New Jackson attorney has colorful past

Plus: Gibson's film igniting 'Passion' in Russia

	Thomas Mesereau Jr., Michael Jackson's new lead attorney, once spoke with convicted mass murderer Charles Manson about taking him on as a client.
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Jermaine Jackson discusses case
April 27: Jermaine Jackson speaks with "Today" host Matt Lauer about his brother Michael's legal maneuverings.

Today show

By Jeannette Walls

updated 11:37 a.m. ET April 27, 2004

Michael Jackson’s new lawyer has a colorful résumé.

Thomas Mesereau, Jr. is most often identified as Robert Blake’s ex-attorney, but Blake hasn’t been his only controversial client. In 2001, Mesereau represented a former member of the infamous Symbionese Liberation Army — the group best known for kidnapping heiress Patricia Hearst — who was accused of attempted police car bombings. Another Mesereau client was a woman charged with beating to death her 22-month-old daughter with a plastic soft drink bottle filled with M&Ms. And in the mid-1990s, he actually met with Charles Manson and considered representing the cult leader.

“[Manson] was interested in possible legal representation,” Mesereau told a reporter in 2000. “We talked for about three hours. It was a very interesting conversation.”

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More controversy from 'Passion'
Kevin Winter / Getty Images file
Several Russian human rights groups are threatening to sue Mel Gibson and the film’s distributor in that country, according to reports.

“Several Jewish organizations and individuals told us that the film fuels ethnic hatred and cultivates xenophobic myths about the Jewish people’s guilt for crucifying Christ,” Alexander Brod, director of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau, told the news agency Interfax. He said he has been reviewing reports, alleging that the wildly successful film is anti-Semitic, and will review more before he makes his final decision.

Notes from all over
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images file
Paris Hilton’s rep is denying a report in a U.K. paper that the heiress is sporting a new bosom. “Totally false” the spokesman told the Scoop. ... The film geeks at Movie-Mistakes.com have already counted 25 bloopers in “Kill Bill: Vol. 2”. For example: “When Budd is being fired by his boss at the strip club, you can see the boom reflected in the boss’s sunglasses.” ... Sometimes-pudgy Russell Crowe has dropped some weight for his upcoming film, "Cinderella Man," in which he plays a boxer. But “The Gladiator” says he didn’t go on a low-carb diet. “This is how you do it,” Crowe said, according to World Entertainment News Network. “Get a boxing ring, hot lights and a friend to beat the s--- out of you.”