When I Was Young

I don't find this funny, or amusing even just a bit…

I was really waiting for the reply from the prince, and it has come, with a big bang, worth 105m ringgit worth of a defamation suit against the runaway wife and her mother.

What can I say? A common citizen like me can't even imagine of a half-a-million bucks under my name here on earth… what's with a 'measly' 105m ringgit?

Anyway, the summary of the news story is here.

Now I'm waiting for Aug 2, for the continuation, if not the final, of the Pinot vs Prince story.

AFP - Monday, June 29

A man views a portrait of "King of Pop" Michael Jackson and his chimpanzee "Bubbles" on display in Los Angeles in April. Besides his three children and millions of fans, Michael Jackson has also left behind less likely progeny -- a dancing chimp, four giraffes and other exotic pets.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - - Besides leaving a musical legacy, Michael Jackson orphaned an array of exotic pets with some of them unaccounted for and even his beloved chimpanzee Bubbles depending on donations.

In what was once seen mostly as a harmless eccentricity, Jackson at the height of stardom amassed a private zoo of giraffes, tigers and other foreign animals at Neverland, his sprawling fantasy estate in California.

Nearly all of the animals have been moved to new homes in the past few years as Jackson's personal and financial woes worsened, with animal rights activists saying some have become roadside attractions in uncertain conditions.

Bubbles, once the world's best known ape who slept in the superstar's bedroom and mastered his Moonwalk dance, has lived since 2005 at the Center for Great Apes in Florida, the head of the sanctuary said.

Jackson did not provide financial support for Bubbles and, despite his stated desire, never visited him there, said Patti Ragan, director of the Center for Great Apes.

"To this date, all donations for his care have come from the Center for Great Apes supporters. We depend on donations in order to care for all our animals in need," she said.

An image of Bubbles on the center's website appeals to the public to make donations to care for him and other residents of the sanctuary, designed to provide a natural environment for apes who had been used as performers or pets.

The website, which does not directly mention Bubbles' famous former guardian, described the chimp as having a "broad, handsome face and a lot of charisma."

Ragan estimated it cost 16,000 dollars a year to care for each ape, who usually live to be at least 50 years old.

Jackson rescued Bubbles from a Texas medical laboratory where he was bought by Bob Dunn, a Hollywood animal trainer. Jackson returned Bubbles to Dunn after the singer had children, who risk being injured by a large chimp.

Dunn, contacted by AFP, declined comment, saying he was negotiating a deal to speak publicly about Bubbles. The Florida center said Dunn handed to it Bubbles and all his other apes in 2005 when he exited the business.

Dunn was quoted as telling Britain's News of the World tabloid that Jackson thought of Bubbles as "his first child" and regularly visited while Bubbles was in Dunn's California preserve.

While Bubbles remains high-profile, animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it was hard to track down most of Jackson's former pets.

Lisa Wathne, PETA's specialist in captive exotic animals, voiced particular concern about two of Jackson's orangutans sent to a private owner in Connecticut and reptiles at a roadside zoo in Oklahoma.

She said Jackson's case showed why wild animals should not be kept as pets.

"All too often even people who start with good intentions, as Michael Jackson certainly did, don't have the ability to properly care for these animals," she said.

"And unfortunately in Michael Jackson's case he did apparently run into financial problems that ultimately led to his animals being disbursed to places all over the world. We don't know, frankly, where most of them ended up."

PETA in January 2006 complained to US authorities that animals were being mistreated in Neverland. The authorities inspected the estate's menagerie but found no evidence of abuse or neglect.

Jackson's two tigers, Thriller and Sabu, were taken in at a sanctuary in California run by former actress Tippi Hedren.

The Voices of the Wild Foundation, which runs an animal preserve in Arizona, adopted Jackson's four giraffes along with reptiles and exotic birds. But PETA says the conditions were too cramped for giraffes.

Director Freddie Hancock appealed to Jackson fans to send donations in his memory so that the preserve can adopt more animals.

Hancock had nothing but praise for Jackson, saying he maintained "beautiful facilities" for the animals in Neverland.

"I think he just loved animals. And when you're an individual who loves animals, the animals know that," Hancock said.

From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.

Updated 1 hour, 12 minutes ago

Story Highlights

• NEW: Judge approves guardianship request from Michael Jackson's mother
  
• NEW: Family filed a petition asking that Katherine Jackson handle estate
  
• Jackson has three children: Michael Jr., Paris and Prince Michael II
  
• Autopsy performed Friday; toxicology results will exonerate physician, says attorney
  

From left: Prince Michael Jackson II, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson and Michael Joseph Jackson Jr.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Los Angeles judge granted temporary guardianship of Michael Jackson's three children to Jackson's mother, a court official said.

Judge Mitchell Beckloff issued the order Monday morning, soon after Katherine Jackson filed a petition in Los Angeles Probate Court seeking legal guardianship of the children.

The family also filed a petition asking that Katherine Jackson be named administrator of Michael Jackson's estate and that the children be named his sole beneficiaries.

The filing did not estimate Jackson's estate.

"Given the nature and extent of the descendant's assets, it would be difficult if not impossible to quantify their value at this time, so the calculation of bond would be speculative at best," the petition said.

The guardianship petition said the grandmother should be named guardian because "the minors have no relationship with their biological mother" and they are "currently residing with paternal grandmother."

"They have a long established relationship with paternal grandmother and are comfortable in their care," the petition said.

The two oldest children -- Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., 12, and Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, 11 -- were born to Debbie Rowe, who was briefly married to the singer.

Rowe gave up parental rights to Jackson in 2001, but she changed her mind more than two years later and sought temporary custody of the children. A California appeals court later ruled her rights were improperly terminated, opening the door to a possible custody battle.

There has been no public indication that Rowe is planning to challenge the grandparents for custody of the two children.

The mother of the third child, 7-year-old Prince Michael Jackson II, was never publicly identified. The guardianship petition listed the mother as "none."

Jackson died Thursday afternoon. An autopsy was performed on the entertainer Friday.

Toxicology reports from his body will disprove rumors that the singer's personal physician injected him with powerful painkillers, the attorney for Dr. Conrad Murray said Monday.

"Dr. Murray never prescribed Demerol, never administered Demerol, never saw him -- Michael Jackson -- take Demerol," attorney Edward Chernoff told CNN's "American Morning."

"And that goes as well for OxyContin. I think those are just rumors. When toxicology comes back ... that's going to be all cleared up," Chernoff said.

Murray met voluntarily for several hours with detectives over the weekend, the Los Angeles Police Department said late Saturday.

"We've let them know we're available to them any time they need us, any questions they have," Chernoff said. "We have told them that the medical examiner is free to call us. We'll be available to them. If they have any questions once toxicology comes out. I expect they will have some questions, and we'll be ready to answer them."

Murray found Jackson not breathing in bed when he entered the 50-year-old singer's estate on Thursday, Chernoff said. Jackson did have a slight pulse when Murray found him and tried to resuscitate the singer as he awaited paramedics, a representative with Chernoff's Houston, Texas, law firm said Sunday.

Jackson was rushed to a Los Angeles medical center, where he was pronounced dead.

An autopsy performed by a county medical examiner was inconclusive, although officials said there were no indications of external trauma or foul play. The Los Angeles County coroner's office has said toxicology results are needed before a cause of death can be determined. That could take four to six weeks.

Detectives impounded Murray's car, which was parked at the singer's rented home. Authorities said the vehicle may contain evidence related to Jackson's death, possibly prescription medications. Police have released no information on what they may have found.

Chernoff said there was nothing in Jackson's medical history that Murray was aware of "that would lead him to believe he would go into sudden cardiac arrest or respiratory failure."

"There was no red flag available to Dr. Murray, which led him to believe he would have died the way he did," Chernoff said. "It's still a mystery how he died to Dr. Murray.

"It was Dr. Murray ... as you know, that requested that the family ask for an autopsy, because he needed to know as well as his physician what caused Michael Jackson to stop breathing."

From CNN.com; see the source article here.