The city’s records reveal that Gary forked over $5,000 to pay for air fare for father Joe Jackson as well as the 1970s musical group the Chi-Lites in order to attend the ceremony. The money came out of the donations collected on behalf of the MJ memorial.

Gary’s mayor Rudy Clay adamantly points out that the payment was for Jackson’s  air travel, rather than a payment to attend the ceremony. Sure, we guess the former is a little bit more palatable than the latter. But come on Rudy, there a lot of better things that the event planners could’ve spent the $5,000 on.

Read more details over at the LA Times.

The King of Pop will reportedly be buried at  Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, though the exact burial spot hasn’t been revealed. Now that fans know the date of the funeral, we’re guessing swarms of them will show up at the cemetery at the end of the month to catch of the glimpses of the proceedings.

Joseph Jackson says his son Michael will be finally laid to rest on Aug. 29, on what would have been the King of Pop’s 51st birthday.

Speaking to New York’s Daily News, the Jackson patriarch said the burial would take place at Los Angeles’s Forest Lawn Cemetery at 10 that morning, some two months after Michael’s June 25 death.

Jackson, 80, said that these arrangements had only been finalized recently, says the News. He also said that his wife Katherine, from whom he lives separately, has been particularly hard hit by their son’s death and suffers crying jags.

(From People Magazine)

According to the LA Times, the estranged father of the King of Pop wants to build a shrine for Michael in Las Vegas for fans to come and remember him. Fashioned along the lines of Elvis’ Graceland or Michael’s own Neverland Ranch, the proposed shrine would immortalize the pop singer. But will anybody listen to Joe? He’s already been pushed out of the chance to raise Michael’s kids. We have a feeling mommy Katherine’s running the show in the Jackson household. We’ll have to see how she feels about this idea.

Michael Jackson’s father said he supports building a shrine to the pop star along the lines of Neverland Ranch in Las Vegas, where Jackson lived for several years.
Joe Jackson told E! that his son has not yet been buried but that he would like to see Jackson memorialized in Las Vegas with some sort of facility like Neverland, Jackson’s compound in Santa Barbara County.
“I think Vegas would be great,”  Joe Jackson said. “The fans would come.”

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)

But the media giant that’s made the biggest bet is Sony Pictures, which reportedly has shelled out close to $60 million for the rights to 80 or so hours of rehearsal footage from the singer’s “This Is It” tour concert. The footage is being edited into a concert film, also tentatively titled “This Is It,” which will hit theaters on Oct. 30. No one from Sony is talking, since the final details of the deal are still in negotiation. But insiders say the lion’s share of the profits from the film will go to Jackson’s estate.

Sony gets its cut from the studio’s distribution fee on the film, though the studio also has to foot the bill for the marketing costs of the release. On the other hand, Sony has worldwide rights for the film, which extend through the movie’s ancillary life, from its theatrical release into what are normally lucrative home video and pay and free TV windows. According to insiders, Sony’s distribution fee is slightly above 10%, with escalator clauses in the deal providing the studio with a bigger cut if the film performs better at the box office.

Is it a good deal for Sony? The simple answer is: Nobody knows. There’s really no precedent for the Jackson death mania, so its impossible to say whether it will spur millions of fans to pay $11 to see footage of his tour rehearsals a full four months after he’s died…

Enjoy the video below:
Dancing Inmates are “Dangerous”- Youtube

Bhatti-gate started when reporters noticed that the Norwegian man sat at the front row of Michael Jackson’s memorial event, surrounded by the rest of the grieving family members. From the Mirror:

Omer Bhatti has revealed how Jackson feted him as an honorary son after inviting him and his family to move in with him.

Omer, 25, from Norway, who lived with Jackson at his Neverland ranch for eight years, hails the tragic pop legend as his “best friend”.

But he says there is no biological link between him and Jackson, despite widespread rumours he is the King of Pop’s illegitimate child, fathered during an alleged fling with Omer’s mum in 1983.

Omer, who lives in Norway, has revealed Jackson always used to say that he was like a son to him and he thinks that that must be the reason for all the rumours.

Confiding in a close friend from Oslo, Omer said: “Michael is not my father. He and I were just very, very close. He was my best friend.”

Some fans sat quietly beneath a large screen with a picture of Jackson and the words “Michael Jackson 1958-2009″ reflecting on what might have been.

Others, including several Jackson impersonators, led sing-a-longs of his greatest hits.

Will, another fan, said: “We’ve come here today even if there’s no gig tonight. We’re making our own gig, our own carnival atmosphere, we’re making this what it would have been if Michael had been here.”

Read the entire article.

Reuters has the story:

Internet company Akamai, which handles 20 percent of the world’s Web traffic, reported on Tuesday that it ran some 2.8 million audio and video streams during the Jackson memorial webcast, making it the most widely viewed on the Internet since Obama’s inauguration.