BREAKING NEWS – James Porte has married Marie-Nicole Cascio, the sister of collaborative partner Eddie Cascio, in a New Jersey wedding ceremony over the weekend.
The news of the marriage comes less than two months after Mr. Porte and Mr. Cascio were slapped with an explosive fraud lawsuit in June.
The lawsuit centres around the authenticity of a collection of songs that Porte and Cascio sold to Jackson’s estate four years ago – three of which were commercially released as genuine Jackson recordings.
Those three tracks – “Breaking News,” “Monster” and “Keep Your Head Up” – featured as part of the Michael album, released by Sony Music in December 2010.
Physical and digital editions of Michael remain available for commercial consumption despite the pending lawsuit. The album is believed to have sold approximately 550,000 copies in the United States to date, and 2 million copies worldwide.
Since the release of the album in December 2010, myself and a team of dedicated researchers have been investigating the authenticity the tracks in question.
Porte and Cascio claim that the songs were recorded by Jackson in the Cascio family’s New Jersey basement in the fall of 2007. The findings of our investigation will ultimately be written and published as a book. (Update: it will now be presented as a podcast series.)
The Porte-Cascio wedding marks the first time Jackson fans have sighted Porte since the 2010 release of the Michael album.
In fact, Porte has not participated in any of the album’s promotional activities, including a segment on the Oprah Winfrey Show (on which the Cascio family did appear) and a promotional documentary published on the official Michael Jackson VEVO channel.
The Porte-Cascio wedding was a very ‘Jackson’ affair.
Photographs taken at the August 9, 2014 event show Porte giving a Michael Jackson dance performance with an entourage of backing dancers made up of wedding guests, including several of Porte’s new Cascio brothers in law.
On top of Porte-Cascio MJ performance, Frank Cascio uploaded a video of his brother, Dominic, dancing to Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”
Furthermore, at least two Jackson family members – Rebbie Jackson and Austin Brown – attended the wedding and reception.
In regards to the lawsuit, all parties have acknowledged it and have filed notice of appearance. There will be more written about it here as the developments unfold.
Porte, Cascio and their production company will be defended by Freedman & Taitelman, LLP in the fraud component of the lawsuit, while Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert, LLP and Katten Muchin Rosenman, LLP will jointly represent the Estate and Sony against the claims that they mislead consumers.
Damien Shields is the author of the book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault examining the King of Pop’s creative process, and the producer of the podcast The Genesis of Thriller which takes you inside the recording studio as Jackson and his team create the biggest selling album in music history.
