Michale Jackson's CDs Sold Out Yesterday!

Sulaiman Ahmad Junid, 26, a staff of Rock Corner record shop at Mid Valley in Kuala Lumpur putting a note on the wall that all the Michael Jackson CDs and VCDs had been sold out.

Show promoter Tan Sri Syed Yusof Tun Syed Nasir, who was instrumental in bringing Michael Jackson here for a two-night concert in 1996, said the King of Pop was “weird but in a friendly way”.

The iconic pop star was never the freak that the foreign media painted him out to be, he said.

“His behaviour was childlike. For instance, he liked to knock on the hotel room doors of his friends and then run away like a kid.

“He was full of love and very generous. During his visit to KL, I got to know him well and realised he was a gentle and talented person. I sympathised with him for the negative media reports.”

Jackson was also a nocturnal creature.

“His mind was hyper active at night,” said Syed Yusof. “That was the time he would write his songs or discuss business. I personally spent many late hours discussing business with him.”

They had planned to build a theme park here, but the project did not take off due to the economic situation then.

When Jackson was staying at Syed Yusof’s Concorde Hotel here during his concert, the singer would ring up his Malaysian friend in the middle of the night, saying he couldn’t sleep.

“I had to call in a doctor to get him to sleep,” Syed Yusof recollected. “He didn’t like to pop pills. So I asked the doctor to give him a jab.

“I first met Michael in Las Vegas (in 1995),” said Syed Yusof. “I stayed in his hotel room. He then took me on a tour of Neverland and his recording studio in New York. He was a good host, not to mention a good-hearted person. He had a lot of love in him, especially for children.”

The last time that he heard from Jackson was through his older brother, Jermaine, who is also a close friend of Syed Yusof’s.

“I met Jermaine two weeks ago and asked about Michael. Jermaine said his brother was fine.”

Syed Yusof has renamed the swanky room that his celebrity friend had stayed in Concorde KL as the “Michael Jackson suite”.

Located on the 18th floor, the room is full of photographs and collectibles of the superstar. Syed Yusof has also put Jackson’s doodles on the wall.

“Aside from music, Michael loved to doodle.

“Michael wanted to be remembered as the greatest entertainer in the world. And I think he achieved that. What’s really disappointing is that I was planning to go to London for his concert on July 8,” said Syed Yusof.

Stephen Yap, who was promotions manager with Sony Music (M) in 1996 when Jackson was here said: “There wasn’t the usual ‘diva’ fanfare surrounding him. Even with his bodyguards present, he was pleasant to us. In fact, we even had tea with him. He wasn’t one of those stars who was just waiting for his social commitments to be over and done with. He really cared about the things around him.”

Cynthia Chen, project director for Jojo Events, said: “The concert was the biggest and most expensive production for a solo artiste I have worked on. He seemed like a nice but shy person. Do you know that the Concorde Hotel was closed for bookings the whole time he was here? And we completely refurnished the presidential suite for him.”

Michael Roche, regional director of Lushington Entertainments, the promoter responsible for bringing Jackson to this region in 1996, said: “I remember at the Merdeka Stadium concerts, there were a few restrictions that we were meant to adhere to. And we told Michael to try and refrain from doing his famous crotch-grabbing routine. He politely assured us he wouldn’t. And as he hit the stage, that’s exactly what he did, sending the audience wild with excitement.

“He had this mischievous streak in him. When he checked in at the Concorde Hotel, he felt it was very cold and said he wanted heaters, even though it was 30-odd degrees outside. We had to scramble and try to sort that out for him, and that was the element of fun about him ... he was always delightful and charming about it all.”

Apparently, Jackson was not one of those stars who liked to stay cooped up in their hotel room. He went out on the town and took in some sights while in Kuala Lumpur, said his Malaysian pals.

Source

Michael Jackson - King of Pop - DIES Age 50 in Los Angeles

Paramedics found him in a coma at his Bel-Air home today and rushed him to UCLA Medical Center. He was in L.A. rehearsing for a series of concerts in London in July. LAPD has opened an inquiry.

Pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead today after paramedics found him in a coma at his Bel-Air mansion, city and law enforcement sources told The Times.

Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Steve Ruda told The Times that paramedics responded to a 911 call from the home. When they arrived, Jackson was not breathing. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda said.

Hundreds of reporters gathered at the hospital awaiting word on his condition. The sources, who spoke on the condition that they not be named, said family members rushed to Jackson's bedside, where he was in a deep coma.

The circumstances of Jackson's death remain unclear. Law enforcement sources said that Los Angeles Police Department robbery-homicide detectives have opened an investigation into the death, though they stressed there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. The detectives plan to interview relatives, friends and Jackson's doctors to try to figure out what happened. The L.A. County coroner's office will determine a cause of death.

Paramedics were called to a home on the 100 block of Carolwood Drive off Sunset Boulevard. Jackson rented the Bel-Air home -- described as a French chateau built in 2002 with seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 12 fireplaces and a theater -- for $100,000 a month.

The home is about a six-minute drive from UCLA Medical Center.

Jackson has three children -- sons Prince Michael 7, and Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., 12, and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11.

The news comes as Jackson, 50, was attempting a comeback after years of tabloid headlines, most notably his trial and acquittal on child molestation charges.

In May, The Times reported that Jackson was living in a Bel-Air mansion and rehearsing for a series of 50 sold-out shows in London's O2 Arena. Jackson had won the backing of two billionaires to get the so-called King of Pop back on stage.

The concerts had been scheduled to kick off July 13.

Johnny Caswell, a principal at Centerstaging, the Burbank soundstage where Jackson rehearsed for his London concerts, watched many of the run-throughs and said he was "absolutely shocked" by the performer's death.

Jackson, he said, was "very frail" but approached the rehearsals with boundless energy.

"He was working hard. Putting four days a week in here. Six hour a day. Working hard. Dancing," Caswell said. "We're in shock over here."

The performer moved from the Burbank facility to the Forum at the beginning of June, Caswell said.

His backers envisioned the London shows as an audition for a career rebirth that could ultimately encompass a three-year world tour, a new album, movies, a Graceland-like museum, musical revues in Las Vegas and Macau, and even a Thriller casino.

Such a rebound could wipe out Jackson's massive debt, estimated at $400 million.

Jackson needed a comeback to reverse the damage done by years of excessive spending and little work. He has not toured since 1997 or released a new album since 2001, but he has continued to live like a megastar.

To finance his opulent lifestyle, he borrowed heavily against his three main assets: his Neverland Ranch, his music catalog and a second catalog that includes the music of the Beatles that he co-owns with Sony Corp. By the time of his 2005 criminal trial, he was nearly $300 million in debt and, according to testimony, spending $30 million more annually than he was taking in.

Compounding his money difficulties were a revolving door of litigious advisors and hangers-on. Jackson has run through 11 managers since 1990, according to Frank DiLeo, his manager and friend of three decades.

Times staff writers Richard Winton, Chris Lee Carla Hall, Ari B. Bloomekatz, Anna Gorman and Nicole Santa Cruz contributed to this report.

Source

Megan Fox: Stop Comparing Me to Angelina Jolie!

Most stars would be happy to be compared to Angelina Jolie. Megan Fox isn't one of them.

"It's a lack of creativity on the media's part," the "Transformers" star says in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly (on newsstands June 12). "Because I have tattoos and dark hair and I was in an action movie? That's as far as the similarities extend."

Adds Fox, "I'm not the next anyone."

The 23-year-old actress -- who says she was joking when she once said she was afraid of the "Changeling" star -- admits that she has no plans to get to know Jolie.

"She always seems otherworldly in her power and her confidence," Fox says. "I'm sure she has no idea who I am. But if I were her, I'd be like, 'Who [...] is this little bulls--- brat who was in 'Transformers' that's going to be the next me?' I don't want to meet her. I'd be embarrassed."

Fox even interjects when asked if she wanted to follow in Jolie's footsteps of starting out as a sex symbol before taking on serious roles.

"Angelina Jolie was always a Method actress," she says. "She'd been nominated for Golden Globes before she ever did 'Tomb Raider'."

Still, the star -- who admits "I'm clearly not ugly" -- isn't bothered by the fact that she's seen as a sex symbol.

"I don't know why someone would complain about that," she says. "That just means that the bar has been set pretty low. People don't expect me to do anything that's worth watching. So I can only be an overachiever. I think all women in Hollywood are known as sex symbols. That's what our purpose is in this business. You're merchandised, you're a product. You're sold and it's based on sex. But that's okay. I think women should be empowered by that, not degraded."

In fact, she doesn't regret how "Transformers" made her "this new girl" in the industry.

"I happened to be such an outrageous personality that people wanted to start writing about me because it was deemed controversial," she says. "I think if I had been a typical Hollywood actress and I said all the right things and I had been a publicity android, it wouldn't have escalated to this level."

Fox, who appears in this summer's blockbuster "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," doesn't want to still be making robot movies five years from now, but when asked what the worst-case scenario would be, she says, "That I'd be on 'The Hills'."

SOURCE

10 cool things about the iPhone 3G S

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that Apple has announced its latest iPhone -- the iPhone 3G S.

The third iPhone to be released since the first was launched in the U.S. in 2007, Apple claims the iPhone 3G S is faster and more powerful than the current iPhone 3G. Although it retains an identical form factor and design, the iPhone 3G S has some nifty new features. Here are 10 of the best:

1. It's faster

Apple launched the iPhone 3G S by announcing it has a faster processor, more memory and "snappier performance". Although the iPhone 3G is no slouch, it can be a little sluggish when opening and closing applications. If Apple's demo videos are anything to go by, the iPhone 3G S will be a much zippier smartphone.

2. It has more memory

Apple will sell two models of the iPhone 3G S: 16GB and 32GB. There original iPhone came with 4GB, 8GB or 16GB of storage.

3. Video recording

Wow! A smartphone in 2009 that can record video? No way! Apple critics will point to the fact that the iPhone 3G can't record video as an example of a phone that lacks some basic features, but for potential iPhone owners the addition of video recording is a real plus.

4. Improved camera

The iPhone 3G S has a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus, compared with the iPhone 3G's 2-megapixel, non-autofocus camera. It still lacks a flash, but the increased megapixel count should slightly improve photos and tapping an area on the screen to focus on is a cool feature that should make mobile photography easier.

5. You can talk to it

The iPhone 3G S introduces what Apple calls Voice Control, a voice recognition feature that allows you to make a call and play music by speaking. Voice Control can find any entry in your contacts list, and users simply have to say a name or phone number to make a call. For music, you can ask what song is playing and hear the iPhone 3G S answer, tell it to play your favourite album, or play similar tracks to the current one.

6. It has a built-in compass

A built-in digital compass is another new feature of the iPhone 3G S. We aren't sure exactly how often anyone would use this as a standalone app, but when combined with Google Maps, the compass will rotate maps to always match the direction you're facing. Now that is pretty cool.

7. Internet tethering

The iPhone 3G S can now be used as a modem, connecting to a Mac or PC via USB or Bluetooth. Although AT&T in the US won't be supporting this feature, Optus is one Australian telco that has confirmed it will be. Telstra and Vodafone are yet to announce whether they will offer tethering capability.

8. Accessibility features

Apple has included a number of features that help people with disabilities use the iPhone 3G S. These include Apple's VoiceOver function, which reads aloud what is on the screen, a zoom function that magnifies up to five times, and a white on black display option that provides increased contrast.

9. Nike+ iPod integration

Previously only available for selected iPod nano models, Apple's Nike + iPod is a fitness system that involves a Nike shoe communicating wirelessly with an iPod. The iPhone 3G S will be compatible with the system, which displays real time walking or running statistics.

10. New headphones

The iPhone 3G S will include Apple's remote headphones in the sales package. The new headphones have a multi-button remote and volume control keys, as well as a microphone to handle voice calls.

Source

Megan Fox's Dress Causes Chaos

Fact: 98% of males have at least a dim awareness of Megan Fox's existence. After her appearance at the Seoul premiere of "Transformers 2," the final 2% may now be on board as well.




Fox, the heir apparent to Angelina Jolie as the universe's supreme sex symbol, walked the red carpet in a sheer black dress that has the Web (especially drooling dudes) in a tizzy. As soon as word hit that Fox had outdone the gown she wore to the Tokyo premiere (a very leggy purple number), searches soared on "megan fox black dress" and "megan fox seoul premiere."

The Huffington Post hosts a nice photo of the saucy starlet strutting her stuff, and blogs including Just Jared and Celebrity Gossip covered the premiere with the knowledge that Fox's frock could become the stuff of red-carpet legend.

Not surprisingly, lookups on Ms. Fox are dominated by the fellas. Three out of every four queries on the gorgeous thespian come from males. Aside from the intense interest in her dress, we continue to see lookups on her tattoos (Fox has several and may get more), desktop wallpaper, and whether or not she's dating her male equivalent Robert Pattinson.

Wait, what?

Though just rumors, speculation that the "Transformers" goddess and "Twilight" superhunk are an item is running high, according to NY Daily News. For what it's worth, Fox apparently dismissed the claims. And for 98% of men across the country and around the world, that denial must have made their day.

Watch the Transfomers Trailer below

SOURCE

Adam Lambert (Glambert) Album Out in Fall

"American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert has told Rolling Stone magazine he is gay, answering a question that followed the singer for months since he gained millions of fans on the No. 1 U.S. TV talent show.

"I don't think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I'm gay," Lambert told the music magazine in excerpts from an interview released Tuesday as it was announced that he had secured a record contract with his debut album due out in fall.

"I'm proud of my sexuality," he said. "I embrace it. It's just another part of me."

The issue with Lambert on the cover hits newsstands this Friday, with the full interview inside.

During his "American Idol" run Lambert was known for his falsetto singing, outlandish costumes, eyeliner and fingernail polish. He was nicknamed "Glambert" and Entertainment Weekly magazine called him "the most exciting 'American Idol' contestant in years."

When he lost in May's finale to the more buttoned-down Kris Allen, some fan websites and the media buzzed with speculation that being gay cost him votes from viewers who pick a winner.

Lambert, who was widely considered the front-runner going into the finale, had never publicly said he was gay. In March, when photos appeared on the Internet of him kissing another man and dressed in drag, he said only: "I have nothing to hide. I am who I am."

His sexuality became an issue widely covered in the media because "Idol," seen by an average of about 26 million viewers a week in 2009, had never crowned an openly gay winner.

The runner-up in 2003, Clay Aiken, hid his sexuality for years after his run on the show, coming out as gay in 2008.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a group that advocates for homosexual rights, said it hopes Lambert's "decision to live openly and honestly inspires gay people and opens the hearts and minds of his fans."

On Tuesday, producer 19 Recordings said it had signed Lambert to a record contract and that his debut album will likely be released in the fall through RCA Records.

The announcement came a day after 19 Recordings said it had signed Allen to a record deal, a guaranteed result of his first-place finish on "American Idol." 19 Recordings is run by Simon Fuller, executive producer of "American Idol."

Lambert, 27, grew up in San Diego, California, and starred in musical theater before trying out for "Idol" last year.

In the Rolling Stone interview, he said he had a "psychedelic experience" at an annual festival held in the Nevada desert called Burning Man, and that experience convinced him to try out for "American Idol."

"I realized that we all have our own power, and that whatever I wanted to do, I had to make happen," Lambert told Rolling Stone.

Lambert also revealed a crush on Allen, who was his roommate for much of the two singers' run on "American Idol."

"He's the one guy that I found attractive in the whole group on the show: nice, nonchalant, pretty and totally my type -- except that he has a wife," Lambert joked.

"American Idol" is broadcast by the Fox network, a unit of News Corp. Past winners, including Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, have enjoyed Grammy-winning careers, but stardom has also touched runners-up such as Chris Daughtry.

SOURCE

Adam Lambert Finally Confirms: "I'm Gay"

Adam Lambert finally confirms his sexuality in the new issue of Rolling Stone (on stands tomorrow).

"I don't think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I'm gay," the American Idol runner-up says.

Look back at the Season 8 Idol's finale most unforgettable moments.

"I'm proud of my sexuality," continues the rocker, who was photographed holding hands with interior designer Drake LaBry earlier this month. "I embrace it. It's just another part of me."

Check out photos of star couples who can't get enough of each other.

But Lambert, 27, from San Diego -- who performed Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" on the Idol finale -- says he's not the poster boy for gay rights.

"I'm trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader," he tells RS contributor Vanessa Grigoriadis.

VIDEO: Adam Lambert talking to Rolling Stone about his cover shoot.

Lambert admits that he was nervous about coming out while Idol was still on the air because contestants are under a media embargo, and he wanted to do it on his "own terms." (He also says producers were open to him handling it however he wanted to.)

"I was worried that [coming out] would be so sensationalized that it would overshadow what I was there to do, which was sing," Lambert tells the mag. "I'm an entertainer, and who I am and what I do in my personal life is a separate thing. it shouldn't matter. Except it does. It's really confusing."

Find out what an Idol stylist has to say about Lambert's look.

Lambert credits the FOX reality show with helping him gain self confidence.

"I finally checked into my self-worth for the first time in my life, and the fact that it coincided with Idol is so sweet," he says. "I mean, I still have moments where I think, 'Oh, my skin is terrible, and I'm a little fat -- I should really go to the gym more.' But for the most part, when I look in the mirror now, I finally see somebody who can do something cool."

See before and after pics of Idol's weight winners (and losers).

For more details on which Idol Lambert is attracted to, how he came out to his family, and what was going through his head when those photos of him in drag hit the web mid-season, pick up the newest issue of Rolling Stone, on stands Wednesday.