Michael Jackson

The Best King Of Pop!

Stars gathered at a mothballed nuclear plant in northern Austria Friday evening for the “Save the World Awards,” paying a special tribute to the late Michael Jackson.

The open-air event, honouring organisations and people “working toward a sustainable and liveable future for our planet and its people,” was hosted by actress Andie MacDowell.

Awards were to be given out in such categories as climate, tolerance, education, and hunger and poverty.

Entertainers and athletes including former US sprinter Carl Lewis and Nobel peace laureate Betty Williams mubbed shoulders with charity workers.

The event was held under the slogan “Heal the World,” after the title of one of Jackson’s hit songs.

Jackson’s brother Jermaine was also present at the ceremony, where he was to perform Michael’s favourite song “Smile” and receive a posthumous award honouring the self-proclaimed King of Pop for his 

“many social and humanitarian engagements, but also… his incredible musical legacy.”

Presenting itself as a “green event,” the award show emphasised its use of renewable energy, organic catering and environmentally-friendly decor.

Founded by former Austrian journalist Georg Kindel, the first-time event was held at the Zwentendorf nuclear plant in Upper Austria, which was completed but never made operational, and which is now being turned into a solar power station.

Kindel was also behind the World Awards and Women’s World Awards, which have honoured such personalities as Richard Branson, Queen Noor of Jordan, Steven Spielberg, Jose Carreras and Ingrid Betancourt.

Sometimes a sign from a hardware store tells the whole story ….

Debbie Rowe at her Ranch in Palmdale, CA

Michael Jackson had a way of picking doctors who became such close friends with him that the doctor-patient distinction became blurred.

Dr. Alex Farshchian from Miami was “awe-struck” by Jackson, according to former L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Laperruque, who worked security for Jackson. We obtained notes from an interview Laperruque had with detectives during the child molestation investigation in Santa Barbara. Laperruque said Dr. Farshchian was so enamored with Jackson, he invited the singer to stay at his house in Miami. Laperruque says Jackson took the doctor up on his offer and ended up staying in his converted garage. The question — why would Jackson settle for such accommodations?

Laperruque told detectives “Farshchian may have been over prescribing medication.”

Dr. Arnold Klein was Jackson’s longtime friend and Beverly Hills dermatologist. Klein bragged on Larry King that he has slept in the same room as Jackson and shared a close bond with him, going on numerous vacations with the singer. One of Jackson’s drivers told the coroner Jackson would spend 3 – 4 hours in Klein’s office and come out looking disoriented. A former bodyguard said he also saw Jackson leave Klein’s office looking out of it. And powerful prescriptions were found at Neverland — prescribed by Dr. Klein. The prescriptions were written for Frank Tyson, who worked for Jackson. A former bodyguard said Jackson would use Tyson’s name to score drugs. Klein has said he prescribed Demerol for Jackson, a drug to which Jackson was addicted.

Dr. Allan Metzger, who practices in West Hollywood, went on one of Jackson’s concert tours and was close to him. He even videotaped the singer’s wedding to Debbie Rowe. Dr. Metzger received a public reprimand for prescribing drugs to Janet Jackson under an alias. Dr. Metzger would not tell us whether he ever prescribed drugs to Michael under an alias. He told us he has not been Jackson’s doctor for years, but he spoke with him as recently as last April about medical issues and personal matters.

Some medical experts suggest it’s a bad idea for doctors to become close to their patients because the doctors must retain the power to say “no” when the patient wants something that is not medically appropriate. Whatever his motives, Michael Jackson had a talent for picking doctors who were more than happy to pick him as a friend.

Michael Jackson’s former nanny Grace Rwaramba fulfilled most of her high school fantasies when she became a part of MJ’s life — as her old high school yearbook spells out multiple times.

Michael Jackson is mentioned four separate times in her 1985 senior yearbook from The Academy of the Holy Family in Connecticut. In one section, classmates predicting Rwaramba would marry the singer and have her “own generation of Jackson 5.”

She came pretty close.

Doctors aren’t the only ones in the cross hairs of authorities who want to find out how Michael Jackson scored various drugs, including anesthesia — turns out Jackson knew his way around various dental offices as well.

As we have already reported, medical professionals have told TMZ Jackson was an “anesthesia addict,” who would would seek out Propofol and other drugs that would sedate him or knock him out. Law enforcement is aware of this, sources say, and dental offices are part of their investigation.

Several Los Angeles doctors have told TMZ it was known in medical circles that Jackson used dentists to feed his habit.

A story just published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal buttresses the stories we’ve been reporting — that Jackson had “doctor shopping” down to a science. According to the report, in 2003, a doctor (who spoke on the condition of anonymity) was summoned to Jackson’s suite at the Mirage in Vegas.

The doctor says Jackson complained of a sore throat and cough and quickly determined it was a ploy to score prescription drugs. The doctor said, “The whole thing was staged. It was all a lie. They just wanted drugs. They wanted me to call in all these pills under someone else’s name.”

The doctor says when he refused to go along, Jackson’s handlers intimidated him, saying doctors always helped the singer. The MD says at one point he said, “I’ll see what I can do,” and the handler “came up to me and put a finger in my chest and said ‘You do that.’”

Thousands of fans have thronged Michael Jackson’s birthplace of Gary, Indiana, to pay an emotional tribute to the King of Pop.

Members of the singer’s family watched as local performers staged a medley of his greatest hits and youngsters mimicked his famous “moonwalk”.

Gary, an industrial city close to Chicago, was Jackson’s home for the first 11 years of his life. Although his formative years were unhappy ones, the mood of the festival was upbeat.

“This is the origin of it all,” Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, told 6,000 devotees who joined the event at a local baseball ground. “This is where Michael learned to dance, where he learned to sing, where he learned to sacrifice.”

A seven-foot memorial to Gary’s most famous son was later unveiled by mayor Rudy Clay who hailed the singer for placing the city on the world map and told the crowd that he had moved on to a better place.

“He’s going to put on those golden slippers and he’s going to dance all over God’s heaven,” Mr Clay said.

Joe Jackson, the singer’s controversial father, arrived at the stadium two hours after the tribute began. Surrounded by security guards, he briefly greeted the crowd but otherwise kept a low profile.

The former crane operator has struggled to defend himself in the face of persistent allegations that he abused his son.

Mr Jackson, who on Friday said he suspected “foul play” in the singer’s death, is expected to be a key figure in custody hearings to determine who will act as guardian to the three Jackson grandchildren.

A judge has given Katherine Jackson, the singer’s mother, temporary guardianship but a hearing on whether or not she will continue in that role is expected next week.

Speculation has been mounting that Jackson’s ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, could seek custody of Prince Michael Jr and Paris, the two children she bore the star when they were married in the late 1990s.

Jackson’s third child, Prince Michael II, was born of a surrogate mother whose name has never been disclosed.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies who raided Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch back in 2003 found a syringe, powerful narcotics, vials and IV bags containing what could be anesthesia.

We’ve obtained documents that were part of the Sheriff’s Department’s investigation detailing what was found in the search. Among the items …

– A vial of Versed — a powerful sedative
– Several IV bags containing “a milky white fluid, located in a small cardboard box on top of the bathtub.” Propofol and other anesthesias are milky white. As we first reported, Propofol was in Jackson’s home the day he died.
– A vial of Promethazine — an antihistamine with strong sedative effects
– A bottle of Alprazolam (generic for Xanax, a powerful anti-anxiety drug)
– A bottle of Percocet — a painkiller
– A syringe
– A vial with Demerol in it
– Numerous loose pills outside bottles
– A bottle of Prednisone — a steroid
– Ery-tab — an antibiotic
– Prescriptions for Xanax that had been filled
– A prescription for Alprazolam
– Oxygen tanks
– IV stands

Police Haven’t Ruled Out Homicide In Michael Jackson Case

(AP Photo)

Michael Jackson.

LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) Michael Jackson’s death could be homicide, said Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton on CNN last night.

Bratton said that police are waiting for the coroner’s report before ruling out any possibilities in their “comprehensive” investigation into the sudden death of the 50-year-old pop star two weeks ago.

“Based on those we’ll have an idea of what we’re dealing with,” Bratton said Thursday. “Are we dealing with homicide? Are we dealing with an accidental overdose? What are we dealing with?” The coroner’s report will determine the cause of death and hinges on time-consuming toxicology tests.

Detectives investigating Jackson’s death are looking at his prescription drug history and trying to talk with his numerous former doctors, the Los Angeles police chief said.

Jackson’s father, Joe Jackson, told ABC News in an interview that he believed “foul play” was involved in his son’s death. But in an interview aired Friday on “Good Morning America,” Jackson did not elaborate.

Bratton said detectives are gathering evidence, including items seized from Jackson’s rented home and arranging interviews with his many physicians, but the police chief deferred to the coroner to determine the cause of death.

“The next move really is his,” Bratton said. “We’re not marking time waiting for his report.”

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, Pool)

Singer Janet Jackson, left, Paris Katherine Jackson, Prince Michael Jackson II, and LaToya Jackson at Michael Jackson’s memorial.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and the state attorney general’s office, which keeps a database of prescription drugs, are assisting investigators.

An attorney for Dr. Arnold Klein, one of Jackson’s many physicians, told the Los Angeles Times that the dermatologist was subpoenaed for medical records, which he turned over to the county coroner’s office.

Bratton refused to discuss details of the case.

Jackson, who died June 25, had a well-known history of using prescription medications, especially painkillers. Following his death, Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse, who had worked for Jackson, told The Associated Press she repeatedly rejected his demands for the potent anesthetic Diprivan, also known as Propofol.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Photo: Jackson’s nurse, Cherilyn Lee, said she refused to give Jackson potent prescription drugs.

Jackson had multiple doctors, friends and staff who came in and out of his life. Which people were being interviewed by police was unclear because the LAPD has said virtually nothing about the probe.

Joe Jackson, Michael Jackson’s father, said he didn’t know anything about drugs his son was involved in.

“I don’t even know the name of them,” he said. “I do know that whatever he was taking was to make him rest because he had been working so hard.”

Police towed a doctor’s car from Jackson’s home hours after he died and said later it could contain medication or other evidence. Coroner’s officials also said Jackson was taking prescription medication but declined to elaborate.

Meanwhile, Joe Jackson told ABC that he and his wife, Katherine, should have custody of Michael’s three children. “They’ll grow up to be strong Jacksons,” he said.

He said Michael’s daughter, Paris, who spoke at the Tuesday memorial service, was taking the death hard and was crying whenever Michael’s name is mentioned. He said that she might have a future in the entertainment business along with the youngest son, nicknamed Blanket, who “can really dance.”

(AP (file))

The website TMZ posted additional details of Jackson’s alleged drug use, including a doctor’s note that offered Jackson Buprenex, a “potent narcotic,” which was “just like” Demerol “but better”. Buprenex is an injectable narcotic as well. According to the site, sheriff’s deputies also seized a note, potentially written by Jackson, which read: “Buprenex does the same as Demerol; the only difference is you can’t become an addict on Buprenex.”

The website also alleges that Jackson used the names of his employees to acquire additional prescription drugs.