Tense Waiting Game for Michael Jackson's Doctor

What drugs were in Michael Jackson's system at the time of his death?

The L.A. coroner's pending toxicology report – expected to answer that key question any day now – may hold the fate of Dr. Conrad Murray, the singer's personal physician. Murray was with Jackson on the day he died and is the apparent focus of a manslaughter investigation.

According to Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Chief Investigator Craig Harvey, the long
awaited autopsy report will be released within days. "We anticipate releasing it this week," Harvey said July 27. "We still have details to work out."


'In the Dark'

Miranda Sevcik, spokesperson for Murray's attorney Ed Chernoff, says they're "in the dark" as to whether an arrest of Murray is imminent, even as news reports increasingly point to potentially serious trouble for the Houston-based physician.

On Monday, CNN and the Associated Press reported investigators believe Murray was the person who injected Jackson with the powerful anesthesia Propofol the night before the entertainer died. Jackson regularly used the drug to help him sleep, according to media reports.

Murray's rep has declined to comment on whether he had administered Propofol to Jackson. The only two drugs Murray has denied prescribing for Jackson are Demerol and OxyContin. In response to media reports about Murray, his lawyer posted the following statement on his Web site Monday night:

"It's a waste of time responding to all these timed 'leaks' from 'anonymous' sources," Ed Chernoff wrote. "I feel like a horse swatting flies. Everyone needs to take a breath and wait for these long delayed toxicology results. I have no doubt they want to make a case for goodness sakes, its Michael Jackson! But things tend to shake out when all the facts are made known, and I'm sure that will happen here as well."


Another Search?

Authorities have twice interviewed Murray and sought a third session with him, which has not yet been set. They also raided his Houston clinic on July 22, which Murray's camp said came as a surprise. His rep didn't know whether a similar search of the doctor's offices in Las Vegas would occur.

"Obviously investigators are not sharing details with us about their plans, as evidenced by what happened last week," Sevcik says. "Like everyone else, we're awaiting the results of the toxicology tests, and at that point, we'll assess what we need to do."

L.A.-based forensic toxicologist Nachman Brautbar, M.D., who's not involved with the case, says the the toxicology report – an analysis of drugs in a person's system – "plays a prime role in putting the pieces together of why someone died when the initial autopsy rules out any obvious known causes of death." But he said it would be "unsual" for a coroner to rule homicide – a death caused by another person which could include manslaughter – in a drug-related case outside of a hospital or nursing home scenario.

From  HUFF POST

MJ movie to hit theatres soon

A Hollywood movie made using footage of Michael Jackson rehearsing for his planned series of comeback concerts could hit theatres by the end of this year, US media reports said on Monday.


Daily Variety reported that Sony Pictures studio was close to agreeing a 50-million-dollar deal for worldwide rights to nearly 80 hours of footage showing pop icon Jackson rehearsing before his death.

The report said AEG Entertainment, the company which owns the material and had been behind Jackson's proposed series of concerts in London, had screened the footage to Hollywood studio executives last week.
Variety reported that Kenny Ortega, the choreographer for Jackson's new "This Is It" concerts and the director of hit film "High School Musical," was expected to direct the movie.

So far only a brief snippet of Jackson's concert rehearsals have been revealed to the public.

Footage released on July 2 showed Jackson practicing a song-and-dance routine at Los Angeles's Staples Center two days before his death, supporting accounts he had been in good health.

Associates of Jackson have described the 50-year-old pop star as being in good form, including at another rehearsal the day before his death.

Jackson collapsed and died on June 25 at his rented Los Angeles mansion. A final cause of death has not been revealed as the coroner's await the results of toxicology tests.

Britney receives death threats

Pop singer Britney Spears is refusing to take her sons on tour to Russia after she received a series of death threats by email.


The Toxic hit-maker will base herself in Finland and fly in just for the two concerts in St Petersburg and Moscow next week, reported thesun.co.uk.

"Originally, both boys were to accompany Britney but she was against taking them because of these constant threats," said a source.

After the Moscow performance, Spears will fly straight to London in her private jet to be reunited with sons Sean Preston, three, and Jayden James, two.

The identity of the e-mail sender is unknown.

Movie Review-BRUNO

WHAT IT’S ABOUT?

Full frontal male nudity, raucous swingers and Paula Abdul are three of the many elements contributing to the ridiculous and utterly compelling Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen’s return to form after a three year post-Borat hiatus.

At 83 minutes, Bruno is a mad-dash trek from Paris fashion week to the Hollywood hills, to the Middle East, Africa, the southern United States and back again. In his fame-seeking efforts, gay Austrian journalist Bruno completely freaks out a non-bondage-gear-friendly hotel staff, gets chased down an Israeli street by incensed Hasidic Jews and nearly starts a riot by getting physical with his assistant Lutz in front of the rough-and-tumble crowd at a cage-fighting match. Whether the movie pisses you off, grosses you out or makes you double over laughing, Baron Cohen’s bravery must be commended.

WHO’S IN IT?

Baron Cohen as Bruno, Gustaf Hammarsten as Bruno's enraptured assistant Lutz and Clifford Banagale as butt boy Diesel. Abdul, Ron Paul, Harrison Ford and a cast of unaware antagonists from across the United States, Europe and the Middle East also make cameos.

A scene featuring LaToya Jackson was cut from the film three hours before its Los Angeles premiere, which was held on the same day as Michael Jackson’s death.

WHAT’S GOOD?
If Bruno is digested as it’s sold – flamboyant fashionista comes to the United States to fulfill aspirations of fame and manifests hilarity through encounters with unassuming citizens – then the movie is indeed an insightful glimpse into the often uncomfortable collective unconscious of prejudice and its many tangential issues.

But.
Bruno distributor Universal insists the film's action is authentic and have not discussed the filmmaking process. Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles have been similarly mum. However, it’s been suggested that the film is a series of staged vignettes in which actors portray common folk for laughs. If so, Bruno maintains its hilarity but loses the reality component that renders the satire so fascinating. Still, the number of Bruno-related lawsuits Universal is already grappling with suggest many people in the film aren’t thrilled to be there. Certainly politician Ron Paul was unaware of the situation when he ended up in a hotel room with the disrobed protagonist. The former presidential candidate grumbles that Bruno is a “queer” after fleeing the scene.



WHAT’S BAD?
The vain, wimpy, animal print thong wearing Bruno is a sashaying gay stereotype in heels. The nebulous homophobia issue has made the movie a point of contention in the gay community. However, this and other mini scandals, (see Bruno’s MTV Movie Awards appearance with Eminem), have contributed to the buzz growing as the film’s July 10th release date approaches. Whatever preconceptions the audience brings to the theater, Bruno truly must be seen to be believed.



FAVORITE SCENE?

A tensely funny scene involves Bruno casting a photo shoot starring his newly adopted African baby. Bruno interviews earnest stage parents angling to have their young children cast in the project. A particular conversation goes something like this:

Bruno: “How much does your daughter weigh?”

Mother: “30 pounds.”

“Can she lose 10 pounds in the next week?”

“Yeah. I’d have to do whatever I could.”

“And if she doesn’t get the weight off, would you be willing to have her undergo liposuction?”

“... Yes. If that’s what it takes to get her cast.”

This squirmy moment and the hundreds of others like it (said photo shoot yields shots of Bruno’s “Gayby” hanging from a cross) contribute to a wholly fascinating, cringe-inducing, and painfully hilarious glimpse into the underbelly of American homophobia, celebrity, tolerance, etc. The Cambridge-educated Cohen’s talent for culling insight from the ever preposterous scenarios into which he thrusts his oblivious queen allows the film, like Borat and Da Ali G Show before it, to operate on dual levels of silly, often vulgar, slapstick and sly social commentary.



NETFLIX OR MULTIPLEX?

See it now. Multiplex.

Source : HOLLYWOOD

Moon’s crater named after Moonwalker MJ

Michael Jackson, famously known as the ‘Moonwalker´ for his legendary dance moves, now has a crater of the moon named after himself.


In an out-of-the-world tribute to the ‘King of Pop´ the Lunar Republic Society named the moon crater after Jackson’s name, Contactmusic reported.

The crater, previously named Posidonius J, is located in the Moon’s Lake of Dreams and is close to a 1,200-acre parcel, which was purchased by the pop star.

Jackson, died last month at the age of 50 after a suspected cardiac arrest. His fans and family members bid their final farewell to the pop legend in a star-studded public memorial on Tuesday

The 10 greatest sci-fi films never made

The unfinished masterpieces of fantasy cinema

Since Georges Melies' 1902 'Trip to the Moon' cinema has been in love with science fiction. The romance has been rocky though, with many potential classics lost to spiralling budgets or studio whim. David Hughes the author of a new book, The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made, shares his favourites with us

Cover of The Greatest Sci-fi Movies Never Made

1: Vincent Ward's Alien 3
Having rejected a script by sci-fi author William Gibson, the producers of the Alien franchise planned to follow James Cameron’s “Vietnam in space” Aliens with an ambitious, arty third instalment by Vincent Ward, the visionary New Zealand-born director of The Navigator and, more recently, The River Queen. A planet made of wood, and spaceships modelled on clipper ships, were just two of the strange ideas in Ward’s approach. Sadly, it never got off the ground, though Fox ultimately went with another maverick director, David Fincher.
His much-derided Alien3 is, by the way, ripe for re-appraisal; sadly, a director’s cut of the film – an unofficial version of which is included in the Alien Quadrilogy DVD set – will probably remain the Greatest Sci-Fi Movie Never Seen




2: Superman -vs- Batman
Having abandoned plans to make Tim Burton’s Superman Lives with Nicolas Cage as Clark Kent/Superman, Warner Bros. decided to take an alternative approach to their long-gestating revival of the Superman movie franchise: Batman vs Superman, a script by Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker in which Gotham’s caped crusader would face off against Metropolis’ Man of Steel.
With pre-production in full swing under Troy director Wolfgang Petersen, the studio switched gears again, when a brand new script by Lost creator J.J. Abrams plonked onto their desks. Eventually, they abandoned this idea to back Brett Ratner, and later Bryan Singer, to make the disappointing Superman Returns.
3: Steven Spielberg's Night Skies
Contractually obliged to produce a sequel to the smash hit Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg came up with the idea of a family attacked in their farm by malevolent extraterrestrials, a kind of “Straw Dogs with aliens”. One of the invaders, he decided would befriend the farmer’s young son, and during the shooting of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Spielberg and Mrs Harrison Ford – screenwriter Melissa Mathison – isolated this idea and turned it into the basis of what would be his biggest film, E.T. the Extraterrestrial. Spielberg didn’t abandon the family-in-peril idea, however: he simply altered the evil aliens into ghosts and produced another smash hit: Poltergeist.
4: John Carter of Mars
Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs’ other famous creation, John Carter, was an American civil war veteran who uses a form of astral travel to visit a Mars crawling with monsters. Twenty years after its 1912 debut in the pages of a pulp magazine, John Carter of Mars almost became the first feature-length animated film.
Despite Bob Clampett’s stunning early animation tests, described as akin to a moving oil painting, Disney abandoned the plans and made Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs instead. It would be another eighty years before the project was revived as a live action feature for Pixar, now due for release in 2012 – the one hundredth anniversary of the story’s first publication.

5: Star Trek: Planet of the Titans
The surprise success of the original Star Trek TV series in syndication, several years after its cancellation, led Paramount to consider a feature film outing for the original crew, with Invasion of the Body Snatchers director Philip Kaufman at the helm. In the script, subtitled Planet of the Titans, Kirk and his crew encounter an alien race they believe to be the mythical Titans of Earth legend, and, after travelling a million years into Earth’s past, introduce the concept of fire to primitive man. Although Paramount ultimately shelved the project in 1977, telling Kaufman – without apparent irony – “there’s no future in science fiction,” the success of Star Wars a few weeks later prompted a rethink, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture – dubbed The Slow Motion Picture for its glacial pace – was born.

 6: Childhood's End
Some years after Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey put Arthur C. Clarke on the filmmaking map, Universal Pictures began developing one of Clarke’s earlier stories, 1954’s Childhood’s End, in which mile-wide spaceships appear over the world’s major cities – a trope subsequently nicked by everything from Independence Day to Signs – heralding an evolutionary leap for humankind, in which the world’s children are taken away, by aliens resembling medieval depictions of the Devil, to meet their destiny among the stars. Despite lavish production designs and several scripts, the project languished in development hell until its recent revival by Boys Don’t Cry director Kimberly Peirce, who has written a fresh draft and hopes to take it before the cameras next year.
7: The Stars My Destination
Alfred Bester’s 1956 novel The Stars My Destination, which appears on virtually every list of the best science fiction novels, is a kind of “Count of Monte Cristo in space” described by sci-fi author William Gibson as “the perfect cyberpunk novel.” Despite numerous attempts to film the story – including one with Richard Gere as the book’s vengeful, tattooed anti-hero Gulliver Foyle, and another with Event Horizon director Paul W.S. Anderson at the helm – the project remained in limbo until Variety announced, in March 2006, that Universal had acquired the rights for Lorenzo di Bonaventura, producer of last year’s smash hit Transformers.
8: Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune
“A lot of people have tried to film Dune. They all failed,” stated the opus’s author, Frank Herbert – after David Lynch’s noble effort reached the screen in 1984. A more promising adaptation was proposed in the mid seventies, with Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky overseeing production designs by H.R. Giger, British artist Chris Foss, and French comic book artist Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud. Among Jodorowsky’s more outlandish ideas was offering the role of Emperor Shaddam IV to Salvador Dali, at a previously unheard-of salary of $100,000 per hour. Perhaps unsurprisingly, financing on the film fizzled. However, the two extant adaptations – Lynch’s, and a successful 2000 miniseries – will be joined, in 2010, by a third, with The Kingdom director Peter Berg at the helm.
9: Ridley Scott's I am Legend
Despite half a billion dollars in box office earnings, last year’s film version of Richard Matheson’s thrilling 1954 vampire novel, starring Will Smith, is only half a good movie (the first half, before the unconvincing computer-generated creatures show up). Far more promising was Ridley Scott’s 2000 adaptation, with Arnold Schwarzenegger roaming a deserted San Francisco hunting the nightmarish creatures which the rest of the population has become. Despite many script drafts, spectacular production designs, ambitious effects tests and a scheduled start date, Arnie’s waning box office clout led Warner Bros. to get cold feet. Star and director both walked – Arnie to Washington as governor of California, Scott to ancient Rome as director of Gladiator.
10: The Outer Limits
Following the success of Species (three sequels and counting) and Stargate (two successful TV spin-offs so far), MGM planned a big-screen revival of its most famous sci-fi brand, the classic TV anthology The Outer Limits. An outbreak of a terrifying ‘sleepy sickness’ puts 99.9% of the world’s population into comas, preparing the planet for a hostile takeover by aliens who’ve studied human behaviour closely enough to know that the best way to spread the disease is through infected currency. With echoes of Outbreak, Signs, and the John Mills version of Quatermass, The Outer Limits could be a future sci-fi blockbuster, if Tom Cruise – whose newly-revived United Artists now holds the rights – decides to follow Minority Report and Wars of the Worlds with a third foray into science fiction territory (his religious views aside).
The full story behind these and many more lost science fiction films can be found in The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made by David Hughes, published 25 July by Titan Books , priced £9.99.

Comment!

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Can there be another Jackson icon in Internet era?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The extravagant mourning for Michael Jackson has some critics wondering whether the pop singer's global superstardom could ever be duplicated in an Internet era offering endless entertainment choices.
Jackson's sudden June 25 death caused an outpouring of praise for the singer, whose 1982 "Thriller" album is the best-selling of all time with estimated sales of 50 million copies. In death, Jackson's personal scandals no longer seemed so important to his fans and those caught up in the moment.
"In the world of YouTube, no one could occupy the worldwide effect of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller,'" said Jonathan Taplin, a University of Southern California professor.
"I was scouting a movie for Walt Disney in 1983 in Congo, Gabon and Ivory Coast. All you heard on the radio was Michael Jackson," said Taplin, a former television and film producer.
The Internet has joined the world together in new ways and can elevate unknowns to stardom in an instant, as illustrated by Susan Boyle, the dowdy British singer who shot from obscurity to international fame when her performance on a British talent show was posted on YouTube.
But such fame is fleeting and one Internet sensation is quickly replaced by another. "There will be thousands of Susan Boyles, but no Michael Jacksons or The Beatles," Taplin said.
Before the emergence of cable TV and then the Internet, tens of millions of people regularly tuned into the same hit shows at the same time. Now, the Internet has flooded the world with choice and diluted audiences.
Dubbed the "King of Pop," Jackson, 50, sang with his brothers in the "Jackson 5" before achieving solo stardom with hits like "Billie Jean" and "Beat It," which he promoted with boundary breaking videos on cable music video network MTV.

JACKSON WOULD FIND IT HARDER
But MTV no longer plays hours of prime time music videos and the Internet allows anyone to post songs and videos online. The New York Times's David Segal wrote that this probably spelled the end of fame on the level achieved by Jackson.
"That's why even Michael Jackson would have a hard time becoming Michael Jackson these days," he wrote. "There is something sad about our infinite menu of options. It could very well mean the end of true superstardom."
Jackson won 13 Grammy Awards and during his lifetime sold an estimated 750 million albums.
But although he was poised to attempt a comeback, his best years appeared far behind him when he died. In recent years, he won more headlines for his bizarre behavior and in fighting off sexual abuse charges than for his music.
Susan Ohmer, who teaches modern communication at the University of Notre Dame, likened Jackson's fame to that of Britain's Princess Diana, saying that while people may not have known the real Jackson or Diana, the personas they portrayed on camera captured the world's attention.
"Michael Jackson came of age when music was becoming more international," Ohmer said "Like Princess Diana, his style and movements seemed to come alive on camera."
Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, said it would be more difficult for another global icon to be created in a "fragmented era of modern technology," -- but still possible.
"The Internet has allowed a new route to fame," Thompson said. "But becoming truly famous is still something that happens very rarely."
Thompson and Ohmer both pointed to U.S. President Barack Obama as one of the world's new icons, but based on a record of political achievement and real intellectual power rather than songs and dance moves.
"In any new medium, stars emerge," Ohmer said. "Celebrities become global icons because they interact with media in ways that fascinate the public and because they speak to us in some way about our lives and times."

Source :  Reuters

Would you send your child to Hogwarts?

Well, with the premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, this seems a topical question. It's also one which I'm guessing many Harry Potter readers will have asked themselves over the years. Your kids may love the idea of going (all that excitement, albeit with perhaps rather too much death and destruction), but I'm not convinced I'd send my children to Hogwarts (that's if they turned out to be talented muggles). Not only is it too dangerous, but what on earth would they learn there?!
In this essay by Steve Vander Ark, the consensus seems very much to be no, don't educate your children with Harry and co. After all, as he writes, the children really don't learn much, and the teachers do not treat their students well. He's right, isn't he? I don't recall much maths, foreign languages (although, of course they're no longer compulsory at secondary school in the real world either) or PHSE. Surely Hermione would love to read some English literature, whether a little bit of Forster (I think this would tickle her fancy) or something more challenging (the metaphysical poets?). Instead she's stuck with potion making, fighting off evil and learning magic. Hermione, Harry and friends also come up against so many truly terrible teachers (would Dolores Umbridge or Severus Snape be licensed to teach?)
English teacher and blogger extraordinaire Dana Huff has written a very detailed post on this very subject. In it she discusses the merits (or otherwise) of the main Hogwarts teachers, from Snape and McGonagall to Hagrid and Sybill Trelawney. Not many, other than Lupin (who makes the top five in my list of the most inspring teachers in films), and of course, Professor Dumbledore, are very inspiring. Mind you, Ms Huff is perhaps not as much of a fan of Dumbledore as others might be. She writes:
"We are never given an assessment of Dumbledore’s teaching skills, but based on his relationship with the students, he was probably fairly good. I do wonder at his skill in selecting some of his staff, but he seems, in all, to be a fairly good administrator. He is not always as supportive of his faculty as he could be, but often that’s because the faculty member in question is being unreasonable (Snape, most of the time)."
What do you think? Is Hogwarts an appealing educational establishment? Maybe I'd have a different view if I was currently at school, but for the moment at least, I'm glad that my daughter is learning to spell (beautifully and noisily are on her latest list) rather than learn spells....

SOURCE: TO

LA braces for Michael Jackson's final act

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

As family members gather the curtain is slowly rising on Michael Jackson's last show.
After a remarkable 50 years of life spawning hit records and bizarre happenings, Michael Jackson will be farewelled under a global spotlight brighter than any he experienced while alive.
Family members, including his three children, and friends appeared at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills on Monday evening (US time) for a "Celebration of Life" service for the late pop star.
La Toya Jackson, wearing sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, was seen being driven away from the cemetery. KCAL-TV showed helicopter footage of a hearse backing up to the Hall of Liberty - a circular building at the cemetery that contains a 1200 seat auditorium - to deliver a casket.
His 11-year-old daughter Paris wiped tears from her face as she was driven away at the conclusion of the service. Family and close friends are expected to return on Tuesday morning (5am Wednesday NZT) for a private funeral.
Jackson's family is hoping the funeral will be a quiet affair, but the cemetery, a resting place for Hollywood legends including Bette Davis, Buster Keaton and Liberace, is swarming with paparazzi and news crews on the ground and in helicopters above.
At a grand public event on Tuesday, 17,000 fans of the late King of Pop will cram into LA's Staples Centre indoor stadium for a memorial concert as epic as the 50 concerts Jackson was set to perform in London.
More than 1.6 million people registered for free tickets to Jackson's downtown memorial. A total of 8,750 people were chosen to receive two tickets each.
"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.
The family announced that participants will include Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher, Lionel Richie, Kobe Bryant, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer and Martin Luther King III.
"It will be a celebration of Michael's life," the memorial's producer Ken Erlich told the New York Daily News. One person who won't be at the memorial is Debbie Rowe, Jackson's ex-wife and mother of his two oldest children, Prince Michael, 12, and Paris.
"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," Rowe's lawyers said in a statement.
"Debbie will continue to celebrate Michael's memory privately."
Jackson's third child, Prince Michael II, was born via a different surrogate mother.
Rowe does not appear to be coping with the media frenzy, lashing out at paparazzi near home in California's Antelope Valley.
"Are you ready to have your butt kicked? Don't (expletive) touch me!" she said.
The legal maneuvering that marked Jackson's extraordinary and troubled life also continued Monday, with his mother losing a bid to control his enormous but tangled estate. And in one of the few reminders of Jackson's darkest hours, a New York congressman branded Jackson a "pervert" undeserving of so much attention.
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, spokesman Paul Charles said.
About 50 theatres across the country, from Los Angeles to Topeka, Kan, to Washington, DC, were planning to broadcast the memorial live, for free.
In Los Angeles Superior Court, 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.
Katherine 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.
Branca and McClain will have to post a US$1 million bond on the estate, and their authority will expire August 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 US$500 million. His assets are destined for a trust, with his three children, his mother and charities as beneficiaries.
In New York, Republican Representative 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, California "He brought people together, helped express something that's in us all."
Jackson, who died on June 25, in yet to be explained circumstances at his rented LA mansion, filled the world's largest arenas and his 1982 album Thriller remains the biggest album of all-time with 109 million copies sold, but the global coverage of the memorial will reach a new level.
The memorial will be beamed live into TV sets around the world and around the world and will likely create the biggest internet broadcast event in history, with Facebook, MySpace and MTV offering online video views.
While the timing may force Kiwi fans to forgo sleep to watch it live at 5am, the memorial will air in primetime in Europe and is expected to break morning ratings records in North America.
Downtown hotels were quickly filling. Police, trying to avoid a mob scene, warned those without tickets to stay away because they would not be able to get close to the Staples Center.
All those involved say the heart of Los Angeles will become a circus. In one way, that characterization will be literal.
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey starts a run at Staples Centre on Wednesday, a booking long planned in advance. In the pre-dawn hours before Jackson's memorial, the elephants will walk from the train station to the arena.
As Jackson was well aware, the show must go on.

Ice Age vs. Transformers: It's a Draw!

Action-movie battles rarely end in a tie. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader didn't go fiercely at it, putting their lives and the fate of the Empire on the line, then stop their epochal fight and say, "Eh, let's go for a beer." But the Independence weekend smackdown between last week's champ Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and the cartoon contender Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ended in a tie, with each film earning $42.5 million at the North American box office — if you believe the official numbers.
A distant third, with $26 million for the weekend, was Public Enemies, with Johnny Depp impersonating John Dillinger under Michael Mann's direction. Somehow, the story of a bank robber who died 75 years ago didn't seduce the holiday audience. Maybe when the grown-ups have packed their kids off to summer camp, they'll belatedly discover this rare July movie aimed at adults. In holdover action, the two are-they-gonna-get-married? comedies The Proposal and The Hangover maintained healthy chunks of their audiences and Pixar's Up, challenged by another 3-D animated feature, finally lost altitude. It also concluded its brief reign as the year's top-grossing movie; Transformers 2 managed that in 10 days.
For studio bosses who look to this as one of the prime weekends for film attendance, the real behemoth was the calendar. With July 4 falling on a Saturday, one of the two busiest movie days of the week, the box office got clouted by fireworks and barbecues. Each of the top 10 films, which normally would make about the same amount of money on Saturday as on Friday, were down at least 30% last night.
Yet there's no denying Transformers 2 is a smash, having earned something like $700 million worldwide in 12 days. So far, the movie is ahead of its blockbuster predecessor — though sequels usually come out of the gate with more power than an original, which establishes a brand. Its box-office domination may annoy critics and sentient adults, but this savvily marketed franchise is as impervious to failure as McDonald's. It's not a fast-food but a fast-film experience, cunningly mixing the twin fanboy magnets of large marauding toys and luscious Megan Fox.
The performance of Ice Age 3, which over its first five days did outgross Transformers, was a bit spottier. Benefiting from the hiked prices for 3-D showings (which brought in about 40% of the take), the movie still earned less in those five days than 2006's Ice Age: The Meltdown did in its first three. It didn't help that Dawn of the Dinosaurs was the summer's fifth movie whose cast of characters included at least one prehistoric beast. (Can you name the other four?*) It may be time for Hollywood to go back to spacemen.
The movie's main problem was that many found it an unnecessary addition to the canon, with the primary plot strenuously exerting itself to achieve familiar challenges and triumphs. Only the unrelated, subsidiary scenes with Scrat the squirrel and his foxy new inamorata Scratte showed any comic pizzazz. (These scenes were directed by a different crew.) With the speed of Road Runner, the karma of Wile E. Coyote and, this time, the romantic obsession of Pepé Le Pew, Scrat is a walking, stalking lexicon of characters created by the immortal Chuck Jones. Blue Sky, the Ice Age studio, should take an artistic leap and consider a feature-length, nonverbal Scrat feature.
There's an even bigger problem in the weekend box-office tallies announced each Sunday around noon Eastern time. They are taken as an accurate summary of an industry's health, like the Dow average, but they're grounded less in facts than in wish fulfillment. They take the hard data on the Friday and Saturday grosses, then add each studio's educated guess as to how its movie is likely to do today. Sometimes those guesses are wrong. A month ago, Up was declared the weekend winner over The Hangover, but the Vegas comedy lured more customers than Warners had expected, and on Monday The Hangover proved to be No. 1.
Making these early results public is like ruling that the team ahead after the sixth inning has won the game, or declaring an election over when the sampling polls come in. So why make these figures public a day before they can be validated? Because Sunday is a slow news day, and the report of the box-office winner, almost always included in the day's top headlines, is free publicity for the movies cited as being the most popular.
How did Transformers 2 and Ice Age 3 "end" in a tie? Because, after looking at the Friday and Saturday results, Fox execs predicted that Ice Age would earn $14,075,000, a 25% increase over yesterday, while the mentalists over at DreamWorks/Paramount said the Transformers 2 take would rise nearly 30%, to $13,872,000. That oddly precise number guaranteed that both movies would get on the evening news. Skeptics are forgiven for wondering whether the system for determining weekend grosses is numbers-crunching or a numbers racket.
Here are the studios' official weekend estimates for the top 10 movies, as reported by Box Office Mojo:
1 (tie). Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, $42.5 million; $67.5 million, first five days
1 (tie). Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, $42.5 million; $293.4 million, second week
3. Public Enemies, $26.2 million; $41 million, first five days
4. The Proposal, $12.8 million; $94.2 million, third week
5. The Hangover, $10.4 million; $204 million, fifth week
6. Up, $6.6 million; $264.9 million, sixth week
7. My Sister's Keeper, $5.3 million; $26 million, second week
8. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, $2.5 million; $58.4 million, fourth week
9 (tie). Year One, $2.1 million; $38.1 million, third week
9 (tie). Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, $2.1 million; $167.8 million, seventh week
* The four other movies with prehistoric beasts: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Up, Land of the Lost and Year One

SOURCE : TIME

Potter star has swine flu

The agent for "Harry Potter" star Rupert Grint says the actor is recovering from a mild case of swine flu.
Grint plays the boy wizard's best friend Ron Weasley in the hit film franchise.
Christian Hodell of Hamilton Hodell management said Saturday that Grint took a few days away from the set of the latest film, but has now been able to return to work

Massive demand for Jackson memorial tickets

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - More than half a million fans from around the world applied for 17,500 free tickets to Michael Jackson's public memorial service next week, organizers said on Friday as a massive security operation got underway.
The life and music of the self-proclaimed "king of pop," who died of sudden cardiac arrest last Thursday, will be celebrated on Tuesday at the Staples Center, a basketball arena in downtown Los Angeles.
Officials on Friday unveiled an ambitious online lottery that will allow fans to attend either the televised service at the arena or watch the proceedings on a big screen at the nearby Nokia Theater.
But within minutes, the staplescenter.com (www.staplescenter.com) server crashed. Officials warned additional disruptions were likely as fans logged on ahead of the Saturday deadline at 6 p.m. PDT.
"You might want to consider watching this from the comfort of your own home," said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who is doubling as the city's acting mayor.
The ceremony will also streamed online.
A wide area around the venues in downtown Los Angeles will be blocked off for the 10 a.m. event. Both local and state law-enforcement agencies have been marshaled for duty.
A local news-radio station reported that more than 1,400 officers from the Los Angeles Police Department alone have been asked to volunteer for duty on Monday and Tuesday. The LAPD, which has about 9,000 officers in total, declined to comment on the report or to reveal a staffing number.
A Jackson family spokesman also declined to provide details of the memorial service, but said there would not be a funeral procession and Jackson's body would not be at the memorial.
Funeral arrangements have not been disclosed, but security has been beefed up at the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills mortuary, where his body is believed to be held.
Officials were also tight-lipped about the cost of the memorial service, and who would pay for it.
Like other U.S. cities, Los Angeles is strapped for cash in the global recession and similar questions about public tax revenues being spent for such an elaborate ceremony surfaced last month when a $2 million celebration was given for the champion Los Angeles Lakers professional basketball team.
That event, which attracted over 500,000 people, was eventually funded through private donations.
The city has already budgeted for LAPD overtime, Perry said, adding that officials would "deeply appreciate" help to offset incremental costs, such as transportation, sanitation and staging.
Winners of the tickets will be contacted on Sunday and directed to pick up a pair of tickets and wristbands on Monday. No tickets will be sold. The massive demand raised the question of counterfeiting or scalping, drawing pleas from organizers for fans to act responsibly.
"For those that would try to take advantage of this, shame on them," said Tim Leiweke, the president and CEO of AEG, the closely held entertainment concern that owns the venues and was backing Jackson's planned comeback concerts in London.
Jackson's last performance was at the Staples Center. The night before he died of sudden cardiac arrest last Thursday, he rehearsed for the tour at the venue.
(Additional Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Bill Trott and Todd Eastham)

Where Will Michael Jackson Be Buried?

In death as in life, there is never a dull moment when it comes to Michael Jackson. Police in California's Santa Barbara County met Tuesday to discuss how to deal with an expected mad rush of traffic on the narrow hillside road leading to Jackson's Neverland Ranch for a planned memorial service on Friday. Jackson's body will arrive there a day earlier, in a 30-car motorcade from Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the singer's hometown of Gary, Indiana, is reportedly seeking to have the body shipped there for another memorial service being planned for July 10. Amid all the competition to pay last respects to the King of Pop (including a memorial service attended by thousands at New York City's Apollo Theater on Tuesday), one question still remains unanswered: Where will Michael Jackson be buried?

The singer's father, Joe Jackson, denied speculation that the Neverland Ranch will be turned into a Graceland-style attraction, with the Gloved One's grave as the central attraction. "That is not true," Joe Jackson told reporters when asked whether his son was to be buried at Neverland, which has been owned by a private-equity firm since Michael defaulted on a loan. Although the family patriarch declined to discuss specifics on the time and place of a funeral, citing the second autopsy as a cause for delay, Jackson hinted of grand, Lady Di-scale plans. "I've never heard of a private funeral like this — like big, like Michael's would be," he told reporters.
Meanwhile, the financier whose company owns Neverland is preparing for unprecedented crowds at Friday's memorial. In an open letter to the Santa Barbara community, Thomas Barrack of Colony Capital on Tuesday referred to the ranch as "Michael's only true home" and added, "The universal curiosity about Neverland and its connection to Michael is an unchangeable fact."(See TIME's photos: "The Young Michael Jackson at Home.")
"The future of the Neverland property will be addressed in due time through normal process and with appropriate deliberation," he continued in a letter that seemed directed as much to the Jackson family as it was to the residents of Santa Barbara County. "Let us all keep in mind that reputations are earned in decades and lost in moments of haste and bad decisions."
Haste is certainly not characterizing the planning of Jackson's final farewell. Some outside observers questioned the Jacksons' rationale for holding off on burial plans while waiting for autopsy results. Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist and attorney who has handled several high-profile cases, including the second autopsy on Anna Nicole Smith's son Daniel, says that in the case of a potential drug overdose, the body of the deceased would not be needed for examination once fluid or tissue samples were obtained. Often, the coroner will keep the brain to conduct neuropathology tests, which can't happen until about two weeks after death when the brain hardens, says Wecht. It's also likely that the coroner is conducting further tests on the superstar's heart, he adds. (See TIME's top 10 Jackson moments.)
"It's up to the family. They can bury him and then bury the brain and heart later on," he says. "But it's rare for the body to be held back for two weeks."

In a career that took plenty of strange turns, it's perhaps no surprise that Jackson's progress toward a final resting place is beginning to seem just as chaotic. At least one of Michael's close friends, Mark Lester, the godfather to Jackson's three children, says he's in the dark as to the icon's own final wishes. (Hear TIME's top 10 Jackson songs.)
"It's not the sort of thing you sit around a dinner party and discuss," said Lester, "funeral arrangements for someone so relatively young."

Disney to boost HK park with $465M expansion

HONG KONG -- The Walt Disney Co. and Hong Kong have reached a deal to expand the territory's Disneyland at a cost of about $465 million in hopes of boosting the theme park's fortunes, officials announced Tuesday.
The deal will see the American entertainment giant invest new capital - some 3.5 billion Hong Kong dollars ($450 million) - to pay construction and operation costs during the building phases.
In the works for two years, the expansion plan is part of an effort to turn around a park criticized for failing to meet attendance targets, being too small and lacking high-profile rides. Hong Kong is also under pressure to increase the theme park's appeal to compete with a proposed Disneyland in Shanghai, which could open in the coming years, and would siphon off Chinese tourists.
"The expansion will be a catalyst to the park's long-term development and bring benefits to not just the local tourism industry but also the entire economy," Rita Lau, Hong Kong's commerce and economic development secretary, told reporters.
The park is a joint venture between Walt Disney and the Hong Kong government. The expansion will add three new theme areas as well a 30 new attractions, enlarging the park's size by nearly a quarter over the next five years.
Beyond the new investment, Burbank, California-based media Disney will convert into equity about $350 million in loans to the venture and maintain a credit facility of about $40 million.


"Disney is making a substantial investment in this important project," Leslie Goodman, a Disney vice president, said in a statement.
Hong Kong, which shouldered much of the $3.5 billion original construction cost, will not add any new capital. But the territory will convert a large portion of its loan to the park into equity. In all, Hong Kong's total stake is expected to decline from about 57 percent to 52 percent.
The park opened in 2005 to great fanfare, only to miss its targets for attendance in the first two years. However, traffic in its third year grew by 8 percent, according to figures provided by the Hong Kong government.
Sustaining that growth could prove all the more difficult with the allure of a Shanghai Disneyland. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said last month the company is awaiting word from China's central government about the proposal.
Likely anticipating a Shanghai park, Hong Kong secured as part of the expansion proposal two new areas, called "Grizzly Trail" and "Mystic Point," that will be unique among Disneylands worldwide when they open. The third area, "Toy Story Land," will be exclusive in Asia.

Johnny Depp's accidental island

Johnny Depp accidentally bought a Caribbean island.

The 'Public Enemies' actor - who has two children, 10-year-old Lily-Rose and Jack, seven, with girlfriend Vanessa Paradis - splashed out on the 45-acre tropical paradise after discovering it by chance on a family holiday.

He said: "Like everything else in my life, it wasn't planned, it just kind of happened. After I had done the first 'Pirates' movie I went on vacation to escape with my kiddies and my girl and someone said there was an island down the road for sale. I looked at it, I walked on it and I was done.

So I immediately called my business manager and said 'Please!' And that was it." The 46-year-old star loves spending time on the "perfect" island because it allows him and his family to hide away from the pressures of living in the public eye.

He explained to Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper: "It came at the perfect moment. The island provides me with somewhere I can go where no one is looking at me or pointing a camera or a finger at me.

When we're there we do absolutely nothing. My kiddies don't have any toys there and they build little houses out of shells."

King of Pop Michael Jackson dies, aged 50

Los Angeles: Michael Jackson, the child star turned King of Pop who set the world dancing but whose musical genius was overshadowed by a bizarre lifestyle and sex scandals, died on Thursday. He was 50.

Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 PM PDT (2126 GMT) after arriving at a Los Angeles hospital in full cardiac arrest, said Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner's office. The cause of death was not known and an autopsy would likely take place on Friday, he said.

Jackson was taken ill at home and his personal physician tried to resuscitate him but could not, his brother Jermaine told reporters. Jackson was taken by paramedics to the hospital, where doctors worked for more than an hour to try to revive him before pronouncing him dead, the brother said.

Known as the "King of Pop," for hits that included Thriller and Billie Jean, Jackson's dramatic, one-gloved stage presence and innovative dance moves were imitated by legions of fans around the world.

His lifetime record sales tally was believed to be around 750 million, and with his 13 Grammy Awards and boundary-breaking music videos he was one of the most successful entertainers of all time.

But Jackson's belief that "I am Peter Pan in my heart," his preference for the company of children, his friendship with a chimp, his high-pitched voice and numerous plastic surgeries also earned him critics and the nickname "Wacko Jacko."

Jackson led a reclusive life after his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation, the second time he had faced ultimately unproved allegations of abuse of young boys.

"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him," Quincy Jones, who helped arrange the music on the album "Thriller" and produced the "Off the Wall" album, told MSNBC.

Sold-out shows

Jackson had been due to start a comeback series of concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010, and had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months. The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within minutes of going on sale in March.

Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery Homicide division searched Jackson's home in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, saying they had been directed to do so by Chief William Bratton because of the media frenzy.

"The Los Angeles Police Department handles death investigations every day," said officer Gregg Strenk. "Robbery Homicide was assigned to this case due to the high profile nature of it. Don't read anything into it."

Tributes poured in.

He was a "true musical icon whose identifiable voice, innovative dance moves, stunning musical versatility, and sheer star power carried him from childhood to worldwide acclaim," said Neil Portnow, president and CEO of The Recording Academy in a statement.

Jackson was one of the first black entertainers of the MTV generation to gain a big crossover following. As he grew older he appeared to lighten his skin to a pale white -- which he said was caused by the skin pigmentation condition vitiligo.

There were concerns about Jackson's health in recent years -- last year he was photographed in Las Vegas in a wheelchair for reasons that were never explained.

But the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson had passed a 4-1/2 hour physical examination with independent doctors.

About 200 fans and reporters gathered outside the Los Angeles hospital. Some fans cried and hugged each other.

"I hope he's gone to God, and I hope that he's free of all the troubles he's been plagued with," Tonya Blazer, 50, who said she had been a fan going back more than four decades.

"I just feel like I'm paying tribute to him," said Dawn Burgess, 42, a fan who said she had posters of Michael pinned to her bedroom wall when she was a child.

Child star to megastar

Jackson was born on Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children. Five Jackson boys -- Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael -- first performed together at a talent show when Michael was 6. They walked off with first prize and went on to become a best-selling band, The Jackson Five, and then The Jackson 5.

Jackson made his first solo album in 1972, and released "Thriller" in 1982, which became a smash hit that yielded seven top-10 singles. The album sold 21 million copies in the United States and at least 27 million worldwide.

The next year, he unveiled his signature "moonwalk" dance move, gliding across the stage and setting off an instant trend, while performing "Billie Jean" during an NBC special.

His personal life was troubled.

In 1994, Jackson married Elvis Presley's only child, Lisa Marie, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1996. Jackson married Debbie Rowe the same year and had two children, before splitting in 1999. The couple never lived together.

Jackson was survived by three children named Prince Michael I, Paris Michael and Prince Michael II, known for his brief public appearance when his father held him over the railing of a hotel balcony, causing widespread criticism.

In 1993, Jackson announced he had become addicted to painkillers, and abruptly canceled a world tour to promote his album "Dangerous."

Dozens of fans gathered near Jackson's modest boyhood home in Gary, to pay their respects to the entertainer who left the city long ago. Some deposited flowers or toys and others blared his hit songs from their car stereos.

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay called Jackson the "world's greatest entertainer" and said he had made the city proud.

In New York, fans gathered at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, singing Jackson hits and dancing in celebratory tribute.

Sourec : IBN

Indian Hollywood filmmaker set to cast Johnny Depp in next

New Delhi, June 16 : After making waves at Cannes with his maiden film, India-born Hollywood director Nagendra Karri is all set to strike it big as the filmmaker is in talks with heavyweights Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russel Crowe for his second film ‘Mobster’ with Depp being his favourite.
Born in Vizag, Andhra Pradesh, 26-year-old filmmaker whose first film ‘Where are you Sophia’ got the opportunity to be screened at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, hopes to rope in the ‘Pirates of the Carribean’ actor for the thriller.
“Yes, we are in talks with the three actors but I am particular pushing for Johnny Depp. He has shown keen interest in the script. We are also in touch with agents of Eva Green for one of the main characters in the film,” Karri who was the city to promote ‘Where are you Sophia’ told PTI.
‘Mobster’ is about organisational crime and its domino effect on the people. The story revolves around an ex-CIA whose life gets affected by it and how he changes the order of the mob. The story begins in New York and then travels India to end in Moscow, he said.
Karri is also planning to make the Hindi version of the film simultaneously and wants to cast Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan for the lead role.
“I have some actors in mind. Aamir and Kamal Hasan are the two I would love to cast. Abhishek Bachchan and Rahul Bose are also in my wish list. I intend to talk with them in the coming weeks,” Karri said.

A superhero unmasked

Wolverine
Cast: Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine), Liev Schreiber (Victor Creed), Danny Huston (Stryker), Will.i.am (John Wraith).
Director: Gavin Hood

In the crowded pantheon of comic-book-derived movie-franchise superheroes, Wolverine, as embodied by the muscular Australian song-and-dance man Hugh Jackman, always seemed kind of special. A grouchy, sensitive loner with retractable metal claws and apparently unretractable facial hair, Wolverine brooded and growled through the first three X-Men pictures, helping to supply them (or at least the first two) with welcome grace notes of rough humor and macho pathos. And now X-Men Origins: Wolverine, with its ungainly, geeky title helps explain just what makes this guy so intriguing and unusual. He’s Canadian.
This will not come as news to fans of the Marvel series. Still, Wolverine’s nationality does, in the present context, raise some puzzling questions. What is he doing fighting in the American Civil War? Why does he talk like a Queens longshoreman who spent his childhood summers in Indiana? Also, did you know he had a brother? Victor Creed, better known (though not in this movie) as Sabretooth, the venerable Marvel supervillain who at one point was thought to be Wolverine’s father, is actually his sibling. Go figure!

So Wolverine, still known as James Logan, his claws still ordinary bone rather than high-tech adamantium, spends the credit sequence fighting in a bunch of wars alongside Victor. Victor’s claws sprout from his fingernails, rather than emerging from between his knuckle.
The explosions and landscapes have a bit more eye appeal, but even the showstopping visual flights (including a climactic battle at Three Mile Island and a brawl on the streets of New Orleans) have a rushed, rote feel about them. What’s worse, the outsize emotions that give any decent superhero epic its adolescent, pop-operatic gravity are diminished by the sheer hectic confusion of the storytelling.

The movie will most likely manage to cash in on the popularity of the earlier episodes, but it is the latest evidence that the superhero movie is suffering from serious imaginative fatigue. A twist at the end that gives poor Wolverine a bad case of amnesia is a virtual admission that nothing terribly interesting has been learned about the character. He forgets his origins before the movie devoted to their exposition is even over. It won’t take you much longer.

Source : Deccan Chronicle

JibJab’s Latest Video Spoof: “He’s Barack Obama”

Here is the latest video from the fine folks at JibJab Media, whose online political satires were among the first viral ones on the Web.
Titled “He’s Barack Obama,” it premiered tonight in front of the President at the 65th Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C.
The two-minute Obama video–which you can see below (with a little JibJab promo at the end)–is being launched in conjunction with JibJab’s Facebook Connect integration, so all comments on the video will run through the social networking site’s platform.
Here’s the video:

And here’s JibJab’s press release on the video:

JIBJAB ROCKS OBAMA
JibJab assembles all-star rock band and premiers latest video with President in attendance at the 65th Annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner.
WASHINGTON, DC–June 19, 2009–JibJab, a leader in digital greetings and online entertainment, premiered its first satire of the Obama administration this evening at the 65th Annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner with the President himself in attendance.
The 2-minute musical video, entitled “He’s Barack Obama,” features the 44th US President in a super hero suit battling the challenges of our times to a heavy metal rendition of the American Civil War song, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”
He’ll use his super powers to win in Iraq,
Then kung-fu chop the Taliban! Ka-chow! Ka-cha!
Our image in the world he’ll mend,
Then make the Jews and Arabs friends!
He’s Barack Obama,
He’s come to save the day!
In a departure from their banjo-centric musicals of the Bush era, JibJab assembled an all-star rock band to perform “He’s Barack Obama.” Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflet and Taylor Hawkins were joined by Chris Chaney, Jane’s Addiction, Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Jellyfish and Beck, and Jess Harnell, renowned television and film voice actor, under the direction of composer, John Frizzell, whose film scoring credits include “Office Space” and “Beavis & Butthead Do America.”
The video’s animation style also represents a radical departure from past JibJab productions, replacing simple collage animation with a combination of frame-by-frame character animation and live action video.
“With a new President came the opportunity to push into new creative territory,” said JibJab co-founder and Head Art Guy, Evan Spiridellis. “Our goal was to push the quality of made-for-the-web entertainment farther than anyone has ever pushed it before and we hope our audience enjoys it.”
The video can be seen for free at http://JibJab.com.
This is the second time JibJab has premiered a video for a sitting U.S. President. In 2007, the company released a satire of the news media entitled “What We Call the News” for George W. Bush at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner.
“We live in an incredible time when creators can get their work out to a mass audience without gatekeepers,” said JibJab co-founder and CEO Guy, Gregg Spiridellis. “When we started the company 10 years ago, we couldn’t have dreamed that we’d have the incredible honor of entertaining two sitting U.S. Presidents. God bless the Interweb.”

Source: Things D