Beyonce will not be performing at the Michael Jackson Tribute concert in Wales next month. Though she was originally scheduled to put on a show via satellite, the now-pregnant singer has pulled out of even that. Now, she will simply be making “special contribution on video,” according to Ticketmaster. However, Christina Aguilera, Ne-Yo, Cee Lo, Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson and Leona Lewis will perform. Sister Janet and brothers Randy and Jermaine Jackson won’t be at the concert because the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, who is charged in MJ’s death, is going on at the same time, but his kids, sister LaToya and Mama Katherine will be in attendance. Happy 30th Birthday, Beyonce! Her 30 Best Looks [PHOTOS] Beyonce Performs “Love On Top” And Reveals Baby Bump [VIDEO] Celebrities React To Beyonce’s Pregnancy On Twitter!
Welcome to THG’s Week in Review! Below, our staff takes a look back at the stories, stars and scandals that made these past seven days so memorable. If you don’t already, you can FOLLOW THG on Twitter and Facebook for 24/7/365 news. Day in and day out, let us be your #1 celebrity gossip source! Now, a rundown of the week that was at The Hollywood Gossip : Kim Kardashian married Kris Humphries Saturday in L.A. Pure magic. All the Kim Kardashian wedding details are here if anyone cares. The marriage of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith may be on the rocks. Trace Cyrus, Miley’s brother, got Brenda Song pregnant ! Wow. The ending of this week’s Bachelor Pad was oddly exciting. Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez are still going strong! Ben Flajnik was named the next Bachelor . Andy Levy Apology to Chris Brown Fox News’ Andy Levy made headlines for this rant about Chris Brown. Ronnie and Situation traded barbs and threw down on Jersey Shore . Prosecutors don’t want Dr. Conrad Murray ‘s trial to be about MJ. Russell Armstrong of The Real Housewives was laid to rest. Rumors of a Rihanna sex tape with J. Cole leaked. Steve Jobs resigned as the CEO of Apple. Jim Carrey Hearts Emma Stone Jim Carrey proclaimed how much he hearts Emma Stone. Strange. Kris Jenner will be co-hosting The Talk now for some reason. Pitbull says he was just trying to help out Lindsay Lohan. Carrie Fisher lost a lot of weight and looks great. But is LeAnn Rimes Cibrian too thin? Is Kate Middleton ? Jennifer Garner is pregnant with her third child with Ben Affleck. Amy Winehouse was reportedly not on drugs when she died. Dexter ‘s Michael C. Hall is apparently dating Vanessa Abrue . Minka Kelly and Derek Jeter have apparently called it off. Sean Penn is reportedly together with Shannon Costello . Who’s ready for a Courtney Stodden reality show ? Octomom sucks.
Dr. Conrad Murray ‘s defense team has nine former doctors of Michael Jackson on its witness list for Murray’s upcoming involuntary manslaughter trial. Among the doctors on the list is Dr. Arnold Klein , Jackson’s dermatologist and friend whose treatment of the star has long been subject to scrutiny. The last also includes Dr. Neil Ratner, who toured with Jackson in 1996 and 1997, and Dr. David Adams of Las Vegas, Nev., both anesthesiologists. Ratner confirmed that Michael Jackson suffered from a sleep disorder, but wouldn’t elaborate further. It’s anticipated that Murray’s lawyers, Ed Chernoff and Michael Flanagan, will grill Ratner about the specifics of his medical treatment. In all, Dr. Murray’s lawyers list 103 people who could be called at the trial, including a nurse practitioner, Cherilyn Lee, who claims Jackson asked her for Propofol in the weeks leading up to his death, but she refused to supply it. Lee, a nurse practitioner and nutritionist who worked for Jackson, claimed in the days after his sudden death that he had asked her for Propofol in April 2009, was served with a subpoena to testify at the trial by Murray’s defense. “Cherilyn is prepared to testify at the trial and tell the truth. Cherilyn has never spoken with anyone from the District Attorney’s office,” a source said . “She was interviewed in the weeks after Jackson’s death by the coroner and the LAPD. Cherilyn hasn’t heard from those agencies since that time.” Jury selection in the criminal trial against Dr. Conrad Murray begins on September 8, 2011, and is anticipated to take several weeks to select a jury. Opening arguments are slated for the last week of September. The trial could last until Thanksgiving, with Murray facing up to four years in prison. Despite the long witness list, Murray is the only doctor of Jackson’s who has been criminally charged in connection with the King of Pop’s death. Thoughts? Dr. Conrad Murray …
Michael Jackson’s kids are planning on attending the upcoming MJ Tribute Concert in person. This in spite of objections from two of their uncles. Prince, Paris and Blanket have all decided that they want to fly to Wales for the event, regardless of what Jermaine and Randy Jackson think. An Jackson family rep tells TMZ: “Paris, Blanket and Prince have been asked to attend the MJ Tribute in Wales and they have decided to go.” The rep adds that the kids are “extremely excited and they’re hoping they will have the opportunity to contribute in some way by making a speech.” “Nothing has been set in stone, but they really hope they can.” Jermaine and Randy are fighting their attendance, as well as the concert itself, which they consider “inappropriate,” given that the event is due to take place in October during the involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray . We can see that side of it, but at the same time, Michael’s kids – who are said to be so happy these days – should be allowed to honor his memory. [Photo: Fame Pictures]
Dr. Conrad Murray was dealt a considerable blow today as the judge in his involuntary manslaughter trial – which begins this fall – ruled that 16 hours of Michael Jackson rehearsal footage is impertinent to Murray’s defense. Murray’s lawyers claimed that the tapes, taken before Jackson’s ill-fated 2009 This Is It tour , showed him to be in chronically poor, declining health. The judge disagreed . Dr. Murray’s told it to the judge … who wasn’t buying it . Dr. Conrad Murray’s lawyers wanted the outtakes to prove Jackson was very ill in the days before his death, and therefore – since he was already dying, or so his theory suggests – Dr. Murray can’t be held responsible for his death. But Judge Michael Pastor ruled the outtakes were valuable to Sony (which didn’t want to release them and has them protected by armed guards ), and also ruled that the videos do not show MJ in noticeably bad health. Because the hours of video show, in the judge’s opinion, a reasonably healthy MJ, it undercuts Dr. Murray’s theory that MJ was a lost cause .
Dr. Conrad Murray “sounded tired and he was like I’m gonna get some sleep whatever” just a few hours before Michael Jackson died, a stripper says. Michelle Bella, one of three women Murray was juggling at the time, met MJ’s personal doc at the Spearmint Rhino gentleman’s club in Vegas in ’08. Bella told detectives that on June 25, 2009, Dr. Murray left a message on her phone at about 8:30 a.m. It sounds like the physician was just beat. Bella told cops Murray had mentioned Jackson to her before and said: “I mean his schedule was obviously, you know … I know that he was like up all hours because of his work so when – so when he called, you know, he sounded tired and he was like I’m gonna get some sleep or whatever.” A long-held theory among law enforcement is that Dr. Murray may have actually fallen asleep during the time the drug [Propofol] was administered to MJ and may have awakened to find Jackson already dead from heart failure. It may make his claim that Michael Jackson killed himself even more dubious. On an unrelated note, you gotta read how Conrad met Michelle: Bella told cops about the magic moment when she met Murray at Spearment Rhino: “He came in there with his scrubs and he was there with like a client of his.” Bella, then studying to be a chiropractic assistant, says, “We were just sharing some like, you know, medical knowledge and I know he was intrigued with me.” Murray must have been intensely impressed with her medical knowledge. She “sat with him for about roughly like an hour and a half and he paid me $1,000.” So heartwarming.
LeBron James’ mom, Gloria James, caused the valet she allegedly slapped last week to lose his “capacity for enjoyment of life.” Seriously, he’s suing over this. Rockfeller Sorel wants $15,000 minimum, according to his lawsuit. The suit, filed Tuesday in Miami-Dade County, accuses Gloria of assault and battery during the incident at the Fountainbleu Hotel (click here to see the video ). Sorel claims to have suffered – pain, emotional distress, humiliation, mental anguish, and perhaps most stunningly, the loss of capacity for enjoyment of life. Rockfeller Sorel will be our legal MVP if he can pull this off .
If you’ve followed the Michael Jackson case and noted that Dr. Conrad Murray had dealings with several different women the day MJ died, that’s not an error. Dr. Murray crossed a professional line in treating Michael based on his involvement with three women, according to new documents filed by prosecutors. According to the documents, Dr. Murray was on the phone with a cocktail waitress prosecutors say was his girlfriend minutes before the 911 call was made. Prosecutors say this woman in question, Sade Anding, was in Houston where she met Murray while working as a cocktail waitress. Why was he calling her? Who the heck knows, but officials say the call proves Murray was paying attention to his girlfriend, and not MJ, during the critical period before MJ’s death. Moreover, prosecutors want to admit into evidence a $500 check that Dr. Murray wrote to Sade Anding “after the two came back from a social outing.” Murray allegedly had communications with two other women that day, too: Michelle Bella, a stripper at Spearmint Rhino Gentleman’s Club in Vegas, got a text from Murray at 8:30 a.m. on June 25, 2009. Prosecutors want the jury to see a receipt for $1,100 from the Rhino the day he met Bella. Bridgette Morgan also called Murray on June 25 to ask about a plane ticket he said he was purchasing for her so she could fly out to see him. Well then. It looks like the good doctor was up to some shady stuff aside from the whole injecting Michael with Propofol and leaving the room thing. Who would have guessed Conrad was such a player? Even more amazing? He was dating another woman, Nicole Alvarez , during all of this!
Dr. Conrad Murray’s lawyers and the prosecutors in the upcoming Michael Jackson manslaughter trial want to know all sorts of things about potential jurors. A 30-page long questionnaire with 117 questions asks everything from whether individuals read celebrity gossip blogs to whether they’re insomniacs. Some of the many highlights of the exhaustive list include: What Internet sites or celebrity blogs if any, do you visit on a regular basis? Have you posted any blogs concerning Michael Jackson or Conrad Murray? Have you or anyone close to you ever worked in any aspect of the media? Then there are these six questions in which prospective jurors must select either Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree or No Opinion … Celebrities and high-profile people feel like they are entitled to act however they please Celebrities and high-profile people think they can bend the rules Celebrities and high-profile people abuse their power and status to intimidate other into giving them what they want Celebrities and high-profile people in Los Angeles get away with crimes because of their status Celebrities and high-profile people in Los Angeles are treated the same way by the police as anyone else Police are more lenient with celebrities and high-profile people Then there’s the medical portion, critical to the prosecution and the defense of Murray, who will likely claim that Michael Jackson killed himself : Have you or anyone close to you ever had a job that required a professional license? Was that license ever suspended, revoked, restricted, or the subject of investigation or inquiry. Do you have any familiarity with the following medications? (several drugs are listed, many of them drugs MJ took, including Propofol) Do you know anyone who is or has been addicted to prescription medication? Are you or someone close to you currently taking medication for pain, anxiety, depression or insomnia? Reports say Murray is seeking responsible jurors who take responsibility for their own actions, in hopes he will not be found liable for MJ’s death. That’s all tall order, considering he was treating him with a drug he most likely should not have used, but was MJ a lost cause, as Murray claims? Did he push the limit so far no one can be blamed but himself? That’s what he’ll be asking the jury. The trial is set for May 9.
Last Friday, leaked Breaking Dawn sex pics caused a major stir. Today, another set of images from the upcoming film are making news – G-rated, less controversial news. Bella’s wedding dress has been revealed! EW scored pics from Stephenie Meyer’s new book, The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide , which goes on sale April 12. Below, you can see an artist’s conceptualization as Bella as a vampire and Bella as a bride … Can you imagine K-Stew rocking that piece? The book’s illustrator, Young Kim, has done a great job bringing Meyer’s characters to life thus far. We imagine the forthcoming, two-part film will be no different.
