Post by lenmac on Aug 10, 2006 23:05:17 GMT -5
Im not sure this is the right place for this, but i found it very interesting. Sorry for the length.
August 10,2006 -- Evening Standard Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge
THE McCARTNEY MINDER
The divorce of Sir Paul and Lady Heather Mills McCartney looks set to be the most incendiary of the year, with an estimated £825 million fortune to be divided, frayed emotions on both sides and a spiralling descent into acrimony. But behind the scenes a steely mind is orchestrating proceedings to make sure it all works out in Sir Paul's favour. John L. Eastman, brother of the late, beloved Linda McCartney - Sir Paul's soul mate for 29 years - and a brilliant legal brain, has been McCartney's lawyer and manager for nearly 40 years. In 1970 Eastman was instrumental in dissolving the Beatles, to Sir Paul's advantage, and ever since, no matter where Sir Paul's career has taken him, Eastman has been in the background pulling all the strings. It's no surprise then, that when it comes to his impending divorce, it will be Eastman overseeing the allocation of every last penny.
It's an ironic position. It was Eastman who was the first to accept his famous friend's new romance, sources say, and took Mills into the bosom of his family to the shock of McCartney's children. It was rumoured that the doomed second marriage in 2002 would take place at Eastman's mansion on Lily Pond Lane in the idyllic Long Island town of East Hampton, although Paul and Heather eventually chose the wildly grand Castle Leslie in County Monaghan, Ireland. Eastman, it was said, understood Sir Paul's decision to marry Heather, while his children could not. This was a sign of the men's lifelong loyalty to each other.
The Eastman family even provided Mills with the very thing that gave her public validation: her tireless and very public work for the Adopt-A-Minefield programme. It was Josephine Merrill Eastman, John's wife, who brought the campaign - a cause supported by Princess Diana - to the attention of Mills in 1999. Merrill Eastman sits on the board of the International Rescue Committee, a refugee aid organisation based in New York.
At her behest, Sir Paul and Heather Mills both became Adopt-A-Minefield Goodwill Ambassadors.
And now the patriarch of the Eastmans is to be the architect of the McCartney-Mills divorce (some friends even suggest John Eastman has been preparing for this moment since the wedding day), with Nicholas Mostyn QC, the £500-an-hour barrister, hired as court representative.
Very little is known about the Eastman family - they guard their privacy vigorously. Eastman hasn't granted a single interview during his lifetime and vows he never will. I wrote two letters to him, requesting a meeting. He phoned back promptly and said politely: 'You are very kind to write, but I just never talk to the press.' He prefers to remain in the shadows of his high-wattage clients: Sir Paul; the late artists, Willem de Kooning and Francis Bacon; Andrew Lloyd Webber; David Bowie; Billy Joel; and the estate of Tennessee Williams.
The pivotal point of his career came when he represented Paul McCartney during the Beatles' break-up in 1970. 'I had to put my entire reputation - which was zero - on the line,' Eastman told students at a New York University law school roundtable event in 2004. 'But I outworked and outthought the other side.' Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon signed with manager Allen Klein, Paul sided with Eastman and the Beatles were no longer.
In 1971, when Sir Paul filed a writ calling for the dissolution of the Beatles, it was Eastman who told the scruffy musician he had to wear a suit and tie to court. Eastman and his father won the case over a discrepancy in Klein's management fee. Klein later went to prison for two months for income tax evasion. Sir Paul had clearly chosen the better man. Eastman has said he will always 'fight the balance between corporations and artists'.
After graduating from NYU in 1964, Eastman started a small legal firm with his father Lee, who was already a prominent New York lawyer. Lee Eastman worked closely with de Kooning and was sometimes paid in artwork rather than cash.
Inside their 'boutique' law firm, sources say, it feels more like an affluent, art-filled home than an office.
A prominent lawyer in Manhattan has known of the father-and-son team for 30 years. 'They have a very interesting practice - it's run out of a townhouse.
They represented a number of renowned artists and have become quite wealthy over the years. They are very nice, extremely refined people.' As well as managing his clients, John Eastman has a variety of other interests. In 1997 he was elected to sit on the board of directors at the prestigious American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). 'Since his very first meeting, I have greatly appreciated his valuable contributions,' says Marilyn Bergman, the president of ASCAP. 'They come from a detailed music business knowledge and rich experience, clearly and succinctly communicated. He elicits great respect from all who know and work with him.' From 1995 until the present, Eastman has also been a director of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), where he advises on issues such as the protection of publishers' and musicians' copyrights, and efforts to reform music licensing.
He has been in charge of MPL (McCartney Productions Ltd) since 1975, the largest independent publisher in the world, which Eastman has described as 'an empire'. Together they buy music catalogues (Buddy Holly) and the rights to individual songs ('Blue Suede Shoes' by Carl Perkins). They also control the rights to A Chorus Line, Annie and Grease. These acquisitions mean there is a steady flow of royalties. McCartney himself, of course, still has pulling power - his 2005 tour grossed $77 million.
The Eastmans are one of New York's foremost families, although not, as has often been wrongly claimed, connected to the photographic empire Eastman Kodak. John Eastman's father was born Lee Epstein, the son of Louis and Della Epstein, but he changed his name after graduating from law school. He married Louise Linder from Cleveland, the heiress to the Linder departmentstore fortune, and besides John and Linda they had two other children.
Most of us think of Linda as the vegan, denimclad hippie and animal-rights protester who was happy to tour alongside the Beatles and sing backup in Wings, but her first job was as a receptionist for the society magazine, Town & Country, the perfect starter job for a girl who had had a privileged upscale childhood in the bosom of a wealthy and privileged family. Linda's elder brother John was born in 1937 (he turns 69 this month), and Linda four years later. They grew up in Scarsdale, a rich commuting suburb north of Manhattan - about a 30-minute train journey from Grand Central Station. The town has Tudorstyle architecture, million-dollar mansions and multiple country clubs and golf courses. Linda attended Fox Meadow School, before moving on to Scarsdale High School's class of 1959, which was followed by the exclusive Sarah Lawrence School in Bronxville (where Yoko Ono had previously been a student).
But when John was 24 and Linda was an 20-year-old art history student at the University of Arizona, their world was shattered by the death of Louise Eastman in a plane crash. Her mother's death affected Linda so much that she rushed into marriage with a geophysicist fellow student, John Melvin See Jr.
She once told an interviewer, 'My mother died in a plane crash and I got married. It was a mistake.' The marriage was short-lived and they had one daughter, Heather (whom Paul McCartney later adopted).
At 21, Linda moved with her child to New York.
Meanwhile, John Eastman was cutting his teeth as a lawyer in New York. He got his bachelor's degree from Stanford University in California and then went to NYU Law School, graduating in 1964. He married Josephine Merrill - who came from a prominent East Coast family - and they had four children.
They now have nine grandchildren. At his alma mater a few years ago, Eastman told the law school's aspiring attorneys, 'There is nothing duller than being an entertainment lawyer right now.' He acknowledged that he limited his work now to 'the greats only', but advised the students that 'people should know where you stand and what you stand for. People have to know what you are. Don't be afraid, don't get pushed around.' A colleague of Eastman points towards his battle with Apple Computer as a sign of this courage. The computer company shares the name of the Beatles' record label, Apple Corps, owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the estates of George Harrison and John Lennon, and Eastman and Apple Computer's CEO Steve Jobs have been in a dispute over the Apple logo. A judge ruled in May this year that the use of Apple Computer's logo on its iTunes music store - they control 80 per cent of online digital music sales - does not infringe on the Beatles' trademark. Apple Corps is currently challenging that decision.
As part of a $26 million, out-of-court agreement made in 1991, Apple Corps was granted rights over the use of the logo in musical contexts and Apple Computer was given the rights as part of its software industry. It was revealed during the trial that the Beatles' songs are being digitally remastered in preparation for release as digital downloads. The recent court appeal will delay this. 'John Eastman is prepared to stand up to Steve Jobs and that's no small thing,' says the source.
For a family so obsessed with its privacy, it was particularly painful to be embroiled in an ugly falling out last year. John Eastman's stepbrothers - Peter, Paul and Philip Sprayregen, the sons of Monique Eastman, Lee's second wife - sued members of his family after the sale of his father's art collection.
Monique died of cancer last year; Lee Eastman died in 1991. At Christie's in New York last November his paintings by Picasso, Matisse and, of course, Willem de Kooning fetched £27.5 million, with Stella McCartney sharing the proceeds with six of her relatives.
The Sprayregens claim that the art was wrongfully sold and the proceeds should have been shared with the estate of their mother. 'My mother was married to Lee Eastman for 30 years, nursing him while he had Parkinson's disease,' says Philip Sprayregen, talking for the first time about the case.
'There were many paintings that Lee gave her over the years. I was there when he gave her one by Motherwell. There was a Picasso that he gave her for her birthday.
Others were inscribed on the back "To Monique and Lee". My mother and stepfather were friends with these artists jointly.
For years it was called the Monique and Lee Eastman collection, and then it just became the Lee Eastman collection.' Philip insists that Lee Eastman set up a trust to protect Monique after his death. 'My stepfather wanted my mother to continue living in the manner to which she had been accustomed, but after my stepfather died, Monique was forced to sell the two houses she lived in. As a co-executor of the estate, John had a responsibility to provide adequately for her. What we are arguing is that she was unwittingly duped and had no legal representation. She trusted her stepson, but I believe it was fraud. She did not fight this because it was not good for her health. She was battling cancer and she didn't have the strength to take on the Eastman juggernaut.
My stepfather was a tough man, too, but at least when he was going to screw you over he would look you in the face and tell you he was going to screw you over.' The Sprayregens are seeking $1 million compensation. Only one painting is named in the suit: Elegy to the Spanish Republic by Robert Motherwell, which sold at Christie's for $2.1 million.
Eastman is defending the claim but declined to speak to us.
Another art-world dispute that swirled around the Eastmans involved the estate of Francis Bacon. John Eastman and his son, Lee Eastman II, filed a lawsuit in 2002 against Marlborough Gallery, which has locations in New York, London, Madrid and Monaco. They claimed the gallery conned Bacon by buying his works below market value and selling them on for huge profits.
'The case wasn't settled, it was dropped,' Marlborough's lawyer Stanley Bergman told the New York Post at the time. Referring to the Eastmans, he said, 'They had no case.' Bergman also claimed that John Eastman had sued for publicity.
'When I went to see John Eastman before the suit was filed, he said, "I don't want to talk settlement. I want to go to trial." He said, "This case is going to make me famous." Eastman's son denied the allegations, telling the Post, 'The case is over. We're not interested in name-calling.' It seemed at first that Sir Paul was determined to keep his divorce from Lady Heather as amicable as possible - although recent reports indicate he is taking a tougher stance. Mills is no longer allowed to stay on the East Sussex country estate they once shared when Sir Paul sends word he will be arriving from London. She no longer has a driver or a bodyguard unless their daughter Beatrice is with her. Then there is the controversial taped phone call between Stella and her father that landed in Mills' hands in which Stella is apparently heard making scathing remarks about her stepmother.
In another indication of Sir Paul's hardening behaviour towards his estranged wife, he pulled out of the annual charity gala for Adopt-AMinefield. He said, 'While I continue to be committed to Adopt-A-Minefield and its critical mission, given the current circumstances, I will not be able to attend.' Whether Eastman is behind this is unclear.
Industry insiders continue to heap praise on him. A colleague who has worked with Eastman for nine years says, 'Anyone who has worked with or knows John Eastman would say they have the utmost respect for him as an individual and a businessman.' With such glowing accolades, why the secrecy? For a lawyer like Eastman, an interview would mean relinquishing control over his hard-earned reputation. 'As a lawyer you have the power to affect things that are important to you,' Eastman has said.
The neat dissolution of his best friend's marriage is of the greatest importance to John Eastman. There is no doubt he will do his upmost to ensure everything goes according to his plan, just as he has always done.
August 10,2006 -- Evening Standard Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge
THE McCARTNEY MINDER
The divorce of Sir Paul and Lady Heather Mills McCartney looks set to be the most incendiary of the year, with an estimated £825 million fortune to be divided, frayed emotions on both sides and a spiralling descent into acrimony. But behind the scenes a steely mind is orchestrating proceedings to make sure it all works out in Sir Paul's favour. John L. Eastman, brother of the late, beloved Linda McCartney - Sir Paul's soul mate for 29 years - and a brilliant legal brain, has been McCartney's lawyer and manager for nearly 40 years. In 1970 Eastman was instrumental in dissolving the Beatles, to Sir Paul's advantage, and ever since, no matter where Sir Paul's career has taken him, Eastman has been in the background pulling all the strings. It's no surprise then, that when it comes to his impending divorce, it will be Eastman overseeing the allocation of every last penny.
It's an ironic position. It was Eastman who was the first to accept his famous friend's new romance, sources say, and took Mills into the bosom of his family to the shock of McCartney's children. It was rumoured that the doomed second marriage in 2002 would take place at Eastman's mansion on Lily Pond Lane in the idyllic Long Island town of East Hampton, although Paul and Heather eventually chose the wildly grand Castle Leslie in County Monaghan, Ireland. Eastman, it was said, understood Sir Paul's decision to marry Heather, while his children could not. This was a sign of the men's lifelong loyalty to each other.
The Eastman family even provided Mills with the very thing that gave her public validation: her tireless and very public work for the Adopt-A-Minefield programme. It was Josephine Merrill Eastman, John's wife, who brought the campaign - a cause supported by Princess Diana - to the attention of Mills in 1999. Merrill Eastman sits on the board of the International Rescue Committee, a refugee aid organisation based in New York.
At her behest, Sir Paul and Heather Mills both became Adopt-A-Minefield Goodwill Ambassadors.
And now the patriarch of the Eastmans is to be the architect of the McCartney-Mills divorce (some friends even suggest John Eastman has been preparing for this moment since the wedding day), with Nicholas Mostyn QC, the £500-an-hour barrister, hired as court representative.
Very little is known about the Eastman family - they guard their privacy vigorously. Eastman hasn't granted a single interview during his lifetime and vows he never will. I wrote two letters to him, requesting a meeting. He phoned back promptly and said politely: 'You are very kind to write, but I just never talk to the press.' He prefers to remain in the shadows of his high-wattage clients: Sir Paul; the late artists, Willem de Kooning and Francis Bacon; Andrew Lloyd Webber; David Bowie; Billy Joel; and the estate of Tennessee Williams.
The pivotal point of his career came when he represented Paul McCartney during the Beatles' break-up in 1970. 'I had to put my entire reputation - which was zero - on the line,' Eastman told students at a New York University law school roundtable event in 2004. 'But I outworked and outthought the other side.' Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon signed with manager Allen Klein, Paul sided with Eastman and the Beatles were no longer.
In 1971, when Sir Paul filed a writ calling for the dissolution of the Beatles, it was Eastman who told the scruffy musician he had to wear a suit and tie to court. Eastman and his father won the case over a discrepancy in Klein's management fee. Klein later went to prison for two months for income tax evasion. Sir Paul had clearly chosen the better man. Eastman has said he will always 'fight the balance between corporations and artists'.
After graduating from NYU in 1964, Eastman started a small legal firm with his father Lee, who was already a prominent New York lawyer. Lee Eastman worked closely with de Kooning and was sometimes paid in artwork rather than cash.
Inside their 'boutique' law firm, sources say, it feels more like an affluent, art-filled home than an office.
A prominent lawyer in Manhattan has known of the father-and-son team for 30 years. 'They have a very interesting practice - it's run out of a townhouse.
They represented a number of renowned artists and have become quite wealthy over the years. They are very nice, extremely refined people.' As well as managing his clients, John Eastman has a variety of other interests. In 1997 he was elected to sit on the board of directors at the prestigious American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). 'Since his very first meeting, I have greatly appreciated his valuable contributions,' says Marilyn Bergman, the president of ASCAP. 'They come from a detailed music business knowledge and rich experience, clearly and succinctly communicated. He elicits great respect from all who know and work with him.' From 1995 until the present, Eastman has also been a director of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), where he advises on issues such as the protection of publishers' and musicians' copyrights, and efforts to reform music licensing.
He has been in charge of MPL (McCartney Productions Ltd) since 1975, the largest independent publisher in the world, which Eastman has described as 'an empire'. Together they buy music catalogues (Buddy Holly) and the rights to individual songs ('Blue Suede Shoes' by Carl Perkins). They also control the rights to A Chorus Line, Annie and Grease. These acquisitions mean there is a steady flow of royalties. McCartney himself, of course, still has pulling power - his 2005 tour grossed $77 million.
The Eastmans are one of New York's foremost families, although not, as has often been wrongly claimed, connected to the photographic empire Eastman Kodak. John Eastman's father was born Lee Epstein, the son of Louis and Della Epstein, but he changed his name after graduating from law school. He married Louise Linder from Cleveland, the heiress to the Linder departmentstore fortune, and besides John and Linda they had two other children.
Most of us think of Linda as the vegan, denimclad hippie and animal-rights protester who was happy to tour alongside the Beatles and sing backup in Wings, but her first job was as a receptionist for the society magazine, Town & Country, the perfect starter job for a girl who had had a privileged upscale childhood in the bosom of a wealthy and privileged family. Linda's elder brother John was born in 1937 (he turns 69 this month), and Linda four years later. They grew up in Scarsdale, a rich commuting suburb north of Manhattan - about a 30-minute train journey from Grand Central Station. The town has Tudorstyle architecture, million-dollar mansions and multiple country clubs and golf courses. Linda attended Fox Meadow School, before moving on to Scarsdale High School's class of 1959, which was followed by the exclusive Sarah Lawrence School in Bronxville (where Yoko Ono had previously been a student).
But when John was 24 and Linda was an 20-year-old art history student at the University of Arizona, their world was shattered by the death of Louise Eastman in a plane crash. Her mother's death affected Linda so much that she rushed into marriage with a geophysicist fellow student, John Melvin See Jr.
She once told an interviewer, 'My mother died in a plane crash and I got married. It was a mistake.' The marriage was short-lived and they had one daughter, Heather (whom Paul McCartney later adopted).
At 21, Linda moved with her child to New York.
Meanwhile, John Eastman was cutting his teeth as a lawyer in New York. He got his bachelor's degree from Stanford University in California and then went to NYU Law School, graduating in 1964. He married Josephine Merrill - who came from a prominent East Coast family - and they had four children.
They now have nine grandchildren. At his alma mater a few years ago, Eastman told the law school's aspiring attorneys, 'There is nothing duller than being an entertainment lawyer right now.' He acknowledged that he limited his work now to 'the greats only', but advised the students that 'people should know where you stand and what you stand for. People have to know what you are. Don't be afraid, don't get pushed around.' A colleague of Eastman points towards his battle with Apple Computer as a sign of this courage. The computer company shares the name of the Beatles' record label, Apple Corps, owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the estates of George Harrison and John Lennon, and Eastman and Apple Computer's CEO Steve Jobs have been in a dispute over the Apple logo. A judge ruled in May this year that the use of Apple Computer's logo on its iTunes music store - they control 80 per cent of online digital music sales - does not infringe on the Beatles' trademark. Apple Corps is currently challenging that decision.
As part of a $26 million, out-of-court agreement made in 1991, Apple Corps was granted rights over the use of the logo in musical contexts and Apple Computer was given the rights as part of its software industry. It was revealed during the trial that the Beatles' songs are being digitally remastered in preparation for release as digital downloads. The recent court appeal will delay this. 'John Eastman is prepared to stand up to Steve Jobs and that's no small thing,' says the source.
For a family so obsessed with its privacy, it was particularly painful to be embroiled in an ugly falling out last year. John Eastman's stepbrothers - Peter, Paul and Philip Sprayregen, the sons of Monique Eastman, Lee's second wife - sued members of his family after the sale of his father's art collection.
Monique died of cancer last year; Lee Eastman died in 1991. At Christie's in New York last November his paintings by Picasso, Matisse and, of course, Willem de Kooning fetched £27.5 million, with Stella McCartney sharing the proceeds with six of her relatives.
The Sprayregens claim that the art was wrongfully sold and the proceeds should have been shared with the estate of their mother. 'My mother was married to Lee Eastman for 30 years, nursing him while he had Parkinson's disease,' says Philip Sprayregen, talking for the first time about the case.
'There were many paintings that Lee gave her over the years. I was there when he gave her one by Motherwell. There was a Picasso that he gave her for her birthday.
Others were inscribed on the back "To Monique and Lee". My mother and stepfather were friends with these artists jointly.
For years it was called the Monique and Lee Eastman collection, and then it just became the Lee Eastman collection.' Philip insists that Lee Eastman set up a trust to protect Monique after his death. 'My stepfather wanted my mother to continue living in the manner to which she had been accustomed, but after my stepfather died, Monique was forced to sell the two houses she lived in. As a co-executor of the estate, John had a responsibility to provide adequately for her. What we are arguing is that she was unwittingly duped and had no legal representation. She trusted her stepson, but I believe it was fraud. She did not fight this because it was not good for her health. She was battling cancer and she didn't have the strength to take on the Eastman juggernaut.
My stepfather was a tough man, too, but at least when he was going to screw you over he would look you in the face and tell you he was going to screw you over.' The Sprayregens are seeking $1 million compensation. Only one painting is named in the suit: Elegy to the Spanish Republic by Robert Motherwell, which sold at Christie's for $2.1 million.
Eastman is defending the claim but declined to speak to us.
Another art-world dispute that swirled around the Eastmans involved the estate of Francis Bacon. John Eastman and his son, Lee Eastman II, filed a lawsuit in 2002 against Marlborough Gallery, which has locations in New York, London, Madrid and Monaco. They claimed the gallery conned Bacon by buying his works below market value and selling them on for huge profits.
'The case wasn't settled, it was dropped,' Marlborough's lawyer Stanley Bergman told the New York Post at the time. Referring to the Eastmans, he said, 'They had no case.' Bergman also claimed that John Eastman had sued for publicity.
'When I went to see John Eastman before the suit was filed, he said, "I don't want to talk settlement. I want to go to trial." He said, "This case is going to make me famous." Eastman's son denied the allegations, telling the Post, 'The case is over. We're not interested in name-calling.' It seemed at first that Sir Paul was determined to keep his divorce from Lady Heather as amicable as possible - although recent reports indicate he is taking a tougher stance. Mills is no longer allowed to stay on the East Sussex country estate they once shared when Sir Paul sends word he will be arriving from London. She no longer has a driver or a bodyguard unless their daughter Beatrice is with her. Then there is the controversial taped phone call between Stella and her father that landed in Mills' hands in which Stella is apparently heard making scathing remarks about her stepmother.
In another indication of Sir Paul's hardening behaviour towards his estranged wife, he pulled out of the annual charity gala for Adopt-AMinefield. He said, 'While I continue to be committed to Adopt-A-Minefield and its critical mission, given the current circumstances, I will not be able to attend.' Whether Eastman is behind this is unclear.
Industry insiders continue to heap praise on him. A colleague who has worked with Eastman for nine years says, 'Anyone who has worked with or knows John Eastman would say they have the utmost respect for him as an individual and a businessman.' With such glowing accolades, why the secrecy? For a lawyer like Eastman, an interview would mean relinquishing control over his hard-earned reputation. 'As a lawyer you have the power to affect things that are important to you,' Eastman has said.
The neat dissolution of his best friend's marriage is of the greatest importance to John Eastman. There is no doubt he will do his upmost to ensure everything goes according to his plan, just as he has always done.