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7 articles from 2007

6 August 2007 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Late funk legend James Brown is the father of two more children, DNA testing has confirmed, Dozens of people underwent foolproof DNA analysis after claiming to be the offspring of the late singer - and now Brown's attorney and longtime friend Buddy Dallas has confirmed that two of the results came back positive. Although he refuses to identify the names of the star's new-found children, LaRhonda Pettit has gone public with the results of her test - a 99.99 per cent probability she is the soul man's daughter. Pettit - the spitting image of the soul legend - claims that Brown picked out her mother from the audience at a Los Angeles gig in the early 1960s, and she soon became the singer's girlfriend, often ironing his shirts before his shows. Pettit met Brown briefly in Texas in 2003, but says he refused to acknowledge she was his daughter. She says, "I was angry that he was out there making all this money, and he wasn't doing anything for my mother and me... I could have had a better life." But the single mom also claims she has mixed feelings about her father, "I love my daddy. When I hear my daddy's music, it just freezes me." The disabled former flight attendant is also hoping for a windfall inheritance from her late father, which she will use to fund her two daughters' education. The identity of the second confirmed child has not been revealed. Brown passed away last year, aged 73, from heart failure.

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19 April 2007 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Late funk legend James Brown's estate owes $70,000 in funeral costs. The C.A. Reid Funeral Home in Augusta, Georgia arranged the singer's funeral and cared for his body from his December 25 death up until its March burial at Brown's daughter Deanna Brown Thomas's home in Beech Island. Charles Reid, manager of the funeral home, says, "I'm just waiting on them to get some of this mess straightened out. I really haven't pushed the issue, even though I'd like to have my money." Buddy Dallas, Brown's adviser and trustee of his estate, responds, "It was the children that ran up a funeral bill of over $150,000, not the trustees. We've done our very best to do what we could to accommodate the creditors. There's no great big pile of money or surplus of money just lying around. The trustees and the personal representatives are certainly not going to do anything - as much scrutiny as this has been given - improper, inappropriate and certainly not illegal." However, lawyers for Brown's six adult children, claim it's the trust's responsibility to pay for the funeral. Dallas claims the trustees mailed a check earlier this week to pay the funeral home bill. Brown died on Christmas Day from congestive heart failure.

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3 April 2007 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

A 19-year-old sexual harassment case filed against James Brown by his former publicist has been rejected by the US Supreme court. Jacque Hollander claims the late singer raped her at gunpoint in 1988. She alleges the incident caused her to develop the thyroid condition Grave's Disease. Hollander's claim for $106 million in punitive damages failed in 2005 when a federal judge ruled she had waited too long to file the case. The decision was upheld by an appeals court in 2006. The Supreme Court justices did not comment on the decision made yesterday. Hollander, 50, said after the hearing, "It hurts. This whole thing has hurt; 19 years of extreme hurt and pain. Unfortunately for this case, I think it was more about James Brown, the 'Godfather of Soul.'" Brown died on Christmas Day last year, age 73.

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9 March 2007 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Soul legend James Brown has yet to be laid to rest - 73 days after he died on Christmas Day. Brown's burial has been delayed by legal disputes and now a series of paternity claims are holding up the process while his trustees wait for DNA samples to be taken from his body - which is being kept in a climate-controlled undisclosed location, reports Tmz.com. Brown died on December 25 at the age of 73.

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19 January 2007 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

James Brown's partner Tomi Rae Hynie and five-year-old child were not named as beneficiaries in his will filed on Thursday in Georgia. The document, which was filed in Aiken County, names six children and calls for many household possessions to be divided among them. The bequest was signed 10 months before the birth of Brown's five-year-old son. The singer intentionally failed to provide for "any other relatives or persons whether claiming, or to claim, to be an heir of mine or not." Brown died of heart failure in an Atlanta hospital on Christmas morning at the age of 73. According to Brown's attorney and trustee Buddy Dallas, most of the singer's larger assets are in an irrevocable trust separate from his will. Brown's body remains sealed in a gold casket in a temperature controlled room at this home awaiting burial. Hynie's attorney, Robert Rosen, said on Wednesday he will sue and ask a court to rule Hynie was legally married Brown and is entitled to half his estate.

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9 January 2007 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Two-time Emmy Award winner Patricia Clarkson has been named the 2007 celebrity monarch for the Krewe Of Orpheus parade in New Orleans, Louisiana. A celebrity is chosen each year to lead the parade - founded by Harry Connick Jr. - and past monarchs have included Whoopi Goldberg, Glenn Close, Stevie Wonder, Toby Keith and James Brown. Clarkson and Connick Jr. are both natives of New Orleans. Krewe's captain Sonny Borey says, "As our city rebuilds and rediscovers itself, it could not be more fitting that Patricia Clarkson be honored by the Krewe Of Orpheus and our city." The Six Feet Under star will lead 30 floats in the parade, which is scheduled for February 19, one day before Mardi Gras celebrations on February 20.

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2 January 2007 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Thousands of fans paid their last respects to soul legend James Brown at the Apollo Theater in New York City Thursday, where he was lying in state. The star, who died on Christmas Day, was carried in a gold coffin through the streets of Harlem on a horse-drawn carriage while well-wishers danced and sang his hits in tribute to the singer. Inside the auditorium, fans marched past his casket on the stage where he made his 1956 debut. Brown wore a blue suit, white gloves and silver shoes. Brown's close friend Reverend Al Sharpton said, "This man stood for us, the common man. It was James Brown that with one song erased the word negro from our vocabulary forever and made us say it and say it loud, that we were black and we were proud. We didn't line these streets because he had hits. Plenty of people had hits but none got them on their own terms. He never bent, buckled or bowed. He never diluted his music." A private ceremony for family and friends followed in Brown's Augusta, Georgia hometown Friday before a public funeral service there on Saturday.

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7 articles from 2007