Michael Jackson, a publicist for the Jackson family

Staples Center will be the site of a public memorial service on Tuesday for Michael Jackson, a publicist for the Jackson family said Thursday, but it is unclear who will pay for the massive law enforcement deployment necessary for the event.

Ken Sunshine, a Jackson family representative, said the service will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the downtown arena, site of the singer's final rehearsal.Further details will be announced at a news conference Friday morning, including how people may register for the 11,000 tickets that will be distributed to the public. All tickets to the event will be free, according to a news release from Sunshine's firm.

Earlier in the day, Sunshine had asked for the public's patience as the family sorted through details of the service. "There's a lot of sensitivities, and everyone should respect that," Sunshine said.Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, the promoter of the 50 Jackson concerts that had been planned for London, said the ultimate decision about the date and format of a memorial lay with Jackson's mother, Katherine.

But even before plans had been finalized Thursday, city leaders were raising questions about who would pay for the city resources needed to pull off a memorial to the singer. The law enforcement deployment would involve thousands of officers -- more than were present for last month's Lakers victory parade, according to sources familiar with the planning, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

City officials debated whether taxpayers should pay all or part of the $2-million cost of the Lakers' parade from Staples Center to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and various business leaders, mindful that the city was weighing layoffs and furloughs, raised enough money privately to pay that tab.

City officials are unclear on just how large the turnout might be for Jackson's memorial service -- or whether it would spill into nearby L.A. Live or surrounding parking lots.There's no precedent for this," said Councilwoman Jan Perry, who represents downtown and is serving as acting mayor because Villaraigosa is on vacation in Africa and City Council President Eric Garcetti is in Japan.

Councilman Dennis Zine said he was concerned about whether the LAPD would have time to plan for an event of that scale, particularly since many officers will also be working overtime during the Fourth of July weekend.

"You don't have a lot of time to work up a tactical plan and notify the officers," Zine said.

Also Thursday, an attorney for Debbie Rowe, the mother of Michael Jackson's two elder children, said she had not decided whether to seek custody, despite telling a television reporter that was her intention.

Eric George, Rowe's lawyer, did not dispute that Rowe told an NBC-TV Channel 4 reporter by telephone that she wanted custody of Prince Michael Jr., 12, and Paris Michael Katherine, 11, the children she bore when she was married to Jackson.

But her lawyer said it would be a "distortion of the truth" to interpret Rowe's comments to the television reporter as her final decision in the custody case.

He described the custody proceedings as "the most private and the most sensitive of matters as they impact the lives and fates of young children."

As the biological parent, Rowe, 50, would be in line to obtain the children unless a judge determined that would not be in their best interests. Rowe appears to have had little contact with the children over the years, though she does have visitation rights.

Katherine Jackson has temporary custody of the children. A custody hearing scheduled for Monday has been postponed until July 13 at the request of attorneys for Katherine Jackson and Rowe.From:www.latimes.com

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Top-earning Australian actress in Hollywood:NICOLE Kidman

NICOLE Kidman has been named as the top-earning Australian actress in Hollywood, after a big lift from the Baz Luhrmann epic Australia.Kidman has been placed eighth -- but was the highest ranked Aussie -- in a list of Tinseltown's top female earners complied by Forbes magazine.

The list is set to further the bitter rivalry between Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston, with Jolie just pipping Aniston as the top female earner.Jolie earned $33.6 million last year, ahead of Aniston, who took home $31.2 million, according to the magazine.Kidman's take-home pay was $15 million, putting her in equal eighth spot with Drew Barrymore.Kidman made much of her income after staring in the Baz Luhrmann epic Australia.She is filming Rabbit Hole in New York.

Fellow Aussie Cate Blanchett was just out of the top 10, coming in at No. 11 after making a cool $10 million in the past year.Blanchett is working on the Ridley Scott adaptation of Robin Hood, as damsel-in-distress Maid Marian.

Third on the list was Meryl Streep, $29.8 million, ahead of Sarah Jessica Parker, Cameron Diaz, Sandra Bullock, Reese Witherspoon, Kidman, Barrymore, Renee Zellweger, Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Halle Berry and Scarlett Johansson, with Kate Winslet rounding out the top 15.
Forbes arrived at the estimated earnings for the 2008-09 financial year by talking to agents, managers, producers and lawyers to determine what the stars received for the movies they are currently shooting, as well as back-end pay earned after a movie hit the theatres.

They also took into account money earned through endorsements.But it's no surprise the women couldn't come close to their male counterparts, with Harrison Ford named as the top-earning actor, making a jaw-dropping $81 million.From:www.news.com.au

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Angelina Jolie is Hollywood's top earning actress

Angelina Jolie is Hollywood's top earning actress, banking $27 million in the past year to beat out her partner Brad Pitt's ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, who raked in $25 million, a Forbes.com study showed on Wednesday.Most of Jolie's income came from her share of the profits from her action film "Wanted," but she was also paid a large upfront sum for her role in "Salt," the study said. Jolie and Pitt have six children.

Aniston, who was married to Pitt before he became involved with Jolie, earned most of her millions from the romantic comedy "Marley and Me" and her upcoming film "The Baster.""Aniston also still earns money from (reruns of TV series) Friends and she gets a nice paycheck shilling for Glaceau's SmartWater," Forbes.com said.

Meryl Streep came in at No. 3 with $24 million, most of which came from her role in "Mamma Mia," while Sarah Jessica Parker was ranked fourth with $23 million in earnings following the movie version of TV series "Sex and the City."Cameron Diaz rounds out the top five, banking $20 million between June 2008 and June 2009.

Forbes.com said it spoke to agents, managers, producers and lawyers to work out what actresses were paid upfront for movies they are currently shooting and what pay they might have earned after a movie hit the theaters. Money earned from perfume or clothing lines was also taken into account.

"As is still typical for Hollywood, our actresses earned significantly less than their male counterparts," Forbes.com said, pointing out that the top earning male actor, Harrison Ford, made $65 million.From:www.reuters.com

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Academy Award-winning actor died Wednesday

Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning actor whose intelligent characterizations on stage, screen and television made him a star despite his plain looks, died Wednesday, his family said. He was 97.Malden died of natural causes surrounded by his family at his Brentwood home, they told the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He served as the academy's president from 1989-92.

"Karl lived a rich, full life," Academy president Sid Ganis said. "He has the greatest and most loving family; a career that has spanned the spectrum of the arts from theater to film and television, to some very famous commercial work."While he tackled a variety of characters over the years, he was often seen in working-class garb or military uniform. His authenticity in grittier roles came naturally: He was the son of a Czech mother and a Serbian father, and worked for a time in the steel mills of Gary, Ind., after dropping out of college.

Malden said he got his celebrated bulbous nose when he broke it a couple of times playing basketball or football, joking that he was "the only actor in Hollywood whose nose qualifies him for handicapped parking." He liked to say he had "an open-hearth face."Malden won a supporting actor Oscar in 1951 for his role as Blanche DuBois' naive suitor Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire" — a role he also played on Broadway.

He was nominated again as best supporting actor in 1954 for his performance as Father Corrigan, a fearless, friend-of-the-workingman priest in "On the Waterfront." In both movies, he costarred with Marlon Brando."When you worked with him, he was the character," said Eva Marie Saint, who garnered a supporting actress Oscar for her role in "Waterfront." "He was the consummate actor and he loved acting. He was dear and smart. Whatever he did he enjoyed life."

Among his other memorable roles were: "Birdman of Alcatraz" opposite Burt Lancaster; "I Confess" with Montgomery Clift; "How the West Was Won;" and "The Cincinnati Kid" opposite Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson.His more than 50 credits included "Patton," in which he played Gen. Omar Bradley, "Pollyanna," "Fear Strikes Out," "The Sting II," "Bombers B-52," "Cheyenne Autumn," and "All Fall Down."

One of his most controversial films was "Baby Doll" in 1956, in which he played a dullard husband whose child bride is exploited by a businessman. It was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency for what was termed its "carnal suggestiveness." The story was by "Streetcar" author Tennessee Williams.Malden gained perhaps his greatest fame as Lt. Mike Stone in the 1970s television show "The Streets of San Francisco," in which Michael Douglas played the veteran detective's junior partner.

Douglas was 28 when he earned his first major break on the detective series with Malden, who was 60. Douglas saluted Malden last month as a key mentor when the older actor received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, an event to be televised July 19 on the TV Land channel."He was fantastic. He just had a tremendous discipline, tremendous ethics," Douglas told AP Television News about a month before the ceremony. "He insisted that next's week's script would be there when we were shooting that week's script. Every time between setups, between breaks, we'd go in the trailer and run lines for the next's week's show. That's the kind of discipline, training I got from Karl."

In the '70s, Malden gained a lucrative 21-year sideline and a place in pop culture with his "Don't leave home without them" ads for American Express travelers checks."The Streets of San Francisco" earned him five Emmy nominations. He won one for his role as a murder victim's father out to bring his former son-in-law to justice in the 1985 miniseries "Fatal Vision." He and Saint played husband and wife.

Malden played Barbra Streisand's stepfather in the 1987 film "Nuts;" Adm. Elmo Zumwalt Jr. in the 1988 TV film "My Father, My Son;" and Leon Klinghoffer, the cruise ship passenger murdered by terrorists in 1985, in the 1989 TV film "The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro."He acted sparingly in recent years, appearing in 2000 in a small role on TV's "The West Wing."In 2004, Malden received the Screen Actors Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award, telling the group in his acceptance speech that "this is the peak for me." He served on the acting union's national board from 1963-72.

"We will remember the many indelible characters he created, and his screen legacy will continue to move us, educate us and enrich our lives," SAG president Alan Rosenberg said Wednesday.Malden first gained prominence on Broadway in the late 1930s, making his debut in "Golden Boy" by Clifford Odets. It was during this time that he met Elia Kazan, who later was to direct him in "Streetcar" and "Waterfront."He steadily gained more prominent roles, with time out for service in the Army in World War II (and a role in an Army show, "Winged Victory.")From:news.yahoo.com

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Transformers' Ethnic Offensiveness

Summer sizzles in cinemas these days with the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen lambasted by critics left and right for its "over-the-top, hip-hop-inspired vernacular and stereotypically black-sounding voices", that according to E! Online, "are, at best, racially and culturally insensitive and, at worst, grossly ignorant and offensive."

The blockbuster sequel was even compared to Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace, where George Lucas' Jar Jar Binks character was also castigated as a blatant ethnic stereotype. In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, twin autobots Skids and Mudflap are called by critics as Jar Jar on wheels because they sport gold teeth, are illiterate and call their place of origin as "da hood."

But since Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a visual spectacle with an incredible amount of money invested on it, despite its lame script and the insane ravings of critics, it's going to smash box office records with its producers laughing all the way to the bank.


Source: E! Online

Photo: AP Photo/Paramount Pictures

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Top 10 Michael Jackson Music Videos

Back when making music videos was an art form and a must for anyone hoping for chart-topping releases, Michael Jackson took it to another level. VH1 celebrated him with a full weekend of retrospective videos and provided viewers the chance to post thoughts and memories at vh1.com. It was really worth setting the TiVO for this retrospective.

10. "Rock With You" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (Album: Off the Wall) These were the first of his adolescent/adult videos as he stepped out from the child star days of the Jackson 5.

9. "Liberian Girl" (Album: Bad). This is a beautiful song which most have never heard of, with cameos by everyone from John Travolta to Olivia Newton-John, Steven Spielberg to Quincy Jones, Dan Akyroyd to Steve Guttenberg, Whoopie Goldberg to Carl Weathers, Billy Dee Williams to Paula Abdul, and that's just the beginning of the list.

8. Tie between "Thriller" (Album: Thriller) and "Bad" (Album: Bad). The songs themselves didn't do much for me but the long version mini-movies were a historic achievement.

7. "Dirty Diana" (Album: Bad). One of the very, very rare pieces of Michael Jackson live concert footage (or at least simulated live concert footage!)

6. Tie between "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" (Album: Thriller). I thought these were better and deeper songs than the over-marketed "Thriller," and they were great long videos rather than mini-movies.

5. "Earth Song" (Album: HIStory, Past Present and Future, Book 1). One of his latest music projects with substance, if you can call 1995 the latest!

4. Tie between "Jam" and "Who is It" (Album: Dangerous). The former is a pristine video where Michael is at the absolute height of his dance moves--and he's also shooting hoop with Michael Jordan and looking pretty natural doing it! The latter is sort of a greatest hits compilation of Jackson's best moves on film, an inspiration for all who rooted for Michael through all his challenges.

3. "Leave Me Alone" (Album: Bad). Perhaps the most honest and autobiographical song Michael ever made, essentially a child-like request from the schoolyard boy to the paparazzi bullies on the playground, with a great tribute to Elizabeth Taylor in the middle of it.

2. "Smooth Criminal, Version 2" (Album: Bad). Great song and greater video, a classy, colorful and sophisticated flick with near flawless choreography and some of the more amazing moves ever seen on TV. There are those who've said Michael was more comfortable playing strong and masculine versions of a "Bad" guy, a monster and a criminal in his most notable films. He is at his best and most believable in this one.

1. "We Are The World" (for USA for Africa). The sheer magnitude of this project, the all-star cast of stars from the 70s and 80s, and the cause make this his #1. His charitable work didn't stop there though, as "Heal the World" (Album: Dangerous) helped to launch his charitable foundation.

From:blog.beliefnet.com

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