music stars lined up for jackson memorial

music stars lined up for jackson memorial

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Some of the biggest names in pop music, from singers Mariah Carey and Stevie Wonder to Motown records founder Berry Gordy, will take part in Michael Jackson's memorial on Tuesday, the family said.

In the first official details of the public memorial in the Staples Center arena in downtown Los Angeles, Jackson's family said singers Usher and Lionel Richie, civil rights leader Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, and basketball stars Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant would also be among the participants.

The statement from the family said the list was preliminary, subject to change and that there would be no further information on the program. It was not clear whether singers like Carey and Wonder would perform at the event, which is expected to last two hours.

Lawyers for Jackson's ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, said she had decided against attending because "her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction." Rowe has not decided whether to challenge the family for custody of Jackson's three children.

Actress Elizabeth Taylor, one of Jackson's closest friends, will also be absent. Taylor said in a Twitter message on Monday that she had been asked to speak but "I cannot be part of the public whoopla. And I cannot guarantee that I would be coherent to say a word. I just don't believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others," she wrote.

While some 18,000 people will attend the memorial, police expect hundreds of thousands of fans to converge on the area. And officials estimate that beefed up public security and cleaning could cost the cash-strapped city up to $2.5 million.

About 1.6 million people registered to be among the 8,750 to receive two free tickets to the event. Successful fans lined up on Monday to collect their tickets, although some tried to auction their vouchers on websites like eBay and Craigslist.

Both websites were swiftly removing the listings, which carried asking prices of up to $10,000.

The "Thriller" singer, who died June 25 of cardiac arrest at age 50, is expected to be buried in a private family service in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, ahead of the public memorial.

MULTIMILLION DOLLAR ESTATE

As the family and lawyers attempted to sort out Jackson's complex business and personal affairs, a Los Angeles judge on Monday took temporary control of his estate away from the singer's mother, Katherine Jackson, and handed it to two men named as co-executors in the pop star's 2002 will.

Katherine Jackson, 79, had won temporary control of his estate last week before the will surfaced.

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff said "the law compels" that he now put lawyer John Branca and music industry executive John McClain in charge temporarily.

Beckloff set another court hearing for August 3 and said Branca and McClain must keep Katherine Jackson apprised of their dealings.

In the 2002 will, Jackson left his estate, valued at more than $500 million, to a trust benefiting his three children, his mother and charities.

"We are relatively pleased with Judge Beckloff's ruling this morning. He's taken the unusual step of requiring that Ms. Jackson be kept informed of the administration of his estate in this preliminary phase," said Burt Levitch, an attorney for Katherine Jackson.

A separate hearing over the guardianship of Michael Jackson's children has been postponed until July 13. In the meantime, Katherine Jackson has been named temporary guardian of Prince Michael Jackson Jr. 12, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11, and Prince Michael Joseph Jackson, II, 7.

An attorney for Branca and McClain said they would carry out the pop star's wishes and maximize his estate's value.

The value remains an open question. Although the 2002 will valued Michael Jackson's holdings at more than $500 million, the singer was reported to be as much as $500 million in debt when he died unexpectedly.

Jackson owned one-half of Sony-ATV, which controls a music catalog that includes songs from The Beatles and has been valued as high as $1 billion. Jackson also owned a company that controlled the rights to music he recorded during his solo career, and its value is expected to rise over time.

world will watch jackson memorial

world will watch jackson memorial

Talk about event television: The mega-blowout to celebrate Michael Jackson's life and music is expected to draw some of the biggest daytime audiences stateside in decades and through-the-roof ratings in Europe, where the show will air live in primetime.

Whatever the questions surrounding the pop star's life (and death), Tuesday morning's memorial at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles is expected to draw especially high numbers among the younger demos, though it probably won't catapult into the pop pantheon of Charles and Diana's wedding almost 30 years ago or the global jukebox Live Aid concert of 1985.

The royal nuptials purportedly drew a colossal 750 million viewers to their TV sets; Live Aid attracted about 400 million.

As for more recent comparisons, the numbers could be in the same ballpark as the viewership for the inauguration of Barack Obama, which also unspooled in morning hours on multiple networks and attracted about 40 million U.S. viewers.

In Europe, the small-screen ratings performance should be particularly powerful.

"It's perfectly timed for us," BSkyB executive producer Tim Gallagher said. "We'll be beaming back a pre- and post-memorial analysis show as well as the main attraction, and we'll be airing across Europe as well as in the U.K. in high definition."

Britain's BBC, Germany's RTL, France's TF1, Australia's Nine and Japan's NHK will also field teams covering the memorial. Jackson was at least as popular abroad as he was in the U.S.

In Brazil, too, the coverage of the Jackson saga has been wall-to-wall, with lead broadcaster Globo reporting blockbuster ratings and planning blanket coverage Tuesday.

Fans and media from around the world have flown in to LAX to swell the local contingent likely to converge on the arena this morning, roadblocks be damned. Already on Monday afternoon there was a long line of fans waiting to sign the huge posters of the singer in the cordoned-off area around Staples.

"This is the kind of event on TV that just about everyone will tune in for, at least for a part of it, in order to be a part of it," one producer already positioned at Staples told THR. He said his company's preparations were similar to those made for a big soccer match or big awards show.

However, organizers have told broadcasters down at Staples that there will be no VIP red carpet line and that dignitaries and celebs will be spirited in and out of the building with no chance for interviews.

ABC has apparently commandeered the entire balcony of the Nokia Theatre adjacent to Staples for its coverage, while positions on special high-risers near the arena's entrance were reportedly going for $10,000 a pop to assorted well-heeled broadcasters.

Among the stars signed on to entertain those inside are Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Kobe Bryant, Smokey Robinson, Brooke Shields, Jennifer Hudson, Lionel Richie, Usher and John Mayer.

Spontaneous street parties are likely to pop up among the estimated 500,000 or so outside who also want to celebrate the life of the pop star.

Most of the major broadcast networks will cover the memorial live, as will the cable news nets and MTV, VH1, BET and TV One. The news networks will stream live coverage online, as will Hulu.

E! plans to cover the service and devote a full day of programming to Jackson. MTV will rebrand the channel "Michael Jackson Television" on Aug. 1, the cable network's 28th birthday.

But it's not just music lovers who will be glued to their screens watching the tributes to Jackson: Money lenders too will be assessing the level of fan fervor for signs of just how lucrative the pop star's estate is and just how widely his image, and his assets, can be exploited.

Almost certainly, revenue from memorabilia and what-not will be healthy enough to offset a half-billion dollars in known debts -- and then some. How much that sum eventually becomes can only be guessed at, but with scalped tickets to the memorial going for $5,000 on eBay and Craigslist, a sketch by Jackson of Mickey Mouse fetching $200,000, downloads of songs dominating the Internet sites and reissues and unreleased recordings all ripe for plucking, it's expected to be humongous.

And, like the Elvis, Marilyn or even Lucille Ball industries, it will go on for decades.

Not that the whole circus surrounding the King of Pop is new to Wall Street: A number of financial firms ponied up millions over the past two decades to help bankroll the singer's lavish lifestyle or kick-start his troubled career.

Now, the Street is in line with other creditors and business partners awaiting word on the state of Jackson's murky financial empire. Colony Capital, Fortress Investments and Barclays Bank poured tens of millions into the singer's coffers, the likes of which was spent on everything from paintings of cherubs by 19th century French artist Adolphe Bouguereau to costumes for Bubbles the chimpanzee.

The cash allowed Jackson, who went on buying binges at malls from Vegas to Dubai, to maintain an over-the-top lifestyle. (Colony, for example, bailed Jackson out of debt a few years ago by taking a majority stake in the Neverland range, and it helped fund the 50-date concert tour that Jackson was rehearsing for when he died June 25.)

"There's always been a nexus between the worlds of celebrity and finance, and it's only grown in recent years," Ian Peck, president of Art Capital Group, told the AP. His firm specializes in making loans to celebrities and rich clients who put up artwork as collateral.

Jackson's lenders seemed to get a kick out of having a big celebrity as a client despite his checkered finances and 2005 child molestation trial, Peck said. The pop star also benefited from the same credit boom that ensnared ordinary Americans and led to the financial meltdown.

"Today, I don't think he'd be able to obtain the same kinds of loans," Peck said.

1.6 million seek tickets to Jackson memorial

Successful applicants will be notified by e-mail. There are 17,500 tickets for the service at Staples Center and a simulcast at the Nokia Theatre.

About 1.6 million people have registered for a chance at 17,500 free tickets to Tuesday's memorial service for Michael Jackson at Staples Center and a nearby simulcast, officials at AEG, owner of the arena, said Saturday.

Registration began at 10 a.m. Friday and ended at 6 p.m. Saturday. Those chosen will be notified by e-mail between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. today. Each of the 8,750 people selected will get an exclusive code and instructions on how to obtain two free tickets Monday.

AEG officials said 11,000 tickets will be for admission to the Staples Center service. The remaining 6,500 will be for the neighboring Nokia Theatre, where the memorial will be simulcast on big screens.

The random selection will be done by computer after the entries are "scrubbed" to eliminate duplicates and those submitted by automatic entry systems. Only people with a valid ticket and an unaltered wristband will be allowed in. No official program for the service has been announced.