Sold

[May]

Today's Blind Items - Sold (CDAN)

All of the sales made the news, but they were buried in with more juicy tidbits. The sale of catalogs and everything to do with the estate has quietly been sold in return for the cash. Why? About a decade ago it was confirmed through a DNA test performed by a relative, that the long presumed sole heir of a permanent A++ lister was not actually the biological child of the A++ lister. She was the result of an affair the mom had with someone else. In order to try and make all claims against the estate harder to recover damages, everything was sold and the money transferred to multiple shell corporations.

[May]

My guess is Frances Bean. Lisa Marie Presley was also a big guess, but I think she looks too much like Elvis for it to work.

[faithanne]

That would be a pretty big deal. Frances was the image of Kurt when she was a baby but anything's possible I suppose.

[Daphodil]

For some reason, Liv Tyler popped into my head...not sure if she has siblings or not.

[czb]

^^^good guess, but I think she has one sister? She was a model iirc.

[Daphodil]

^^^good guess, but I think she has one sister? She was a model iirc.

Yep, you're right!

[A*O]

Michael Jackson’s spawn? Nah, they are totally his LOL

[Daphodil]

Michael Jackson’s spawn? Nah, they are totally his LOL

I thought it might be Paris, but it does say sole heir and I doubt the boys would be excluded.

[Novice]

For some reason, Liv Tyler popped into my head...not sure if she has siblings or not.

Liv Tyler was the result of an affair and her sister is a half sister.

”From 1972 to 1979, Buell lived with rock musician Todd Rundgren. In 1976, Buell became unexpectedly pregnant from a brief relationship with Steven Tyler. Buell gave birth on July 1, 1977, naming the daughter Liv Rundgren and claiming that Todd Rundgrenwas the biological father.”

[CornFlakegrl]

Francis Bean looks (even more so before surgery) the spitting image of Kurt.

Who would sue the estate though? I'm not following the logic. Spawn isn't bio kid but is still named as sole heir so s/he wouldn't sue. Is someone going to try and take the fortune because heir isn't bio? Makes no sense to me.

[maryk]

Francis Bean looks (even more so before surgery) the spitting image of Kurt.

Who would sue the estate though? I'm not following the logic. Spawn isn't bio kid but is still named as sole heir so s/he wouldn't sue. Is someone going to try and take the fortune because heir isn't bio? Makes no sense to me.

If there were siblings they could argue there's no legal connection to the child and therefore they get the money.
That would be crappy.

[May]

Maybe they're worried Kurt's blood relatives would try to claim the inheritance by saying she inherited it through fraud or something? Idk.

[faithanne]

I don't think this makes sense either. For one thing, a chunk of Kurt's fortune is tied up in Nirvana's music, especially future royalties from the songs he wrote, and I don't remember hearing that his rights had been "sold". Anyway I can't believe Frances isn't Kurt's, unless he had an identical twin brother who was fooling around with Courtney.

[roslyntaberfan]

Timescale is out but ...




http://www.cnbc.com/amp/2014/04/04/kurt-cobain-and-the-big-business-of-dead-celebs.html

Inside Kurt Cobain's $450M empire

Adam Molon | @CNBCMolon
Published 7:01 AM ET Sat, 5 April 2014Updated 5:45 AM ET Mon, 7 April 2014CNBC.com

Jeff Kravitz | FilmMagic | Getty Images
Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, 1993

Twenty years ago Saturday, as best the coroner could tell, Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain ended his life with a shotgun at his Seattle home. An electrician found the 27-year-old's body three days later.
Rock stars who die at the height of their fame, however, never truly recede from either the public consciousness or corporate coffers. And despite his anti-hero, anti-corporate persona, the iconic Cobain is not the exception.
Nirvana, the band Cobain formed in Aberdeen, Wash., in the late 1980s, sold 350,000 albums in 2013 as well as 900,000 singles, according to Dave Bakula, senior vice president for industry insights at Nielsen.
With an average price of $10 per album and $1 per single, Nirvana's music sales last year would translate into revenue of $4.4 million.
That's on top of revenue from 72 million online streams at websites like YouTube, about 300,000 radio plays, merchandise, and name and likeness usage deals.
The brand of Kurt Cobain—his estate was recently valued at $450 million—is clearly big business, and could grow as Nirvana is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10.
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Larry Mestel has experienced the power of Cobain's brand firsthand as CEO of Primary Wave, a company that held publishing rights to a large portion of Nirvana's catalog from 2006 until late last year.
"Kurt Cobain was a titan in pop culture," Mestel said. "He is one of a very small handful of artists that I consider the absolute peak of credibility and value when it comes to copyrights and music."
Mestel purchased a stake in the publishing rights of Nirvana's music from Cobain's widow, rocker Courtney Love, in a 2006 deal that has been estimated at more than $50 million. At the time, Love was the primary beneficiary of the publishing rights to Kurt Cobain's estate, which included more than 98 percent of the publishing rights to Nirvana's music.
Mestel and Primary Wave at one point held 50 percent of the publishing rights to Nirvana's music, before divesting their interest as part of a $150 million deal with BMG.
"His catalog has an income stream that has maintained a very steady pace and even growth when most music catalogs have fallen dramatically," Mestel said.
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The economic staying power of Cobain's has long been the cause of infighting between its stakeholders.
In 2010, Love reportedly relinquished rights to Cobain's name and likeness in exchange for a $2.75 million loan from the trust of the couple's only child, Frances Bean Cobain.
Also in 2010, Frances Bean, then 18, took control of her trust fund, representing more than a third of Cobain's estate.
Charles R. Cross, author of several books about Cobain, said that the struggles are not just for economic benefit, but also for the management of Cobain's estate in a way that does justice to his legacy. That includes exercising discretion when it comes to business deals involving the name and likeness of Cobain, and being careful not to "sell out" his image.
In one highly publicized dispute, Love was widely quoted as saying that the memory of Cobain had been "raped" by the use of the band's hit song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in the 2011 movie "The Muppets." Primary Wave and Nirvana's two surviving members, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, reportedly signed off on the use of the song in the movie.
A new commercial starring Cobain's likeness is also drawing fire. Dutch brewer Bavaria recently released the spot, which features Cobain and other deceased icons, including Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Tupac Shakur, hiding out and drinking beer together in a tropical paradise.
Bavaria's commercial draws a parallel to an early 1990s Diet Coke commercial featuring singer Elton John side-by-side with digitally recreated versions of the deceased stars Louis Armstrong and James Cagney.
One product deal that did receive a seal of approval from Love is a tie-up with Converse, which crafted a special edition Chuck Taylor sneaker featuring Cobain lyrics. Cobain regularly wore Converse sneakers, and was wearing a pair when his body was found on April 8,1994.

Other legends' widows have also had difficulty finding balance as they managed the images of their deceased spouses. Robyn Astaire, widow of iconic actor Fred Astaire, became known for tenaciously protecting the rights to Astaire's films, while at the same time approving the use of Astaire's dancing image in a late 1990s Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner commercial that aired during the Super Bowl.
"The industry of Kurt is still an extremely lucrative industry," Cross said. "The estate still earns millions, and Nirvana is still one of the biggest catalog artists."
Even so, Cobain must still compete for ranking among iconic, high-earning artists who died before their time.
"There is the Beatles, and then there's everybody else," said Primary Wave's Mestel. "Between the Beatles and everybody else, there's Kurt Cobain."
Deceased Beatle John Lennon is reported to have made $12 million last year.
In terms of combined album and single sales in 2013, Nirvana's estimated $4.4 million trails artists such as Michael Jackson ($8.1 million), Jimi Hendrix ($5.8 million) and Bob Marley ($4.9 million), but leads Whitney Houston ($3.7 million), The Doors ($3.3 million), Amy Winehouse ($2 million) and Janis Joplin ($1.7 million), based on data provided by Nielsen.
Regardless of where you rank him, however,Cobain has secured a prominent place in the pantheon of music greats, Cross said.
"There are many people [who] are stars and have fame and sell a lot of records," he said. "But we haven't seen anyone who combines that songwriting genius with that uniqueness of personality."
"I call Kurt the last rock star," Cross said.
—By CNBC's Adam Molon

[rollo]

Maybe Michael Hutchence's kid?