Slow adoption of VAT plan angers businesses

Member states criticised for not implementing refund procedure.

Businesses have sharply criticised EU member states for failing to act on an emergency proposal concerning refunds for value-added tax (VAT).

Businesses said that by failing to speedily adopt the proposal, presented by the European Commission on 15 July, governments had endangered companies’ cash flow at a time of economic crisis. The Commission proposed a six-month postponement to the deadline for businesses to submit refund requests for VAT incurred in 2009.

The Commission, and businesses, said that the postponement was essential because an EU-wide online system for filing VAT refund requests, launched on 1 January, was not working properly. The malfunctions have been attributed to poor and divergent implementation of the system by member states. The postponement, from 30 September to 31 March 2011, would have provided breathing space to fix the system, and ensured that businesses are paid what they are owed.

The Council of Ministers will discuss the proposal in detail on 20 September, with agreement to potentially follow before the end of the month.

Taking risks

The Council’s timetable has robbed the proposal of value, said Henk Wildeboer, the head of the VAT working group at BusinessEurope, the European employers’ organisation.

Businesses “could not take the risk” of waiting to see if member states accepted the Commission’s proposal, in case they then did not manage to get their refund requests in on time. As a result, he said, the “majority” of businesses will submit their claims before the end of September, so further overloading the malfunctioning electronic system.

EU agrees extra €10 million aid for Pakistan

Funds to help flood victims

The European Commission today (11 August) decided to provide €10 million in aid for victims of devastating floods in Pakistan. The aid comes on top of €30m in humanitarian assistance for civilians displaced by fighting between the government and the Taliban in Pakistan, allocated on 30 July.

The floods have affected close to 14m people in Pakistan, according to estimates by the United Nations. Kristalina Georgieva, the European commissioner for humanitarian aid, said that the figure could rise as the floods move toward the more densely populated south of the country. She said that close to 300,000 homes had been damaged and that around one-third of the country was flooded.

“First assessments show that the flood victims are in dire need of clean drinking water, shelter, food, non-food items like blankets and hygiene kits, and medical assistance,” Georgieva said. “Our additional emergency funds of €10 million will cover these needs through relief operations in all flood-affected areas in the country.”

Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said that the EU “stands ready to support Pakistan both in financial and political terms in dealing with the consequences of this terrible event”.

In all, the Commission has provided €111.25m in aid for victims of humanitarian crises in Pakistan over the past year, including the latest pledges.

Pakistan has requested the activation of the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism, which is co-ordinated by the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC). The MIC is sending a liaison officer to Pakistan to help co-ordinate the European response to the disaster, and several participating states have already pledged in-kind assistance through the mechanism. 

 

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Hunting criticism needs to be shot down

Malta’s spring hunting season is legal and well managed.

Caroline Muscat’s article on your pages (“Malta’s birds need greater protection,” 6-11 May), contains, in my view, many errors and misrepresentations.

I will restrict my comments to three main points.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) did not rule that “a spring hunt is illegal”. The court found against Malta for having infringed the conditions of spring-hunting derogations from 2004-07. The court, notwithstanding, found for Malta on the crucial principle that autumn hunting was not a satisfactory alternative to spring hunting.

In April this year, the European Commission, in informal discussions with the Maltese government, confirmed that the proposed opening of a spring-hunting season appeared to comply with the ECJ judgment. By this declaration the Commission admitted that a Maltese spring hunt is legal, and confirmed that future Maltese spring-hunting derogations are indeed possible.

Muscat asserts that the “Commission cannot expect much from Malta’s politicians”. What the Commission should or should not expect from Malta’s politicians is irrelevant. The ECJ’s ruling is binding on the Maltese government and the Commission. Despite being under no obligation, Malta’s prime minister took it upon himself to consult informally with the Commission before applying a spring-hunting derogation. Thus, this Maltese politician and his team adopted a procedure that was fair with regard to any expectations the Commission might have had.

Muscat concludes by declaring that “if it [the EU] does not act, the killing on one of Europe’s three principal migratory paths from Africa will continue”. Since hunting normally results in ‘killing’, this sounds like an indirect request to the Commission to ban hunting in Malta. Applying this logic, since hunting takes place even within the principal migratory paths, instead of picking only on Malta, the EU might just as well act against all its member states that allow hunting.

Secondly, in the central Mediterranean, the principal bird-migration path is the one between Cap Bon (Tunisia) and western Sicily (Italy). This is approximately 240 kilometres north-west of Malta. The main migratory paths for the common quail – one of the species hunted under derogation in spring – indicated in the ‘European Union management plan 2009-11: Common quail (Coturnix coturnix)’ indicates this point perfectly.

Mark Mifsud Bonnici

St Hubert Hunters#

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A special relationship

Barroso calls for “a new Atlanticism”.

José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, has called for a “new Atlanticism” to replace “traditional Atlanticism”. Speaking at the Brussels Forum, a sort of Davos for political leaders (minus the snow and mountains), Barroso said that the new relationship should be based on results rather than processes.

“That means making our summits much more efficient and results-oriented, and occasions for a high-level, less scripted, strategic dialogue between leaders,” he told his audience, which included a few senior US officials (although not Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state).

“In any event, we need to be guided by two principles: strategic priorities over endless lists of issues, and substance over process. The summits must be agenda-setting and decision-making events.”

Just in case anyone had missed the point, the Brussels Forum helpfully explained in a press release that Barroso’s statement was “a nod to an EU-US summit that was postponed by President Barack Obama”.

Jamie O’Hara doesn’t think Jack Grealish’s “embarrassing” apology was enough after he flouted coronavirus lockdown rules.

The midfielder said in a video message on Twitter he is “deeply embarrassed” after he “stupidly agreed” to go to a friend’s house at the weekend.

However, former Tottenham midfielder O’Hara doesn’t think Grealish went far enough and has encouraged the Aston Villa captain to say “sorry”.

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GOSSIP: Man Utd may turn to Maddison; Bellingham move in doubt

“I think it’s completely idiotic behaviour from him, and I’m really disappointed in him because I’ve been his biggest fan this season,” O’Hara told talkSPORT.

“I thought he was over all that stupidity of when he was young.

“What I can’t understand is his thought process in doing it. He’s a role model, he’s captain of Aston Villa, he’s got the world at his feet at the minute and he decides to go round Ross McCormack’s flat.

 

“As well, no one has talked about Ross, who is a complete idiot for throwing a party during the lockdown and inviting Jack Grealish – just because your career has gone down the pan, now you’re going to bring Jack Grealish into it?

“So he’s an idiot, but also Jack should not be leaving his house.

“We all want to go out and enjoy ourselves, but we can’t. People are dying and NHS workers on the frontline are working tirelessly hard to keep people alive, and then you’ve got people like Jack Grealish who are flaunting the rules to go out and have a party until 8am in the morning.

“It’s ridiculous! Mate, you’re probably on 50,000-a-week, go and sit in your nice big house in Birmingham! Just relax chill out and focus on what you’ve done this season and how good you’ve been.

“His apology, for me, is embarrassing

“He actually hasn’t said sorry. He’s just said he’s embarrassed, well of course you’re embarrassed, you’ve embarrassed yourself because you got caught!

“I just think it was a ridiculous statement to put out, a ridiculous act, and not once had he mentioned the NHS staff in his apology, because they are the people who are suffering and struggling with this virus and it was a selfish statement he put out.”

 

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Thanks for your mails. Keep them coming to [email protected]…

 

What to do with the season
Clickbait in that title. There is no fair and simple answer to this problem. People have written in with completely different solutions, usually under the auspices of ‘this is the only fair so and so…’ or ‘the only fair way to do whatsitcalled…’. Look – we cannot just Get Coronovirus Done and the simplistic belief that there is a fair and simple answer to this, and to complicated issues in general, is a bad place to start.

There are no experts we can turn to on this (even Michael Gove seems to be interested in experts again) and some people will be annoyed by whatever happens. The only guaranteed outcome is lawyers getting richer and some people being annoyed.

So as there is no fair or simple answer, the question becomes what is a good way of trying to make this decision? When I was 9, ‘it was funny’ was a good enough explanation for doing anything and I see no reason why that should change. Now, I think it would be absolutely hilarious to deny Liverpool the title. Fair? No. Hilarious? Absolutely. The fact that sport is entertainment has been brought into sharp focus recently so that being the most entertaining option for me it is also the best one. I understand there are good reasons why this is not the case, but there is no solution, no option where everyone goes ‘OK – that’s fine’.

There are plenty of clubs who have had opportunities to do things that they would really, really, really have loved to do taken away from them through no fault of their own. Ironically a club in the same city as the champions elect had exactly this with Everton being denied a very good chance of being European champions during the 80s. That would make it even more funny. So scrap the season. Void it. Pretend it never happened. It’d make me laugh, and that’s the best reason to do anything at the moment.
Andreas Hunter, St Albans

 

…Look this talk of voiding season ,is just simply vile and besides the possible and quite frankly unfulfilling banter some might get of claiming Liverpool didn’t win the league this is not worth it .The only thing worse than voiding is the even more ridiculous notion of ,resetting the season and starting from scratch (this comes from the brain trust, that is urghhh….. Richard Keys ).Let’s put this into perspective, would anyone be having this conversation, if it was the season Leicester won it.

If we are being honest how many teams does voiding this year really help at this stage

Liverpool -Hell no ,literally one win away (if Man city fail to win their game in hand ) from the first title in 30 years .
Man CIty – there is still a chance of another 2nd class treble.They don’t get to give Davidl Silva a proper goodbye.There is a European ban looming.

Leicester and Sheffield – They would be losing almost certain European football , and let’s not forget they are both, still in the FA cup.Will there techniques be as effective next if there is a restart.

Utd _Still in 2 competitions besides , With a run of games that could end the Ole/Poch Debate.
Chelsea – Would maybe benefit from the league stopping now and being awarded 4th,Voiding would raise questions as to whether they are banned,

Wolves – You really want them to accept a voided season with champions league through the league or an actual european trophy they’ve been chasing since the Spanish?Portugese inqusition still avaialble.

Spurs and Arsenal probably the only 2 in the top 10 ,capable of benefiting from a from void football perspective (although top 4 is still possible) ,Then again they don’t get paid if their is no football, so it’s a catch 22.Need to rebuild so need this season to finish so they can rebuild, pay for the stadium/Pepe.

Burnley, Southampton -Secure for another season ,and can secure much needed revenue by ending the season.

Newcastle -See above, but with an FA cup quarter final for the first time this century.

West Ham – Fine voiding might mean no relegation and another crack at the big time but would you really trust the two and a half Davids and Ms Brady not to f..k it up , They botched Fornals for crying out loud.

others- there is a chance you will survive anyway ,if you’re that scared and unsporting to use this to avoid relegation ,you shouldn’t be a premiership side to begin with .

OK so mainly the beneficiaries, are the 6 teams at the bottom (including West ham). However ,is there any of them you wouldn’t trade ,for the opportunity to see Bielsa and Mad Slaven back in the premiership next season. I think not . There is a quarter of the season left lets try and get it sorted once it’s humanly possible and let next year take of itself .

By the way this may be unpopular , but as soon as possible, even if behind closed doors football needs to comeback ,even if it’s for the general mental health people, are licking toilets and doing tik tok challenges for Christ sake . We can start with, the 2 remaining games of week 29 and the FA cup as test cases, just to see the impact on the essential services, before moving forward.
Roode, MUFC

 

…appreciate you’ve got everyone sticking their two pence into this, but I have another solution to consider.

Postpone all games now for the 19/21.

Wait for the curve to pass and commence the 20/21 season as originally intended. God willing we’ll be over this by then.

Prioritise the first 10 fixtures of the 20/21 season as being the postponed games of the previous season.

Play normally the away and home fixtures as per the 19/20 fixture list, but each of these games counts for double.
The results are applicable to both the 19/20 season and the 20/21 season.

It solves the logistical nightmare of rearranging games out of the normal schedule, it means that the 19/20 season can be concluded pre Christmas, we are not putting any more strain on players trying to cram in fixtures and the 20/21 season runs as normal. This solution sorts out the 19/20 season with least disruption.

Liverpool could be crowned winners in 2020, and 2021 in theory!

This would also have to make sense from a relegation/promotion perspective too – so why don’t we delay relegations and promotions until a full season is run in 20/21. There would have to be no promotions and relegation in that season. At the start of the 21/22 season, the promotion candidates get an automatic promotion based on their 19/20 finishing positions.

In any solution, there are going to be clubs and fans that are hard done by…. I just think this is an alternative solution which causes least disruption. But I’d be interested to hear the view of fans at the bottom of the table or facing promotion from the Championship?

regards
Nathan Birch

 

…Andy (MUFC) makes a strong point on the reason not to void the next season of football, something i’d suggested in an earlier mailbox. But some of the points made gave me reason to re-evaluate and refine my proposal to hopefully seem like a more sensible person.

So, he’s spot on that voiding a round of 38 fixtures compared to 8 or 9 does seem extreme. But that then got me thinking and Andy gets into this point himself a little bit… We’re surely evaluating the concept of a season purely on time e.g. It happens annually rather than, as his point suggests, that it is a ’round of fixtures’. So actually, we don’t need to void the next season, we’re just deferring it to a later time and moving away from this concept of August to May being a season (for now) but the round of fixtures itself being the season. Maybe a bit more like how America treats the NFL season and having a super bowl 50 for example – this is just PL-17, the next is PL-18 and so on (I appreciate that football is bigger than just the premier league but it’s easily applied to all leagues/tiers).

I also agree, with no guarantee on normality for an undetermined period of time, why cancel a season midway, to potentially cancel another season midway if something happens again, and so on? But not sure if trying to bring it back in line with the current calendar structure over the next few years is a good or bad thing as we’ve had years of grumbles in the English game about the football calendar, here’s the opportunity to suggest and implement something better.

I’m not 100% sure on the scrapping of cups, which can be a valuable source of revenue for teams through the leagues.

And while having not considered player contracts at all, i’m sure there are many legal reasons and bosman like challenges that could be raised sothe ideas muted by Andy couldn’t be done but coming full circle to my original point – maybe contracts based on seasons work more practically rather than contracts based on time ie years?

So a shout out to Andy. I might be wrong, he might be wrong, we all might be wrong with what we suggest, but we’re all on the same page in wanting to get the game we love back to some sort of normality when it’s safe and right to do so.
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Matt (hoping to continue my 100% mailbox strike rate)

 

…There have been many emails on the subject, including my own, but the simple truth is that the Premier League should do everything and anything within its power to play the outstanding games. To void the season rewards the losers, and in any sporting context that cannot be acceptable.
Rob

 

…Reading today that the premier league would lose £1.2bn if they void the season versus around £200m if they finish it behind closed doors.

I don’t think you can strictly cancel next season either because teams have contracts with players which were based on generating a certain amount of revenue. If we cancel an entire season it makes it tricky for them to remain solvent.

That said, could we shorten next season by cancelling all the cup competitions? I appreciate that this might hurt the lower leagues more but it would save most teams around 4 weekends. This would mean the season could start up to 6 weeks later if we also bin the winter break.

We could also cancel all international friendlies which might save another 6 weeks and suddenly we have until the end of September to finish the current season and next season could start at the end of October giving the players a month too.

The season basically stopped at the end of March so I think it only needs 2 months to finish so as long as it starts by the start of August it might just be ok.
Minty, LFC

 

…Lots of views recently as to whether this season should be declared void, whether next season should be binned in order to finish this season, and whether rounds of penalties, quarantined squads or rock-paper-scissor might offer an agreeable way forward (in either direction).

Given the circumstances no-one, in reality, has a clue how things will work out. The rules around voiding a season are far from clear, and – having seen the breadth of views in the mailbox in recent days – any decision seems destined to disappoint large sections of the audience.

But, in these serious and unprecedented social circumstances, we may be about to see the whole of the 2019/2020 season disallowed – or perhaps not – by persons unknown, applying mysterious rules, in a mysterious room hidden far from view.

It’s a whole world of meta.
Stuart, THFC

 

…Today it was suggested in one of your articles that the 2021 season should suffer but this one has to be completed. (Namely “Voiding the premier league season, this would be sacrilege”)

For me an obvious solution is to complete this season and the Champions League by the end of november with the 2021 season having teams only play each other once.

If the 2021 season was played on neutral grounds with only 19 neutral games per team then all is fair.
The champions league for 2021 could be a simple knock out , like old times ,eliminating the groups system to reduce the amount of matches and could also be on neutral grounds as one match instead of two legs if need be.

So how do I get my suggestion to the people who makes these vital sporting decisions before it’s to late and they do something ridiculous?
Eamon in Ireland

 

Points for staying home
How about, to emphasise the critical importance of social distancing, the Premier League abandons the current league standing for 2020 and decides the season’s rankings using a complex scoring algorithm, based on the ability of each team’s players to STAY THE F**K AT HOME for the next few weeks.

Not sure about the detail here, but maybe every players earns their team 3 point if they successfully stay home for 24 hours; 1 point if they only go out to Tesco for some bog roll (with VAR on hand to check in case they stray closer than 2m to any other customer); and points deducted for flouting the government advice like some selfish nobhead.

Boring James Milner would therefore probably lead Liverpool to the title they really deserve by spending April to June tending to his vegetable patch or suchlike, while Aston Villa are currently on course for relegation thanks to captain fantastic Jack Grealish and his 4am hi-jinks.
Chris Bridgeman, Kingston upon Thames

 

The goon solution
Gent from Tirana’s suggestion that we go “straight to penalties” is absolutely ridiculous and it would taint this and next season as a
farce. I propose something much more logical and reasonable, borrowed from Ice Hockey (thanks Canada).

Every team will pick a “Designated Goon” (DG). The matches will start XI on XI, but in reality, in the center of the pitch will be the two side’s DG’s. The DG’s will circle each other, with deep frowns on their faces, throw down their beer bottles and fight. The first DG to pull the other DG’s shirt over his head, or knock him off his feet, wins the match for his side.

I reckon we could wrap up the season in about 3 weeks, depending on Goon availability…
Ian, LFC Hartford, CT (forever home of The Whale) USA

 

Under-capped? Over-capped…
Saw the ‘Woefully Undercapped XI’ and thought I’d see if I could find a few who maybe received rather generous amount of caps compared to their ability!

I’m sure there will be plenty of dissenters, but here goes:

GK: Pickford, Jordan (24 caps) – Maybe a little harsh, but there aren’t actually that many GK’s who been capped over ten times for England. When you look back at some of the talent we’ve had in this position over the years, Pickford is underwhelming at the least.

DR: Jones, Phil (27) – Not technically a right back, but Jones is bad enough to appear anywhere across this back line, and I’m sure he was selected as back-up right back at a tournament in the not too distant past.

DL: Neville, Phil (59) – Matching Phils at full back then. Not a terrible player, and will probably be remembered fondly by Mancunians and Evertonians alike, but not an International standard player. At least 50 of those caps were awarded when he was the only man in the country who could kick with his left foot a bit.

DC: Stones, John (39) – Clearly has some ability but unsure he has ever really convinced as a defender. Plenty of mistakes in this back line!

DC: Smalling, Chris (31) – Remember that time when we had Terry, Ferdinand, Carragher, King & Woodgate all fighting for CB spots? Smalling would not have received a cap in that era let alone 31.

MR: Lingard, Jesse (24) – Too obvious really. Would be surprised if he adds many more caps to his tally, but then Southgate seems to like him so you never know.

ML: Downing, Stewart (35) – Honest enough player, but again, not up to the standard you would expect form an International winger.

MC: Dier, Eric (40) – Even personal fan-club Jose is getting fed up with him. Does anyone know what he actually does?

MC: Palmer, Carlton (18) – Makes Dier look like a flair player. Owes his England caps to Graham Taylor’s odd fascination with him.

ST: Heskey, Emile (62) – Lovely chap but, aside from one season at Liverpool, never scored anywhere near enough goals. Often struggled to trap a bag of cement too. Pretty much only got so many caps because Michael Owen said he liked to play with Heskey!

ST: Welbeck, Danny (42) – An odd one as he actually has 16 goals in his 42 caps which is none too shabby. However, he really shouldn’t have earned that many caps, underwhelming at Utd & Arsenal.
Vinny (LFC) Colchester 

 

Not now, Johnny
A little disappointed at Jonny Nic taking the current Covid19 situation to bang the “football for free to the masses” drum.

The state are spending ridiculous amounts of money at the moment trying to support the health and financial welfare of the residents of the UK. This is the right thing to do and we, as tax payers, will no doubt feel the long term pain for this investment.

This is not the right time to suggest the Government should use tax payers money to pay for TV football broadcasting rights. It is not “free money” and would be better spent elsewhere. May I introduce Jonny to a concept called economics that exists outside the bubble of football.
Brian (BRFC)

 

Longing for VAR arguments
Just caught up on the last two weeks of mailbox entries. Or perhaps more accurately, last two weeks of Degrees of Separation and Topical XI’s.

…oh what I would give to go back to reading long missives on VAR.

Oliver (not here just to complain; will write in with actual contributions this week, I promise) Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland

The F365 Show is on hiatus until the football returns. Subscribe now ready for its glorious comeback. In the meantime, listen to the latest episode of Planet Football’s 2000s podcast, The Broken Metatarsal.

Tottenham striker Harry Kane would “be stupid not to go” if Liverpool or Manchester City made an offer, according to Chris Sutton.

The England international insisted on Sunday night that he will not simply stay at Tottenham “for the sake of it” if he doesn’t think the club is heading in the right direction.

Spurs reached the Champions League final last season but are currently eighth in the Premier League as they seem to have taken a step back this term.

TOP TEN players who left their boyhood clubs to win trophies

“I can understand the predicament he is in,” Sutton told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“But if he wants to win the Premier League, then he should move on and go to a club who have better chance of winning it than Spurs do.

“We all understand he wants to win something. So if he wants to win something, I wouldn’t begrudge him a move.

“Spurs are a brilliant club, but at this moment in time they are way behind the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City.

“If one of those clubs came in for him, if you were Harry Kane you would be be stupid not to go.”

Fellow pundit Ian Wright expects Kane to stay around for at least another year now Jose Mourinho is in charge.

“Now they have a manager who is a notorious winner of trophies,” said Wright.

“Kane did say ‘next year will be the first chance the gaffer will have to bed his values into the team’.

“That says to me he is somebody who is already thinking of next year, so he’s not going anywhere.

“I’d give this manager a chance with his pre-season, do next season and see where it goes. Because from when he made his debut up to now, I think he has given them everything he can.

“If nothing happens and Harry Kane decides to leave then you have you have to say ‘well, he’s under Mourinho, nothing has changed’. He wants to win medals.

“You can’t have that kind of ability, that kind of goalscorer who is able to win matches, and not win anything. You can’t.”

 

The F365 Show is on hiatus until the football returns. Subscribe now ready for its glorious comeback. In the meantime, listen to the latest episode of Planet Football’s 2000s podcast, The Broken Metatarsal.

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The Premier League are reportedly working on a ridiculously ambitious plan to resume the season in early May in order to be finished by mid-July and avoid up to £762m in TV refunds.

There was talk on Monday of playing the games through June and July and keeping footballers and staff in ‘isolation camps’, but these new reports in the Daily Mail suggest there is an appetite for an even earlier start despite the country being in lockdown.

The Government, public health bodies and the PFA would have to agree to the ambitious plans, which would give footballers almost no time to regain match fitness; no club is currently training.

According to this latest report: ‘A restart in May is seen as vital as that is when the clubs are due to receive their final tranche of television money for the season, without which many will struggle to pay the players’ wages.’

There are discussions about possible rule changes, including the waiving of regulations about fielding weakened teams as key players could be ruled out by coronavirus. There could also be an argument for temporarily increasing squad sizes so recalled loan players could also feature.

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If the government do give this scheme the go-ahead, matches would be staged with a skeleton broadcasting crew, minimal security and no crowd or media. It would purely be a game of football to fulfil fixtures and avoid clubs getting into financial difficulties.

 

Amie de longue date de Bambi, Elizabeth Taylor peine à se remettre de la mort de Michael Jackson

Elizabeth Taylor a été hospitalisée mardi 14 juillet à Los Angeles mais sur son Twitter, la star de 77 ans avait prévenu ses fans et ses proches: «Je veux que vous sachiez, mes amis, que je serai hospitalisée mercredi 15 ou jeudi 16 juillet 2009 pour terminer une série d’examens».

Si son agent dément un quelconque lien avec la mort de Michael Jackson, la chroniqueuse Cindy Adams, très amie avec la comédienne, affirme le contraire dans les colonnes du New York Post: «elle est épuisée, affaiblie et n’a pas arrêtée de pleurer. Avec Michael, ils étaient vraiment très proches». Elizabeth Taylor s’apprêtait à quitter les Etats-Unis pour Londres, où le King of Pop devait démarrer sa tournée This Is It ce lundi 13 juillet, lorsqu’elle a appris son décès brutal, le 25 juin dernier. Depuis, l’ex-Célopâtre, elle-même très affaiblie par une scoliose qui l’obligeait à se déplacer souvent en chaise roulante, était inconsolable.

Déjà, la semaine dernière, Liz Taylor avait surpris en ne se rendant à l’immense cérémonie qui s’est déroulé au Staples Center. Sur Twitter, toujours, elle avait expliqué ne pas vouloir participer à un hommage public, affirmant qu’elle n’était pas certaine de trouver les mots pour cet ami si cher. « Il vivra éternellement dans mon coeur mais ce n’est pas assez. Ma vie est tellement vide désormais. Personne ne peut imaginer à quel point nous nous aimions. »

La disparition du King of Pop l’a-t-elle brisée au point de l’envoyer à l’hôpital? Peut-être. Quoiqu’il en soit, Liz Taylor a tout de même pris le temps de tordre le cou aux rumeurs de suicide qui couraient sur son compte.

Mercredi 15 juillet 2009

Michael Jackson sera au Grand Rex, à Paris, fin août! La salle de cinéma a l’écran vraiment géant va projeter les video clips de la star et un documentaire exclusif!

King Of Clip! Tel est le titre choisi par les organisateurs d’une mega-soirée organisée au Grand Rex en l’honneur de Michael Jackson, le samedi 29 août mais surtout pour le plus grand plaisir de ses fans ou de ceux qui voudraient mieux le connaître. Et pourquoi le 29 août? Ce n’est pas un hasard. Car ce 29 août 2009, Michael Jackson aurait fêté ses 51 ans si son coeur n’avait pas décidé de dire « stop » le 25 juin dernier.

C’est un monument de l’histoire du clip vidéo qui va envahir le plus grand écran d’Europe, celui du Grand Rex, une vraie et belle salle qui se dresse toujours aussi fièrement au numéro 1 du boulevard Poissonnière, dans le 2e arrondissement de Paris. L’intégrale des vidéos de Michael Jackson y sera projetée sur l’initiative de M6 Evénements et du Festival International Des Arts Du Clip. Au programme, dès 21h, des clips et encore des clips, bien sûr.

Mais pas seulement. On nous promet les interventions de foule d’invités et un événement pour tous ceux qui s’intéressent de près ou de loin à Bambi. Il s’agira d’un documentaire inédit de 52 minutes! Une véritable célébration sur laquelle veillera le double de cire de Michael Jackson, empruntée au tout proche Musée Grévin. Et, en parlant d’exposition, des photos inédites de ses trois dernières tournées seront présentées lors de cette soirée vraiment spéciale à laquelle sera associé le fan club français de Michael Jackson.

Et comme le livre Guiness Des Records le note, Thriller est le titre le plus vendu dans le monde, avec au minimum 65 millions de copies. C’est également le premier clip (réalisé par John Landis, pour mémoire) diffusé sur MTV mettant en scène un Noir. Résultat: quatorze minutes de frissons et de bonheur. Inoubliable. Mais, on se le repasserait quand même en boucle… Alors, Gala.fr vous propose de revoir ses plus grands clips, ici, en un simple clic!

J.-F.T.

Mardi 4 août 2009

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