Black Celebrity Men

UPDATE:

According to cbsnews.com, the PR firm Sachs & Associates announced that within the first hour-and-a-half of allowing fans to sign up for the drawing, the Web site received 500,000,000 hits, averaging 120,000 per second. Duplicate registrations are not allowed, so those seeking a chance are being asked to log on only once. Meanwhile, an additional server has been added to accommodate the volume of traffic.

Ain't that something?!! Even in death, Michael continues to break more records; sending legions of fans, stans and haters in a complete frenzy.

If you plan on attending Michael Jackson's public memorial on next Tuesday, there are a couple of important things you need to know. A press conference was held today where Los Angeles city and law officials carved out the details of how folks can receive free tickets to the memorial. First and foremost: If you don't have a ticket, you ain't getting in. You will be turned away from the Staples Center by the LAPD. Below are more key points from the press conference.

• 17,500 tickets are available; 11,000 will be issued for the Staples Center where you can attend the memorial as it broadcast live. 6,500 tickets are available for the Nokia Center (across the street from the Staples Center), where you can watch the live telecast of the memorial.
• Tickets are only available to U.S. citizens.
• You can register for free tickets (at least two) today at Staples.com; the deadline is tomorrow at 6 p.m. They're treating it like a web lottery. You register and then there's a random drawing. If you're selected you'll be contacted on Sunday by email with directions.
• You must provide a valid ID in order to attend the memorial at either location. I believe they'll also give you some type of code or wristband.
• For the public's safety, there will be no big screens/speakers outside of Staples Center. So if you want to experience the celebration of Michael's life, either register for a ticket or watch it from the comfort of your own home. There will be no outsiders/bystanders outside the Staples Center besides law enforcement officials.
• A live feed will be provided by every network free of charge.
• There will not be a funeral procession before or after the service.
• Officials refused to answer questions on if there would be a public viewing of Michael's body at the memorial. According to newsweek.com, Michael's mother Katherine and sister Janet are allegedly opposed to having a public viewing because Michael's body isn't in shape to be viewed by the public.
• No details about the order of service (i.e. who's performing, which celebrities are expected to be in attendance, etc.) were announced.
• A private funeral for the Jackson family (and invite guests) will be held before the public memorial. Plans are underway to have more memorials across the United States.
• Still no word on where his final resting place will be.
  

Good luck in being able to register for tickets and having your name drawn!

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Were you as pissed off as I was while watching B.E.T.'s (or as I refer to them: Barely Entertainment Television) crap of a tribute to Michael Jackson? With their messy-ass, tacky-ass selves! Yeah, I said it! At first I wasn't going to post anything about it, but now the more I think about it, the madder I get. Is that how you salute a worldwide legend and icon? Somebody done told them wrong. From Bobby Brown's nasty tongue-licking gesture during New Edition's opening performance (which would have been perfect had he stayed his bama ass at home) to Ciara's awful rendition of Michael's Heal the World (she should never be allowed to touch a mic when it comes to singing ballads. No ma'am!) to three or four performances by Jamie Foxx (when he wasn't promoting his upcoming tour) and Neyo to having to have to sit through and watch Trey Songz (Ginuwine would have been the better choice) annihilate the Ojays medley with Tyrese and Johnny Gill to seeing Joe Jackson sitting out in the audience snapping his fingers and nodding his head as if his geriatric ass didn't have anything better to do to the obvious absences of Usher and Chris Brown who were both slated to perform a tribute to Michael to....well you get my drift. Overall, that awards ceremony was not only God-awful, it also didn't commemorate Michael's memory and legacy the way it deserved. All the profanity. I caught at least one 'f*ck' and about two 'sh!ts.' Just disrespectful, especially when folks knew the show was live and a tribute to Michael Jackson. I mean really, yall! Nearly four hours of complete and total madness is what it was.

The best part of the show was when Janet made a surprise appearance to speak on behalf of the Jackson family regarding Michael's untimely death. My niece Jana called it earlier that day. She said she knew Janet would be there to talk about her big brother. Me and my sister gave her the side-eye and were like, 'Yeah, right. Okay, little girl. There's no way Janet will be able to talk about Michael.' Did I mention that the show was nearly four and a half hours of madness? I bet dollars to donuts the MTV Awards, American Music Awards and the Grammy Awards will blow B.E.T.'s (another name I have for them is Black Embarrassment Television,but I digress) tribute out of the water and then some.

Anyhoo, what I'm about to tell you all may piss you off even more. It was because of Don Cornelius babbling on and on about the O'Jays (no offense to them, of course) and several other screw-ups during the live taping of the show that caused B.E.T. (I also refer to them as Bootleg Entertainment Television) to NIX the actual five and a half minute video tribute they prepared for the show after Michael's death. It would have fit in perfectly after Janet's speech. But 'sources' claim they ran out of time and didn't have any room on the rundown to place the video montage. What they should have nixed was that incoherent, unintelligible and inappropriate performance by Lil Wayne featuring his underage daughter and her lil underage friends. I swear the higher a monkey climbs, the more his ass shows. Real talk.

I'm finished with my rant. Well....no I'm not. Well, yes I am because if I keep going, this post will be much longer than it already is. LOL! So, below, check out B.E.T.'s (Bama-fied Entertainless Television) tribute to Michael that never saw the light of day. And if you're an avid fan just like me, have a hanky nearby. I couldn't even watch the entire video.

Rest in peace, Michael. We love you, but God loves you more. Words can't explain how terribly missed you are.
......

"I'm glad to see that he is being remembered primarily for the great joy that he brought to a lot of people through his extraordinary gifts as an entertainer. I still have all his stuff on my iPod....I think that Michael Jackson will go down in history as one of our greatest entertainers. His brilliance as a performer also was paired with a tragic and in many ways, sad personal life."

--President Barack Obama on Michael Jackson's death and legacy

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What you see above are images of Michael Jackson at his last full dress rehearsal, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, as he prepared for his 'This Is It' tour which was scheduled to kick-off in just a few weeks. Today CNN provided exclusive video footage from that rehearsal. Unfortunately what no one knew is that just a few short hours after Michael wrapped that rehearsal, he would later be found dead in his home at the age of 50. Over 100 hours of rehearsal footage has been captured on tape and according to some reports, there are plans to release it on DVD. Let's cross our fingers. Check out a clip below.

Watching the video emoted bittersweet feelings for me. Michael looked like his regular self; although several media reports claimed he was too frail to rehearse even after being given a clean bill of health back in March. It didn't look that way to me. All I see when I look at this video is a man who was determined to give his fans what they wanted. A chance to see him live in concert performing his past hits for one last time. He even took it a step further by reverting back to his hairstyle from his Smooth Criminal days. Bless his heart! LOL!

He will be thoroughly missed.

In related news, the Staples Center will also be the site of Jackson's memorial service, which is scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the 20,000-seat Los Angeles coliseum, according to a person briefed by a family representative. Still no word on where Michael's final resting place will be.

More information, or should I say speculation, has surfaced regarding the sudden death of Michael Jackson who passed away on Thursday afternoon from cardiac arrest after medical officials tried for over an hour to resuscitate him. According to the latest reports, Brian Oxman, a former spokesperson for the Jackson family has made claims stating that Michael's death was most likely due to an overdose of Demerol (a extremely strong narcotic painkiller) which was administered to the star on a daily basis by his doctor for dance-related injuries. The lawyer also said that he had warned folks in Michael's camp of the dangers and possible grim outcome if the singer continued abusing drugs. "I had warned everyone that I could warn and I told them that one day, Michael Jackson is going to wake up dead, which is a very odd way of putting it," Oxman said. "I said one day, we're going to have this experience. And when Anna Nicole Smith passed away, I said we cannot have this kind of thing with Michael Jackson. The result was, I warned everyone, and lo and behold, here we are. I don't know what caused his death. But I feared this day, and here we are. I do not want to point fingers at anyone because I want to hear what the toxicology report says and the coroner says but the plain fact of the matter is that Michael Jackson had prescription drugs at his disposal at all times," he said. An autopsy was performed today and the coroner said determining the cause of Michael's death will require further neuropathology and pulmonary tests that will take four to six weeks. He went on to say that although Jackson was taking some unspecified prescription medications, there were no signs of foul play or trauma to the body during the three-hour autopsy.

Michael's body will be released once the family selects a mortuary.

In other news, Michael's doctor, who is alleged to have supplied the fatal dose to Michael at around 11:30 Thursday morning, has gone ghost and LAPD have impounded his car claiming there may be drugs or other medications that could assist the coroner in determining the cause of death.

As for Michael's three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II will most likely placed in the supervision of Michael's mother, Katherine. The mother of two of his kids signed away her parental rights to the children after their birth. No word on if she plans on returning to claim the kids.