Michael Jackson's estate executors challenge his mother

Late Michael Jackson's estate executors have launched a legal battle against one of his mother's closest friends and business partners.

They have sent a "cease and desist" letter to Canadian entrepreneur Howard Mann, demanding that he stops exploiting King of Pop's image for profit.

"His day is coming. We will be taking the appropriate legal action against him," the Daily Express quoted estate attorney Howard Weitzman as saying.

The move to ban Mann, 38, from peddling Jackson memorabilia through his Vintage Pop company has enraged the singer's mother Katherine, who formed a partnership with him earlier this year.

He is helping to promote her lavish coffee table book Never Can Say Goodbye, which features previously unseen family photos, as well as a pop star's calendar.

Mann even managed to get the book mentioned on Oprah Winfrey's chatshow and Katherine, 80, who has sole custody of Michael's three children, insists she needs extra income to bolster her personal monthly cash allowance of 5,120 pounds from the estate.

The estate pays almost £50,000 a month to cover all expenses at Katherine and husband Joe's family home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino. This covers a housekeeper, two nannies and private tuition fees for Prince Michael, 13, Paris, 12, and Prince Michael II, known as Blanket, eight.

But Katherine told the Los Angeles Times in an interview: "I think I should be getting more. I'm not greedy like people say. It's need, not greed. I wish they would leave Howard alone and I wish they would leave me alone for working with him."
       
The Jackson family matriarch said she believed executors John Branca and John McClain are doing "a very good job" managing her son's multi-million dollar estate.

But her decision to support Mann, whom she describes as a "very good and honourable friend", is already causing a rift between her and the estate.

A source close to Katherine said: "With Howard, she is promoting a book and calendar that contain photos she owns. She is furious that the estate is trying to thwart her efforts to earn money by targeting Howard.

"She has been told independently that no one can legally stop her selling material that belongs to her," the source added.