Read on from CNN:

In  comments published in the Los Angeles Times and confirmed Thursday by his spokeswoman, attorney Ed Chernoff said his client did not know which drugs Jackson might have been taking or whether he was addicted.

“When he accepted the job, he was not aware of any specific requirements regarding medications that Michael Jackson was taking or any addictions that he was suffering from,” Chernoff told the Times.

In a quote confirmed by his spokesman, Chernoff said that it was only after Murray moved to Los Angeles in May that “he realized that Michael Jackson had some very unusual problems.”

Murray did not conduct drug tests on Jackson and had no way of knowing, other than from Jackson himself, whether he was taking other drugs, Chernoff’s spokeswoman, Miranda Sevcik, told CNN.

Ever since Michael Jackson’s death in June, we’ve heard conflicting reports about who the biological mother and father of his three children really are. Today, another man enters the fray, claiming that Paris Jackson is his biological daughter. Former child star Mark Lester told reporters that he donated sperm for Debbie Rowe, the mother who gave birth to Paris and Prince. He says the 11 year old Paris bears an uncanny resemblance to his own daughter, and he’s willing to take a paternity test to prove his claim.

This comes on the heels of a custody claim by another man, dermatologist Arnold Klein, who is also rumored to be the Jackson kids’ real daddy. When is the madness going to stop? These kids need a chance to be normal, and that’s never going to happen if they keep getting dragged into custody fights.

ABC News has more:

Less than a week after Jackson’s 79-year-old mother Katherine Jackson was awarded custody of his three children a former British child star has come forward saying he believes he’s the father of Jackon’s 11-year-old daughter, Paris.

“I believe that Paris could be my daughter, and I would be willing to take a paternity test,” Mark Lester, star of the 1967 film “Oliver,” told British tabloid News of the World.

Lester, 51, said that he donated sperm for Debbie Rowe, mother of Jackson’s two oldest children, Paris and Prince Michael I, 12. He contends that Paris bears an uncanny resemblance to his own daughters, particularly his 15-year-old.

“Looking at pictures of Harriet and Paris, there’s a very strong resemblance between the two of them,” Lester, also the children’s godfather, told News of the World,” “Paris has blue eyes, pale complexion and high cheekbones.”

The Guardian reports that the insurance policy for Jackson’s planned 50-show concert covered a lot of things, like cancellation due to death, but it did not cover illicit drug use. So, if the tox reports show that Jackson had illegal drugs in his system, the Jackson estate won’t be able to cash in on the huge policy. Apparently, the insurers knew about Jackson’s history with prescription drug use. This could be a huge blow for the Jackson estate, which is still wading through the huge sums of debt that Michael Jackson accumulated while he was alive.

The insurance policy for Michael Jackson’s cancelled O2 residency will not apply if the late star is found to have taken illegal drugs, the Associated Press has confirmed. Though the policy covers cancellation resulting from death, the insurers are exempted if Jackson was involved in the possession or “illicit taking of drugs”.

The policy’s payout of millions of pounds may therefore hinge on Jackson’s autopsy results, which have twice been delayed. There are numerous reports linking Jackson’s alleged use of propofol, a powerful anaesthetic, with his death on 25 June.

According to the Associated Press, Jackson and AEG Live took out the insurance policy in April. The document only covers the first 13 gigs in the epic 50-show run – bolstering reports that promoters had been unable to insure the full residency. A March estimate showed the 50 concerts required more than £300m in insurance cover.

(Guardian)

AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, File

The sedatives, commonly given to patients before surgery, could be lethal if administered improperly or combined in risky doses with other drugs. Dr. Murray, who is not an anesthesiologist, insists that his treatment of the Thriller singer was within normal medical practices.

The late Jackson’s tox screen has yet to be released, so investigators can’t pin down Dr. Murray, though they reportedly believe that Jackson’s untimely death is linked to the propofol that the doctor gave Jackson.

More here:

Hours before Michael Jackson’s death, his doctor administered multiple sedatives along with a powerful anesthetic the pop star used to sleep, according to a law enforcement official. It’s a safe combination if done properly; potentially lethal if not.The official said the type of sedatives Dr. Conrad Murray gave Jackson were benzodiazepines, often used to calm patients before surgery. Murray told investigators the doses were within normal medical guidelines, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Even at acceptable levels, benzodiazepines can intensify how the anesthetic propofol depresses breathing, so strict monitoring and careful dosing is required. The balance can be tricky, a slip-up disastrous.

Murray, who administered the drugs to Jackson in a room at the pop star’s rented mansion, told investigators Jackson stopped breathing the morning of June 25 and he was unable to revive him. The doctor is the central figure in what police term a manslaughter investigation, but authorities have not classified him a suspect.

E! Online reports today that the first and second autopsy of the Thriller singer have altered his body to such a great degree that any more examinations would be impossible. Jackson’s brain and other tissue have already been removed and embalmed, and the body’s been thoroughly worked over with various tests. However, we have yet to hear a peep about the results of these tests, since the autopsy reveal has been postponed indefinitely. Guess we’ll just have to keep guessing about what really happened to the King of Pop.

A Jackson family source tell E! News that despite a recent spate of reports claiming that Mama Katherine is so convinced of foul play in her son’s death that she wants the King of Pop’s body to go under the scalpel yet again, “there is neither a plan nor a need for another autopsy.”

But it’s not just that another autopsy is unplanned and potentially unnecessary. It may also be unfeasible, thanks to the current state of the star’s already worked-over remains.

The source said that all tissues and samples needed, which include his brain, were already removed and that Jackson’s body is currently embalmed and more or less “a shell” of little or no forensic value.

(E! Online)

The new documents in the Michael Jackson estate case show the special administrators of the estate expect to haul in money in the “high eight figures” for merchandising and other Jackson-related stuff.

The docs mention the $5.5 million the special administrators already collected from Dr. Tohme Tohme. In addition, the administrators have collected “millions of dollars of tangible personal property throughout the country, including memorabilia and art.”

The docs say the special administrators are deep in negotiations to market all things Jackson.

(TMZ)

Fans have been waiting with baited breath for weeks for the cause of death, while the Coroner’s office has continued to push back the deadline. We told you on Wednesday that the announcement had already been pushed back to next week.

Now we learn that the coroners are pushing back the reveal “indefinitely.” That doesn’t sound good. Apparently there are so many pieces to the puzzle- multiple doctors, prescriptions, and aliases- that the office can’t process everything fast enough. E! Online shares the disappointing tidbit:

At this point in time, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office has “no idea” when the final autopsy report is going to be released, according to Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter.

The coroner’s office was once aiming for Friday to announce the cause of death. Then the middle of next week was deemed more likely.

But now, following a meeting between officials from the coroner’s office, the L.A. District Attorney’s Office and the L.A. Police Department, no one is making any guesses as to when they’ll announce their findings to the public, as authorities continue trying to connect the dots with regard to the King of Pop’s death.

The multiple law-enforcement agencies on the case are on the same page, a source told the L.A. Times Thursday. Instead, it’s the sheer scope of the investigation—and all the characters involved—that’s holding up the proceedings.

From Mercury News:

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office says release of Michael Jackson’s autopsy results will be delayed.

Coroner’s officials had said they were going to release the results this week but Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Wednesday the announcement will probably not come until next week.

Winter did not discuss reasons for the delay, saying only that his office needed to “finish up a bunch of stuff.”

Jackson died June 25.

A law enforcement official has said investigators are working under the theory that the powerful anesthetic propofol (PROH’-puh-fahl) caused Jackson’s heart to stop. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Color us confused- why isn’t the autopsy ready? All of these extras delays makes us suspect that there are details within the report that authorities are afraid to let the public know about. But in reality, the extra waiting just makes us all the more eager to find out what’s going on. Stay tuned!

Katherine Jackson is simply looking for “a seat at the table” in all matters surrounding her late son Michael’s estate, according to her attorney.

On Tuesday, reports surfaced that Katherine had hired attorney L. Londell McMillan to challenge the authority of the two men her son named “co-executors” of the Michael Jackson Family Trust in his 2002 will, a move that had sharply divided the family and had many speculating that Jackson’s father, Joe, was attempting to grab control of the Jackson estate.

But in an interview with TMZ published early Wednesday (July 22), McMillan said that his client had no intention of challenging Jackson’s will, but as far as executorship was concerned, “She deserves a seat at the table, minimum.” Read on…

Of course, this “co-executive” situation is supremely strange. Was Michael Jackson pressured into that idea? Maybe we’ll never know.

This, however, is a ruling Debbie Rowe and other people may challenge in the future. The two older children, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. and Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, were born when Rowe was still married to their father, making her their legal mother. Rower reportedly signed away her parental rights to the children after the divorce, but an appeals court reestablished her parental status in 2006. California attorney Gloria Allred commented, “Katherine would have to show it would be detrimental to the kids for Rowe to have custody. That’s a very heavy burden.” (source)

It seems that even though Jackson most likely has his wishes stated in his will (which will be filed in California courts later this week), those wishes would still only be used as a suggestion and not be legally binding. Not legally binding? Why on earth do we even have wills? We can only hope that whatever happens, it is truly what’s best for the children.