Jacko, Ex-Wife In New Legal Beef

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FEBRUARY 24--There just might be something to all this talk about strife between Michael Jackson and ex-wife Deborah Rowe, who has reportedly been miffed about the singer's contact with the Nation of Islam. According to the below documents filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Rowe and Jackson have agreed to the appointment of a retired L.A. judge to handle a trial on a new and unspecified "family law matter." The pair's agreement came in late-January when news reports surfaced claiming that Rowe, who is Jewish, had expressed concern that the couple's two children, Paris and Prince, were being exposed to the anti-Semitic NOI. Rowe and Jackson agreed to have their dispute--details of which are not contained in the February 20 court filing--handled by Stephen Lachs, a 63-year-old retired judge. The future trial, the document reports, will not take place in an L.A. courthouse, but at a so-called alternative dispute resolution center in Century City. (4 pages)