Miami Beach Reflections

Michael Jackson Vacations With Brett Ratner In Today’s Daily TwitPic

It’s been months now since the untimely passing of Michael Jackson. Yet somehow, he remains very much a part of the public consciousness. Part of that is the documentary, “Michael Jackson’s This Is It,” which collects the pop legend’s final rehearsal footage. Not only did the release trigger the flood of Jackson memorializing anew, the doc itself notably doesn’t ever explicitly say that he’s left us. What’s interesting about all of the personal remembrances to have surface is the picture that they paint. Jackson was famously reclusive in his later years, trailed by controversy and somehow standing apart from the cult of celebrity, even as he sat at its pinnacle. Only through the recent doc and the memories of his family and friends are we now getting a picture of the man behind all of that mystery. Brett Ratner is one of those people Jackson was close with, and he’s been sharing generously on Twitter for some time. The latest, today’s Daily TwitPic shows us the “Rush Hour” director with Michael, Chris Tucker and Jackson friend Al Malnik in Acapulco for Ratner’s birthday.

TMZ Acquires Stolen Facebook Photos of Michael Jackson

Al Malnik, Michael Jackson’s friend and mentor from Florida, is not happy this morning with TMZ.



The pay-for-play website has published personal photographs belonging to Malnik and his wife, Nancy, of Michael, his three kids, the Malniks and friends that were taken about five or six years ago.

Nancy Malnik tells me she posted the photographs to friends only, with all the restrictions necessary, on her Facebook page. One of her 200 or so Facebook “friends” evidently copied 20 of the pictures and sold them to TMZ without permission.



“I can’t believe it,” Nancy Malnik told me this morning. “I’ve looked through the list and can’t figure out who would do such a thing.”



Meantime, Al Malnik cleared up for me a confusion that’s been out in the media. He does not have a 2004 will from Michael Jackson and was never appointed his executor. Michael simply asked him if he’d be the executor of his will. “But I never heard anything about it again,” Malnik told me. Malnik did sign a notarized agreement making him godfather to Michael’s third child, Prince Michael II aka Blanket.

As far as TMZ is concerned, they’re on notice for publishing purloined photos.