Michael Jackson dies at age 50 from cardiac arrest

[Grimmlok]

challenges = fucking little boys

thanks Colin, glad we got that cleared up.

[Laurent]

Originally Posted by KristiB

So who will get the cover of People-Michael or Farrah?

Originally Posted by Laurent

I think Michael. Farrah will be relegated to the right upper corner.

[*DIVA!]

Funeral: CNN 12pm est..Tuesday!

[celeb_2006]

Originally Posted by *DIVA!

Funeral: CNN 12pm est..Tuesday!

Damn at work, maybe call in sick?

This memorial will be worth at least 1000 posts on this thread alone!

[celeb_2006]

Massive demand for Jackson memorial tickets - Yahoo! News

By Bob Tourtellotte Bob Tourtellotte – Sat Jul 4, 9:25 am ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – More than half a million fans from around the world applied for 17,500 free tickets to Michael Jackson's public memorial service next week, organizers said on Friday as a massive security operation got underway.
The life and music of the self-proclaimed "king of pop," who died of sudden cardiac arrest last Thursday, will be celebrated on Tuesday at the Staples Center, a basketball arena in downtown Los Angeles.
Officials on Friday unveiled an ambitious online lottery that will allow fans to attend either the televised service at the arena or watch the proceedings on a big screen at the nearby Nokia Theater.
But within minutes, the STAPLES Center (STAPLES Center) server crashed. Officials warned additional disruptions were likely as fans logged on ahead of the Saturday deadline at 6 p.m. PDT.
"You might want to consider watching this from the comfort of your own home," said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who is doubling as the city's acting mayor.
The ceremony will also streamed online.
A wide area around the venues in downtown Los Angeles will be blocked off for the 10 a.m. event. Both local and state law-enforcement agencies have been marshaled for duty.
A local news-radio station reported that more than 1,400 officers from the Los Angeles Police Department alone have been asked to volunteer for duty on Monday and Tuesday. The LAPD, which has about 9,000 officers in total, declined to comment on the report or to reveal a staffing number.
A Jackson family spokesman also declined to provide details of the memorial service, but said there would not be a funeral procession and Jackson's body would not be at the memorial.
Funeral arrangements have not been disclosed, but security has been beefed up at the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills mortuary, where his body is believed to be held.
Officials were also tight-lipped about the cost of the memorial service, and who would pay for it.
Like other U.S. cities, Los Angeles is strapped for cash in the global recession and similar questions about public tax revenues being spent for such an elaborate ceremony surfaced last month when a $2 million celebration was given for the champion Los Angeles Lakers professional basketball team.
That event, which attracted over 500,000 people, was eventually funded through private donations.
The city has already budgeted for LAPD overtime, Perry said, adding that officials would "deeply appreciate" help to offset incremental costs, such as transportation, sanitation and staging.
Winners of the tickets will be contacted on Sunday and directed to pick up a pair of tickets and wristbands on Monday. No tickets will be sold. The massive demand raised the question of counterfeiting or scalping, drawing pleas from organizers for fans to act responsibly.
"For those that would try to take advantage of this, shame on them," said Tim Leiweke, the president and CEO of AEG, the closely held entertainment concern that owns the venues and was backing Jackson's planned comeback concerts in London.
Jackson's last performance was at the Staples Center. The night before he died of sudden cardiac arrest last Thursday, he rehearsed for the tour at the venue.

[kingcap72]

Originally Posted by celeb_2006

Colin Powell: Celebrate Michael Jackson's art



Colin Powell: Celebrate Michael Jackson's art - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON – Colin Powell says Michael Jackson had controversy in his life, but in death his art should be celebrated.
The retired general and former secretary of state said he was in Vietnam, Korea or stationed elsewhere during Jackson's heyday.
"So he's not quite of my generation but his art spanned three generations and is worthy of all the tribute that he is receiving for his art," Powell said in a television interview set to air Sunday.
Powell said his most vivid memory of Jackson is of the young boy performing with his brothers in the Jackson 5. He said the Jacksons were "fresh, exciting kids with the 'fros in the early '70s and singing those wonderful songs."
Jackson, who died June 25, had been plagued with heavy debts, allegations of child abuse and use of prescription drugs.
"Yes, there were some challenges in his life," Powell told CNN's "State of the Union," which released excerpts of the interview ahead of the broadcast. "Yes, there was a great deal of controversy about him. But he's now passed on. Let's celebrate his art."

Is Colin trying to take Jesse & Al's place as the new black spokesperson. First, he was talking about Obama the other day and now MJ. Too bad Colin couldn't have 'spoken up' during the build-up to the Iraq war.

[pookie207]

Win 2 tickets to the memorial enter before 6pm today.

http://staplescenter.com/memorial.php

[Hazeleyed_Honey]

Originally Posted by kingcap72

Despite all of the shit MJ's done in his personal life, he still is a musical/pop icon. In his personal life MJ was a freak of the highest order, but none of that automatically wipes out the decades of professional accomplishments as if they didn't happen.

Jerry Lee Lewis married his underage cousin, but he's still considered one of the greats of early Rock & Roll. Roman Polanski drugged a 13 or 14 year old girl, had sex with her and fled the country, but he's still considered a great director. Phil Spector shot somebody, but he's still considered one of the great producers of early Rock & Roll. So, people shouldn't be shocked that MJ is being lauded as an icon, despite the freaky plastic surgery and molestation trial/accusations



Agreed.

However, with Michael, it is not like there was any definite proof to claim he did molest children. As the ones you mentioned, they have been proven of their innapropriate behaviours.

At the end of the day, some will think he did and some others (like me) will think he did not and we can all view him and form our own opinions about the man and his legacy.Michael is definitely amongst the greatest entertainers of our time. The entertainment industry has lost a pinnacle of a talented man.

[rollo]

^So getting into bed with other people's kids is OK? That has been proven endlessly and it's inappropriate.

He was entertaining 20 years ago (if that's your thing) but all his concerts would have proved (if that) was that he could "still do it" - not that he had anything new to offer. It's a bit like the never ending recycling of Madonna but with a thousand times more angst and trepidation.

[*DIVA!]

Originally Posted by celeb_2006

Damn at work, maybe call in sick?

This memorial will be worth at least 1000 posts on this thread alone!

Streaming feed at CNN, same time as well!

[celeb_2006]

Jackson was loving and attentive father, many say



Jackson was loving and attentive father, many say - omg! news on Yahoo!

NEW YORK - When Rabbi Shmuley Boteach brought his children to play with Michael Jackson's kids at Neverland Ranch some eight years ago, the rabbi's youngsters naturally made a beeline for the fabulous rides — the Ferris wheel, the roller coaster, the bumper cars.
But when Jackson's own kids asked to go on the rides, he gently reminded them of the family rules, according to Boteach: The rides were only for birthdays or special occasions. "He was very concerned that the kids grow up with the right values," says Boteach, Jackson's former friend and spiritual adviser.
They are the children of one of the most famous men to have walked the planet. But unlike other children of mega-celebrities, whose faces are recognizable around the world, those of Jackson's three kids — 12-year-old Michael Joseph Jr., known as Prince Michael; 11-year-old Paris Michael Katherine; and 7-year-old Prince Michael II, known as Blanket — are barely known.
Home-schooled and often isolated in mansions or hotels, the children have appeared only in rare paparazzi shots, their faces usually covered by scarves or brightly colored masks.
That fact alone — that Jackson sought to hide his children's faces — would seem to speak of a dark, strange life. But those who've witnessed the family up close paint a brighter picture: a trio of engaging, intelligent, well-adjusted youngsters who adored their father. A father who, despite his eccentricities and the terrible controversy that surrounded him in later life, lived for his children and tried to make their lives as normal as — well, as normal as Michael Jackson could.
"To the extent that Michael Jackson's kids COULD have a normal life, he wanted them to have it," says Boteach, who eventually fell out with Jackson.
"Listen, I'm not here to whitewash the sins of Michael Jackson — he was accused of some abominable things," says the rabbi, referring to the pop star's trial and acquittal on molestation charges. "But when it came to being a father, there was much to admire."
Dr. Tohme Tohme, a close friend and adviser to Jackson over the last year of his life, said he had "never seen a better father."
"He was the father and the mother," Tohme said. "He washed them and dressed them. I'm a father but I'm not sure I could do what he was doing with his children. They loved him so much."
Of course, even Jackson's closest friends are at a loss to explain what for many is the single most memorable image of Jackson as a father: the shocking moment when he dangled Blanket, then an infant, over a hotel balcony in Berlin, showing the baby off to fans with a delighted grin.
"What made that incident so inexplicable was that he was an OVER-protective father," Boteach says.
Others who've been close to Jackson in the past agree. When the children stayed in hotels, says one photographer who spent several years working for Jackson, his handlers had long lists of all the foods the children could and could not eat. He was afraid of allergies but also poisoning, says the photographer, Ian Barkley. At the ranch, Jackson would not let the children roam far for fear of coyotes, he says.
When Barkley spoke to the kids himself, he was impressed. "Paris and (the older) Prince really blew me away with how smart they were. They were really well-mannered and nice." And Jackson made sure they kept up with their studies. "Once I heard him ask the nanny if the kids had done their homework that day, and they hadn't yet and he was really not happy."
Yet Jackson also indulged his children in extravagances — he was known to rent out entire movie theaters so he and his kids could see a first-run movie in peace, said close friend Uri Geller, the entertainer, who accompanied the family on one such outing.
"The times I've seen Michael with his kids, he was simply a great father," says Geller. "When I saw him alone in London, the first thing he said is how much he missed them. I know he loved them, and they loved him."
US Weekly editor Janice Min, whose magazine reported on Jackson's children this week, was surprised to discover how positive an outlook many Jackson associates had on the kids and their lives. "I would have thought it was a very gloom-and-doom picture, but across the board, everyone talked about these nice and seemingly normal kids," she says.
Still, for many people, the hardest thing to get past about Jackson's parenting style was those facial disguises. Geller, for one, is convinced the family saw it as a game. "It was a private joke on the media between Michael and the kids — the kids loved it," Geller says. "That's what Michael told me."
But others speak of more serious reasons. Stacy Brown, a former Jackson family confidant who fell out with the family at the time of the 2005 molestation trial — he was a prosecution witness — says Michael was truly afraid of kidnapping. But also, Brown notes, there was a strategy: If the kids wore masks when they were with Jackson, they could go safely unmasked when they weren't with him.
Still, says Brown, who co-wrote "The Man Behind the Mask," a Jackson biography, "mentally, it was just not right. Why put a mask on these beautiful children?"
There may be another, more poignant reason. "He detested the media interest in whether he looked like his children," says Boteach, the rabbi. "I think that was another concern. Those rumors were hurtful to them."
Such discussion has only increased since Jackson's death, as the world wonders not only who will get custody of the children but also whether Jackson is their biological father. Jackson's ex-wife, Deborah Rowe, the mother of the two older children, says the children were conceived by artificial insemination. The surrogate mother of the youngest has not been revealed.
For now, Rowe is weighing whether to seek custody of her two children, while Katherine Jackson, the singer's 79-year-old mother, has temporary guardianship of all three. Jackson's will asks that permanent custody go to his mother.
Brown, the biographer, recalls running into Jackson and the kids in a town near Neverland shortly before the trial.
"They were the most well-behaved, well-mannered, immaculately groomed children," Brown says. "It was all 'please' and 'thank you,' and 'excuse me.' Little Blanket was wearing a kilt, and Prince a three-piece suit, and Paris a white dress with blue flowers. We chatted. I'm telling you, the guy was tremendous with those kids."
Whatever happens, Boteach says, it was Jackson's greatest wish that his children know how much he loved them.
"Michael often said he knew that when the kids grew up, they'd be asked by biographers what kind of father he was," Boteach says. "He wanted the kids to know that he always put them first."

[Hazeleyed_Honey]

Originally Posted by rollo

^So getting into bed with other people's kids is OK? That has been proven endlessly and it's inappropriate.

He was entertaining 20 years ago (if that's your thing) but all his concerts would have proved (if that) was that he could "still do it" - not that he had anything new to offer. It's a bit like the never ending recycling of Madonna but with a thousand times more angst and trepidation.

Where did I claim it is not inappropriate?

A psychologist who studied him during one of the trials claimed that Michael was an adult regressed as a 10 year old. It seems like he suffered from Peter Pan syndrome and he was obviously mentally ill and had a child mentality. What if, him having a child mentally, thought of sleepovers with other kids as innocent and harmless just like kids have sleepovers with each other?He probably viewed himself that way,since he always said he saw himself as a child. As adults with mature mental capabilities, we can see the wrong in it for him being an adult and sleeping with kids. But then again,he was not normal and a child himself and most likely saw nothing wrong with it because he could not process that in his child like mind.So how would he, as a child himself and being mentally ill, be able to process that himself? I am saying all this as being that it could be the case if he truly did not molest children.

[JadeStar70]

[quote=Hazeleyed_Honey;1802613
A psychologist who studied him during one of the trials claimed that Michael was an adult regressed as a 10 year old. It seems like he suffered from Peter Pan syndrome and he was obviously mentally ill and had a child mentality. What if, him having a child mentally, thought of sleepovers with other kids as innocent and harmless just like kids have sleepovers with each other?He probably viewed himself that way,since he always said he saw himself as a child. As adults with mature mental capabilities, we can see the wrong in it for him being an adult and sleeping with kids. But then again,he was not normal and a child himself and most likely saw nothing wrong with it because he could not process that in his child like mind.So how would he, as a child himself and being mentally ill, be able to process that himself? I am saying all this as being that it could be the case if he truly did not molest children.[/quote]


Well if he was that sick and mentally ill,...he should have never been allowed to have three children under his care and supervision.

[AliceInWonderland]

this is all so gross!

[kingcap72]

Originally Posted by Hazeleyed_Honey

However, with Michael, it is not like there was any definite proof to claim he did molest children. As the ones you mentioned, they have been proven of their innapropriate behaviours.

At the end of the day, some will think he did and some others (like me) will think he did not and we can all view him and form our own opinions about the man and his legacy.Michael is definitely amongst the greatest entertainers of our time. The entertainment industry has lost a pinnacle of a talented man.

True, MJ was never proven to have molested anyone. However, no matter how great of an entertainer MJ was, and he was probably the greatest, there was no justifiable reason for a grown man to share his bed with little boys.

And that's the one thing that MJ has in common with all of the other people that I mentioned, he crossed a line that he shouldn't have crossed with inappropriate behavior. And because of that his legacy will forever be tarnished.