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Photograph by Joel Ryan/AP
The LA Times says that he arrived at UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles in a deep coma after suffering a heart attack. A spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department said, "The call came in because a person was not breathing. When the team arrived, they saw that CPR was already in progress by someone at the home. The person not breathing was transported to UCLA Medical Center and remains there."
Jackson has been preparing for his series of sold-out 50 concerts (held between July 13, 2009 and March 6, 2010) in London. In a March press conference, he said, "I just want to say that these will be my final show performances in London. This will be it. When I say this is it, this will be it."
Update: Music producer Quincy Jones said, "I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news. For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words. Divinity brought our souls together on `The Wiz' and allowed us to do what we were able to throughout the 80s. To this day, the music we created together on `Off the Wall,' `Thriller' and `Bad' is played in every corner of the world and the reason for that is because he had it all -- talent, grace, professionalism and dedication. He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger expressed his condolences, "The world has lost one of the most influential and iconic figures in the music industry. From his performances with the Jackson 5 to the premiere of the 'moonwalk' and 'Thriller,' Michael was a pop phenomenon who never stopped pushing the envelope of creativity. Though there were serious questions about his personal life, Michael was undoubtedly a great entertainer and his popularity spanned generations and the globe. Maria and I join all Californians in expressing our shock and sadness over his death and our hearts go out to the Jackson family, Michael's children and to his fans worldwide."
Jackson's brother Jermaine spoke at a press conference, "My brother, the legendary king of pop Michael Jackson, passed away on Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 2:26 p.m. It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are done." Full remarks here; video below:
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Can we get an update?
Peace out, MJ.
The real MJ, the one we knew and loved, left us 20 years ago.
A wonderful talent gone awry. Too bad he couldn't leave a good-lookin' corpse.
I can only imagine the funeral would be unusual, but hope for some dignity. RIP MJ.
Cocaine is a hell of a drug...
dead
remember when the only weird shit he did was like buy some giraffes or whatever...
dead
All those pills do catch up with you after a while.
but yeah, he really is dead.
but yeah, he really is dead.
EMT to MJ while in ambulance, "We want to be starting something!" Guess that didn't work out.
damn, I am really bummed.
The King is dead. Long live The King.
TMZ seems to be only place reporting him dead right now. (Not to say it isn't true -- cardiac arrest + not breathing = slim chance of survival)
RIP, MJ.
Who?
Two icons have died today. Unlucky June 25?
RIP IZ THE WIZ
Celebrity deaths usually come in 3's. Who's next? My money is on Henry Kissinger.
Ed McMahon?
Oh yeah I forgot about Ed.
How about the guy who invented the vibrating bed?
My money has been on Tara Reid in a drunk driving accident for a while. But this one was a total shock so, Madonna will die from swine flu next.
Oooh! We still have Danny Bonaduce!
Ed, Farrah, Michael
I wish this day would be a holiday from now on!
This story is certainly a "Thriller". But I guess this proves that he isn't "Invincible". I'm not sure "Heaven Can Wait."
Okay, I give up.
Sad. RIP.
Wow, Farrah and MJ in one day. That's depressing.
RIP...
When do the rumors start that he isn't really dead?
Is he really alive?
Maybe he is...
www.ismichaeljacksonalive.com
BBC reporting "unconfirmed" death. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7753036.stm
CNN says he was revived and transferred to UCLA and that they cant report on his condition. But they end the blurb with "He WAS the 7th of 9 children", so he's prob dead.
They prepare these bios/ obits long ahead of time. They probably just ran it and didn't have time to change the tenses.
CNN is saying he's been hospitalized and MSNBC is saying he's in a coma... what's the real story?
LA Times just confirmed it. CNN and MSNBC are scooped.
CNN, the NYT, the LATimes all have him hospitalized and in a coma. You have him dead. I'm not saying that you are wrong, but where are you getting this? Somehow, I have never thought of Gothamist as the scoop type of site, particularly on LA news, still.
What gives?
CNN now reporting he's in a coma. Not dead yet guys.
Zombie?
Nevermind
LATimes has him dead at 3:15pm Pacific Time.
Not zombie?
Yeah, the Thriller video is so many shades of creepy right now that he's actually the undead.
Now they're saying he's dead :( :( :( :(
i would speculate suicide.
either way he can finally REST IN PEACE
I think he overstrain himself for his oncoming tour, perhaps drugs involved.
( In my best falsetto: ) "He died of a broken heart."
"Gothamist is a website about New York."
LOL yeah that!
Between reading NYTimes articles that we could read on our own, and lending Michael Jackson's death more coverage which is badly needs, this blog sometimes seems to beg to be irrelevant.
Blogs are so lame, that's why I read them all the time.
Good riddance to a sexual predator and child abuser.
Amen-those poor children
RIP Michael, Farrah, and Ed...
A very sad day -- and a little shocking with the "rule of three". My bet is that they will find some kind of pill or substance that caused the accident today.
I'm sure the media will milk the deaths for all they are worth.
A very sad day -- and a little shocking with the "rule of three". My bet is that they will find some kind of pill or substance that caused the accident today.
I'm sure the media will milk the deaths for all they are worth.
This is good news. Let the decent into lunacy end already and allow MJ to be championed as the true musical legend he was.
If only the guy that wrote "You Light Up My Life" had been lucky enough to go at 50.
WTF is up with all this speculation about how he may have died?
It was REPORTED last year by the tabloids that he was dying of some rare respiratory condition and needed a lung transplant. Doesn't anyone remember that?
Sorry to say, but it was inevitable the way he was going in his career.
I'm just glad I wasn't his ticket agent.
RIP MJ. Tell 'em that it's human nature.
Thank you for sharing your gift to the world.
this would be relevant to new york because...one of the shows was supposed to be here? otherwise....beat it beat it beat it beat it
A weak reason. The bigger reason is that he is a cultural icon relevant to anyone old enough to remember the 80s.
I remember buying Thriller at The Wiz, now defunct, in Flushing.
I remember buying Thriller at The Wiz, now defunct, in Flushing.
I really hate to be the smart ass observer here, but according to what I've read he was discovered not breathing. Now might I ask how the fuck can you breath when you don't have a real nose?
It may be too early for this, but the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia has made their interest known and would be very appreciative if the Jackson Family could, in their moment of grief, consider the offer.
Nanny. You are the only one other than myself on this forum that knows and appreciates the Mutter Museum.
Unfortunately there are several highly successful (for profit) wax museums that have also thrown some bids out to the family. It's a matter of wait and see at this time.
Throw my name into that group, too--grew up just outside Phila.
Thanks--I now have images of what's left of his face suspended in a glass jar. Ew.
Seriously, RIP, but I prefer to remember the MJ from my childhood--a cute kid with a super personality and a voice to match.
Ripley's in Niagara Falls, Ont. reached out...but you really can't do Ripley's can you?
It's a bit far to drive , but yes I can make the annual trip.
Is that the same Ripley's that has the world's largest ball of string?
Personally I mourn Farah's passing more than the "gloved one."
It's Mütter. Make that at least 3...
Little boys everywhere breathe a sigh of relief.
RIP MJ
Takes the death of the King of Pop for the assholes to come out of the woodwork on Gothamist.
They do that anyway on almost any story. For some, it's so easy to badmouth the newly dead, especially if they never knew him. Forget the fact that Jackson has three children who will now grow up without a father. Vicious sniping is the only thing that matters.
Exactly. It's truly a tragedy.
Agreed! It's a tough crowd in here tonight, especially with the mutter museum comments. That's just ghoulish. I'm hoping that the family has the viewing at the Apollo, so I can pay my respects in person.
Ah yes, let the celebrity hero worship begin. Just because someone is famous doesn't make him or her a good person. I don't wish harm on the guy, but at the same time where's the big tragedy? His musical genius is a thing of the past. It's not like he ever was ever going to contribute anything positive to the world in the future.
If you ever listened to one of his songs or watched one of his videos, and if you had the slightest inclination of enjoying it, then his actions made your life a little richer.
You are 100% right. I felt the same way when his father in law died.
Sorry, but Michael Jackson died sometime during the late 1980s...
RIP, MJ, he always loved the children.
He was a giver that way..........
Listen, I don't want to downplay his death here, but didn't anything happen in Iran today?
Yes indeed: the Basij were out in force once more and just about to crack young Marfak Haloumi's skull when news of Michael Jackson's death crackled over their radios. They briefly went back into the mosque to await further instruction from their bosses at the Ayatollahs Local 646. They then emerged and proceeded to beat young Marfak Haloumi senseless.
They played a Lord of the Rings marathon on Iranian TV in an effort to get protesters to stay home. Seriously.
The Iranian gov't is the biggest winner in this story. The news will cover MJ for at least 48 hours straight and bury the Iranian story while the rulers over there butcher their citizens to get order. By the time the world refocuses on Iran the Ayatollah will have "cleaned" things up.
Then it's agreed. The MJ-Iran Contra Conspiracy is in full swing. This concludes this week's meeting of the Builderberg Group. Please join us again next week for the Obama assassination.
Hmm, may want to tidy your apartment for when the Secret Service knocks on your door.
Yeah, probably not the best two words to attach your name to.
I know..."Builderberg Group"
WTF. You must be insane or just plain crazy. This has nothing to do with the Contras.
Well, it's hard to know exactly what's fact and what is disinformation at this point. I would agree that Contra involvement is unlikely, except for the you fact that you brought it up. So I see we meet again, Rupert Murdock! I must say Dead Himmler is poetic if not the best cover identity.
a "giver" as in the pitcher, and not the catcher...
ima pee on that.
it's sad to say but his death might allow farrah to be laid to rest with some dignity given that all the paparazzi scum will be swarming over him.
next up, all the enablers that worked for him over the years coming out of the woodwork like cockroaches selling their stories.
i hate this fucking society.
I agree. This society can suck sometimes. I can't believe MJ died when he wasn't even that old. I never even thought about picking him. Now this means that Bob just took the lead in our death pool. I only need Elton John or Sting to kick the bucket and I will regain the lead.
I believe that Elvis put a spell on him after he "the gloved one" did a no no on his daughter in 1994.
Too bad he didn't put the same spell on Nicholas Cage.
I dunno, a curse may be the only explanation for his career as of late
Mj never touched her except for the mtv kiss, pr stunt.
I think Mark Sanford's staff poisoned him to distract everyone from the train wreck in South Carolina.
Larry King Live just put out a photo of a comatose Michael Jackson with a breathing bag over his face. Stay classy, Larry King.
People.com (owned by the same corporate overlords as Larry) was already running that photo. SYNERGY!
Elvis died when he was 42. MJ died at 50. Elvis was the king. MJ was a follower.
Elvis must be pissing in his pants and laughing his ass off.
What about Joe "King Carasco"?
Or King Crimson?
The Sun is reporting he may have injected himself with Demerol just before this happened. His breathing got slower and slower until it stopped.
Is there a hot package on the loose?
The SUN? I thought I read some other possibilities might have occurred, but if the SUN said it, it has to be the truth.
Kind of like seeing it on Larry King, Fox 5 News, or reading it in the POST.
The shit show sources might be shoddy about 90% of what they publish, but their celebrity trash is usually dead on.
Who broke the story that he was dead an hour before anyone else confirmed it? The sleaziest operation of them all, TMZ.
The Post naaah
The Daily News in the mid 90's had the story...
Every other day they followed every tiny detail of the strange goings on of
"Wacko Jacko"
Fish need water, vampires need blood. Without a steady supply of young boys, it was only a matter of time.
Breaking news: the second Resurrection has occurred! Michael Jackson has risen from the dead!
ehhh...it's Obama's fault..somehow
Sharpton should be along soon screaming that the white doctors didn't do enough to save Michael.
Imagine his disappointment when he meets St. Peter...
Imagine his disappointment when he meets St. Peter...
His funeral is going to be such a freak parade. Old Liz, Diana Ross, Macualay Culkin, the two coreys, Bubbles, a giraffe, his family...
I hope they televize it. When a Jackson says, "we want privacy" what it really means is "it will be on tv."
He'll probably have some totally freaky over the top service, too, with the mormon tabernacle choir covering Man in the Mirror and he'll probably have his body preserved like Lenin only standing up and decorated with Hawaiian leis or something really unsettling like that.
I believe it's been decided that Procol Harum will be singing "A Whiter Shade of Pale".
And the Harlem Globetrotters will do a half time show just before communion.
Communion? He was a Jehovah's Witness, they don't do communion
They'll be singing "All Along the Watchtower"?
Ha! Good show!
I Love that museum! My grandmother took my brother and I there when we were about 12 and 13. She knew it was EXACTLY what we wanted. I especially love the glass eyeballs featuring awful ocular diseases. Those are really spectacular.
So sad. He really was a genius.
Who's Á La?
Long live Captain Eo!!!
CNN BREAKING NEWS: Autopsy reveals Jackson died of "Acute Pedophilia"
CNN BREAKING NEWS: Autopsy reveals Jackson died of "Acute Pedophilia"
the village voice has got all archived MJ articles up too - pretty cool. lots of good tributes: check out radios on sirius (you have to subscribe but can hear some interview snippets) and goomradio.com (free).