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As everyone not living in a cave knows by now, pop icon Michael Jackson died yesterday at the age of 50. Below is a roundup of some of the more prominent obituaries, including the headlines, the introductory paragraphs, and the most prominent photo.
Michael Jackson’s life was infused with fantasy and tragedy - LA Times
Michael Jackson was fascinated by celebrity tragedy. He had a statue of Marilyn Monroe in his home and studied the sad Hollywood exile of Charlie Chaplin. He married the daughter of Elvis Presley.
Jackson met his own untimely death Thursday at age 50, and more than any of those past icons, he left a complicated legacy. As a child star, he was so talented he seemed lit from within; as a middle-aged man, he was viewed as something akin to a visiting alien who, like Tinkerbell, would cease to exist if the applause ever stopped.
It was impossible in the early 1980s to imagine the surreal final chapters of Jackson’s life. In that decade, he became the world’s most popular entertainer thanks to a series of hit records — “Beat It,” “Billie Jean,” “Thriller” — and dazzling music videos. Perhaps the best dancer of his generation, he created his own iconography: the single shiny glove, the Moonwalk, the signature red jacket and the Neverland Ranch.
In recent years, he inspired fascination for reasons that had nothing to do with music. Years of plastic surgery had made his face a bizarre landscape. He was deeply in debt and had lost his way as a musician. He had not toured since 1997 or released new songs since 2001. Instead of music videos, the images of Jackson beamed around the world were tabloid reports about his strange personal behavior, including allegations of child molestation, or the latest failed relaunch of his career.
For his legions of fans, he was the Peter Pan of pop music: the little boy who refused to grow up. But on the verge of another attempted comeback, he is suddenly gone, this time for good.
Michael Jackson, whose quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits, paparazzi and failed plastic surgery, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at U.C.L.A. Medical Center after arriving in a coma, a city official said. Mr. Jackson was 50, having spent 40 of those years in the public eye he loved.
[...]
As with Elvis Presley or the Beatles, it is impossible to calculate the full effect Mr. Jackson had on the world of music. At the height of his career, he was indisputably the biggest star in the world; he has sold more than 750 million albums. Radio stations across the country reacted to his death with marathon sessions of his songs. MTV, which grew successful in part as a result of Mr. Jackson’s groundbreaking videos, reprised its early days as a music channel by showing his biggest hits.
From his days as the youngest brother in the Jackson 5 to his solo career in the 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Jackson was responsible for a string of hits like “I Want You Back,” “I’ll Be There” “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” “Billie Jean” and “Black or White” that exploited his high voice, infectious energy and ear for irresistible hooks.
As a solo performer, Mr. Jackson ushered in the age of pop as a global product — not to mention an age of spectacle and pop culture celebrity. He became more character than singer: his sequined glove, his whitened face, his moonwalk dance move became embedded in the cultural firmament. His entertainment career hit high-water marks with the release of “Thriller,” from 1982, which has been certified 28 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and with the “Victory” world tour that reunited him with his brothers in 1984.
But soon afterward, his career started a bizarre disintegration. His darkest moment undoubtedly came in 2003, when he was indicted on child molesting charges. A young cancer patient claimed the singer had befriended him and then groped him at his Neverland estate near Santa Barbara, Calif., but Mr. Jackson was acquitted on all charges.
Singer Michael Jackson, the man known as the King of Pop to legions of fans around the globe, who lived most of his extraordinary life in the public eye, died Thursday in Los Angeles after going into cardiac arrest. He was 50 years old.
[...]
It used to be that Jackson’s talent was the most compelling thing about him, says music critic Jody Rosen. “I think ‘I Want You Back’ is one of the greatest pop singles I’ve ever heard,” Rosen says.
“I Want You Back” was the hit single that famously thrust a young Michael Jackson and four of his brothers from the Gary, Ind., talent show circuit to world fame. Their grimly focused father put Michael on stage at age 5. The child, says Rosen, somehow channeled the gifts of vastly more seasoned performers. “He had a very gritty voice at that time, which is strange, given that as he grew older, he started to sing more and more like a pre-pubescent little boy,” Rosen says. “And when he was a pre-pubescent little boy, he was singing like a soul elder statesman.”
Object of Acclaim, Curiosity, The ‘King of Pop’ Dies in L.A. - WaPo
Michael Jackson, 50, died yesterday in Los Angeles as sensationally as he lived, as famous as a human being can get. He was a child Motown phenomenon who grew into a moonwalking megastar, the self-anointed King of Pop who sold 750 million records over his career and enjoyed worldwide adoration.
But with that came the world’s relentless curiosity, and Mr. Jackson was eventually regarded as one of show business’s legendary oddities, hopping from one public relations crisis to another.
In the end there were two sides to the record: The tabloid caricature and the provocative, genre-changing musical genius that his fans will always treasure. There were those whose devotion knew no bounds, who visited the gates of his private ranch north of Santa Barbara, Calif., arriving at Neverland on pilgrimages from Europe and Asia, and who were among the first to flock to UCLA Medical Center as news of his death spread yesterday afternoon. Those were the same kind of fans who camped out at the Santa Barbara Superior Courthouse, to show their support during his 2005 trial. They released doves and wept when he was acquitted.
Then there was the other kind of fan, who preferred to keep memories of the singer locked firmly in his 1980s prime: Today’s young adults all have memories of being toddlers and grade-schoolers who moonwalked across their mother’s just mopped kitchen floors. Even the hardest rockers will easily confess to the first album they ever bought: “Thriller.”
These are fair accounts, I think, balancing Jackson’s undeniable status as a music icon as well as the bizarre spectacle of his life offstage.
Michael Jackson has suffered a heart attack and there are scant rumors (unconfirmed) that he has died.
TMZ is reporting that the fifty year old king of pop was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital.
Jackson reportedly collapsed at his home around noon today, where he was shortly rushed to emergency care while still unresponsive.
“The call came in because a person was not breathing,” says a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Fire Department.
“When the team arrived, they saw that CPR was already in progress by someone at the home. The person not breathing was transported to UCLA Medical Center and remains there.”
“He had a heart attack,” father Joe Jackson reported
They say it happens in three’s, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and now Michael Jackson.
For some strange reason Lindsay Lohan took to her twitter page to pose a picture of her topless, with only her hair blocking her boobs, she took on her Blackberry.
Well I guess this is Lindsay Lohan so she doesn’t really need a reason to do things like this, but the picture is from when she shot that Fornarina commercial.
In other news, Lindsay is being accused of stealing around $500,000 worth of Dior jewelry from a photoshoot she did for Elle magazine at Big Sky Studios in London earlier in the month.
A police spokesperson said “There have been no arrests at this stage. We will speak to a number of people in connection with the inquiry. Jewellery is often loaned out for big celebrities to wear on fashion shoots. Police are working out who had them when they went missing. People at Dior are very upset. It’s an embarrassment to the mag.”
Lindsay Lohan is expected to be questioned sometime this week, drama as always!
A New York exhibit centered around the life of John Lennon will feature a paper bag filled with the late singer’s bloody clothes from the day of his death.
The exhibit also includes handwritten lyrics, guitars, the piano from his apartment, a pair of “his trademark wire-rimmed glasses,” and letters recounting his battle against deportation in the 70s.
Widow Yoko Ono, who said she feared “criticism” for the exhibit, also said, “I know it’s a kind of a sad and very poignant kind of paradox, I think, that he loved this place so much and this is where he was killed.”
She said she was still coming to terms with Lennon’s death.
“If it was a slow a process we could have talked about it or something,” she added.
This past weekend Cher donned a see-through body suit that was nearly identical to the iconic one she wore for her “Turn Back Time” music video in 1992.
I bet she does wish she could turn back time. It looks like she had to fill in a couple of the cuts in the fabric, so her breasts wouldn’t hang out of them.
In a perfect universe, we’d all have adorable miniature versions of ourselves…
Personally, I’d just keep encouraging my mini equivalent to make crappy puns in his adorable high pitched voice, then we’d re-enact the midget scene from Twin Peaks together. I’ve given this a lot of thought.
If you’ve ever wondered what a cat sounds like when it’s being strangled, then you’re gonna love the raw, unedited “board mix” of Beyonce Knowles from her “Today Show” performance last year — courtesy of Howard Stern.
Just like the title says, while out for dinner at Beso restaurant Jessica Simpson forgot to put some underwear on.
Which of course means the paparazzi got down on their hands and knees and went sraight up her dress to take these photographs.
Seriously how the hell did she not know someone was under her dress, or even yet why didn’t her boyfriend Tony Romo kick the living sh*t out of the paparazzi for taking pictures of Jessica Simpson’s naked ass?
Britney Spears‘ father has been seeking permission from a judge to expand the pop star’s current Circus tour – but the dire economy may hamper those plans, it was revealed in a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday.
The pop star, 27, is halfway into a 49-show tour through the U.S., Canada and the UK, with hopes to add more dates through Europe, Australia and a possible second U.S. tour.
L.A. Superior Court Commissioner Reva Goetz said following a closed-door discussion with Jamie and his lawyers,
“It hasn’t yet been determined whether it’s feasible to expand tours to the Europe or Australia legs.”
That will be determined in the future after everyone’s seen the analysis, in terms of the economy and value of the dollar.”
Jamie and another lawyer hold indefinite legal control over his daughter following her two forced hospitalizations last year.
“Britney’s loving being onstage again,” says a source close to the singer. “Health-wise, she’s progressing every week, it’s amazing. Britney was the single force for wanting to go on tour in the first place.”
A sentencing hearing, which could lead to at least 18 years in jail, has been set for May 29th.
The 69-year-old Spector has been awarded two Grammy Awards and in 1989, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“In the 1960s, he became famous as the man behind the ‘Wall of Sound,’ an instrumentally dense swirl of melody and percussion underlying such tunes as the Ronettes’ ‘Be My Baby,’ the Righteous Brothers’ ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’ and Ike and Tina Turner’s ‘River Deep, Mountain High,’” wrote CNN of his biography.
“He later produced the Beatles’ “Let It Be” album, John Lennon’s “Imagine” and the Ramones’ ‘End of the Century.’”
“From the moment we rehearsed, LeAnn and Eddie honestly developed a really strong bond and a warm relationship.”
Their rapport carried off the set as well.
The photo was taken from a video security camera that shows the two holding hands and kissing on a romantic dinner date at Mosun and Club M in Laguna Beach, California on March 7.
Additionally, it’s being reported that the new couple met for a three-hour tryst at the Malibu Beach Inn on March 14.
