Upon graduating, he enrolled at UCLA School of Law, serving as editor-in-chief of one of the law reviews, and received his degree in 1975.

While working as an estate planner at the firm of Kindel & Anderson, Branca came across a Time Magazine profile of Elton John which mentioned entertainment lawyers. Branca realized that this field of law was his true calling.

Career highlights[link]

Michael Jackson[link]

Branca was instrumental in the production and release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video. Before Thriller, music videos typically had budgets of $50,000—however, Jackson spent over $1 million on the music video of Thriller. Branca financed it by persuading Showtime to pony up $1.2 million for a Making of "Thriller" video, the first "making of" documentary for a music video.

In the video, Jackson turns into a werewolf. At the time, Jackson was a Jehovah's Witness, and church elders berated him for promoting demonology. Jackson ordered Branca, who had the sole copy, to destroy it. Branca told Jackson that Bela Lugosi, whom Jackson adored, and who played Dracula in the movies, was also religious and had put a disclaimer at the beginning of Dracula stating that he didn't endorse vampirism. This anecdote persuaded Jackson to put a similar disclaimer on Thriller and allow it to be released. In the five days following, the Thriller CD - already out for 1½ years, sold another million copies.

The success of the video caused rock groups and record companies to consider music videos an essential part of the way rock music was packaged and sold.

Branca helped Jackson to purchase ATV Music Publishing in 1985 for $47,500,000 (which held the copyrights to The Beatles' and Little Richard's songs).^[4] Within a few years the catalog was worth more than $400,000,000. Branca was also instrumental in facilitating the merger of ATV with Sony, creating one of the world's largest independent music publishers.

In the Michael Jackson probate case, Branca produced Jackson's final will and testament, which designated Branca as executor. The Jackson family filed a preemptive probate action in the Los Angeles Superior Court, based on the allegation that Jackson died "intestate," without a valid will. Branca filed the will in Los Angeles on July 1, 2009 and was appointed co-executor. ^[5] After initially contesting the appointment of Branca and John McClain as executors of Michael's will, his mother Katherine withdrew her objections on November 10, 2009. According to the Associated Press, her attorney, Adam Streisand, said Mrs. Jackson felt it was time legal fighting ended and that her actions were in the best interest of Michael's children.^[6] In an interview published in December 2010 she was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying that Branca and McClain are doing "a very good job" managing the estate.^[7] Projects for the Estate that Branca initiated include the concert film "This Is It," Cirque Du Soleil's "IMMORTAL" show, currently on a 65 city U.S. tour, a second-"Cirque" show scheduled to open at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and a best-selling Ubisoft video game.

Artist Representation[link]

For the Rolling Stones’ 1989 Steel Wheels tour, Branca crafted a deal which, for the first time, centralized ticket sales, sponsorships, promotions and logistics with a national promoter, rather than numerous local promoters. Today, virtually all major concert tours follow this model.

In 1991, Branca put together what’s considered rock’s first mega-deal, a four album deal for Aerosmith with Sony, estimated to be worth $50 million.

In 2005, Branca brokered a ground-breaking deal between Korn and EMI, which made EMI a partner in all of Korn’s operations, including touring and merchandise, instead of only handing the band’s CDs, which has typically been the record company's role. This synthesis increased the record company’s incentive and ability to foster the group’s success in all endeavors. A few months later, Branca, with his partner David Lande, expanded the circle to include concert promoter Live Nation. The duo has since put together Live Nation deals for Shakira and Nickelback.

Music Publishing[link]

In 1985, Branca facilitated one of the most famous music publishing deals in history, the purchase of ATV Music Publishing for Michael Jackson.^[4]

In 2008, changes in the tax law that allowed songwriters to pay a small capital gains tax instead of a larger income tax prompted Branca to advise some of his clients that this was the perfect time to sell their music publishing catalogs, thereby establishing new precedents in valuation. Ensuing sales included: Kurt Cobain and Nirvana copyrights; Steve Tyler's Aerosmith publishing catalog of 160 songs to Primary Wave Music Publishing for $50 million; Julian Lennon's share of The Beatles' royalties, and the catalog of the legendary song-writing team of Leiber & Stoller to Sony/ATV, which created a new yardstick by which the worth of catalogs was measured. He also sold Berry Gordy's Jobete Music to EMI, which changed the method and standard by which catalogs were valued.

In 2009, in a highly-watched move, Branca beat out Wall Street investment banking houses to represent the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and sold their catalog for an excess of $200 million, despite predictions by the Wall Street Journal and others that the catalog wouldn't fetch more than $150 million.

In addition, Branca helped songwriters such as Don Henley of The Eagles regain copyrights of their songs, or to help them secure royalties that they’ve lost, as he did with John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

These deals prompted Marty Bandier, CEO and chairman of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, to call Branca the "number one music publishing lawyer in the country."

Personal life[link]

At Branca's first wedding, Michael Jackson was Best Man and Rev. Little Richard Penniman served as minister.^[8]

Branca currently lives in the exclusive Beverly Park section of Beverly Hills, with wife Linda, and sons John Connor and Dylan Gregory. He also has a daughter, Jessica, from his first marriage.

Public service[link]

Branca helped Buddy Arnold form the Musicians Assistance Program, which later merged with MusiCares, which provides help to members of the music industry who need treatment for drug and alcohol addiction, as well as assistance for other financial, medical and personal crises. He currently serves as Chair Emeritus of Musicares. Additionally, he is on the Board of the Grammy Museum, the Board of Trustees of Occidental College [1] and on the Executive Committee of UCLA's Pauley Pavilion Renovation Campaign Committee, the goal of which is to transform the pavilion into a world-class sports and cultural facility for the university and community.

Hobbies[link]

Branca is an ardent baseball card collector, and has many rare cards.[2] He also has a noted collection of Italian antiques, and is an ardent basketball and music fan.

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Website: www.johnbranca.com
• Musicares and Musicians' Assistance Program Merge To Provide Assistance [3]
• The Emotions and Magnificence of John Branca's Card Collection [4]
• John Branca Represents Musicians [5]
• Recording Stars Challenge Record Labels [6]
• Southern California Super Lawyers Magazine – 2005 – Profile of John Branca

Howard Weitzman is a prominent American trial lawyer. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California (B.A., 1962) and University of Southern California Law Center (J.D., 1965).^[1] He was admitted to the state bar in 1966. For a time, he was a Certified Specialist in Criminal Law (the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization) In 1986, he became a managing partner at the law firm of Wyman Bautzer, and then in 1991 joined the law firm of Katten Muchin Zavis & Weitzman.

Selected list of clients[link]

• John DeLorean
• Marlon Brando
• Magic Johnson
• Michael Jackson
• O.J. Simpson
• Courtney Love
• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Justin Bieber

References[link]

External links[link]

• Coolest Car News of the Day: Back to the Future - DeLorean is BACK!
• De Lorean vs. Almost Everybody

This American law-related biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan in 2011
Born	Piers Stefan O'Meara (1965-03-30) 30 March 1965 (age 47) Guildford, Surrey, England[1]
Nationality	British
Education	Chailey School Preparatory School
Alma mater	Harlow College
Occupation	Broadcaster, panellist, journalist, talk show host
Years active	1985–present
Employer	South London News (1985–88) The Sun (1989–94) News of the World (1994–95) Daily Mirror (1995–2004)
Known for	Newspaper editing Television work
Height	6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m)[2]
Television	Britain's Got Talent America's Got Talent Winner of The Celebrity Apprentice The Dark Side of Fame with Piers Morgan Piers Morgan On... Piers Morgan's Life Stories Piers Morgan Tonight
Spouse	Marion Shalloe (m. 1991–2008) «start: (1991)–end+1: (2009)»"Marriage: Marion Shalloe to Piers Morgan" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Piers_Morgan) (divorced) Celia Walden (m. 2010) «start: (2010-06-24)»"Marriage: Celia Walden to Piers Morgan" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Piers_Morgan)
Children	Spencer, Stanley, Albert
Parents	Eamon Vincent O'Meara (deceased) Gabrielle O'Meara
Website
www.officialpiersmorgan.com

Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (born Piers Stefan O'Meara; 30 March 1965), known professionally as Piers Morgan, is a British journalist and television presenter. He is editorial director of First News, a national newspaper for children.

Morgan branched into television mainly as a presenter, but has become best known as a judge or contestant in reality television programmes. In the UK, he was a judge on Britain's Got Talent. Morgan is best known in the United States as a judge on the show America's Got Talent, and as the winner of The Celebrity Apprentice. On 17 January 2011, he began hosting Piers Morgan Tonight for CNN in the timeslot previously occupied by Larry King Live after the retirement of host Larry King.^[3]

Morgan has authored eight books, including three volumes of memoirs.