People News

Michael Jackson reported in talks on Gulf entertainment projects

Jan 8, 2006, 9:35 GMT

Manama, Bahrain - Pop star Michael Jackson is in talks with a Bahrain company over a possible entertainment projects in the Gulf, press reports said Sunday.

Projects being discussed with AAJ Holdings involve investments such as theme parks and musical academies, the English-language Gulf Daily News said. Jackson could offer advice to AAJ to bolster the region's music and entertainment sector, the paper said.

'Stagnant' properties could be revived through entertainment projects, AAJ Holdings owner and founder Ahmed Abubaker Janahi was quoted as telling the newspaper.

Janahi's group has interests in companies around the world, concentrating on urban development projects.

Jackson, 47, had been living in Bahrain since June after a California court acquitted him in his child molestation trial on June 13.

Jackson, who arrived with his two sons, has rarely been seen in public, but he was recently spotted before Christmas in a cinema attending the King Kong movie.

Sources said that he went to see the movie twice - once with his close friend Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, son of Bahrains king and a regional governor, and a few days later with his two sons and two Western families.

Days earlier he reportedly spent the equivalent of about 8,000 dollars on gifts at a local toy supermarket.

Jackson, financially drained by the 14-week long trial at the Santa Maria court as he faced charges that could have sent him to prison for 20 years, has been trying to get his musical car