According to Marie Claire, the Jacksons will keep Michael’s final resting place a top secret to keep legions of fans from disturbing his grave site or turning it into a shrine. Fans are sure to be upset when they find this out, and we bet some of them will go trekking through Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood to try and discover the site themselves. We hope everybody is respectful of the late King of Pop and his family’s wishes!

Michael Jackson has finally been buried, but in an unmarked grave to keep crazy fans from turning his final resting place into a shrine.

Although it is thought the King of Pop’s grave lies within the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood, the exact location is being kept a closely guarded secret.

‘Other than the Jackson family and the Forest Lawn management, no one knows the exact spot,’ a source tells The Daily Mail.

‘Staff at the cemetery have been fed several locations, it’s as if they’re hoping to confuse everyone.

(More at Marie Claire)

E! Online reports that an LA Superior Court judge gave a thumbs up on the development deals to plaster Jackson’s image over the usual keychains, buttons, calendars and other trinkets that fans go crazy for. Whether or not the legions of Jackson fans will continue to want these items months after the singer’s passing is debatable, but it looks like the estate’s willing to bet on their fans’ loyalty.

First up, L.A. Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff, who is overseeing the management of the artist’s estate, allowed special administrators John Branca and John McClain leave to develop multiple Jackson-branded products that would require using the star’s name and image, such as a 2010 calendar, sunglasses, commemorative coins, school supplies, buttons and wall art.

So, a lot of crap, basically. But there are some things people might actually be interested in…

Beckloff also approved the estate’s request to partner with iTunes to sell audio and video recordings of Jermaine Jackson performing Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” which was reputedly one of Michael’s favorite recordings, at his brother’s star-studded memorial last month.

Branca and McClain have also been allowed to ink a deal to get reprints of Jackson’s 1988 autobiography Moonwalk on the market in China, Korea, Poland, the Czech Republic and several other European countries.

This initial action will likely pave the way for more merchandise deals—Jackson tattoos for your Second Life avatar, perhaps?—and other business opportunities as Branca and McClain continue to bet that there is a rejuvenated market out there for everything Jackson.

(From 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)

At least 15,000 fans think he does, and they’ve signed a petition circulating around the Internet aimed at rewarding the King of Pop for his humanitarian efforts. AFP reports that the petition has an ambition goal of one million signatures.

Even if they manage to get that many supporters though, the petition’s still got a couple of problems. First of all, petitions can’t get anyone a nomination; the nominator has to be an official person designated by the Nobel Committee. Second, and more importantly, well…Jackson’s dead. Nobel Prize recipients can’t be nominated posthumously.

Oh well. We like the enthusiasm of these fans!

More than 15,000 people have signed an Internet petition calling for the late pop star Michael Jackson to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.

Started by an American college student, the petition praises Jackson for his commitment to humanitarian causes and calls on the Norwegian Nobel Institute to name the singer as next year’s winner.

“We the Undersigned, believe Michael Jackson has given of himself completely and selflessly in a lifelong effort to help better global conditions for children, and all of humankind,” the petition said.

“Michael Jackson has undoubtedly earned the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize,” said the petition posted at www.petitionspot.com/petitions/mjnobelpeaceprize.

The Web petition has a stated goal of one million signatures and had more than 15,000 supporters on Tuesday.

(AFP)

Michael Jackson’s “King of Pop” (Epic/Sony Music Entertainment) continues its chart-topping run on Billboard’s European Top 100 Albums survey, with Pitbull’s “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)” (Ultra/B1) moving into a second week atop European Hot 100 Singles.

The 2008 retrospective “King of Pop” is still at No. 1 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Holland, but dips 1-2 in the Belgian region of Wallony and 2-5 in Hungary.

This is the set’s fourth week atop the European Top 100 Albums chart. Jackson still has the top three titles on the pan-European list, with Epic’s other compilations “The Collection” and “The Essential” at Nos. 2 and 3 again.

In the United States,  his album also outsold the current Billboard 200 leader Demi Lovato.

Check out the results of a survey by researchers Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, who monitored a mass of blogs to gauge the feelings of the world wide web’s users. They found that a huge wave of sadness hit on June 25th, following news of the shocking Michael Jackson death. Not too surprising, given how much influence the King of Pop had on our culture.

From Reuters:

Is it possible to tell how happy we all are?Yes, according to U.S. scientists who have devised a way to measure the happiness of millions of bloggers — and found Michael Jackson’s death was one of the saddest days while the U.S. election was the happiest in four years.

Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, a mathematician and computer scientist from the Advanced Computing Center at the University of Vermont, have created a “sensor” to mine 2.3 million blogs and gather sentences beginning with “I feel” or “I am feeling.” Each sentence is then given a happiness score from 1 to 9 depending on a point system allocated to 1,034 words. For example, “triumphant” averages 8.87 points, “paradise” 8.72, “pancakes” 6.08, and “suicide” 1.25.

They said this “hedonometer” showed that the U.S. election day last November was the happiest day in four years with a spike in the word “proud” while the day of the “King of Pop’s” death was one of the unhappiest.

Soon, super fans who want a unique piece of MJ memoribilia will get a chance to buy bling manufactured from carbon found in locks of the King of Pop’s hair. Chicago based jewel company LifeGem’s wacky plans are available here, courtesy of NY Daily News:

A Chicago diamond company plans to turn locks of Michael Jackson’s hair into bling.

LifeGem founder Dean VandenBiesen said his company will extract carbon from the King of Pop’s hair and turn it into crystals, which can be refined into diamonds.

And LifeGem claims to have done it before with locks from another musical icon — Beethoven.

VandenBiesen said the company obtained a chunk of the pop star’s hair from the producer of an infamous 1984 Pepsi
commercial shoot during which Jackson’s hair caught on fire.

The company should be able to extract about 10 diamonds from the hair, he said. LifeGem has not set a price for the gems, but Beethoven’s went for $240,000 each.

Jackson’s albums and compilations have locked down the top 10 on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart in the United States for the past three weeks, selling more than 2.3 million albums since the singer’s death, including 1.1 million over the past seven days. At a time when most contemporary stars struggle to notch sales of more than 2 or 3 million, the numbers are impressive, but they’re even better when sales across the globe are factored in. According to the Los Angeles Times, an unidentified source with knowledge of sales figures for the catalog said that more than 9 million Jackson albums have been sold worldwide since June 25. Read on…

Michael Jackson’s family, close friends and thousands of fans from around the world crowded into the city’s downtown area Tuesday for a star-packed public memorial to the “King of Pop.”Towards the end of the ceremony, Jackson’s 11-year-old daughter Paris Michael Katherine Jackson spoke to the crowd, a first public appearance by one of Jackson’s three children, who have lived in obscurity, away from the public eye.

“Ever since I was born daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine,” she said, crying and holding on to her aunt, Janet Jackson. “And I just wanted to say I love him so much.” Read on…

But never fear, fans: a company called Relevé Unlimited is hosting an unofficial party for fans to remember the King of Pop. And the party’s location couldn’t be better- across the street from Neverland Ranch.  Dubbed “The Michael Jackson, Heal the World Memorial Gathering,” this event may be the one big blowout bash that Jackson music fans were hoping for.

NBC has more:

Relevé Unlimited, a Los Olivos-based company that describes itself as “a premiere destination management company,” is putting on a party across the street from Neverland Ranch that “captures his spirit, his loves, his music, faith and commitment to our global community,” according to a news release.

It even has a catchy title: “The Michael Jackson, Heal the World Memorial Gathering.”

This event is not associated with Jackson’s family, who released a statement Wednesday saying a public memorial is indeed the works but won’t be held at Neverland. They did not provide any more details.

So, here we are, waiting to celebrate MJ in a blowout-bash fashion and we’re left with two choices: 1) Wait for the family to announce an official event, or 2) Take what Relevé Unlimited is offering.

When it comes to parties, we’ll take what we can get.