Michael Jackson Memorial Confirmed For Staples Center July 7 Service will take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles

By Jayson Rodriguez

LOS ANGELES — Organizers and representatives for the Jackson family have confirmed memorial services for Michael Jackson will take place Tuesday (July 7) inside the Staples Center. The announcement ended days of speculation about how the King of Pop would be memorialized.

Fans will be able to attend after registering for free tickets at StaplesCenter.com beginning Friday morning, and registration will run until Saturday evening at 6 p.m. On Sunday fans will be notified and receive information on how to pick up tickets on Monday. The registration process is elaborate and has caused the site to crash once already — but the Jackson family insisted on a process that was democratic and fair, taking into consideration the many fans expected to arrive in Los Angeles for the memorial.

"It was our wish to allow as many of Michael's fans to be a part of the memorial, and we wish to thank everyone for their support and understanding at this difficult time," the Jackson family said in a statement.

Only 17,500 tickets will be given away, with 11,000 entrants able to go inside the arena and the remaining 6,500 ushered just across the street to the Nokia Theater where the proceedings will be simulcast. There are no guarantees for fans who register online and only 8,750 people will be selected randomly by a computer-generated program. Each selected fan will receive two tickets and two wristbands.

No further details regarding the service were announced. At a press conference held outside of the Staples Center, Jackson family representative Ken Sunshine said the plans are still being developed. Sunshine said he hopes the ticket process is handed with "dignity" and that tickets not be resold or counterfeited.

L.A. city councilwoman Jan Perry said the city's budget anticipates extraordinary circumstances and will pay for police protection on site. Perry asked interested donors to contact her if they wish to support other anticipated costs. She and a police spokesperson on hand urged fans to not attend the venue without a ticket.

Both parties said should fans not secure tickets, the best place to view the service is from home. Organizers stressed that the services would not be broadcast live outside the venue as previously reported, and again urged fans without tickets to stay away from the area on Tuesday.

MTV, VH1 and VH1 Classic will be airing the Michael Jackson memorial service live beginning at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday. For continuing updates about the service as they become available, please continue to check MTVNews.com

VIDEO: Michael Jackson "This Is It" Final Rehersal

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Jackson was 'healthy, vibrant' at last rehearsal

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The rehearsals ended on a high note that night.

Michael Jackson was energetic and excited. He popped his signature moonwalk and dance spins that gave chills to some of those watching.

As he walked to his car, he put his arm around concert promoter Randy Phillips and -- as Phillips later recounted -- in his soft voice, whispered: "Thank you, I know we're going to get it there together. I know I can do this."

That was late Wednesday night, June 24. A few hours later, Jackson was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead.

"All I know is that the Michael Jackson that hugged me and said 'goodnight' was a healthy, vibrant human being about to undertake the greatest undertaking of his life," Phillips said Thursday. "And something happened between 12:30 when he left us and the morning when I had to rush to the hospital when I got the first call." Watch Jackson rehearse for London shows »

The death of the pop icon shocked the music world, not only because many fans were looking forward to his 50 sold-out shows in London, England, beginning in mid-July, but also because the 50-year-old singer -- while a step slower than in his prime -- was apparently healthy and up to the task of what has been described as a grueling show.

"He was just like a kid in the candy store because he was seeing his vision come alive," said Dorian Holley, the vocal coach for Jackson's band, about the last rehearsal.

"He was just full of jokes, full of life," Holley said. He added that Jackson was due to be back at rehearsals again at 4:30 p.m. on the day of his death.

On Thursday, Phillips' promotion company, AEG Live, released a 1½-minute rehearsal clip that was shot two nights before Jackson's death.

In that clip, Jackson barreled through the song "They Don't Care About Us." As a guitarist played a riff, he danced next to her and then led eight backup dancers in a choreographed march, reminiscent of his breakthrough music video "Thriller."

The clip -- shot at the Staples Center arena in Los Angeles, California, on June 23 -- ends with a voice off stage saying, "Hold for applause, hold for applause ... fade out."

Two days later, Jackson was dead.

Phillips said a doctor, hired by the tour's insurance carrier, examined Jackson before AEG proceeded with the rehearsals -- and gave the singer the green light to continue.

"He examined Michael for about five hours at his house and I think they went somewhere for some other tests," Phillips said. "We are obviously not privy to the patient-doctor relationship with that information, but the insurance broker told us that he passed with flying colors."

The production pace in those final weeks was ferocious, some of the attendees said.

Jackson's manager, Frank DiLeo, told a radio interviewer that he discussed tweaking the strenuous two-hour format of the shows.

"We were going to do one of two things," DiLeo told KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last week. "We were either going to do so much in the beginning, take a half-hour break, then come back and do the second half of the shows. Or we were going to cut it down to 90 minutes."

The exacting rehearsals may have been taking a toll on Jackson, his doctor's lawyer has said.

"Michael Jackson didn't eat very much," said Edward Chernoff, the lawyer for Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray. "He really didn't drink very much. He didn't hydrate very well. When he rehearsed, it was very strenuous exercise."

As authorities await toxicology reports to determine how Jackson died, fans around the world lamented the loss of a great performer whose ability to dazzle seemed intact, if inhibited, in the short video clip.

"He still moves better at 50 than I could at 15," said Stephanie Siek, a graduate student in Frankfurt, Germany. "But he also seems to be holding back in a way he never did in his older videos or other footage I've seen. I think it would have been a great show, but I think that a lot of people would have been disappointed, because he was so iconic in his prime. That's a very, very hard standard to live up to."

Michael Jackson Funeral Tickets

July 2, 2009 - More information about Michael Jackson's funeral and memorial service has been released. According to media reports, Michael Jackson's funeral is scheduled for 10 A.M. on Tuesday, July 7 at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, California. AEG Live, which owns the basketball arena and the nearby Nokia Theater, plans to use both facilities for the event.

Michael Jackson's PR firm says that 11,000 free tickets to the King of Pop's memorial service will be made available to the public. Fans wishing to attend Michael Jackson’s memorial service will have to register for free tickets. Details on how to register for tickets for the Michael Jackson memorial service at the Staples Center will be announced at a press briefing Friday.

Ken Sunshine, a Jackson family spokesperson, told reporters on Tuesday that a public memorial for Michael Jackson will not be held at the King of Pop's beloved Neverland Ranch, as was previously reported.

Michael Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, said that there are no plans to bury Michael Jackson at Neverland Ranch. According to E! News, Michael Jackson's body is being held at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuaries in Los Angeles, California, where it is expected he will be buried at a private family ceremony said to be taking place on either Sunday or Tuesday.

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Debbie Rowe to Fight for Custody

Posted Jul 2nd 2009 2:10PM by TMZ Staff

Debbie Rowe will fight for custody of Paris and Michael Jr., the children born during her marriage to Michael Jackson -- this, according to NBC 4 in Los Angeles.

According to the NBC 4 website, Rowe said during a 90-minute phone conversation, "I want my children."

Rowe says she will seek a restraining order to keep Joe Jackson away from the children.

Rowe also says she'll submit to a DNA test to prove she's the biological mother

VIDEO: Michael Jackson's death increases demand for Michael Jackson's music and all related products

"This has never happened in the history of the Billboard charts...An album that is not a current release, is going to out sell the top selling current release. And not only that, three different albums for Michael Jackson are going to out sell the top selling current release."-Bill Werde, Billboard Magazine

Michael Jackson memorial to be Tuesday at Staples Center

By Alan Duke and Saeed Ahmed
CNN

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's memorial service will take place Tuesday morning in the Staples Center, the 20,000-seat coliseum in downtown Los Angeles where Jackson rehearsed his show the night before he died, according to a person who has been briefed by a representative of the family.

No other details about the service, set to begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday, have been revealed.

The news comes amid the frenzy of information -- some conflicting -- that has followed the death of Jackson.

Thursday, CNN learned the family trust created by Jackson to receive all of his assets includes his mother, his children and a list of charities, according to a person with direct knowledge to the contents of the trust.

Katherine Jackson's 40 percent share would go to Michael Jackson's three children after her death, the source said.

The children -- ages 7, 11 and 12 -- will also share 40 percent of the estate's assets and the remaining 20 percent will benefits charities designated by the executors of the will, the source said.

Wednesday, a federal law enforcement official said Wednesday night that the Drug Enforcement Administration had joined Jackson's death investigation, once again fanning speculation that drugs may have been involved in the pop icon's passing.

Earlier in the day, the Jackson family said they would not hold a public or private viewing of his body at Neverland Ranch, as had been reported.

And though Jackson's will, made public Wednesday, placed his entire estate in a family trust, the document that described the trust was not filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

"He was such an enigma in life, why would we expect him to be anything different in death?" said Antoni Devon, a Jackson fan who huddled with other music lovers at a makeshift memorial for the singer outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

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VIDEO: Inside the Last Will of Michael Jackson

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VIDEO: Inside Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson's Personal Sanctuary

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VIDEO: Jermaine Jackson Today Show interview at Neverland Ranch

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Jermaine Jackson,"I wish it were me...I was his backbone, someone to be there for him. I was Aaron, he was sort of like Moses. Things he couldn't say, I would say..."

VIDEO: No Jackson Memorial at Neverland Ranch