Dr. Conrad Murray’s legal team believes sequestering the jury is the only way to ensure his fair trial in the Michael Jackson manslaughter case. Charged with involuntarily causing the King of Pop’s death, Murray wants the court protect him and the system from “character assassinations.” The name Nancy Grace has come up more than once from Murray’s lawyers, citing the case of Casey Anthony , who ended up walking in July. Dr. Conrad Murray ‘s lawyers say the only reason the Anthony jurors were unswayed by the media skewering of Anthony was because they were sequestered. According to documents, Grace and others engaged in “nonstop on-air abuse of not only the defendant, but the jurors and defense attorneys involved.” The legal docs claim , “There is reasonable expectation that Dr. Murray’s trial will be the most publicized in history,” and that of the several hundred jurors polled during jury selection, only one claimed not to have heard of the case. Judge Michael Pastor said last month he would consider sequestering the jury, although he felt it was unnecessary and expensive. Stay tuned … [Photo: WENN.com]
Scott MacIntyre, the first finalist in American Idol history, is now a married man. The artist exchanged vows with Christina Teich yesterday in Scottsdale, Arizona. MacIntyre composed all the music played at the event, including “I Wanna Be,” a single that is now available on iTunes. Up next for the part-time motivational speaker? Scott will release a memoir, titled “By Faith, Not By Sight,” in May. Our best wishes to this happy couple! [Photo: Scott MacIntyre/Us Weekly]
Scott MacIntyre, the first finalist in American Idol history, is now a married man. The artist exchanged vows with Christina Teich yesterday in Scottsdale, Arizona. MacIntyre composed all the music played at the event, including “I Wanna Be,” a single that is now available on iTunes. Up next for the part-time motivational speaker? Scott will release a memoir, titled “By Faith, Not By Sight,” in May. Our best wishes to this happy couple! [Photo: Scott MacIntyre/Us Weekly]
‘Michael Forever’ concert rescinds invitation for Kiss to perform following complaints from estate and fans. By Gil Kaufman Michael Jackson in the video for “Hold My Hand” Photo: Sony Music Entertainment Several weeks after announcing their intention to celebrate the life of Michael Jackson with an all-star concert called “Michael Jackson Forever,” the initial lineup for the October 8 show at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, was revealed last week. According to promoters, the Michael Forever show is slated to feature such stars as Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Motown legend Smokey Robinson, in addition to less globally popular talents, including Alexandra Burke, Pixie Lott, Leona Lewis, JLS, Craig David, Alien Ant Farm and a pair of Jackson-related groups, 3T and the Jackson Brothers. The one thing the event does not have, however, is the approval of Jackson’s powerful estate, which had kept silent about the show put together by parents Joseph and Katherine Jackson, along with siblings Jackie, Tito, Marlon, LaToya and Rebbie. Brothers Jermaine and Randy have not been involved in the plans and have publicly objected to the event because it falls in the middle of the involuntary manslaughter trial of Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray. On Tuesday (August 16) a spokesperson for the estate — which has handled all of Jackson’s affairs since his 2009 death — confirmed that estate lawyer Howard Weitzman sent a letter to concert organizers last week raising some pointed questions about the show. “I represent the Executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson. As the legal caretakers of Michael’s intellectual property, we believe it is our duty to contact you directly regarding the growing number of questions that have been addressed to the Estate, as well as multiple concerns that have emerged in recent days,” reads the letter. After reminding organizers that the estate is the only entity that can sign off on the use of Jackson’s image or his intellectual property — the concert’s website is careful not to feature any images of the singer or samples of his music — the letter said the estate was “especially disappointed” by the announcement on Monday that greasepaint rockers Kiss have been added to the bill. Specifically, the beef was that outspoken Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has made a number of disparaging comments about Jackson in the past. “It was extraordinarily embarrassing when no sooner had you announced this ‘news’ that [Simmons] would participate in your concert that TMZ posted an item noting that Mr. Simmons called Michael Jackson … a child molester, notwithstanding the fact that Michael was acquitted by a jury,” read the letter. Jackson fansite MJ4Justice was flooded with negative comments about the addition of Kiss, announced on Monday by Katherine Jackson on CNN, and has called for a boycott of the show. The concert’s Facebook page has also been inundated with concerns over the booking of Kiss. And the complaints worked. On Tuesday, the concert’s promoter, Global Live Events, canceled Kiss’ “invitation” to appear in the show. “We have listened to Michael’s fans and are grateful to have been alerted to these unfortunate statements by Gene Simmons,” CEO Chris Hunt said in a statement. “Under the circumstances we fully agree that even though Kiss is a band Michael admired we have no choice but to rescind our invitation to them to appear in our tribute concert. We offer our sincerest apologies to Mrs. Jackson and the family for this oversight — our primary concern must be to do justice to Michael’s memory, and to put on a tribute that the family and the fans will find suitable and fit for a King, our
HOUSTON, Texas (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Roland Entertainment announced today that teen rapper Baby Jay has been invited for a second time to perform at Fort Hood for their ‘Teen Back to School Bash and Carnival’ per recommendation from the Grammy organization Texas Chapter. The event is presented by The U.S. Army Child, Youth and School Services in partnership with The USO. Baby Jay will headline the… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Send2Press Newswire Discovery Date : 16/08/2011 02:47 Number of articles : 3
Brooke Hogan recently posed naked on behalf of PETA, drawing attention to the portrait of her birthday-suited self inside a cage by showing it off to her father . And she doesn’t get why people are making it such a big, sick deal! “Im SO sick of people saying me and my dad are in some perverted relationship,” Brooke Tweeted yesterday. “Go home and do your own thing! Stop picking on me!” Two notes, Brooke: I am home, thanks. I’m not even wearing sleeves right now. How do you think we found out about this picture? Multiple paparazzi were called to the event and snapped photos. We wonder who alerted those photographers to this unusual happening… In related news, Hulk Hogan’s wife looks EXACTLY like his daughter .
Bride-to-be Sherri Shepherd shared all the events leading up to her Chicago wedding this Saturday via Twitter this week. Sherri was joined by fellow celebrity friends Elizabeth Hasselbeck and Niecy Nash among others. Both Hasselbeck and Nash will be bridesmaids and Nash, who is also a newlywed will walk in the wedding with her new husband Jay. Check out how Sherri spent her last single moments: It’s been a whirlwind couple of days in the Windy City for bride-to-be Sherri Shepherd. The 44-year-old View cohost spent Thursday afternoon taking wedding portraits with her future husband Lamar Sally at Navy Pier in Chicago. Though she was dressed in a white gown, it won’t be the one she wears when she walks down the aisle Saturday. “Just put that on to do personal shots with Sal,” Shepherd tweeted. “You think I’d let him see it so soon?” The following night, the future spouses were joined by Elisabeth Hasselback, ESPN’s Tim Hasselback, Community’s Yvette Nicole Brown and Clean House’s Niecy Nash for dinner at P.F. Chang’s. Later that evening, Shepherd was sitting in her hotel room “when all of a sudden my bridesmaids burst into the room with their own footed pajamas.” “Just had the most amazing bachelorette party with my bridesmaids,” Shepherd tweeted hours later. “Much food, laughter and love in this room. Can’t wait to open my gifts!” Late Friday night, Shepherd posted one final tweet before her big day. “Going to bed now. Sal is in his suite. My last day as a single woman,” she wrote. “Thank you Jesus for being in the midst of all this. Gotta get sleep!” Aw… Can you feel the love? More photos and tweets from Sherri and her bridesmaids below: Source
‘They’re family,’ ‘Talihina Sky’ helmer Stephen Mitchell says, confident that Kings will regroup after canceling U.S. tour. By James Montgomery Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon Photo: Theo Wargo/ WireImage For all the unedited, un-sober moments in the Kings of Leon ‘s “Talihina Sky” documentary (and there are a lot of them), none stands out quite like frontman Caleb Followill’s bleary-eyed, whiskey-and-marijuana-soaked confessional, which unspools toward the end of the film and is a jaw-dropper, to say the very least. When the film premiered back in April, the scene stuck in most folks’ memories because it was so unfiltered — Followill makes no attempt to hide the fact that he’s rifling through inebriants, which is noteworthy since he and his bandmates executive-produced the film and surely had final say over what made the cut and what didn’t. But given the events of the past few weeks, as the Kings canceled their U.S. tour after Followill’s bizarre (and, many seem to think, drunken ) onstage behavior at a show in Dallas , the footage takes on a decidedly darker tone … and hints that perhaps the frontman’s problems go much deeper than “exhaustion,” as the band claimed in their cancellation statement. So, with “Talihina” set to premiere August 21 on Showtime, MTV Radio spoke to its director, Stephen Mitchell, about that notorious scene and whether he now regrets keeping it in the film. “No, and for the record, I might have been more drunk and stoned than Caleb during that interview,” Mitchell laughed. “That was a night he and I sat down, actually it was during the Only By the Night sessions, and after working in the studio all day, he said, ‘I want you to come over to the house and let’s sit down.’ … I think it was an amazing conversation, and I think there’s a lot of the film that, looking back, [I] have regrets about showing this or doing that. We made our decisions a while ago and we’re sticking to them and living with them. “But sure, they’re my friends, and I care about them, and a lot of this is hard for me to watch and I’m sure it’s very hard for them to watch too,” he added. “So, I guess the only thing I can say is we put the honesty out there and hopefully people at least respect the boys for not bullsh—ing them.” Mitchell — who has known the Followills since the early 2000s, when they were first working toward a record contract in Nashville — said that while he hasn’t spoken to the band since they scrapped their tour, he’s not worried about their future. Nor did he find the reaction of Caleb’s brother Jared (who took his brother to task on Twitter following the Dallas show) to be anything out of the ordinary. After all, this is a band of brothers — and a cousin — first and foremost. “That’s the way they always were. Listen, I wasn’t down there, I haven’t even had a chance to talk to the guys yet … about what the heck happened. But I think some of the draw to these guys is that they are brothers and cousins; there’s a magnetism to that,” he said. “They say anything and everything to each other, and it is how they sort of work things out internally; they’re very vocal. And I had to learn a long time ago that they’re not yelling at each other, they’re just communicating, and it’s loud. And sometimes the stuff they say to each other … you’ve got to have some thick skin to be walking around with those guys.” Mitchell said that it’s that familial bond that has helped them through tough times in the past … and will undoubtedly help them navigate through their current drama too. “It’s a fabric of the band, the roots of the band, they’re family, and I think that’s a reason that they’ve been able to find a common ground to stick together and make five albums over, what, eight-plus years?” he said. “That’s really hard to do. There’s not many bands making two albums, let alone five, during that time … and I’m not a band spokesperson, I can’t speak for them, they make the great music, but I believe in them and I think the family side of it will be the same reason we end up seeing more great shows and hearing more great albums from them in the future.”
‘We pushed it back to really route it and put other dates on there,’ Jay says of pushing launch to October. By Rob Markman Kanye West and Jay-Z Photo: Getty Images Fans eager to experience Watch the Throne live are going to have to wait an extra month before they can see Jay-Z and Kanye West in concert. On Tuesday morning, Live Nation started a pre-sale for the WTT Tour, but the original run, which was set to begin on September 22 in Detroit, is no longer. Instead Yeezy and Hov will now kick things off on October 29 in Atlanta, Georgia. The original 24-date tour is now slated for 17 stops, but Live Nation’s website says that more dates will be announced soon. The October 29 Atlanta date was in fact on the original schedule, as was the October 30, Greensboro, North Carolina, date and the November 1 show in Baltimore. The remaining concerts are all rescheduled. Look back at the events leading up to Watch the Throne ‘s August 8 release. There is still no New York City date on paper yet, though Hov confirmed that there will be one during a radio interview with Hot 97’s Angie Martinez on Monday, when he also denied rumors of a feud between him and Kanye . The Throne will stop at the nearby Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, for two nights and will also land in West’s hometown of Chicago on December 1. “That’s an old list we had to push that back, because it was like, we tried to put it out in pre-order and all the lines got jammed,” Jay told Martinez in the interview as she read off the tour’s original dates. “We pushed it back to really route it and put other dates on there. We’ll probably put four New York dates there instead.” Check out exclusive photos of Jay-Z and Kanye West in the studio. As of now, the last date on the schedule is across the northern border on December 18 in Vancouver. In the radio interview, Jay said that he and Kanye hadn’t worked out the performance details and couldn’t confirm who would hit the stage when or how the two would interact. “We hadn’t worked out those details yet but considerable time will be spent onstage together,” he said. The Throne 2011 tour dates:
A funeral is set for 11 a.m. Thursday for U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Perry, a giant of a civil rights lawyer who toiled relentlessly to dismantle legal segregation in South Carolina and then went on to become the state’s first black federal judge. Perry died of natural causes Friday just days before his 90th birthday. His body was discovered at his home on Sunday by a family friend. At his death, he was serving as a senior U.S. District Court judge, working every weekday in the downtown Columbia courthouse that was dedicated in April 2004 and bears his name. Oprah Wants You To Attend Her Class & “OWN Your Life” The funeral, which will be held at Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia, is expected to draw hundreds of mourners, including federal judges from across the country, lawyers and judges in South Carolina, current and former law clerks and his many clients, who were involved in sit-ins and demonstrations that marked the 1950s and 1960s civil rights era. Gov. Nikki Haley has ordered flags at the State House to be lowered to half-staff on the day of his funeral, her spokesman Rob Godfrey said. The Rev. Charles Jackson Sr., Brookland’s pastor, will deliver the eulogy, said I.S. Leevy Johnson, owner of Leevy’s Funeral Home, which is handling the arrangements. Burial will follow in Greenlawn cemetery at the family plot. “All of his law clerks will serve as active pallbearers and members of the state and federal judiciary will be honorary pallbearers,” said Johnson. The funeral home is working with the U.S. Marshal’s Service to ensure security at the church, which seats 3,500. Perry’s home church, Zion Baptist, could not seat the anticipated crowd. High School Students Help Haitian Orphans
