July 6, 2009
Jackson Memorial Guests Named; L.A. Braces
Kobe Bryant, Mariah Carey, Steve Wonder among Participants in What Could be Biggest Celebrity Send-off Ever
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(CBS/AP)
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Play CBS Video Video Debbie Rowe Loses Her Cool "Caught On Tape": Michael Jackson's ex-wife and mother of his two oldest children gets testy with reporters when asked about the details of the custody battle.
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Video L.A. Braces for MJ Memorial Michael Jackson's memorial will be held in L.A.'s Staples Center where 11,000 lucky fans will get to say farewell. Dave Price spoke with acting Mayor Jan Perry and two ticket holders about the event.
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Photo Essay Michael Jackson: 1958-2009 The "King Of Pop" had a life full of number one hits and personal scandals
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Photo Essay Mourning Michael Jackson Fans gather across the country to mourn the loss of a pop icon
Ecstatic fans who won the lottery for seats at Tuesday's all-star memorial received the tickets and spangly wristbands that will get them into the 20,000-seat Staples Center downtown. The family announced the participants will include Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher, Lionel Richie, Kobe Bryant, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer and Martin Luther King III.
The legal maneuvering that marked Jackson's extraordinary and troubled life also continued on Monday, with his mother losing a bid to control his enormous but tangled estate. And in one of the few sour notes sounded, a New York congressman branded Jackson a "pervert" undeserving of so much attention.
More than 1.6 million people registered for free tickets to the 10 a.m. memorial, which will be broadcast live worldwide. A total of 8,750 people were chosen to receive two tickets each. The lucky ones picked up their passes Monday at Dodger Stadium amid heavy police presence.
CBS News will provide live coverage of the memorial service starting Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. ET. CBS News will also simulcast on radio and television a special edition of 48 Hours' "Michael Jackson: The Last Dance" starting at 10:00 p.m. ET.
Did you get a ticket to Michael Jackson's memorial? CBS wants to talk to you! Just send us an e-mail with your name, phone number, location and any additional contact information.
"I got the golden ticket!" one fan screamed out of his car window in a Willy Wonka moment as he drove out of the parking lot.
"My mother loves Elvis. This is my Elvis," said Mynor Garcia, 29, who picked up his tickets.
Downtown hotels were quickly filling. Police, trying to avoid a mob scene downtown, warned those without tickets to stay away because they would not be able to get close to the Staples Center.
Though only a small number of fans will be able to attend Jackson's memorial service, others may be able to watch it in movie theaters all over the United States. Cinedigm Digital Cinema Network says it is carrying the Los Angeles memorial service on its live digital network to theaters across the U.S.
British Airways reported a surge of bookings as soon as the memorial arrangements were announced. Virgin's trans-Atlantic flights to San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles were all packed with fans and VIPs, said spokesman Paul Charles.
"I think this is America's version of Princess Diana. People want to be in the vicinity. People from the UK and elsewhere want to share their emotions together," Charles said.
The family is also expected to hold a private funeral Tuesday morning at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles. No public funeral procession through city streets is scheduled. Some family members have expressed a desire to bury Jackson someday at Neverland, his storybook estate in Southern California. That would require legal permission.
In Los Angeles Superior Court, meanwhile, a judge appointed Jackson's longtime attorney and a family friend as administrators of his estate over the objections of his mother, Katherine. Attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain had been designated in Jackson's 2002 will as the people he wanted to oversee his empire.
Mrs. Jackson's attorneys expressed concerns about McClain and Branca's financial leadership.
"Frankly, Mrs. Jackson has concerns about handing over the keys to the kingdom," said one of her attorneys, John E. Schreiber.
Another one of her attorneys, Burt Levitch, told Judge Mitchell Beckloff that Branca had previously been removed from financial positions of authority by Jackson. Branca's attorney said he was rehired by Jackson on June 17, days before Jackson's death.
Branca and McClain will have to post a $1 million bond on the estate, and their authority will expire Aug. 3, when another hearing will be held.
"Mr. Branca and Mr. McClain for the next month are at the helm of the ship," the judge said.
Jackson died at age 50 with hundreds of millions in debts. But a court filing estimates his estate is worth more than $500 million. His assets are destined for a trust, with his three children, his mother and charities as beneficiaries.
On eBay, bids for the memorial tickets were reaching as high as $3,000, though it was impossible to establish how serious those offers were. On Craigslist, asking prices also were in the thousands.
Debbie Rowe, Jackson's ex-wife and the mother of Jackson's two oldest children, had planned to attend the memorial but backed out Monday.
"The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael's legacy," her attorney Marta Almli said in a statement. "Debbie will continue to celebrate Michael's memory privately."
In New York, Republican Rep. Peter King released a YouTube video calling Jackson, who was acquitted of child molestation charges, a "pervert" and a "low-life."
But the memories of Jackson's problems were far from the minds of fans preparing to say goodbye.
"It's the passing of a great soul," said Matt Tyson, 31, of Ojai, Calif. "He brought people together, helped express something that's in us all."
In a convergence of events that many people found delightfully symbolic, the circus is also coming to town. Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey starts a run at Staples Center on Wednesday. In the predawn hours before Jackson's memorial, the elephants will walk from the train station into the arena.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The secrets of tennis legend 
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See all 46 CommentsAs you can see the person who posted on this board that we are all ordered by them to only post praise for Jackson means absolutely nothing to the rest of us.
The same narrow minded people who are claiming that Michael Jackson is a pedophile are the same people who claimed that O.J. Simpson was guilty. We all now that O.J. was innocent. Like that great spokesman for the black community Rodney King said: "Why can't we get along?"
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If OJ didn't do it, then who did it????
To everyone who posted negative comments about Michael Jackson, I have a few questions for you. Did you vote for anyone but a democratic in the last election? Do you love to listen to the radio talk-show host who should be in jail for forgery? Is you TV tuned to the network of crooks (FOX) 24/7? (Karl Rove, Ollie North, Dick Cheney). Are you wearing suspenders or a dress from the thrift store right now? Do you have an old truck to go into town to get some fixins for supper? If you answer YEEEHAAA to any of these questions than your a redneck? Go back to the 1930's where you belong!
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Actually, I'm Independent. I neither voted for McCain nor Obama. But what does all of this Karl Rove, Ollie North mumbo-jumbo have to do with the memorial, genius????
Let me ask you this: do you approve of MJ sticking his tongue out to be sucked into a 13-year old boy's mouth????
Why did MJ run to KMart?
He heard all boys pants were 1/2 off....
Now go back to your crying you bunch of freaks....
As for "Why can't we get along?" , it's obvious... people naturally group together based upon "like" interests, beliefs as well as physical appearace. This is a survival trait at it's most base, that has served us well for thousands of years. Bear in mind that civilization as we know of it, is only a few hundred years old and we have yet to mature to the point to which these base insticts no longer rule us.
Look at all the famous people (twits) scrambling to further their entertainment careers off the back of a deceased, twice-accused child molester. Now, as I recall, before his death most (by and large) of the U.S. public understood / believed Mr. Jackson to be an eccentric pedophile and generally despised him because of it.
Yes, all the celebs would have been climbing all over each other to get in on this thing.
You can not say that MOST of the U.S. believed that Michael Jackson was a pedophile. You have no way of knowing that.
Why do you think i used the word MOST and not all?
Typical.
Addicted to drugs? that is a funny one, there is no human alive not addicted to something or other, yet you set yourself as the grand poobah arbiter of what addictions are acceptable or not.
For someone who claims not to be a "redneck", you share enough of their attitudes, and their proclivity to posit your unproven opinion as fact, that there is very little difference, if at all, between you and a "redneck".
If only it were not so sickening to see this media self created drama, it would be very amusing thing indeed.
As far as what the media would have you believe, there are world-wide memorials for Mr. Jackson, the news of his passing is the most important story in the worldwide press, try googling other countries' news, and see for yourself.
Only a kkk/aryan nations trained neo would find someone's death amusing, the rest of us are amused at you and the few remaining neocon-derthals of your tribe posting irrelevant spew as if you matter anymore.
You are one of the sickest parts of the "sick society" you complain about.
The drug tests will likely confirm what everyone already knows, but don't care about, only someone of your ilk , and you are of a species of human about to become extinct, the last of the neanderthals.
Great music always enlightens the human spirit, and you should listen to some, as you are obviously sorely in need of enlightenment.
Jackson did indeed make inroads for "Black" people, he was one of the first artists whose product received as much (and more) airplay on radio and TV than much less talented "Whites".
Since you cannot perceive what that means for the "Black" artists who came afterward, it is only expected that you cannot understand the inroads, as you never had to go down them.
I don't read you referring to Jerry Lee Lewis as a pedophile, and his deeds are proven. I don't read your notice that Elvis was addicted to drugs, and most probably died in the same way Jackson did.
Tuskeegee Airmen?
Their accomplishments were indeed special, but it does not escape notice that they were in the field of finally being allowed to serve the racist "White" military agenda. They succeeded in being allowed to fly in a racist US military, but what was that military doing? Meddling in other countries' affairs.
What did your parents, and probably yourself call the Tuskeegee airmen after their service? The N-word", and you have the nerve to call someone else "twisted", because you have your opinions confused with the public record?
Riiight. You are the one who is "abjectly tragic", but I hesitate to refer to your ilk as humanity, you have not yet sufficiently evolved to rate inclusion in the group of modern humanity.
So many times Sharpton has stuck his nose into something that turned out to be false and yet he wasn't man enough to admit he was wrong and apologize. Look at "The Man in the Mirror" AL!
You cannot stand a person to whom, no matter what his skin color was, you probably still refer to using the "n-word", receiving a world-wide memorial celebration of his contributions to the world's cultural content.
This is purely your own problem, and as evidenced by the half billion people who tried to get tickets, and the outpouring of condolences from most of the rest of the planet, you are the one among a handful of almost extinct regressives who have not yet evolved to the current century.
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If you can't figure it out, you're hopeless ...
This goes in chronological order, of all the stories that happened today. These were the top ones of today that were most recent. It is not the most important ones first. Maybe if you paid attention to other days, it would also be in chronological order.
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See all 46 Comments