Let's Get It On

In a slow news period while waiting for info on Joan Rivers' will, let's keep it in the estate arena but mix it with pop music. The estate of Marvin Gaye is battling Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over whether "Blurred Lines" plagiarized Gaye's song "Got To Give It Up."  The case is premised on comments Thicke made that "Got To Give It Up" was one of his all time favorite songs and that he wanted to make a song like it.   After taking credit for "Blurred Lines" in interviews, in his deposition under oath Thicke later pleaded drug and alcohol abuse during the creation of "Blurred Lines" and deferred credit to Pharrell Williams as the primary songwriter.  He and Williams later sued Gaye's estate in a declaratory judgment action that they did not plagiarize the Gaye song.

Several points:

1.   Thicke and Williams should not have sued Gaye's estate.  They precipitated an unnecessary battle - if the estate thought the songs were identical, it could have sued them.

2.  I doubt Williams is feeling "Happy" after Thicke threw him under the bus after Williams gave Thicke the only reason people know him besides being the son of Alan Thicke.

3.  "Got To Give It Up" does not rank in my top 20 Gaye songs.  Thicke must have been drugged and drunk to say it is one of his all time favorites.

Blissful Ignorance?

The will of Andrew Madoff, son of Ponzi schemer Bernie, was admitted to probate court last week.  The will reportedly left his personal property valued at $11.5 million to his 2 daughters.  He left one third of  his $4.5 million of real estate to his estranged wife, and the remaining 2/3 of it  to a trust for his long time girlfriend.   His girlfriend is to receive $50,000 per month for the rest of her life.  Notably, his wife withdrew her 5+ year old divorce filing 6 months ago.  Andrew long maintained he was unaware of his father's activities even though he worked for his father's firm.

Many points:

1.  It was smart, if not cynical and financially calculating, of his wife to withdraw her divorce complaint prior to his death because assets pass to a spouse free of federal estate taxes.

2.  I suspect that he also has a funded trust because there is no way to pay his girlfriend $50K monthly for the rest of her life based on a trust with $3 million principal ($2 million after estate taxes).

3.  If there is a funded trust, it behooves the question why these $16 million of assets were not transferred to the trust prior to his death and why the will did not simply pour all assets into the trust and keep these provisions from the public eye.

4.  The karma at work in Bernie Madoff;s life is almost commensurate with the amount of money he stole - reported to the feds by the sons he protected from his scheme, estranged from them afterwards, and now both of them dead before the age of 50 while he is alive in prison at 76.      Almost commensurate.