Sony Pictures to produce Michael Jackson film - Los Angeles Times
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Remembering John Hughes
‘Breakfast Club’ director John Hughes dies
The Associated Press
© 2009 The Associated Press.
Cool Black's Mad Tribute: Directors like Scorsese, Eastwood, and Spielberg may get all the awards and accolades, but John Hughes in my opinion was just as talented.
The Breakfast Club (1985) ,which he wrote and directed, is without a doubt my favorite John Hughes movie . The story, the dialogue, the actors PERFECT. Even though The Breakfast Club is my favorite and considered a CLASSIC, these other John Hughes movies are also equally classics:
I can't think of any other screenwriter that has had as many CLASSICS as John Hughes. I'm a filmmaker, but screenwriter FIRST. I love excellent dialogue with heart and John Hughes was one of the only writers that could do both. As John Hughes himself said (which he repeats in the video below) Hollywood is always "going for the bucks and not going for the heart".
Hollywood is sorely missing movies with heart these days and now we can't even hope John Hughes will come out of retirement to rescue it. He may be gone, but he has left a legacy of films with heart.
Teen hits also included ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ and ‘Sixteen Candles’
The Associated Press
Thurs., Aug 6, 2009
NEW YORK - Writer-director John Hughes,(pictured left) Hollywood’s youth impresario of the 1980s and ’90s who captured the teen and preteen market with such favorites as “Home Alone,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” died Thursday, a spokeswoman said. He was 59.
Hughes died of a heart attack during a morning walk in Manhattan, Michelle Bega said. He was in New York to visit family.
Jake Bloom, Hughes’ longtime attorney, said he was “deeply saddened and in shock” to learn of the director’s death.
A native of Lansing, Mich., who later moved to suburban Chicago and set much of his work there, Hughes rose from ad writer to comedy writer to silver screen champ with his affectionate and idealized portraits of teens, whether the romantic and sexual insecurity of “Sixteen Candles,” or the J.D. Salinger-esque rebellion against conformity in “The Breakfast Club.”
Hughes’ ensemble comedies helped make stars out of Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and many other young performers. He also scripted the phenomenally popular “Home Alone,” which made little-known Macaulay Culkin a sensation as the 8-year-old accidentally abandoned by his vacationing family, and wrote or directed such hits as “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” and “Uncle Buck.”
“I was a fan of both his work and a fan of him as a person,” Culkin said. “The world has lost not only a quintessential filmmaker whose influence will be felt for generations, but a great and decent man.”
Devin Ratray, best known for playing Culkin’s older brother Buzz McCallister in the “Home Alone” films, said he remained close to Hughes over the years.
“He changed my life forever,” Ratray said. “Nineteen years later, people from all over the world contact me telling me how much ‘Home Alone’ meant to them, their families, and their children.”
Steve Martin played lead character Neal Page in the 1987 hit “Planes, Trains & Automobiles.”
“John Hughes was a great director, but his gift was in screenwriting,” Martin said. “He created deep and complex characters, rich in humanity and humor.”
Other actors who got early breaks from Hughes included John Cusack (“Sixteen Candles”), Judd Nelson (“The Breakfast Club”), Steve Carell (“Curly Sue”) and Lili Taylor (“She’s Having a Baby”).
Actor Matthew Broderick worked with Hughes in 1986 when he played the title character in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
“I am truly shocked and saddened by the news about my old friend John Hughes. He was a wonderful, very talented guy and my heart goes out to his family,” Broderick said.
Ben Stein, who played the monotone economics teacher calling the roll and repeatedly saying “Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?”, said Hughes was a towering talent.
“He made a better connection with young people than anyone in Hollywood had ever made before or since,” Stein said on Fox Business Network. “It’s incredibly sad. He was a wonderful man, a genius, a poet. I don’t think anyone has come close to him as being the poet of the youth of America in the postwar period. He was to them what Shakespeare was to the Elizabethan Age.
“You had a regular guy — just an ordinary guy. If you met him, you would never guess he was a big Hollywood power.”
As Hughes advanced into middle age, his commercial touch faded and, in Salinger style, he increasingly withdrew from public life. His last directing credit was in 1991, for “Curly Sue,” and he wrote just a handful of scripts over the past decade. He was rarely interviewed or photographed.
© 2009 The Associated Press.
Cool Black's Mad Tribute: Directors like Scorsese, Eastwood, and Spielberg may get all the awards and accolades, but John Hughes in my opinion was just as talented.
The Breakfast Club (1985) ,which he wrote and directed, is without a doubt my favorite John Hughes movie . The story, the dialogue, the actors PERFECT. Even though The Breakfast Club is my favorite and considered a CLASSIC, these other John Hughes movies are also equally classics:
- Vacation (1983) (written by)
- Weird Science (1985) (written & directed by)
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) (written & directed by)
- Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) (written & directed by)
- Christmas Vacation (1989) (written by)
- Home Alone (1990) (written by)
I can't think of any other screenwriter that has had as many CLASSICS as John Hughes. I'm a filmmaker, but screenwriter FIRST. I love excellent dialogue with heart and John Hughes was one of the only writers that could do both. As John Hughes himself said (which he repeats in the video below) Hollywood is always "going for the bucks and not going for the heart".
Hollywood is sorely missing movies with heart these days and now we can't even hope John Hughes will come out of retirement to rescue it. He may be gone, but he has left a legacy of films with heart.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Lil Wayne: Rapper & HNIC
Music Review Lil WaynePop Phenomenon, and Chairman of His Board
By JON CARAMANICA-New York Times
August 3, 2009
WANTAGH, N.Y. — One of the most difficult aspects of being the boss is controlling the message. Take Lil Wayne. By the time his Young Money Presents: America’s Most Wanted Music Festival tour arrived at the Nikon at Jones Beach theater here on Saturday (pictured left) almost everyone in attendance surely knew that his protégé Drake, the quickest-rising star hip-hop has seen in several years, had the night before fallen onstage in Camden, N.J., and injured himself.
Video and photos of the incident flooded rap blogs, showing Drake slumped on the ground, then being carried off stage while his song “Best I Ever Had” blasted in the background, and Lil Wayne, caught off guard, joked, “I’m going to have to get some extra insurance.”
Just hours after the fall Drake posted an all’s-well message on his Twitter page, but he had been beaten to the punch. By then someone had given his wounded knee its own Twitter account (twitter.com/drakesknee), with a slew of hilarious mock-Drake rhymes: “woke in a daze bright lights feelin weaker/feelin like wayne put oil on my sneakers.” Thirty-six hours after the first tweet it had more than 2,000 followers.
Lil Wayne probably wasn’t amused, though: suddenly he was a salesman without his biggest product to hawk. And on this tour, essentially a roadshow for Lil Wayne to show off himself and the brood of artists signed to his Young Money label, presenting Lil Wayne the macher was as important as seeing Lil Wayne the artist, if not more so. (Also on the bill were the R&B singers Jeremih and Pleasure P and the rappers Soulja Boy and Young Jeezy.)
Early last year, as Lil Wayne was completing his climb from Southern rap star to global pop phenomenon, it wasn’t clear that he was prepared for the transition. Various stripes of erratic behavior seemed primed to undo him.
But the Lil Wayne who appeared on Saturday was a model of reliability and efficiency: a master rapper in control of his art and an executive ensuring his business interests were protected. If anything, this was a show remarkable for its unremarkableness. Lil Wayne once thrilled with the possibility of calamity, but there was no such edge here. He moved swiftly and lucidly through most of the songs from last year’s breakthrough album “Tha Carter III” (Cash Money/Universal) and several older hits. Occasionally there were inspired flourishes: during the raunchy “Mrs. Officer,” Lil Wayne was fake handcuffed and frisked by dancers dressed as S&M cops; and at the outset of the depressive “Shoot Me Down” he set his sunglasses on top of his head, one of the few moments all night you could see his eyes.
When it came time for him to introduce his label signees he did so as if announcing the lineup at a baseball game, giving each artist time to perform one song (except for Nicki Minaj, who got two). Jae Millz was limber, Gudda Gudda monotone and T-Streets discomfitingly raw. Tyga, nearly strangled by his skinny jeans, was spastic. Most exciting were Young Money’s pair of kid rappers, the hot-stepping Lil Chuckee and the eccentric Lil Twist. (Wayne too started young; he has been releasing records since his early teenage years.)
When it came time to address Drake’s absence, Lil Wayne was direct. “We had a technical difficulty yesterday,” he announced. Drake, he said, was headed to surgery the next day: “Y’all keep him in your prayers.”
And when Lil Wayne segued into “3 Peat,” the opening track from “Tha Carter III,” it seemed as if that might be all that was said on the matter. But at the show’s end the entire Young Money crew emerged to perform “Every Girl,” one of the songs that has helped Drake achieve hip-hop ubiquity. After rapping his own verse, Lil Wayne, with a leopard-print bra tossed to him from the crowd slung over his shoulder, tore through Drake’s lines with glee while the crowd out-shouted him: just another businessman protecting his brand.
Cool Black's Mad Definition Link: In case ya don't know what HNIC means, you can read the defintion here
You can see the video of the fall below WARNING EXPLICIT LANGUAGE:
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Q&A With BET's CEO Debra Lee
BET Networks chief on new program, the importance of Michael Jackson and branding BET in the age of Obama
By Claire Atkinson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/29/2009
Inside Viacom, BET Networks is something of a rising star. Fresh off a stellar second quarter, thanks to stratospheric ratings for its BET Awards show, the cable network is busy developing new original programming on its flagship while teeing up a second service and rolling out internationally. Debra L. Lee (pictured above), chairman and CEO of BET Networks, talks with B&C's Claire Atkinson about new original programming, the cultural importance of Michael Jackson, and branding BET in the age of Obama.
Ms. Lee, 54, is Chairman and CEO of BET Holdings, Inc. , a media and entertainment company and a division of Viacom, Inc. She joined BET in 1986 as Vice President and General Counsel. In 1992, she was elected Executive Vice President of Legal Affairs and named publisher of BET's magazine division, in addition to serving as General Counsel. She was placed in charge of strategic business development in 1995. Ms. Lee is a director of WGL Holdings, Inc., Marriott International, Inc. and Revlon, Inc.-Forbes.com
BET's ratings were up 34% in the second quarter of '09. To what do you attribute that rise?
We've made a lot of strategic moves that have contributed to our ratings growth. Loretha Jones joined us last year as the president of original programming, and Barbara Zaneri joined us as our head of programming, scheduling, strategy and acquisitions. Together they have made our programming and scheduling even smarter in a number of ways - from strengthening Tuesday nights, to moving our hit gospel competition series Sunday Best to Sundays, to using our returning franchises to help launch new shows, to programming our dayparts in better ways.
There is more flow to the schedule, and we have made great acquisitions, including The Game. We have also acquired movies including Training Day and The Matrix; we're doing movies three times a week now.
Our ratings growth is a result of our original programming, and we have even more series in the pipeline. We have a nightly talk show with Mo'Nique, starting in October, called The Mo'Nique Show. We also recently added The Wendy Williams Show to our nightly line-up--it airs earlier in the day on Fox. We also have another new show about singer Monica that follows her comeback in the music world. Her show will be called Monica.
We are also partnering with NASCAR on Changing Lanes, which chronicles the search for the sport's next generation of drivers. We're looking at the changing face of NASCAR. It is something we are excited about.
The BET Awards obviously did a lot better this year coming right after the death of Michael Jackson. Tell us about how that came together?
We had 10.65 million viewers tune in (live + same day), which makes the BET Awards the number one show on cable so far this year. The number of viewers who tuned in to see the awards is a testament to Michael Jackson's far-reaching and long-lasting influence and legacy. It was really the first time people could express themselves about Michael, so the emotion really came through.
It also gave us the chance to promote other shows like [reality series] Tiny and Toya. We premiered it after the BET Awards ended at 12:45 a.m., and it became the number one original series in our network history. Coca-Cola sponsored a red room, where we had actor Idris Elba deejaying. [Our advertisers] see the value in having great talent on site.
Generally our BET Awards rate highly. The sponsors and partners for this year's show included Pepsi, Procter & Gamble's Cover Girl and My Black Is Beautiful, Twitter, Kmart, Lincoln, Ford, KFC Pride 360, Yahoo! Music and Grey Goose Vodka. It was the No. 1 telecast in cable television history among African-Americans. Stephen Hill, [president of music programming and specials] oversees the show every year.
How did this year's show come together?
Michael Jackson's death really changed it. Stephen and the team had to change just about everything only two days before, because we, of course, wanted to have the performers do Michael Jackson tributes as best we could in a limited time frame. Michael really created the song book for a generation. There hasn't been another entertainer like him, and I don't think there ever will be another person who comes close to making the impact he had on pop music.
Concert promoter AEG Live is negotiating to sell footage of the last Michael Jackson performance. Is BET interested?
We'd be interested; it's a little expensive, though. You know, one of my favorite memories of Michael was when I had a reception for him at my home. About 250 people came and he was perfectly charming and chatted about the business. He stood on a receiving line and he took pictures with everyone there.
I'm glad I had the chance to meet him. His only request was for bowls of Skittles. I've never seen grown people push each other out of the way to meet someone like they did with Michael.
How has BET's mission evolved? How does President Obama being in the White House help you?
It just so happened that our new brand strategy started the year President Obama was elected to the White House. Our mission is to respect, reflect, elevate and inspire our audience.
President Obama has had such a great effect. Having a black family in the White House increases awareness of black culture, and the number of non-black viewers coming to our network has increased.
A few months ago, President Obama invited me to come in and meet with a group of 12 CEOs to talk about the stimulus package. He said BET should be there talking with the likes of Mattel and Xerox.
BET worked with Procter & Gamble on a short series called My Black is Beautiful. Are you doing any other sponsored programming?
We just premiered a new series called Rising Icons, in partnership with Grey Goose Entertainment, about up-and-coming artists in music like Keri Hilson and Chrisette Michelle. The series takes viewers on an up-close-and-personal journey behind the scenes with the artists, giving viewers a glimpse into their road to stardom and revealing what it takes to be successful in music and entertainment today. We are doing more on the integrated marketing side.
How are you working with Nielsen to make sure that the African American audience is adequately represented?
They have increased the size of the African-American sample to 1,200, which is up from 600. We continue to find ways to make it more realistic and more representative.
How are ad sales proceeding?
They're holding steady and improving. Earlier this year, it was a tough time for everyone, but the third- and fourth-quarter ratings were really positive. National TV sales have held up and ratings are moving in the right direction.
Tell us about what BET is doing in addition to the core channel, and what's happening internationally?
In the fourth quarter of this year, we'll be launching Centric, which is targeted at 25- to 54-year-olds - essentially today's trend-setting, sophisticated African-American and multicultural adults. We're busy with the look and feel right now.
We'll be bringing back the Soul Train Music Awards in November on Centric. The music is going to be more R&B, and we've got two new shows, one about young Black male models called Model City, and one called Keeping Up With the Joneses, which follows Houston high society.
Internationally, we're on Sky and Freesat in the UK in nearly 11 million homes. We launched in the UK in February 2008, and we launched in Africa at the end of last year.
What are BET's achievements beyond the screen?
Just last week, we hosted our annual Summer Camp for Girls, which helps young African-American girls from low- and middle-income families make healthy lifestyle choices. We host it in partnership with General Mills, and more than 100 young girls attended this year.
After Hurricane Katrina we did a talkathon and raised $14 million. In 2008, we also held of a number of grassroots events through our "Be Heard" campaign to encourage people to get involved in the presidential election and vote.
We're always very proud of our pro-social efforts, which include our Emmy Award-winning program about HIV/AIDS and sexual health awareness called Rap-It-Up.
Related post: BET Awards a Ratings Juggernaut Amidst Criticism
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Michael Jackson Autopsy Results Tighten Net
Michael Jackson Autopsy Results Tighten Net Around Dr. Conrad Murray
Authorities Believe Jackson's Personal Doctor Bungled Treatment, Which Resulted in Death
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, VIC WALTER, SARAH NETTER and SHEILA MARIKAR
ABC News
July 28, 2009
It was reportedly a chaotic scene inside the bedroom of Michael Jackson on June 25 -- clothes strewn around the stifling hot room, handwritten notes papering the walls.
The King of Pop, for all intents and purposes, was dead -- killed, ABC News has learned, by a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs that included OxyContin and Demerol.
But according to The Associated Press, investigators believe it was Dr. Conrad Murray (pictured left top) who injected the pop icon around midnight with propofol, the powerful anesthetic authorities believe ultimately killed him.
"This doctor is in serious trouble," criminal defense attorney Roy Black told "Good Morning America" today.
Murray, whose Houston office was raided by local and federal authorities last week, has already been named in court papers as the subject of a manslaughter investigation.
Toxicology reports are due to be released this week, and it seems the net is tightening on Murray, who remains secluded in his Las Vegas home.
"Everyone needs to take a breath and wait for these long-delayed toxicology results," Murray's lawyer, Ed Chernoff, said in a statement released Monday night. "Things tend to shake out when all the facts are made known, and I'm sure that will happen here as well."
But Chernoff has already admitted that Murray didn't call 911 for 30 minutes after he found Jackson unresponsive. And the doctor, who had been hired to monitor Jackson for his planned "This Is It" tour, initially performed CPR while Jackson was lying on a bed, not on a hard surface as is proper protocol.
Black told "Good Morning America" that if Murray is charged it will be up to his defense to prove there was a sound medical reason why he prescribed and administered the off-label use of a drug that is meant for use in the operating room.
"They're going to say there's not legitimate reason to prescribe this drug for use in the home," he said. "It certainly should not be used for insomnia."
An official close to the investigation told The Associated Press that Jackson relied on propofol like an alarm clock, instructing doctors to stop the IV when he wanted to wake up. It's a drug authorities believe he may have been using for two years.
Was Anyone Monitoring Jackson's Vital Signs?
Murray's lawyers have maintained for weeks that the doctor was simply a witness in Jackson's death and had nothing to do with it.
Chernoff has repeatedly said the doctor did not administer any drug that should have killed Jackson. While he has specifically denied prescribing OxyContin and Demerol, he has not made the same assurances about propofol.
Black said that, as Jackson's physician, Murray should have know what other drugs the entertainer was taking and how they could have interacted.
As for the propofol itself, Black said, Murray is "going to have a very tough time proving you can do this at home."
It's unclear if Murray or anyone else was monitoring Jackson's vital signs while he was hooked up to the IV.
On June 29, five days after Jackson's death, Chernoff told ABC News that it was "sometime before noon" when Murray went to check on his patient.
"He noticed that he wasn't breathing, and he went over to him, felt his body, his body was warm, he checked for a pulse, he found one, a very weak pulse and he immediately started applying CPR," Chernoff said then.
TMZ has reported that paramedics found Jackson dead upon arrival with an IV in his arm and three oxygen tanks nearby, yet Murray insisted Jackson be transported to the hospital where he continued to try to revive him even after other doctors had given up.
Michael Jackson's Nurse Refused Him Propofol
Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse and nutritionist who worked for Jackson, said the singer begged her to give him propofol in the days before his death. She refused to help him obtain it.
Lee told ABC News the pop star had often complained of not being able to sleep more than a few hours at a time.
"The problem with you telling me you want to be knocked out," Lee said she told him, is "you might not wake up the next morning. You don't want that."
When investigators searched Murray's Texas office earlier this month, among the items seized were a vial containing 27 tablets of the weight loss drug phentermine, a vial containing a tablet of the muscle relaxant clonazepam, a photocopy picture of Murray, Rolodex cards, public storage receipts, and a receipt for a "Cricket" phone, according to the search warrant.
Other items seized from his storage unit, according to the court records, included two computer hard drives and a "Texas Department of Public Safety controlled substance registration." Authorities also obtained a suspension notice from a Houston hospital.
The search warrants specifically directed officers to "seize and examine all items, including but not limited to, billing records, medication orders, transport receipts, billing receipts, medical records and computerized medical records, for implements and instruments used in the commission of a crime."
The warrants told police they were "commanded to search ... for property or items constituting evidence of the offense of manslaughter that tend to show that Dr. Conrad Murray committed the said criminal offense" and ship any evidence found to officials in California.
Jackson Had Addictions to Propofol, OxyContin, Demerol
In the aftermath of his death, Jackson's addiction to a variety of drugs was revealed, including propofol (trade name Diprivan), the analgesic Demerol and the painkiller OxyContin. Track marks found on his arms support the theory that he was addicted to propofol.
Prescription medications found inside Jackson 's $100,000 per month rental home included ones in his name and ones in other names, including ones that appeared to investigators to be aliases. The medications had been prescribed by multiple doctors.
Methadone, Fentanyl, Percocet, Dilaudid and Vicodin were among the 20 drugs also found in Jackson's rental home.
Medical experts contacted by the ABC News medical unit said that the amount of medications reportedly found in Jackson's rented home was "jaw-dropping" and "amazing."
"That list is enough to put down a swarm of zombies," said Richard Bradley, chief of the Division of EMS and Disaster Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
"The list ... would be typical for an anesthesia cart in an operating room or what you might find in a recovery room, ICU, ED, etc. Definitely not what you'd expect to find in a home," said Joseph Ornato, chair of the department of medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Murray is not the only doctor who has been eyed by law enforcement in the wake of the pop star's death. Law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News earlier this month that a small group of doctors who treated Jackson before his death are being questioned as to their involvement with Jackson's alleged drug use.
On July 15, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said his office was running several doctors' names and several potential aliases through its prescription drug database to aid police investigating Jackson's death.
Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures
Authorities Believe Jackson's Personal Doctor Bungled Treatment, Which Resulted in Death
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, VIC WALTER, SARAH NETTER and SHEILA MARIKAR
ABC News
July 28, 2009
It was reportedly a chaotic scene inside the bedroom of Michael Jackson on June 25 -- clothes strewn around the stifling hot room, handwritten notes papering the walls.
The King of Pop, for all intents and purposes, was dead -- killed, ABC News has learned, by a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs that included OxyContin and Demerol.
But according to The Associated Press, investigators believe it was Dr. Conrad Murray (pictured left top) who injected the pop icon around midnight with propofol, the powerful anesthetic authorities believe ultimately killed him."This doctor is in serious trouble," criminal defense attorney Roy Black told "Good Morning America" today.
Murray, whose Houston office was raided by local and federal authorities last week, has already been named in court papers as the subject of a manslaughter investigation.
Toxicology reports are due to be released this week, and it seems the net is tightening on Murray, who remains secluded in his Las Vegas home.
"Everyone needs to take a breath and wait for these long-delayed toxicology results," Murray's lawyer, Ed Chernoff, said in a statement released Monday night. "Things tend to shake out when all the facts are made known, and I'm sure that will happen here as well."
But Chernoff has already admitted that Murray didn't call 911 for 30 minutes after he found Jackson unresponsive. And the doctor, who had been hired to monitor Jackson for his planned "This Is It" tour, initially performed CPR while Jackson was lying on a bed, not on a hard surface as is proper protocol.
Black told "Good Morning America" that if Murray is charged it will be up to his defense to prove there was a sound medical reason why he prescribed and administered the off-label use of a drug that is meant for use in the operating room.
"They're going to say there's not legitimate reason to prescribe this drug for use in the home," he said. "It certainly should not be used for insomnia."
An official close to the investigation told The Associated Press that Jackson relied on propofol like an alarm clock, instructing doctors to stop the IV when he wanted to wake up. It's a drug authorities believe he may have been using for two years.
Was Anyone Monitoring Jackson's Vital Signs?
Murray's lawyers have maintained for weeks that the doctor was simply a witness in Jackson's death and had nothing to do with it.
Chernoff has repeatedly said the doctor did not administer any drug that should have killed Jackson. While he has specifically denied prescribing OxyContin and Demerol, he has not made the same assurances about propofol.
Black said that, as Jackson's physician, Murray should have know what other drugs the entertainer was taking and how they could have interacted.
As for the propofol itself, Black said, Murray is "going to have a very tough time proving you can do this at home."
It's unclear if Murray or anyone else was monitoring Jackson's vital signs while he was hooked up to the IV.
On June 29, five days after Jackson's death, Chernoff told ABC News that it was "sometime before noon" when Murray went to check on his patient.
"He noticed that he wasn't breathing, and he went over to him, felt his body, his body was warm, he checked for a pulse, he found one, a very weak pulse and he immediately started applying CPR," Chernoff said then.
TMZ has reported that paramedics found Jackson dead upon arrival with an IV in his arm and three oxygen tanks nearby, yet Murray insisted Jackson be transported to the hospital where he continued to try to revive him even after other doctors had given up.
Michael Jackson's Nurse Refused Him Propofol
Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse and nutritionist who worked for Jackson, said the singer begged her to give him propofol in the days before his death. She refused to help him obtain it.
Lee told ABC News the pop star had often complained of not being able to sleep more than a few hours at a time.
"The problem with you telling me you want to be knocked out," Lee said she told him, is "you might not wake up the next morning. You don't want that."
When investigators searched Murray's Texas office earlier this month, among the items seized were a vial containing 27 tablets of the weight loss drug phentermine, a vial containing a tablet of the muscle relaxant clonazepam, a photocopy picture of Murray, Rolodex cards, public storage receipts, and a receipt for a "Cricket" phone, according to the search warrant.
Other items seized from his storage unit, according to the court records, included two computer hard drives and a "Texas Department of Public Safety controlled substance registration." Authorities also obtained a suspension notice from a Houston hospital.
The search warrants specifically directed officers to "seize and examine all items, including but not limited to, billing records, medication orders, transport receipts, billing receipts, medical records and computerized medical records, for implements and instruments used in the commission of a crime."
The warrants told police they were "commanded to search ... for property or items constituting evidence of the offense of manslaughter that tend to show that Dr. Conrad Murray committed the said criminal offense" and ship any evidence found to officials in California.
Jackson Had Addictions to Propofol, OxyContin, Demerol
In the aftermath of his death, Jackson's addiction to a variety of drugs was revealed, including propofol (trade name Diprivan), the analgesic Demerol and the painkiller OxyContin. Track marks found on his arms support the theory that he was addicted to propofol.
Prescription medications found inside Jackson 's $100,000 per month rental home included ones in his name and ones in other names, including ones that appeared to investigators to be aliases. The medications had been prescribed by multiple doctors.
Methadone, Fentanyl, Percocet, Dilaudid and Vicodin were among the 20 drugs also found in Jackson's rental home.
Medical experts contacted by the ABC News medical unit said that the amount of medications reportedly found in Jackson's rented home was "jaw-dropping" and "amazing."
"That list is enough to put down a swarm of zombies," said Richard Bradley, chief of the Division of EMS and Disaster Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
"The list ... would be typical for an anesthesia cart in an operating room or what you might find in a recovery room, ICU, ED, etc. Definitely not what you'd expect to find in a home," said Joseph Ornato, chair of the department of medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Murray is not the only doctor who has been eyed by law enforcement in the wake of the pop star's death. Law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News earlier this month that a small group of doctors who treated Jackson before his death are being questioned as to their involvement with Jackson's alleged drug use.
On July 15, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said his office was running several doctors' names and several potential aliases through its prescription drug database to aid police investigating Jackson's death.
Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures
Friday, July 24, 2009
A Nightmare on Elm Street-remake
Source: Silas Lesnick, SuperheroHype.com
July 24, 2009
Warner Bros. just debuted the trailer for the upcoming re-imagining of A Nightmare on Elm Street, including a full look at Jackie Earle Haley in the Freddy Krueger makeup.
The trailer starts with Freddy (still alive) being chased down a dark street by the mob that winds up killing him. He's shouting that he's innocent, but the mob corners him and burns him alive. As the flames come around him, he tears off his jacket, revealing the iconic sweater.
We hear the "One, two, Freddy's coming for you" song being sung by children and flashes of kids all around a graveyard. One little girl has the claws slashed across her dress.
There's a girl in her room, reaching for something on a shelf and suddenly's Freddy's head is there, staring at her from behind. A number of kids are shown, obviously under the effect of Freddy's dream powers. One seems to be having a seizure on a rooftop and another is trying to burn herself with a car cigarette lighter.
There's a basement, filled with pipes and Freddy moving through the darkness, getting closer and closer to the camera between flashes of victims before the logo comes up.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is set to hit theaters April 30, 2010.
Cool Black's Mad Commentary: I'm a big fan of the previous 'Nightmare' and 'Friday' series. Jason was cool, but Freddy was the man. Mostly because of his smartass mouth. I know people who know me are SHOCKED I'm a fan of a smartass :p.
While the Friday the 13th remake SUCKED, and these same filmmakers are remaking this as well, I'm still looking forward to what they do with it.
July 24, 2009
Warner Bros. just debuted the trailer for the upcoming re-imagining of A Nightmare on Elm Street, including a full look at Jackie Earle Haley in the Freddy Krueger makeup.
The trailer starts with Freddy (still alive) being chased down a dark street by the mob that winds up killing him. He's shouting that he's innocent, but the mob corners him and burns him alive. As the flames come around him, he tears off his jacket, revealing the iconic sweater.
We hear the "One, two, Freddy's coming for you" song being sung by children and flashes of kids all around a graveyard. One little girl has the claws slashed across her dress.
There's a girl in her room, reaching for something on a shelf and suddenly's Freddy's head is there, staring at her from behind. A number of kids are shown, obviously under the effect of Freddy's dream powers. One seems to be having a seizure on a rooftop and another is trying to burn herself with a car cigarette lighter.
There's a basement, filled with pipes and Freddy moving through the darkness, getting closer and closer to the camera between flashes of victims before the logo comes up.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is set to hit theaters April 30, 2010.
Cool Black's Mad Commentary: I'm a big fan of the previous 'Nightmare' and 'Friday' series. Jason was cool, but Freddy was the man. Mostly because of his smartass mouth. I know people who know me are SHOCKED I'm a fan of a smartass :p.
While the Friday the 13th remake SUCKED, and these same filmmakers are remaking this as well, I'm still looking forward to what they do with it.
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