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.
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
Swooping low over the banks of a Nile River tributary, an aid flight run by retired American military officers released a stream of food-stuffed sacks over a town emptied by fighting in South Sudan, a country wracked by conflict. Last week’s air drop was the latest in a controversial development — private contracting firms led by former US intelligence officers and military veterans delivering aid to some of the world’s deadliest conflict zones, in operations organized with governments that are combatants in the conflicts. The moves are roiling the global aid community, which warns of a more militarized, politicized and profit-seeking trend
The wide-screen spectacle of Formula One gets a gleaming, rip-roaring workout in Joseph Kosinski’s F1, a fine-tuned machine of a movie that, in its most riveting racing scenes, approaches a kind of high-speed splendor. Kosinski, who last endeavored to put moviegoers in the seat of a fighter jet in Top Gun: Maverick, has moved to the open cockpits of Formula One with much the same affection, if not outright need, for speed. A lot of the same team is back. Jerry Bruckheimer produces. Ehren Kruger, a co-writer on Maverick, takes sole credit here. Hans Zimmer, a co-composer previously, supplies the thumping
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
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