It is a sad ending to what had become a sad life for Michael Jackson. He had a bad childhood and really never recovered. It just goes to show that all the money in the world cannot make one happy. While I never was a big fan of his music, I respected MJ's contribution to music history.

MJ's problem is that he got so big, so rich, and was so weird that none of those qualities could co-exist. I could not sympathize for him after the first set of child molestation charges in the early 1990s. But I did not wish him harm, either.

I think his sudden, shocking death is fitting in light of the last 25 years of his life. While I never envisioned his death to be the cause, I remember thinking that there would be no way that he would play all of those scheduled London concerts. When they were first announced, I assumed he would have some type of cancellations due to a) his weirdness or b) some minor physical problems.

I completely agree with the Elvis comparisons. Both were too secluded and too far out there toward the end of their lives.

Michael wrote this song for Ryan White. Now it's befitting for him.

Gone too soon.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=101iXwPTNE0

This is very eerily similar to Elvis and Anna Nicole Smith, as they all handlers around them to afraid to tell them their life was spiraling out of control.

Final Days: The Mystery of Michael Jackson's Death
By Mike Fleeman

Originally posted Friday June 26, 2009 08:40 AM EDT
Photo by: Matt Baron / BEImages

It should have been the opportunity of a lifetime for a Michael Jackson fan: a behind-the-scenes invitation to a rehearsal for the superstar's upcoming concert tour in the United Kingdom.

But when the fan got to the stage, she was horrified. "He is a skeleton," she wrote Monday in an email to other Jackson fans. Worse, she said, was seeing her idol surrounded by people she deemed too frightened to say anything. "I have to say: He may die."

Three days later, Jackson, 50, collapsed in his rented Holmby Hills mansion – with his personal physician on the premises. His heart stopped; he wasn't breathing. An ambulance raced him to a hospital just minutes away from his house, but despite another hour of frantic resuscitation efforts, the world had lost one of the most successful artists in music history. The Los Angeles County Coroner will conduct an autopsy, with some results expected as early as Friday, although the findings of other possible tests could take longer.

Some in the entertainment world are utterly shocked at the sudden demise of seasoned entertainer who was, by all accounts, focused on one thing alone: getting ready for a series of 10 comeback shows at London's 02 Arena set to launch next month. Jackson rehearsed at the Staples Center on June 24 in Los Angeles, the day before with "great energy," Grammy executive producer Ken Ehrlich tells PEOPLE. "He wasn't giving it full out. But vocally he had started to really project. I thought he was in great form," who was at the rehearsal.

Jackson had even signed on The Incredible Hulk's Lou Ferrigno as his personal trainer, although the two hadn't worked out together in two weeks.

Yet while many in the entertainment world expressed sadness and shock, a different, more unsettling reaction came from several people close to Jackson and his family, who describe Jackson as unavoidably thin and fragile.

Filmmaker Bryan Michael Stoller, who visited Jackson in April, was shocked by his weight loss. "I hugged him and it was like hugging bones," he tells PEOPLE. "After seeing him, I never thought he would complete the tour."

Says Dr. Firpo Carr, a friend and confidante of Jackson's, "I sensed something was wrong and, quite honestly, I wasn't terribly surprised when I got the news. I would get word from people in his camp that things weren't quite right."

A source close to the singer who didn't want to be identified adds: "Michael hasn't been feeling well. All last week he'd stopped coming out of his house to see his fans. He was doing that every day."

As part of his preparations for the high-stakes UK concert tour, Jackson had been training – hard. He has put in 10-hour rehearsals, a witness says, for the sort of stage spectacle fans had come to expect. Promoters insisted the 50-year-old entertainer was physically ready for the rigors of a full tour. But there was concern among some in his inner circle that Jackson might push too hard: "They didn't want him to overtax himself," family friend Kevin McLin tells PEOPLE. "You look back in history, he never completed all the dates of his shows because he gave so much in each performance – he would go non-stop for two hours."

And on Thursday, even before UCLA doctors declared Jackson dead, family attorney Brian Oxman, who huddled with the grieving family at the hospital, raised the specter of possible abuse of drugs prescribed for the singer's long history of physical ailments. "If you think that the case of Anna Nicole Smith was an abuse, it is nothing in comparison to what we have seen in Michael Jackson's life," Oxman told CNN.

According to the fan at Jackson's rehearsal who tried to raise the alarm among those who adored him, the combination of risk factors seemed dangerously close to claiming its victim.

"We all love Michael really much. We all want to see his shows. We all think about how we will be [in the] first row," the fan wrote earlier in the week. "How will you do all of these things if during the third concert he faints on stage, and if his heart stops during his way to the hospital? How will you feel when you will talk with other fans and will say: We knew he was too skinny to perform?"

He was a truly great talent, and like Elvis he couldn't handle his fame, his money, or his health. Sadly they both surrounded themmselves with syncophants who did nothing but tell them what geniuses they were, doctors who gave them whatever they wanted, and who both wound up as parodies of themselves.

What is pathetic is that MJ was in financial trouble. We are talking about a person who sold 750 million albums worldwide and once owned the Beatles songs. While I am sure there were some legitimate artistic reasons for the upcoming London concerts, I am sure that the projected $150 million in revenue was a big motivator. From that perspective, the fact that he blew all of his money on an outrageous lifestyle, I feel no pity.

This is an excellent article in today's NY Times about MJ's life, death, and his financial struggles.

Jackson Family Feared Morphine OD
Posted Jun 26th 2009 9:09AM by TMZ Staff

Members of Michael Jackson's family told us the singer was given a "heavy dose of morphine" prior to his death, and family members were alarmed.

We're told Joe Jackson recently wanted to put Michael in a rehab facility in Palmdale, California for what he considered an "addiction" to morphine and prescription drugs.
Family members say they felt he was unable to perform for his upcoming concerts because of his drug use.

Members of the upcoming tour tell TMZ Jackson was generally lethargic and very late for rehearsals.

There are reports Jackson OD'd yesterday on Demerol, a drug similar to morphine.

Interestingly, Jackson wrote a song called "Morphine" in 1997. One of the lyrics -- "Demerol. Demerol. Oh God he's taking Demerol."

I'll follow the old addage of. "If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all"

Though by saying that you didn't follow it.

I didn't say what I really think, I don't think it would make too many people happy with me.

How long before the nut jobs come out with Michael Jackson sightings and rumors that he faked his death.

I don't think his planned tour in the UK would have gone well. If the British want to hear a 50 year old white woman sing, they have Susan Boyle.

My boss just said he saw Michael Jackson walking the halls in our hospital.

That's the first sighting.

I think he actually is in France with Elvis and Frank Sinatra.

Balut induced fever.

The family is more and more thinking he OD's on demerol. And his personal physician who started CPR at his house is MIA.

http://www.tmz.com/

http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20287787_20287851,00.html

LaToya Jackson scene to be cut from "Bruno".

'Bruno' Cuts Scene Mocking Jacksons Hours Before Premiere
Friday, June 26, 2009
Baron Cohen's latest comedy "Bruno" into a tailspin Thursday as they scrambled to cut scenes in which the comedian takes more than a few shots at Jackson's sister, LaToya Jackson, hours before the film's Los Angeles premiere, AFP reported.

In "Bruno," Cohen convinces LaToya that he is an Austrian fashion journalist while poking fun at her, but producers felt the joke was in bad taste after hearing of her brother Michael's death.

In the scene, watched by viewers at previous showings, LaToya Jackson eats sushi off the body of a naked Mexican worker acting as a table. It was missing during Thursday night's premiere and will not likely be restored before the film opens in the U.S. on July 10.

"Bruno" is a follow-up to Cohen's smash-hit mockumentary "Borat", and sees the comic playing a flamboyant, celebrity-obsessed Austrian fashion journalist seeking to become famous in the United States.

Also on Thursday, fans mourning Michael Jackson poured on to Hollywood Boulevard to lay flowers on his walk-of-fame star. However, they were on the wrong Michael Jackson.

Because the singer's star is currently covered by the red carpet put down for the "Bruno" premiere, passersby accidentally went to the star belonging to radio talk show host Michael Jackson, the Wall Street Journal reported.

According to this artice (per TMC), Jackson was given a daily shot of something similar to morphine. Also, fwiw, they say his doctor is now missing.



http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/26/report-narcotic-injection-killed-jackson/

TIS

To update, MSN is reporting that the police ARE looking for the Doctor that Jermaine Jackson said was with Michael when he died. The report said that the police didn't say the were accusing the doctor of anything, but the doctor's car was impounded, so it is getting a little more suspicious.


TIS

i still cant get my head around this MICHAEL JACKSON is dead..

RIP

And there's no need for the jokes posted on here..

SHAME ON YOU ALL..

I just saw him in a 7-11 with Elvis buying lottery tickets. Now where are those Vulcan ears????

Just to piss more people off.....

Due to the fact that Michael Jackson is 99% plastic, he will be melted down into lego blocks so little kids can play with him.
_________________
Michael Jackson apparently died of food poisoning…it is reported he ate 12 year old nuts.
__________________


So farrah Fawcett after a good life appears at the pearly gates

st peter greets her and says "farrah, you have led such an exemplary life i am going to get God to grant you one wish"

Farrah thanks St pete and asks for all the children of the world to be safe.

St pete relays this to God who says your wish will be granted.

God then kills Michael Jackson.

More from TMZ: MJ was flatlined when emergency unit arrived.


TIS


http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/26/emergency-workers-felt-jackson-dead-at-scene/

Here is a streaming audio of the 911 call.

http://www.tmz.com/

Yeah. Everyone stop making fun of an emotionally disturbed dead pedophile.

I could give two shits that the kid toucher is dead.

Theres no need to post that..

JL,

I loved his music. He's a legend and made a huge historical mark in musical history and I doubt that will ever be denied him. BUT Personally....


I think many of us feel the way you do. It's almost impossible to feel the full grief one might feel, losing an Icon, had he been a "normal" person (lack of a better word)but knowing about his personal behavior stops me from feeling too badly. I am not used to feeling that way when somebody dies, believe me. How many of his victims are relieved??

TIS

Re: The 911 call. Isn't it odd that when the paramedics asked "does the doctor know what happened" the caller relays to the doctor the question, and then comes back to the phone and says "can you just get here" avoiding answering the question?


TIS

Why do I get the feeling that the MJ death story will take on a life of its own, particularly if there are doctors fleeing and if others come out in the weeks to come talking about addictions, etc? It has the potential to make the circus-like atmosphere surrounding O.J. Simpson in 1994-95 seem like a quick news blurb.

I think there were two separate aspects of Jackson's life: his music and his public persona. His musical legend, whether or not one liked his style of music, is indisputable. He changed music with his sales figures (highest selling LP of all-time), the face of music video with his elaborate productions of Billie Jean, Beat It & Thriller), and his larger-than-life presence on a music stage.

His main problem was that he stopped putting out music (for the most part) since the early 1990s. Musically, he became irrelevant. Look at Prince, Madonna, and Bruce Springsteen. All three were very big at the same time as Michael Jackson (1983-1985), but none were bigger. Yet all three still tour and continue to release new music today. Jackson would never have been able to outdo Thriller in terms of sales, but then again who else could either? He simply should have made music that he wanted to make instead of further withdrawing into his role of recluse.

Goombah, how nice to see you back. How are you?

You know you're right, this probably will take on a life of it's own. I can only imagine how much more we will learn about MJ.

According to Diane Dimond (reporter), none of the kids are biologically MJ's, so the Jacksons have no biological claim. The mother of the two (Rowe) gave them up but still could get them. However, Diamon claims that she knows who the father is and said she would not be surprised that the father comes forward to take the kids. Weren't we led to believe the children were his biological kids?

Man, these stories are a dime a dozen now aren't they?

TIS

Contrary to public belief, Deborah Rowe did not give up her kids. She told the judge she wanted to, but he never granted it. She could get the kids if she wanted.

With Michael Jackson's death, what will become of his three children?

Debbie Rowe, the mother of Prince Michael, 12, and Paris, 11, is their legal parent and can gain custody of them if she chooses, according to Rowe's former attorney, Iris Finsilver.

Prince Michael, Paris and Jackson's third child, Blanket, 7, whose mother has not been identified, have been in the care of Jackson's mother Katherine since the entertainer died Thursday after a cardiac arrest. "The kids are very upset, but they are fine," Jackson's manager, Frank DiLeo, tells PEOPLE.

During the custody fight between Rowe and Jackson in 2005, Rowe sought to give up her parental rights, and lauded Michael as a good father. Retired Judge Stephen Lachs, who presided over the hearing, at first agreed to terminate them, but then Lachs changed his mind and returned the rights to her.

"She lost them, and then she got them back," Finsilver says. Finsilver said she spoke to Rowe on Thursday but she cannot say what Rowe plans to do. "She was inconsolable."

Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman says Jackson's mother, the family matriarch, would be a natural guardian for the kids, though it won't be her decision.

"Katherine is the logical choice – she has all the grandkids and nieces around her but it will be up to the courts," Oxman tells PEOPLE. "I wouldn't be surprised if there are more proceedings regarding the children."

The coroner has completed the autopsy. He's currently meeting with the family, and will hold a press conference 1:30, California time.

My own 2¢ -

It's really hard for any of us to know what demons MJ was battling, but apparently they were doozies. It's sad that he will be remembered for his crazy behavior more than he will be for his musical talent BUT that is the way of the world.

I think he was TREMENDOUSLY talented and back in the mid '80s I thought he was nearing Elvis status (as far as his star-power and his public following). What a shame that he blew it (OK... that's leaving the door open for a few more jokes).