Extended Open for Michael Jackson Grammy Museum Exhibit

The LA Times is reporting that the Grammy Museum will be keeping their Jackson exhibit open until the summer of 2010. Focusing on his style, the showcase features some of his glitziest and most memorable pieces of clothing.

"This Is It" Soundtrack on iTunes

Jackson's other solo albums are now available on iTunes for the price of $7.99 each.

This Is It Director Kenny Ortega on Memories of Michael Jackson

This week sees the release of Michael Jackson's This Is It, the much-anticipated behind-the-scenes 3-D concert movie constructed from 100 hours of footage of rehearsals for Jackson's aborted tour. Last Thursday, Vulture visited the Waldorf Astoria suite of Kenny Ortega, the tour's director who was drafted to helm the film following Jackson's death.

How did you first meet Michael Jackson?
He called me, just out of the blue. My goddaughter, Jennifer, was at the house and she picked up the phone and she screamed, "Some guy on the phone says he's Michael Jackson!" And I was like, "Oh my God, what if it is?" So I grabbed the phone, "Hello." And it was his voice and he said, "No one ever believes it's me."

How did you find out about Michael's passing?
We were in rehearsals awaiting his arrival when these calls came in — what we thought were rumors that were circulating. There were so many rumors surrounding Michael all the time, and you just moved through it. Then as I looked around — we were a big company; on any given day there would be 150 people in the arena — everybody was on their phone. I was like, this is really happening.

Did you personally see any warning signs?
No, no. Michael was tired sometimes because he didn't have great sleeping habits. Whether those are connected to his ultimate demise or not, I don't know. It wasn't This Is It that had any negative impact on Michael Jackson. It was nourishing him. It was an inspirational time in his life.

The speculation was that 50 shows were too many for him ...
The people creating these speculations? They don't know what they're talking about. They never [pointed out] that he's doing 50 shows over six months. That's one to two shows a week.

Whose idea was the film?
The estate that represents the Michael Jackson integrity ...

And your first reaction?
No! Way too soon! I was emotionally devastated. No way, in my mind, as a professional, could I imagine myself having the creative objectivity to go in and make a film considering what we have all been through. [AEG Live CEO] Randy Phillips asked me if I would at least come in and look at the footage. When I looked at the footage it became apparent this wasn't about whether or not I wanted to do something: It was my responsibility. The journey wasn't over; the gig wasn't finished.

Looking back at your career, it's been a tough few months for you with the deaths of John Hughes and Patrick Swayze, as well as Michael.
Three guys that were tremendous friends and who impacted my creative life enormously. Working with Patrick Swayze [in Dirty Dancing], this was the Gene Kelly of our generation; he made dancing accessible for every guy. And John Hughes made me a director. He put me on the streets of Chicago and had me as the second-unit director for Ferris Bueller's Day Off with the wonderful musical scene with the parade.

Then you're the man to ask: How does Ferris Bueller get on that float without being arrested?
You know that we were really in a parade, right? John said, "We've been given permission to plug into a real parade." We had a float parked on a street, and at one moment all the cameras were given the go and that float moved into the street. Matthew [Broderick] came out of the crowd, jumped up onto it, and we were filming him in a live parade environment.

If Michael hadn't died, do you really believe that this would've been it?
You can't put it out of the realm of possibility. But he did say to me, "I don't want to be old and out there doing what I used to do great that I can't do anymore."

[NY Mag]

Some times, we need to laugh..

The Michael Jackson facebook page put together an entertaining album of MJ pics decorated with delightful texts that will surely put a smile on your face.  The above pics were some of my favorites.

Michael Jackson Remade ‘Thriller’ Before He Died

When the Michael Jackson concert flick This It It hits theaters next Wednesday, it'll include a few surprises buried among the rehearsal footage and sentimental interviews. Most notably, (SPOLIER ALERT) brand-new, reimagined versions of the videos for “Thriller,” “Man in the Mirror,” and “Earth Song.” MJ made the videos to serve as transitions to the live performances during the This Is It concerts in London.

Obviously, the "Thriller" remake is the most compelling, though "reimagining" what is widely regarded as the greatest music video of all time could be a bit dangerous. Will there be young love? Will there be zombies? Will there be dancing zombies? Funny you should ask. Choreographer Travis Payne told Cinemablend today that the new "Thriller" doesn't include the cutesy teen-date scenes the original had. But also, "We didn't touch what we considered the sacred inside of it." Translation: There will be zombies! 

[NYMag]

VH1 to Host Michael Jackson Charity Auction

The Michael Jackson's belongings will be back on display, this time with VH1 Save the Music Foundation.

The Foundation is set to host a charity auction event that includes some former Michael Jackson memorabilia, like signed records.

The charity comes right on the heels of a $5 million lawsuit filed against the late legend's estate earlier this month. Michael Jackson's estate and Julien's Auction House were sued, after a Jackson auction bidder claims he never got his winnings. Some of the bids included two Michael Jackson mannequins and a silkscreen print of Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty.

Richard Lapointe says he was the highest bidder on various items from a Michael Jackson auction headed by Julien's Auction House. Due to disagreements, the auction, which was supposed to have occurred in April, was cancelled. --Linda Hobbs

[Vibe]

Michael Jackson’s Surprise Motivation for the This Is It Tour: One-Upping Prince!

With the possible exception of Madonna, Michael Jackson and Prince were the two biggest pop stars of the eighties. While they often battled for supremacy on the Billboard charts, there was never really any public indication that the two had beef or even considered themselves to be rivals. However, in this week's Entertainment Weekly cover story on the upcoming release of This Is It, a quote from the late Michael Jackson provides us with our first hint that MJ was not only extremely competitive with the diminutive Minnesotan, but that he also feared that if he slacked off, none other than God himself would channel his best creative ideas through Prince.

As you've no doubt read countless times since MJ's untimely death, he was very hands-on with every aspect of his planned This Is It tour, from choreography to song choices to the production design of the stage. The following excerpt from the article, which is not yet online, demonstrates how Michael Jackson may have been jealous of the (semi-recent) resurgence of Prince as a touring act, and how he wanted his show to be a spectacle that would make even the likes of Apollonia and Sheila E. jealous:


As the production got under way, it quickly became clear that Jackson’s creative ambitions for the concert were beyond anything he’d ever attempted. With the budget already past $24 million, Jackson told his team he wanted to recreate one of the world’s largest waterfalls on the stage. “I was ready to jump off the balcony of my office,” Phillips says. “We went and met with Michael, and Kenny said, ‘Michael, you’ve got to stop. We’ve got an incredible show, we don’t need any more vignettes.’ Michael said, ‘But Kenny, God channels this through me at night. I can’t sleep because I’m so super-charged.’ Kenny said, ‘But Michael, we have to finish. Can’t God take a vacation?’ Without missing a beat, Michael said, ‘You don’t understand — if I’m not there to receive these ideas, God might give them to Prince.’”

While this waterfall sounds spectacular, we think that Michael Jackson didn't quite understand the source of Prince's best ideas. After all, after seeing back-lit projections of Prince's 20-foot-tall (long?) demon schlong at the 2007 Super Bowl, it's pretty clear to us that Prince has been channeling a somewhat more demonic force all these years.

This week's cover: An exclusive first look at the new Michael Jackson movie [EW]

[NY Mag]

Madonna Opens Up About Michael Jackson

Madonna spoke at length about her relationship with Michael Jackson during theheartfelt tribute she paid to him during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, which she told MTV News was written "from my heart." In segments from her recent interview with Rolling Stone that were posted online Monday but not included in the print edition, she spoke at length about her relationship with him and her admiration for his talent.


Even as a child, Madonna said she was fascinated with the singer who would later be her friend (althoughMJ reportedly had a less-positive impression of the time they spent together, according to "The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate Conversation" by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach). "I was madly in love with him, totally smitten," she said. "He was mind-bogglingly talented. The songs he sang were not childlike at all."

Madonna later got the opportunity to meet with Jackson early on in her career, and recalled her very first encounter with the singer.

"I met him in the early '80s, when I first started working with my manager, Freddy DeMann, who at the time was managing Michael Jackson. I saw him play at Madison Square Garden, and I was blown away. He was flawless. There was a party at the Helmsley Palace Hotel. He was very shy, but it was a thrill for me." she revealed.

Later on, the two shared a great deal in common, and not just the fact that they were both media icons and were born in the same month and year. They attempted working together but ultimately never did.

"There was a period of time when we hung out," she told the magazine. "He wanted to work with me, I think he wanted to get to know me, and I wanted to do the same. When you write with somebody, it's a weird experience, you feel vulnerable and shy. When I worked with Justin Timberlake I felt that way. To write songs together is a very intimate experience, like getting tossed into a juggernaut: 'On your mark, get set, create!' You have to get past these hurdles, which are, 'I want to impress this person, but will they think my ideas are stupid? What if their ideas are stupid? Can I be honest with them? Will they be offended?' You end up talking and gabbing and socializing, and you have to do that in order to get to the next level, to be creative.

"So that's what we were doing: watching movies, having dinner, hanging out, going to the Oscars, being silly, seeing if we could work," she continued. "He got relaxed. He took off his sunglasses, had a glass of wine, I got him to laugh."

As she noted during her VMA speech, Madonna stressed the difficulty that Jackson's childhood must have presented for him.

"All I have are my opinions, I wasn't very close to him. It's good to have a good childhood and a sense of yourself in the world before people start telling you who they think you are," she said. "Where you can make mistakes and have a sense of innocence. It gives you a sense of confidence. I don't think he started off that way. Did he have any sense of himself outside of the world of being adored and famous? It's hard to survive like that. I think he felt insecure about the attention he got, and had a love-hate relationship with his job."

She also spoke of her admiration for MJ's songwriting ability. "I'd wished I'd written "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." What song didn't I love?" she said.

As someone who can understand what it's like to be in the glare of media attention for years on end, Madonna had some sad observations about MJ's final years.

"He didn't seem to have any close friends. And in the last decade, everybody abandoned him, or wrote him off as crazy," she said. "People have said so many things about me that aren't true, and I never once had a second thought that the accusations against him might be true. But he didn't seem to have a way to deal with that, publicly or privately, and it can destroy you. When he died, everyone was saying what a great genius he was, but it's important to appreciate things before you lose them. It's a great tragedy."
[MTV]

Michael. by Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone magazine will be releasing a tribute book simply titled, Michael. The hardcover book will feature written words by Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Will.I.Am, Quincy Jones and Sheryl Crow. It will be sold in bookstores starting November 3rd.

MJ Love #3

THE RE-RELEASE OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has the same cover as the original 1988 release, but the new version has an intro by Motown's Berry Gordy and an Afterward by one of the original editors.

I flipped through the book and there are many pictures (both color and black and white) and I'm sure it will answer some of the questions we wanted answers to... at least questions pertaining to events leading up to 1988.

Anyhow, it was MJs "One and Only Autobiography" and I can't wait to read it!

Jackson Gets AMA Nods

MJ was nominated for five American Music Awards for his "Number Ones" album. The compilation album containing all of Jackson's number one singles was released in November of 2003 and the nominations are making people wonder if it's just out of courtesy. Well, due to some Billboard rules, Jackson's album wasn't allowed to be put on the charts because of it's release date even though it was outselling newly released music. Sales along with radio play qualified MJ for the well deserved nominations. The AMAs air on Sunday, November 22nd.

DWTS Does MJ Tribute

On Tuesday, October 20th, "Dancing With the Stars" will be hosting a tribute for Jackson. The professional dancers will be doing an array or songs taken from his tremendous career however will be adding ballroom and latin styles to the mix.

"This Is It" by Michael Jackson

Here's the newly released single with lead vocals by MJ and backing vocals by his brothers... enjoy :)

Michael Jackson Mashup

Watch vocalist Sam Tsui and arranger Kurt Schneider do a medley of some of Jackson's greatest hits. Songs include: "Man in the Mirror", "Smooth Criminal", "Billie Jean", "Thriller", "Beat It", and "I'll Be There".

Spike Lee Filming MJ Documentary

Lee has gone to Gary,Indiana to begin the filming of a Michael Jackson doc. He expressed, "This ... is where it all happened! Right here -- 2300 Jackson Street ... the greatest entertainer in the world."

The film is set to release in October of this year, and there's a question as to whether or not it will coincide with the "This Is It" movie.

Lee and Jackson worked together on the "They Don't Really Care About Us" video in the late 1990s.

MJ Was Healthy for a Dead Man

There have been reports stating that at the time of Jackson's death he was in a healthy state.

E! reported on their website, "Jackson's face and neck were scarred by plastic surgery, he had tattooed lips and eyebrows and, as previously reported, he did have injection marks all over his arms. His 136-pound weight was on the low end but was within the healthy range for his 5-foot-9 frame."

He also had arthritis on his fingers and the lower part of his back. The only minor issue seen was with his lungs which would've caused him to be out of breath from time to time.