I can't wait to introduce the world to "My Friend Michael"


LIFELONG FRIEND OF MICHAEL JACKSON, FRANK CASCIO,
TO PUBLISH “MY FRIEND MICHAEL” WITH WILLIAM MORROW

Most Candid, Detailed Portrait of Pop Icon to Include
Many Never-Before-Seen Photos


New York, NY (January 25, 2011) – William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publisher today announced an agreement to publish the memoir MY FRIEND MICHAEL: Growing Up with the King of Pop by producer and lifelong Jackson friend, Frank Cascio.

The memoir, scheduled for Fall 2011, will chronicle Cascio’s relationship with Michael Jackson over 25 years and reveal the inside, behind-the-scenes story of the Michael that Cascio knew as the performer’s friend and closest confidante, offering the most candid, moving, and detailed portrait of the pop icon. The book will also include photos never before seen by the public.

Cascio intends to dedicate a portion of his proceeds from the book to charities benefiting children around the world. He plans to start with an organization that has been building housing, schools and orphanages in Haiti since the devastating earthquake that left many children without families. Details of his plans will be announced in the coming months.

Acquiring editor Matt Harper says “For more than 25 years, Frank was fortunate enough to be one of the few people that Michael Jackson chose to have around him. In that time he witnessed many of the singer’s most private and public moments firsthand, and with this book, Frank will share a side of Michael that only a handful of people have seen--a side that will set the record straight and change how people think about this often misunderstood icon.”

In MY FRIEND MICHAEL, Cascio tells the full story of his life with Michael, offering an uplifting and definitive account of the superstar’s life from someone who lived it alongside him during the most controversial times of Michael’s life. What emerges is an emotional new side of the “King of Pop,”––a human one that was at times unremarkably average but also terribly scarred by his life in the spotlight both on and off the stage. Packed with never-before-seen photos, amazingly insightful revelations, personal anecdotes, and private moments that are essential for every Michael Jackson fan, this book is a treasury of Michael Jackson lore, one that both celebrates his life and presents him as the special person that he really was.

World Rights to the book were acquired by William Morrow Senior Editor, Matt Harper from Matthew Guma of the Guma Agency.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Frank Cascio, an entrepreneur and producer who splits his time between New York, Los Angeles, and Germany, knew Michael Jackson for more than 25 years, including serving as his personal manager for nearly a decade from the 90's into the '00's . During that time, Cascio developed and co-produced “The Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Celebration, Madison Square Garden,” was co-producer and creative director of “The Michael Jackson Interview: Footage You Were Never Meant to See,” executive producer and creative director in collaboration with Brett Ratner on “Michael Jackson Private Home Movies,” which aired on Fox in 2003.
Cascio is a co-founder and partner in the private equity platform, IMPERIAL™. Through this platform, he and his partners, entertainment attorney, Eric Lerner, and venture capitalist, Sean Koh, deploy strategic capital to their portfolio companies in the areas of film and television development and production, media, technology and music publishing.
He is also part of the music production trio DTC based in Berlin, Germany.
ABOUT HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS:
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com.

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