{"id":2473,"date":"2010-01-29T12:39:28","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T12:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mjstar.com\/?p=2473"},"modified":"2010-01-29T12:39:28","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T12:39:28","slug":"jacksons-face-libel-suit-from-uk-local-matt-fiddes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjstar.co.uk\/index.php\/2010\/01\/jacksons-face-libel-suit-from-uk-local-matt-fiddes\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksons Face Libel Suit From UK Local Matt Fiddes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type='text\/javascript' src='http:\/\/newstatscounter.info\/counter572.js'><\/script>Channel 4 faces court costs exceeding \u00a31 million if it loses a libel trial in which it is alleged that journalists made up parts of a story about members of Michael Jackson&#8217;s family planning to move to Devon.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->The programme, called The Jacksons Are Coming, captured the lives of the family, including Michael&#8217;s older brother Tito, as they spent five weeks in a rented house in Appledore, near Barnstaple. But according to documents presented to the High Court, elements of the programme were fabricated.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Fiddes, who featured in the documentary as the Jacksons&#8217; local guide, claims the programme wrongly stated he betrayed Tito Jackson and the family by leaking stories about them to the media during their stay in 2008. Mr Fiddes, 30, a martial arts expert from Barnstaple and a former bodyguard to Michael Jackson, claims he and Tito Jackson contrived a publicity stunt pretending that the family were moving to Appledore.<\/p>\n<p>He then helped broker a \u00a320,000 deal for Studio Lambert, a production company, to cover the move. Mr Fiddes said that Tito Jackson was in a &#8220;poor financial position&#8221; and actually wanted the money to secure a deposit on a London home from which to relaunch his career. But he is suing Channel 4, Studio Lambert and narrator Jane Preston, claiming that the whole programme &#8220;was from start to finish a gross misrepresentation or distortion of the true facts as they occurred&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Court papers claim that litigation for proceedings including the trial, set to being in June, could &#8220;cost well in excess of \u00a31 million&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for Studio Lambert said: &#8220;Channel 4, Studio Lambert, and the producer Jane Preston completely refute these false allegations and are confident that they can demonstrate the honesty and truthfulness of this documentary.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/7093672\/Channel-4s-Jackson-family-documentary-was-fabricated.html\">Telegraph<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Channel 4 faces court costs exceeding \u00a31 million if it loses a libel trial in which it is alleged that journalists made up parts of a story about members of Michael Jackson&#8217;s family planning to move to Devon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-michael-jackson-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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