Posted Jun 27th 2009 7:20PM by TMZ Staff
A source close to the family of Michael Jackson tells TMZ if Debbie Rowe reaches out to them, and wants to see her kids, they won’t stand in the way.
However, we’re told the family is holding strong in its position that the kids should stay with their grandmother Katherine.
We’re told the family believes it would be “unfair” for the kids to grow up not knowing their biological mother.
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Posted Jun 27th 2009 2:56PM by TMZ Staff
A source close to the family of Michael Jackson tells TMZ the family has requested a second autopsy — and it is currently underway somewhere in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles County Coroner conducted an autopsy on Friday and while he said there was “no indication of foul play,” the official cause of death could not be determined.
Story developing …
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Posted Jun 25th 2009 5:20PM by TMZ Staff
We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.
Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.
A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived. A cardiologist at UCLA tells TMZ Jackson died of cardiac arrest.
Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate him but he was completely unresponsive.
A source inside the hospital told us there was “absolute chaos” after Jackson arrrived. People who were with the singer were screaming, “You’ve got to save him! You’ve got to save him!”
We’re told one of the staff members at Jackson’s home called 911.
La Toya ran in the hospital sobbing after Jackson was pronounced dead.
Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II.
Story developing…
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June 26, 2009 at 5:51 am
Spowf
sore yah! Day of rest today..first msg i got was from a friend telling me that jackson had passed away.
I watched the coverage on the morning shows and really i think its terrible that so much controvery has ruined and tarnished his credibility and influence on pop culture, music and the impact he has had on the lives of individuals that he transformed.
I feel like I missed out on living and breathing his music, before the controversy.
June 26, 2009 at 6:00 am
Emmanuel
Yeah Sof you did miss out…it was crazy when we were kids everyone wanted to be like him. I remember Primary School dances where someone would always come to the dance with a glove or some leather jacket.
The first album of his I bought was ‘Bad’ but the first video clip I watched was ‘thriller’
I don’t think there is a pop star that has touched so many people in so many countries and cultures as MJ did. I’d dare so more so than Elvis or the Beatles…
June 27, 2009 at 3:24 am
Emmanuel
Jackson death stuns world, spotlight on role of drugs
By Rob Woollard – 1 day ago
LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Michael Jackson’s cause of death will not be confirmed for several weeks, officials said, as attention turned to the possible involvement of drugs in the tragic King of Pop’s demise.
As a global outpouring of tributes to the tortured icon showed no sign of abating, Los Angeles coroners began the task of trying to determine what caused the 50-year-old star to collapse and die at his home on Thursday.
After an autopsy lasting several hours, Los Angeles County coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey told reporters that examiners had found no evidence of “external trauma or foul play” on Jackson’s body.
However Harvey said a cause of death had been deferred until the results of exhaustive toxicology tests were known.
“Those tests, we anticipate, will take proximately four to six additional weeks to complete,” Harvey said.
“At that time, once those test results have been completed, we anticipate being able to close the case and issue a final cause of death.”
Jackson’s autopsy took place Friday amid heartfelt tributes to the singer, and as speculation mounted about the cause of the death of the icon who sold more than 750 million records and whose music defined the 1980s.
Jackson lawyer Brian Oxman said he and family members voiced concerns over the star’s use of drugs as he prepared for a gruelling series of comeback concerts in London designed to relaunch his career.
“I know Michael was rehearsing and working extremely hard to get in shape in order to perform in London,” Oxman told ABC television’s Good Morning America. New age guru and Jackson confidante Deepak Chopra — a qualified cardiologist — told CNN bluntly: “I think drugs killed him.”
Jackson’s former producer Tarak Ben Ammar denounced the doctors around the late pop icon as “criminals.”
“It’s clear that the criminals in this affair are the doctors who treated him throughout his career, who destroyed his face, who gave him medicine to ease his pain,” he told France’s Europe 1 radio.
Celebrity website TMZ.com — which broke the news of Jackson’s death — reported Friday that the star had been injected with the powerful painkiller Demerol about an hour before he lost consciousness.
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said investigators spoke with the doctor briefly Thursday, but they wanted to interview him again.
A tape-recording of the 911 call from Jackson’s home was released Friday in which a caller could be heard telling an operator that repeated attempts to revive Jackson had been unsuccessful.
The caller also said Jackson’s personal physician had been the only witness to the singer’s collapse. “(The doctor) is pumping the chest but he’s not responding to anything, sir, please,” the caller is heard saying.
Jackson’s family, including the star’s three young children, were reportedly huddled at an estate in the northern Los Angeles suburb of Encino.
Meanwhile there were tributes from Jackson’s close friend Elizabeth Taylor and a spokesman for US President Barack Obama.
“My heart… my mind… are broken,” Taylor said in a statement. “I loved Michael with all my soul and I can’t imagine life without him… I still can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. It can’t be so.”
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday the US leader regarded Jackson as an icon but thought aspects of his life were sad and tragic.
“The president… said that he had aspects of his life that were sad and tragic, his condolences went out to the Jackson family and fans that mourned his loss,” Gibbs said.
Fans staged gatherings across the world, including 10,000 Danish fans who crammed into a square in Copenhagen for a three-hour tribute concert.
A moment of silence was held at 2126 GMT, exactly 24 hours after the announcement of Jackson’s death.
At Jackson’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, fans left flowers and lit candles.
Jackson’s death led to a stampede on the Internet as fans scanned the web for latest updates on the story.
Yahoo! News “set an all-time record in unique visitors with 16.4 million people, surpassing our previous record of 15.1 million visitors on election day,” it said.
The heavy traffic reportedly strained the servers of a number of websites, including those of micro-blogging site Twitter.
While Jackson ruled the charts and dazzled audiences with dance moves like the “moonwalk” in the 1980s, his once-stellar career was overshadowed by his startling physical transformation and multiple allegations of child abuse.
He lived as a virtual recluse following his 2005 acquittal on charges of child molestation and plotting to kidnap his young accuser.
Despite the acquittal, the trial was a body blow from which the pop music superstar, who named his ranch after Peter Pan’s “Neverland” and furnished it with Disney-inspired rides, struggled to recover.
Born on August 29, 1958, Jackson made his show business debut with four of his elder brothers in the Jackson Five pop group, and went on to lead the stage clan with a piping soprano and dazzling dance moves.
In 1979, Quincy Jones produced Jackson’s first solo album for Epic Records, “Off the Wall,” a huge disco-oriented success that sold 10 million copies.
They teamed up again in 1982 for “Thriller,” which became the top-selling album of all time, with sales exceeding 41 million.
June 27, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Tommy
Rest In Peace Michael