Michael Jackson’s father alleged Friday that “foul play” led to his son’s death on June 25.
Joe Jackson’s comments to ABC News came amid growing indications that the criminal abuse of prescription drugs killed Jackson, and as celebrity news Web site tmz.com reported that at least two of Jackson’s doctors were not cooperating with the coroner’s request for the pop icon’s medical records.
Also Friday the custody hearing to determine the guardianship of Michael Jackson’s three children was postponed from today to July 20, according to Los Angeles Superior Court. The postponement was made at the request of the musician’s mother, Katherine Jackson, who has temporary guardianship of Jackson’s three children, and the musician’s ex-wife, Debbie Rowe.
Los Angeles police chief William Bratton said Thursday the case could be probed as a criminal one, and not a death investigation. “We are still awaiting corroboration from the coroner’s office as to cause of death. That is going to be very dependent on the toxicology reports that are due to come back,” Bratton told broadcaster CNN.
“And based on those, we will have an idea of what it is we are dealing with: Are we dealing with a homicide or are we dealing with accidental overdose?”
Jackson’s father backed up those assertions: “I do believe it was foul play.”
The Jackson family is still waiting for the results of the pop star’s official autopsy and the independent autopsy.
Jim Carrey is going to be a grandfather.
Carrey’s spokeswoman, Marleah Leslie, says his 21-year-old daughter, Jane Carrey, is expecting her first child.
The father is her fiance, rock musician Alex Santana. Leslie had no details on when the Los Angeles-based singer — who fronts the Jane Carrey Band — is expected to give birth.
In a statement issued by Leslie, Jim Carrey says he’s “very excited” and “Jane is going to be a great mom.” She is the 47-year-old actor’s daughter with his first wife, Melissa.
Carrey’s longtime partner is Jenny McCarthy, who has a son, Evan, from a previous marriage.
Actress Kate Beckinsale accepted £20,000 (US$32,400) in libel damages at the High Court on Thursday over a story in the Daily Express newspaper that she was set to miss out on her dream role as Barbarella.
The 35-year-old star of films like Pearl Harbor, Underworld and Van Helsing was not in court for the settlement of her action against Express Newspapers, the Press Association reported.
Her solicitor said that the story in the Express last month was entirely false and had caused considerable embarrassment and harm. Beckinsale was never in discussions about the film role and there was never a possibility she would be part of the project.
It followed that she had not been passed over in favor of rival Hollywood actress Rose McGowan, as the story claimed.
Robert Plant received a royal honor from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace on Friday, putting the former Led Zeppelin front man one notch above his old bandmate Jimmy Page.
But, Plant joked he and Page would not be fighting over rank, even though Plant’s new Commander of the British Empire is a higher honor than Page’s Order of the British Empire.
“If we can remember each other’s phone number at this time in life it’s a miracle,” he joked. “We’re still good friends, we both enjoy a rather dark sense of humor that comes, I think, from being from rather the wrong side of the tracks for all those wild years.”
Also receiving the CBE on Friday was English actress Liz Smith, 87, who appeared on the British TV series The Royle Family.
It’s a boy for Jason Priestley and his wife, Naomi. The actor’s representative, Marla Farrell, says the Priestleys welcomed a healthy baby boy in Los Angeles on Thursday. Farrell says the couple refused to offer further details.
This is the second child for the pair, who have a two-year-old daughter, Ava.
Priestley, who turns 40 next month, played Brandon Walsh on the long-running ’90s teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210. His wife is a makeup artist.
The couple were married in 2005.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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