Unseen Jackson film valued at RM25m goes unsold

Jackson performs “Dangerous” during a taping of “American Bandstand’s 50th... A Celebration” in Pasadena, California, April 20, 2002.


Previously unseen footage of Michael Jackson’s 1993 “Dangerous” tour, which had been expected to fetch £4-5 million pounds (RM19.8–RM24.7 million), failed to sell at auction in Britain yesterday.

“At this stage it has not sold,” said a spokesman for The Fame Bureau auctioneers, who specialize in pop memorabilia. “We are still talking to people, but online it did not sell.”

He said he was confident a buyer would be found, although “nothing is a certainty.”

The auction house said it had been forced to remove a brief clip of the video from its website before the online auction after Jackson’s record label made a “copyright claim.”

The fact that a successful buyer may not be able to use the film for commercial purposes may have dampened demand given the hefty asking price, but the spokesman played down the copyright dispute.

“I don’t think that was a problem at all,” he said, adding that any serious potential buyer would be fully aware of the issue.

Michael Jackson Would 'Absolutely' Be Alive If Not for Conrad

5 in the Conrad Murray trial, speaks out exclusively to "Good Morning America" about the tense moments inside the jury room. (ABC) Nearly all the 12 jurors

Zsa Zsa Gabor returns to hospital

Gabor and husband Frederic Prinz von Anhalt celebrate his 68th birthday, on June 18, 2011.



Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was rushed to a hospital yesterday for the second time in less than a month after complications arose from her recently replaced feeding tube, her husband said.

‘Her stomach is bleeding and her feeding tube is coming out,” Frederic Prinz von Anhalt told Reuters. “It’s not good.”

The 94-year-old actress was hospitalized just over two weeks ago due to complications with a feeding tube attached to her stomach. The tube was replaced and she returned home.

Gabor has been in and out of hospitals numerous times since July 2010, when she fell out of bed and broke her hip. Last January, doctors amputated a portion of her leg and in February, she was treated for a lung infection.

Dr. Conrad Murray considers testifying about Michael Jackson's death

Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician charged in Michael Jackson's death, says he is still undecided about whether he will take the stand.

Prosecutors ridicule Jackson self-injection scenario

Defence attorney J. Michael Flanagan and Dr. Conrad Murray (right) wait to take their seats after a lunch recess yesterday



An expert defence witness suggested yesterday that Michael Jackson could have risen from his bed, picked up a syringe left by his doctor and given himself a fatal dose of a powerful anaesthetic in 2009.

But the testimony by Dr. Paul White in the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray was ridiculed by prosecutors in an aggressive cross-examination of the key witness for the defence.

As the trial, now in its sixth week, began drawing to a close, Murray told the judge he was still considering testifying in his own defence, despite previous assurances by his lawyers that they did not plan to call him.

Huge crowd descends on Vatican for beatification

A priest uses a bookmark depicting the late Pope John Paul II for his book of the gospels.Pilgrims hold a prayer vigil at the ancient Circus Maximus arena in Rome April 30, 2011
Hundreds of thousands of people converged on St Peter’s Square in one of the biggest crowds ever seen at the Vatican on Sunday to participate in the beatification of Pope John Paul II.

Streams of people some 30 wide moved towards the Vatican area from all directions from before dawn to get a spot for the Mass where Pope Benedict was to move his predecessor a step closer to sainthood.

The crowd of devotees, many carrying national flags and singing songs, was the largest seen in the capital since millions turned out for his funeral six years ago.

Many camped out during the night. The entire Vatican area was sealed off as stewards marshalled the huge crowd in groups of 6,000 at a time towards St Peter’s Square, which was bedecked with posters and photos of the late pope.

Many were from the late pope’s native Poland. Dozens of red and white Polish flags bobbed above the crowd and a cheer went up when a group of Poles released a large banner reading “Thank You, God” held aloft by balloons.

Michael Jackson's estate earns stellar $310million

Even after his death, Michael Jackson's legacy as a pop star hasn't yet waned, as evidenced by the $310million generated for his estate in revenues from album sales, a film, merchandising and other products.

When the Thriller singer died in 2009, he had debts amounting to more than $400million, but court papers filed in the U.S. on Thursday show that his estate's administrators have used $159 million to pay down some of his debt.

'Although there remain unresolved creditor claims, pending litigation and additional challenging business, tax and legal issues, and the estate is not yet in a condition to be closed, the executors have made substantial progress in reducing the estate's debt,' the documents state.

 When Michael Jackson died he had debts amounting to more than $400m, but his estate has since earned $310m from sales of albums and other merchandising

The late Mrs Lee: A meticulous and caring person

Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, will always be remembered for her stoic presence next to her husband.

Besides providing firm support to her family — as a wife, mother and grandmother — she was also a meticulous person who paid close attention to little things. And these included Lee’s shirts, which Kwa ensured were specially tailored.

Since the ‘60s, Kwa used to visit CYC Tailors to get custom-made shirts for her husband.

And the loving wife’s requests were simple — classic cuts in pastel colours — preferably pink, which was her husband’s favourite.

CYC Tailors managing director Fong Loo Fern described Kwa as a gentle and kind person, who never failed to enquire about her family’s welfare.

She said Kwa was also a kind and thoughtful person.

Fong said: “In 2001, when I did a promotion saying that I wanted to build up a collection of old shirts that we had made since the business started in 1935, Madam Kwa brought in three of Lee’s old shirts that were made in 1965.”

And there was one historically important shirt among them.

“That was the shirt he had worn on TV when Singapore went independent, Madam Kwa told me,” said Fong.

Mrs Lee Kuan Yew dies -The last farewell to my wife — Lee Kuan Yew

Ancient peoples developed and ritualised mourning practices to express the shared grief of family and friends, and together show not fear or distaste for death, but respect for the dead one; and to give comfort to the living who will miss the deceased.

I recall the ritual mourning when my maternal grandmother died some 75 years ago. For five nights the family would gather to sing her praises and wail and mourn at her departure, led by a practiced professional mourner.

Such rituals are no longer observed. My family’s sorrow is to be expressed in personal tributes to the matriarch of our family.

In October 2003 when she had her first stroke, we had a strong intimation of our mortality.

My wife and I have been together since 1947 for more than three quarters of our lives. My grief at her passing cannot be expressed in words. But today, when recounting our lives together, I would like to celebrate her life.

US President Barack Obama (right) meets with Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington October 29, 2009

Mrs Lee Kuan Yew dies. PM Singapore's mom dies.

Mrs Lee Kuan Yew, the wife of Singapore’s founding father, died today at 5.40 pm at age 89, the Straits Times reported.

The newspaper quoted a statement from the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office.

According to the Straits Times, the wake will be held at Sri Temasek, official residence of the Prime Minister on Monday and Tuesday.

Visitors can pay their last respects from 10am to 5pm on Monday and Tuesday.

A private funeral will take place on Wednesday at Mandai Crematorium, said the PMO.

In May and June 2008, Mrs Lee (picture) suffered a series of stroke and was bedridden and unable to speak until her recent demise.

Obama breaks down in tears at funeral of 'Godmother' of American civil rights movement Dorothy Height

Overcome: U.S. President Barack Obama wipes away tears during the funeral for the 'Godmother' of the civil rights movement Dorothy Height in Washington today

Respect: Mr Obama watches as Dr Height's coffin is carried into the cathedral

Changing the course of history: Dr Dorothy Height, left, in one of her characteristically colourful outfits, with her comrade-at-arms Rosa Parks

Tears streaming down his cheeks, grief overcame Barack Obama today as he attended the funeral of the woman he called the 'Godmother' of the American civil rights movement.

The U.S. president was weeping openly as he watched the service for Dorothy Height in Washington today.

He delivered the eulogy for Dr Height, whose activisim stretched from the New Deal right up until Mr Obama's election as the first African American president of the United States.
Dr Height died last week at 98 after a long illness. She was a pioneering voice of the civil rights movement who remained active and outspoken well into her 90s.

She often received rousing ovations at events around Washington, where she was easily recognisable in the bright, colourful hats she almost always wore.

Dr Height led the National Council of Negro Women for decades and marched with the Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

Good Samaritan bled to death on New York street as 25 pedestrians ignored him for more than an HOUR .Cruel city to live in.

Ignored: At least 25 people walked past Hugo Tale-Yax as he lay bleeding to death on a New York pavement. He was knifed after intervening to stop a man attacking a woman

One passerby stops and shakes the wounded man, but fails to call the emergency services

CCTV shows a man approaching the woman who he went on to attack

After getting involved, Mr Tale-Yax is knifed in the chest but gives chase. But he then staggers and collapses on the pavement.

Blood oozing from his body, this is the homeless man who more than 20 people ignored for nearly an hour as he lay on a New York street after saving a woman from being mugged.

CCTV footage of Guatemalan immigrant Hugo Tale-Yax, 31, shows pedestrians walking past the stricken man.

Some turn their heads to look, others stop to gawk. One even lifts his body, exposing what appears to be blood on the pavement underneath him, before walking away.
His death has prompted New Yorkers to question whether their city has become more heartless.

'Is anybody human anymore?' asked Raechelle Groce, visiting her grandmother who lives in flat near where Mr Tale-Yax died. 'What's wrong with humanity?'

'I just think that's horrible, whether you're homeless or not. He's a human being; he needs help.'

CCTV footage, before the Guatemalan intervenes, shows a woman walking along the pavement in the Queens district of the city, when a man approaches her from behind.

As she is attacked by the man, Mr Tale-Yax goes to her aid.

Cameras then capture the attacker fleeing, followed seconds later by the victim who stumbles on the pavement and falls.He lies fatally injured, face down, after being stabbed several times in the chest with a knife.

Fans' fury as comedian jokes Croc Hunter Steve Irwin's 'creepy' daughter Bindi 'needs a slap in the face'

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Huge fan base: Bindi, 11, playing around with a crocodile toy on tour in the US.Popular: Bindi is in Washington promoting her new movie with mother Terri and brother Robert.Daddy's girl: Bindi with father Steve Irwin, 'The Crocodile Hunter' and mother Terri.Under fire: comedian Fiona O'Loughlin

Bindi Irwin, the 11-year-old daughter of the late adventurer Steve Irwin, has been described as 'a bit creepy' by a female comedian - to a chorus of outrage.

With a gesture to the audience of a TV music quiz show, Australian Fiona O'Loughlin also suggested that Bindi needed a slap in the face.

Adding to the insults, Miss O'Loughlin then performed an exaggerated impersonation of the child star's voice.
Bindi and her mother Terri have come in for criticism by those who say the youngster has been groomed too quickly for showbusiness and is missing out on the fun that other children enjoy.

The claims have been denied by Mrs Irwin, whose husband died in 2006 when he was stabbed in the heart by a stingray barb off the Queensland coast, and by Bindi herself.

But Bindi, who has starred in her own TV show and sings and dances in Australia and the United States, also has a large fan base and her admirers have pounced on Miss O'Loughlin.
TV viewers swamped the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's switchboard after the show, describing her as 'tasteless', 'un-Australian' and 'a bully'.

Miss O'Loughlin defended her comments, saying she did not know what all the fuss was about.

'It was part of some banter on a comedy panel show,' she said.

'I'm a comedian and comedians make fun of people we know. I've said worse about myself.'

But her outburst stunned other panelists, among them Chris Durling, a former member of Bindi's singing and dancing group Bindi's Crocmen.

He said Bindi was 'gorgeous' and down to earth, adding, 'what you see is what you get'.

It was then that Miss O'Loughlin cut in with: 'Yeah, a freak show'.

Bindi and her mother are in America to promote Bindi's new film, Free Willy 4, and have not commented on the comedian's outburst.

Newspaper readers were quick to add their criticism, one commentator in Sydney's Daily Telegraph describing Miss O'Loughlin as being 'no better than a school yard bully.'

Manslaughter charge 'imminent' against Michael Jackson's doctor

Prosecutors are ready to charge Michael Jackson's doctor with causing the star's death, it was reported last night.

Dr Conrad Murray could be facing prosecution for involuntary manslaughter as soon as today.

The physician has already admitted injecting Jackson with the powerful sedative propofol in the hours before his death and investigators allegedly believe his gross negligence was to blame for the tragedy.
Jackson died of heart attack caused by 'acute propofol intoxication', according to the Los Angeles coroner, who ruled the death was a homicide.

Website TMZ, which first reported Jackson's death last June, last night claimed Los Angeles County district attorney Steve Cooley is ready to go ahead with criminal action against Murray.
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The 50-year-old doctor denies any wrongdoing and his lawyer yesterday said Murray wanted to hand himself in to police if charges are pressed - rather than face a humiliating arrest.

Jackson died after allegedly requesting an array of sedatives from Murray in Los Angeles after returning home following rehearsals for his shows at The O2 in London.

The doctor is thought to be the last person to see the star alive and has been almost the sole focus of police inquiries.

Officers who searched the star's home the day after he died found an array of drugs including valium and propofol, which is normally administered in hospital.


Dr Conrad Murray could be charged with the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson within days

The curse of Diff'rent Strokes: Frail Gary Coleman leaves jail in a wheelchair as the child star is arrested again

Looking frail and pushed in a wheelchair, former child star Gary Coleman was released from Utah County Jail on Monday. The Diff'rent Strokes star was held overnight with a $1,720 bail over an outstanding arrest warrant relating to a domestic violence case.

The former child star had missed a dialysis treatment during his overnight stay. He attends a hospital three days a week due to kidney failure as a child.

Coleman was one of trio of child stars in the Eighties sitcom. Since then, one died of an overdose. One was charged with shooting a drug dealer. Now Gary Coleman has been arrested (again)...


One of them blew his money on cocaine and was arrested for shooting a drug dealer. Another was put on probation after holding up a shop. And the third member of the trio?

Well, he was picked up by police this week following 'a civil disturbance' at his home (previous entries on his CV - which in this case stands for criminal, not curriculum, vitae - include assaulting a woman in the street and allegedly trying to run over a pedestrian in his truck).

So what do you think they have in common. Is it: (a) they were all members of the same notorious gang; (b) they have all been on the FBI's Most Wanted list; or (c) they were all stars of the phenomenally popular Eighties sitcom Diff'rent Strokes?


Unbelievable as it may now seem - certainly to the show's millions of British fans - the last answer is the correct one.

Diff'rent Strokes revolved round a simple premise: the adoption by white, well-meaning millionaire Philip Drummond of two orphaned, streetwise brothers from Harlem, Arnold and Willis Jackson, played by Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges, and their enforced relationship with their new sister, Kimberly Drummond aka Dana Plato.

The show ran for eight seasons between 1978 and 1986, racking up 189 episodes, attracting the kind of ratings enjoyed by Dallas, M*A*S*H and the Dukes Of Hazzard, and turning Coleman into the highest paid actor on TV, pulling in $100,000 each programme.

Who could have imagined back then that we would now be talking about the curse of Diff'rent Strokes?

Drugs, depression, debts - these are just some of the themes that embroiled the three impossibly cute stars after they disappeared from our living rooms.


Even for those making the notoriously treacherous transition from child stardom to adulthood, it is a particularly sad and tragic story, albeit one that has unintentional comic elements.

Let us begin with Gary Coleman, whose rather threatening police mugshot - or as threatening as any man standing 4ft 8in can be - is pictured here. His latest arrest was last night said to be related to an outstanding warrant for a prior incident.

Indeed, it is difficult to believe this is the same Gary Coleman, now 41, as the diminutive rascal who used to utter the catchphrase: 'Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?'

The star, whose growth was stunted by a congenital kidney defect, has been released on bail after police were called to the home in Santaquin, Utah, near Salt Lake City, he shared with his wife Shannon Price, who at 24, is almost half his age - and almost twice his height.

The pair were married in a private mountaintop ceremony in Nevada in August, 2007.

Coleman revealed it was his first marriage, and also the first time he had been intimate with a woman.


'I wasn't saving myself,' he said at the time. 'She just happened to be the one.'

Perhaps. But the relationship has been nothing if not volatile. In July last year, Price was arrested after a domestic violence incident when she trashed her husband's bedroom during a row.

Coleman, in fact, has hardly been out of the headlines in the U.S. - mostly for the wrong reasons - since Diff'rent Stokes came to an end.

He lost most of his fortune in a protracted legal battle with his adoptive parents, who had control of his wealth until he was 18. By the end, Coleman was left with just $200,000.

After menial jobs, including working as a security guard, he was forced to sell off his personal items; among them the bowling shoes he wore in Diff'rent Strokes, which went for $100.

In 1999, he filed for bankruptcy. The previous year, he received a suspended sentence for assault after he punched a female fan who had asked for his autograph.

'She [the female fan] was getting scary,' Coleman said in court. 'The hair on the back of my neck was beginning to stand on end. I'm 4ft 8in, 86lb of nothing. I was getting scared, and she was getting ugly.'


Apart from receiving a 90- day suspended sentence and a $1,580 fine, Coleman was also ordered to attend anger-management classes. Whether or not counselling had the desired effect is questionable, however.

In 2008, Coleman and his wife faced a personal injury lawsuit following an incident at a bowling alley.

A member of the public claimed in legal papers that Coleman's wife snatched his mobile after he attempted to take her husband's picture, while Coleman tried to hit him in his pick-up truck. The case was eventually settled out of court.

There are at least two other things worthy of mention. The first was his decision to run for the governorship of California in 2003, eventually coming up, er, short, against the eventual winner, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The other: an ill-fated decision to take part in the film Midgets v Mascots, depicting a series of games between short people and five sports mascots. But Coleman was unhappy with the result: 'I don't like it when small people are made fun of,' he fumed.

His on-screen brother, of course, was making his own headlines. We know that Bridges, now 44, battled cocaine addiction for several years in his 20s.

In 1988, he was arrested and tried for the attempted murder of Kenneth Tex Clay, a Los Angeles drug dealer, who, prosecutors argued, had been shot by Bridges while he was 'high'.

Bridges pleaded not guilty to the charges, and was represented by the high-profile defence attorney Johnnie Cochrane, who successfully portrayed Bridges as someone who had been exploited by the entertainment industry, and was now being unfairly framed. Bridges was acquitted of all charges by a jury.

But in 1993, he was involved in an altercation with a tenant in his house after a disagreement about unpaid rent. The tenant attacked Bridges with a sword, who retaliated by stabbing him in the chest with a kitchen knife. The prosecution dropped the charges, concluding he had acted in self-defence.

Now, claiming to be clean from drugs and sober, Bridges has become a Christian and speaks to young people about the dangers of drugs.

Despite this descent into drug use and violence, of the three stars, it was Dana Plato who did most to destroy her wholesome image.





Child star: Dana Plato died in 1999 after overdosing on painkillers and tranquillisers



Troubled trio: Dana Plato, Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as the child stars of Diff'rent Strokes. All 3 are arrested for various crimes.Dana died of OD.



Frail: Gary Coleman is pushed out of Utah County Jail after an overnight stay for an outstanding arrest warrrant




Arrests: Gary Coleman (L) in his police mugshot at the weekend, and Todd Bridges in court in 1993









Trial: Gary Coleman is escorted from Inglewood Court by his bodyguards after testifying at his trial in 1999 after being accused of misdemeanor battery









Court: Dana Plato appears in Las Vegas District Court in 1991 charged with robbing a video store at gunpoint

Martin Luther King Jr Day.A tribute.

The Martin Luther King celebration includes two days of activities, beginning with the annual Interfaith March for Peace today at 1 p.m.

The Wheeling Area Martin Luther King Celebration committee has two days of events planned for the observance of Martin Luther King Day. Events will be held today and tomorrow.

Events kick off at 1 p.m. today with the Interfaith March for Peace along National Road along Bethany Pike, ending at the Wheeling Jesuit Chapel.

This year, the march begins at the Temple Shalom on Bethany Pike. Escorting the marchers will be the Laughlin Chapel Young Lion Group. These young men will be wearing memorial sweatshirts honoring Bishop Donald Pitts, a longtime supporter of Martin Luther King Day activities and former member of the committee who passed away last spring.

An interfaith prayer service in the Wheeling Jesuit Chapel of Mary and Joseph concludes the March. All guests are invited to enjoy a lunch of soul food in Wheeling Jesuit's Benedum Room following the prayer service.

The cost of the meal is $3.

At 4 p.m., a service organized by the Black Clergy Alliance will be held.

This service will feature Reverend Albert Anderson of Macedonia Baptist Church. The service is taking place at the Bethlehem Apostolic Temple, located at 330 Main Street in North Wheeling.

Other events will be held tomorrow beginning at 9 a.m. starting with a children's breakfast held at West Virginia Northern Community College's Education Center.

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