Michael Jackson

SHAME ON THE Oct. 28 article by Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune regarding the release of the Michael Jackson film "This Is It. " He perpetuates the false accusations that Michael was a child molester, that he was Wacko Jackson, that he had lapses in judgment. Michael was acquitted of the molestation charges as there was no validity to them. His marriages and plastic surgery are none of Jones' business. I hope Jones was taught as a child that if you can't say something positive about a person, don't say anything at all. Vera D. Royster Philadelphia

IT IS TOO EASY to find fault with Michael Jackson's eccentric behavior because it is filled with so many contradictions. Michael was born African-American but now looks so pale no suntan can cure it. Michael married Elvis Presley's daughter even though Elvis once said that the "only thing a colored person can do for me is to buy my records and shine my shoes. " Michael says his childhood was abusive, and yet he has been accused of sexually abusing minors. It is not important how the media sensationalizes Michael's private life.

IT'S ONLY halftime in the Michael Jackson trial. But I have reached a verdict. Not innocent! But you knew that. You can't fill a phone booth with people who believe Jackson's contact with young boys is innocent. Anyone who would allow her young son to sleep in Jackson's bed or to spend an unsupervised evening with him is more pimp than parent. The term "neverland" should have taken on new meaning back when he made his first million-dollar payout to a pim, ahh, parent.

THE reinvention of Michael Jackson continues. It seems the King of Pop is looking to become the King of Rap. Yes, according to Rush & Molloy in the New York Daily News, MJ is looking to become edgier. More hip hop. Less hopscotch. "Soon you will see him surrounded by all kinds of beautiful women," says Jackson insider and "Alien Rock" author Michael Luckman. And Jackson's reportedly close to landing folks like Jay-Z, Missy Elliott and Mary J. Blige to perform on his hurricane relief song, "From the Bottom of My Heart.

An unauthorized Michael Jackson book, just out, portrays him as a lonely, reclusive figure whose life has been shaped by disdain for his father, Joseph, who slapped his children around and flaunted his affairs. Along the way, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness, by J. Randy Taraborrelli, details the pop star's surgical rehab and his jealous evaluations of fellow superstars such as Bruce Springsteen ("Really overrated. He can't sing and he can't dance") and Mick Jagger ("How did he ever get to be a star?"

Michael Jackson broke his self-imposed, seven-week seclusion Thursday night when he turned up for a show at Steve Wynn's Treasure Island resort in Las Vegas. He watched with Wynn, ex-junk bond king Michael Milken and a squad of bodyguards. Jackson, in red-leather jacket and cap, was applauded by some in the audience. He's said to be staying at the Mirage, next door to Treasure Island. Meanwhile, the lawyer for the boy accusing the pop star of sex abuse said that Jackson was "stonewalling" in that the only written answers to hundreds of questions submitted in an inquiry involving the 13-year-old's civil action against him were his name and address.

I'M WAKING up quite refreshed these days now that I know more about Michael Jackson than I know about why our nation's defense system completely failed on Sept. 11. Michael Jackson must be on the list of "Acceptable Diversionary Topics" handed out to the networks by the government. Maybe we should add "sequined" to our "Tom Ridge Danger Color Chart" to alert the nation when Mr. Jackson is up to no good. Mark F. Walker, Philadelphia With the newest bin Laden tape, it's NOW or NEVER.

Tweeting and texting, phoning and yelling in the street, Philadelphia-area residents shared the news last night of the death of Michael Jackson, the oddity and icon who perplexed and entertained America for decades. Not so much a person as a once-in-a-lifetime event, Jackson was part car wreck and part comet, and the 50-year-old's passing on a warm summer night galvanized people in the city and environs. "I was devastated," said Neil Shore, 39, a disc jockey at the Camden Community College radio station, WDBK-FM (91.5)

The boarded Uptown Theater in North Philadelphia was as much a place to remember Michael Jackson as it was a reminder of the good old days when the Jackson Five performed here 40 years ago. People began to gather outside the Uptown on North Broad Street for the 7 p.m. candlelight vigil more than an hour in advance. The moment of silence in the star's honor was brief. Instead, the crowd danced, cheered "We love Michael," and sang songs. More than 100 people, many of them baby boomers whose teen and young-adult years were fueled by Jackson's artistry, showed up last night to bid the star farewell.

FIFTY SOLD-OUT London arena shows were already in the bank. So what would Michael Jackson have done next with his big career comeback show, "This Is It," had a drug overdose not ended his life? "Kuala Lumpur was to be the next stop," said Travis Payne, then working on the show's choreography with its?"brilliant" star and director Kenny Ortega. "Michael wanted to revolutionize the way tours were being done. He was always thinking like a great producer, too. He was telling us we needed to design a way to maximize the audience that could see him with less travel time for him and the company.

CLEARLY, CIRQUE du Soleil's "Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour" is a major undertaking - a loud and lavish, multimedia celebration of the "King of Pop" boasting a budget in excess of $50 million, a cast and crew numbering 220. As an arena rock concert spectacle - how creators view it - the production dwarfs Madonna and Lady Gaga's wildest touring fantasies. Planned to circle the globe for more than three years, the thing's loaded to the gills with lavishly costumed dancers and daredevil acrobatic acts, a 12-piece band, high-tech video screens, fanciful props and in-your-face pyrotechnic explosions.

CHRISTINE Flowers: Your column about Joe Paterno said it all perfectly. I heard on the news that they immortalized Michael Jackson at Grauman's Chinese Theater, in Hollywood. His kids were there pushing their hands into the cement. Jackson was accused of many awful things over the years, just because he was different, but he was so big that it didn't matter, and he was never convicted of any of it. The people who loved and cherished him won't let media or anything else get in the way of what is rightfully due him. Joe Paterno was wrongfully accused of something that was not even proven yet. All hearsay.

Once upon a time, there was a boy who channeled the gods. He invoked them through his feet, moving without friction across a thousand stages. They possessed him though his voice, now rough like bark, now sweet like butter, and brimming always with an emotional depth once thought inaccessible to children. You felt the gods of soul and of show - James, Jackie, Sammy - moving through him when that first big record hit the streets late in 1969. The glissando splashes down into an urgency of guitar and a wriggling of bass, and in comes the boy, moaning with real need about that girl he wants back.

LOS ANGELES - Jurors in the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor got a crash course Wednesday on the anesthetic propofol from an expert who showed them a graphic video of what he said was the right way to administer the drug that is blamed for killing the King of Pop. The video included numerous safety measures that were not employed by Conrad Murray when he administered the drug to Jackson as a sleep aid at the singer's home, according to testimony....

SO MANY CELEBRITY shmatas go up for auction each month, Tattle wonders if it's all the same pieces being sold and re-sold. Didn't the Michael Jackson "Thriller" jacket already go up for sale? Or was that the sequined glove? Or MJ's chimp? It's so hard to keep track who has Dorothy's red shoes, the original Kermit muppet or Anthony Weiner 's first wiener shot. That said, the jacket Michael wore in his "Thriller" video is hitting the auction block.

"New" albums from Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley offer cheer for the ears and fodder for debate. Also in the spotlight - the very-much-alive female talents Jazmine Sullivan, Beyonce and Imogen Heap. ACTION JACKSON: While just out today, the Michael Jackson album "Michael" (Epic, B) has already raised protests from the likes of producer/performer Will.I.Am, who declared it "disrespectful" for Jackson's label to release music that the artist didn't finish and approve himself, and which required a bit of vocal tweaking (as acknowledged by project participant Teddy Riley)

THE LEAD SINGLE from Michael Jackson 's posthumous debut, "Michael," was posted on his website yesterday morning. The song, "Breaking News," deals with Jackson's tempestuous relationship with the tabloid media. "Michael," scheduled for a Dec. 14 release, is the first component of a $250 million deal that Jackson's estate inked with Sony Records earlier this year to release 10 new Jackson albums. Jackson died in June 2009. But all is not well in Neverland. TMZ reported that Jackson's kids and his mother, Katherine , don't think the song, which was reportedly recorded in New Jersey in 2007, is by Michael at all. TJ Jackson, son of MJ's brother Tito, tweeted: "There's many MJ vocal impersonators.

The three pop-rocking talents sharing the Tower stage next Thursday night on the glitzy "Glam Nation" tour have a thing in common. All have come oh-so-close to winning a crown. All were arguably "robbed. " Well-known are the sagas of Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta , both major-league belters and distinctive stage personalities who arguably could have (should have) taken a victory lap on "American Idol. " But equally talented and deserving is a 25-year-old Australian singer/guitarist who answers to the name Orianthi . Her big chance at stardom was quashed in June 2009 by a tragic death in her creative family.

Even as tributes, parties, and wakes are being planned to mark the first anniversary of Michael Jackson 's death Friday, Jermaine Jackson tells the BBC that had his brother turned to Islam, he might have been alive today. "I always felt that I was his protector," says JJ. "He was reading a lot of books [about Islam], because I brought him books from Saudi Arabia. I brought him books from Bahrain. " So MJ didn't want to convert? "Not that he wasn't willing to convert," JJ says in a double negative.