Show: At Large with Geraldo Rivera
Air date: Awaiting information
Geller: Martin Bashir came to my house. I never met him before. Of course, I knew of him. And he begged me to get him to Michael Jackson, and then he pulled out a letter that Princess Diane wrote him, praising him for an interview he conducted with her.
But I’ve been in this field for a long time, and I wanted an assurance in writing, and I said to him, ‘look Martin, I will introduce you to Michael on one condition, that you want to do and you will do a positive documentary.’
And he brought me such a letter on the letterhead of the television station signed by Martin Bashir, so to me that was an agreement, it was in writing, and I took him to Michael.
And from that point, I stepped out, and there was this huge mistake that Michael did. Instead of calling up his lawyer, or to ask someone to look through the contract to get veto or some kind of a power over the contract, he didn’t, he just signed it, and, you know, the rest, we all know what happened, it turned out to be a very dark documentary.
Geraldo: How much did they make, did Granada TV make on this documentary as compared to what they paid you for the introduction.
Geller: First of all, I was not in this for the money. I never wanted a penny from Michael Jackson. What happened is, when we found out that this was a terrible ending, there was chaos going on.
Michael wanted to see the documentary, they wouldn’t show it to him, and a couple of days later, I got 1000 pounds, which is about $1700, which I immediately donated to London zoo because Michael wanted to go to the zoo and couldn’t make it.
They, in my estimation, the tv station, sold that documentary for over 10 million pounds, which is about $15 million.
I immediately, when I heard that, I instructed my attorneys to fight with that tv station, and, at least, get a percentage for sick children, and I managed to do that. So, whatever happened, and whatever will happen, at least there will be many, many sick kids that will benefit from that documentary, because at the end of this month, they have to send me a check, which, obviously, and immediately, I will distribute to charities. The bulk of the money will go to children with AIDS."
Source: Awaiting source info
Air date: Awaiting information
Geller: Martin Bashir came to my house. I never met him before. Of course, I knew of him. And he begged me to get him to Michael Jackson, and then he pulled out a letter that Princess Diane wrote him, praising him for an interview he conducted with her.
But I’ve been in this field for a long time, and I wanted an assurance in writing, and I said to him, ‘look Martin, I will introduce you to Michael on one condition, that you want to do and you will do a positive documentary.’
And he brought me such a letter on the letterhead of the television station signed by Martin Bashir, so to me that was an agreement, it was in writing, and I took him to Michael.
And from that point, I stepped out, and there was this huge mistake that Michael did. Instead of calling up his lawyer, or to ask someone to look through the contract to get veto or some kind of a power over the contract, he didn’t, he just signed it, and, you know, the rest, we all know what happened, it turned out to be a very dark documentary.
Geraldo: How much did they make, did Granada TV make on this documentary as compared to what they paid you for the introduction.
Geller: First of all, I was not in this for the money. I never wanted a penny from Michael Jackson. What happened is, when we found out that this was a terrible ending, there was chaos going on.
Michael wanted to see the documentary, they wouldn’t show it to him, and a couple of days later, I got 1000 pounds, which is about $1700, which I immediately donated to London zoo because Michael wanted to go to the zoo and couldn’t make it.
They, in my estimation, the tv station, sold that documentary for over 10 million pounds, which is about $15 million.
I immediately, when I heard that, I instructed my attorneys to fight with that tv station, and, at least, get a percentage for sick children, and I managed to do that. So, whatever happened, and whatever will happen, at least there will be many, many sick kids that will benefit from that documentary, because at the end of this month, they have to send me a check, which, obviously, and immediately, I will distribute to charities. The bulk of the money will go to children with AIDS."
Source: Awaiting source info