Michael Jackson is Dead

[Straha]

Ayup.


And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Thread title edited to reflect reality - Mr Bean

[General Zod]

A somewhat more reliable source

(CNN) -- Entertainer Michael Jackson was taken to a hospital on Thursday, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department official.
A Los Angeles fire official told CNN that paramedics arrived at Michael Jackson's home after a 911 call.

A Los Angeles fire official told CNN that paramedics arrived at Michael Jackson's home after a 911 call.
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Fire Capt. Steve Ruda told CNN a 911 call came in from a west Los Angeles residence at 12:21 p.m. and the patient was treated and transferred to the UCLA Medical Center.

Asked specifics of the patient's condition, the spokesman said he could not discuss them because of federal privacy laws.

[Frank Hipper]

On the news now, he's dead.

[tim31]

Farrah Fawcett and MJ, same day? Wow. Well, it's finally over/it's just beginning.

[The Spartan]

My morbid curiosity forces me to ask (CNN article notwithstanding), do we know how yet?

[tim31]

Heart Attack

Christine Kellett
June 26, 2009 - 7:47AM

Pop star Michael Jackson has died after suffering a heart attack, it has been reported.

Media reports have said the star, 50, was taken to hospital in Los Angeles after he was found not breathing in his Holmby Hills home earlier.

Celebrity website TMZ said 911 operators received an emergency call about 12.12pm local time (5.12am AEST).

"We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back," the website reported.

Jackson is believed to have gone into cardiac arrest and paramedics performed CPR on him en route to UCLA hospital.

The website quoted family members as saying the Thriller singer was in "really bad shape."

"We just got off the phone with Joe Jackson, Michael's dad, who says 'he is not doing well.'' the website had earlier reported.

Jackson was reportedly planning a comeback and was living in Los Angeles while rehearsing a series of 50 sold-out shows in London, the LATimes has reported.

Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics had rushed to the singer's $100,00-a-month rented home near Sunset Boulevard to find him not breathing, according to the newspaper.

Still not confirmed...

[General Zod]

Brisbane cites TMZ. I'll believe it when someone who isn't TMZ confirms it since sites like these get off on gossip.

[FSTargetDrone]

All major US Cable news networks are currently not going beyond the detail that he was found "not breathing" but are now starting to cite TMZ.

[Rochey]

Sky News says he's dead, but is also citing TMZ as a source.

[FSTargetDrone]

The LA Times says he's in a coma:

Michael Jackson is in a coma [Updated]
2:06 PM | June 25, 2009

[Updated at 2:46 p.m.: Pop star Michael Jackson is in a coma and his family is arriving at his bedside, a law enforcement source told The Times.

Jackson was rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center this afternoon by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics.

Fire Capt. Steve Ruda said paramedics responded to a call at Jackson's home at 12:26 p.m. He was not breathing when they arrived. The paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and took him to the hospital, Ruda told The Times.]

[Updated at 2:12 p.m.: Paramedics were called to a home in the 100 block of Carolwood Drive off Sunset Boulevard. Jackson rented the Bel-Air home for $100,000 a month. It was described as a French chateau estate built in 2002 with seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 12 fireplaces and a theater.

The home is about 2 1/2 miles, about a six-minute drive, from UCLA Medical Center. An earlier version of this post incorrectly described the time to travel between the home and hospital as two minutes.]

The news comes as Jackson, 50, was attempting a comeback after years of tabloid headlines, most notably his trial and acquittal on child molestation charges.

In May, The Times reported that Jackson had rented the Bel-Air residence and was rehearsing for a series of 50 sold-out shows in London's O2 Arena. Jackson had won the backing of two billionaires to get the so-called "King of Pop" back on stage.

His backers envision the shows at AEG's O2 as an audition for a career rebirth that ultimately could encompass a three-year world tour, a new album, movies, a Graceland-like museum, musical revues in Las Vegas and Macau, and even a "Thriller" casino. Such a rebound could wipe out Jackson's massive debt.

—Andrew Blankstein and Phil Willon

It should go without saying, but in a story like this, details will change quickly for the short term.

UPDATE from above saying he is dead:

[Updated at 3:15 p.m.: Pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead by doctors this afternoon after arriving at a hospital in a deep coma, city and law enforcement sources told The Times.]

[General Zod]

You know, he owed a lot of money. I wonder if this means they'll resurrect his corpse to do a live action Thriller on tour in order to pay off his debt.

[Stark]

Will people stop pretending he didn't exist? 80s music retrospectives that ignore Jackson are hilarious.

[Damaramu]

RIP Michael.

[Adrian Laguna]

Will people stop pretending he didn't exist? 80s music retrospectives that ignore Jackson are hilarious.

Huh, I remember a top 50 music videos of the 80s special on TV some time ago and Michael Jackson was high on the list. Maybe ignoring him is an Australian thing.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Cueing the conspiracy theories, random speculation, and Michael Jackson sightings in 4... 3... 2...

[Eframepilot]

So much for Iran. And Sanford. And poor Farrah Fawcett, for that matter.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

No loss to the world, honestly; the guy probably was a paedophile and had extremely severe mental issues, and an addiction to plastic surgery. And his music wasn't even that good. His behaviour had grown impossibly erratic and he's probably dead because of the drugs he's done and the number of surgical procedures he's had.

[CaptainChewbacca]

So much for Iran. And Sanford. And poor Farrah Fawcett, for that matter.

It REALLY sucks for the 2nd-most-famous celebrity on a day when two of them die. Like when Johnny Cash and John Ritter died on the same day, nobody mentioned Ritter.

[Adrian Laguna]

His behaviour had grown impossibly erratic and he's probably dead because of the drugs he's done and the number of surgical procedures he's had.

When I read it was cardiac arrest the first thing that popped into my head was, "too much coke".

[Lord Pounder]

I think it's unfair to say now that his music sucked. While I didn't respect the man he became, his music was era defining a quarter of a billion albums sold over his career must stand for something.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

I think it's unfair to say now that his music sucked. While I didn't respect the man he became, his music was era defining a quarter of a billion albums sold over his career must stand for something.

Yeah I don't think you can deny his music's influence. YOU may not like it (or him for that matter) but it takes quite a bit to be the "King of Pop".

[Stark]

Huh, I remember a top 50 music videos of the 80s special on TV some time ago and Michael Jackson was high on the list. Maybe ignoring him is an Australian thing.

Every time I hear some xyz act described as 'the biggest pop act of the 80s' it makes me laugh.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I said his music sucked, which is a personal opinion.... There's been rap and hip hop and country songs I've liked but I've never once liked a single Michael Jackson song.. It was a purely subjective statement.

[Bluewolf]

He may of had a patchy and dark life but no one can deny his music was influencial.

RIP Micheal.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

I said his music sucked, which is a personal opinion.... There's been rap and hip hop and country songs I've liked but I've never once liked a single Michael Jackson song.. It was a purely subjective statement.

But how??? There's got to be at least one song you like!