Michael Jackson's Last Dance Video

Michael Jackson 6/23/09 2 days before his death a rare exclusive clip of Michael Jackson rehearsing at the Los Angeles Staples Center... CNN Exclusive

Michael Jackson London concert Final rehearsal Video

CNN has broadcast a video Michael Jackson in rehearsal at Staples. The video, exclusive to CNN, showed the rehearsal with Jackson singing and dancing on Tuesday, June 23.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:Romantic comedy meets

Romantic comedy meets the wizarding world in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth installment in the hit movie franchise in which hormones, as well as hexes, are on the loose at Hogwarts school.

And with filming on the final two pictures due to wrap up in 2010, the young actors who spent much of their teen years on set and coping with the superstardom their success has brought are finally looking ahead to life after Potter."It was nice to be back and to know that this film is, to me, more of a romantic comedy than ever before and that we would have a chance to focus more on that side of things," said Emma Watson, who plays the feisty bookworm Hermione in the films.

"Sometimes I have to bring myself back with Hermione, because she is so innocent and so naive and she really is very vulnerable in this film," the 19-year-old actress told reporters on Monday at a press conference to publicize the movie."She really does get her heart broken by Ron and Lavender and that whole situation."Director David Yates, who also made the fifth movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," added: "Our cast are just getting that little bit older now and the hormones are starting to fly and for me it marks a real transition point between our cast as children and our cast as adults."

In Half-Blood Prince, out in theatres on July 15, Hogwarts is increasingly vulnerable to attack from Lord Voldemort, wizard Potter's nemesis.Professor Slughorn, played by Jim Broadbent, joins the cast, and Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore places more and more trust in his star pupil Potter, determined to prepare him for his inevitable showdown with Voldemort.Meanwhile, love blossoms, with Harry drawn to Ginny and Ron attracting the attention of Lavender Brown as a heartbroken Hermione looks on jealously.

END IN SIGHT

The films, the first five of which have earned an impressive $4.5 billion at the box office, are based on British author J.K. Rowling's seven-book Harry Potter series, which has sold an estimated 400 million copies worldwide.There will be eight films in all, with the final volume, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," divided into two."We're working at the moment on Deathly Hallows, and I think we're all aware that this great juggernaut is reaching the end of its journey in a way," said Yates, who is also directing Deathly Hallows Parts One and Two.

"We finish shooting next spring and everybody comes to work ... with that knowledge in the back of their mind."According to Hollywood studio Warner Bros., the seventh film is scheduled to hit cinemas in November, 2010 and the eighth in the summer of 2011.

From:www.reuters.com

Canadian actress Smulders, co-star of the U.S

Canadian actress Cobie Smulders, co-star of the U.S. TV series "How I Met Your Mother," is a mother, People.com reports.

People.com said Friday the 27-year-old actress, who plays Robin Scherbatsky on the CBS comedy, gave birth to daughter Shaelyn Cado Killam on May 16.

Smulders and her fiance, actor Taran Killam, announced the actress was pregnant with the couple's first child in November.

Smulders said during a January event the fact her "Mother" co-star Alyson Hannigan was also pregnant meant babies became a significant part of their conversations.

"You really can't help it, because you have babies on the brain, and you can't help but talk about it a lot," she told People magazine at the time. "From creams, doctors, birth methods, dilation ... you talk about everything."

"It's nice because we can just talk about babies all day long, and not be like, 'OK, this person has to be sick of this,' because you know that she's just as excited as I am," Hannigan offered regarding those discussions.From:www.upi.com

Tickets to Jackson's memorial service will be free

Tickets to Jackson's memorial service will be free. They can be obtained by registering at Staplescenter.com. There will be 11,000 tickets for seats inside Staples Center and 6,500 for seats in the adjacent Nokia Theatre, where fans can watch a simulcast. On Saturday night, 8,750 names will be randomly selected to receive two tickets each.

No details about the memorial service itself were released.Jackson was known to have suffered from severe insomnia. In the weeks before his death, Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse who was working with the singer, said Jackson pleaded for Diprivan amid the stress of preparing for a massive series of comeback concerts.Lee said she repeatedly rejected his demands because the drug was unsafe.

Told Friday that Diprivan had been found at Jackson's house, she said, "I did everything I could to warn him against it."

From:abcnews.go.com

Michael Jackson, a publicist for the Jackson family

Staples Center will be the site of a public memorial service on Tuesday for Michael Jackson, a publicist for the Jackson family said Thursday, but it is unclear who will pay for the massive law enforcement deployment necessary for the event.

Ken Sunshine, a Jackson family representative, said the service will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the downtown arena, site of the singer's final rehearsal.Further details will be announced at a news conference Friday morning, including how people may register for the 11,000 tickets that will be distributed to the public. All tickets to the event will be free, according to a news release from Sunshine's firm.

Earlier in the day, Sunshine had asked for the public's patience as the family sorted through details of the service. "There's a lot of sensitivities, and everyone should respect that," Sunshine said.Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, the promoter of the 50 Jackson concerts that had been planned for London, said the ultimate decision about the date and format of a memorial lay with Jackson's mother, Katherine.

But even before plans had been finalized Thursday, city leaders were raising questions about who would pay for the city resources needed to pull off a memorial to the singer. The law enforcement deployment would involve thousands of officers -- more than were present for last month's Lakers victory parade, according to sources familiar with the planning, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

City officials debated whether taxpayers should pay all or part of the $2-million cost of the Lakers' parade from Staples Center to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and various business leaders, mindful that the city was weighing layoffs and furloughs, raised enough money privately to pay that tab.

City officials are unclear on just how large the turnout might be for Jackson's memorial service -- or whether it would spill into nearby L.A. Live or surrounding parking lots.There's no precedent for this," said Councilwoman Jan Perry, who represents downtown and is serving as acting mayor because Villaraigosa is on vacation in Africa and City Council President Eric Garcetti is in Japan.

Councilman Dennis Zine said he was concerned about whether the LAPD would have time to plan for an event of that scale, particularly since many officers will also be working overtime during the Fourth of July weekend.

"You don't have a lot of time to work up a tactical plan and notify the officers," Zine said.

Also Thursday, an attorney for Debbie Rowe, the mother of Michael Jackson's two elder children, said she had not decided whether to seek custody, despite telling a television reporter that was her intention.

Eric George, Rowe's lawyer, did not dispute that Rowe told an NBC-TV Channel 4 reporter by telephone that she wanted custody of Prince Michael Jr., 12, and Paris Michael Katherine, 11, the children she bore when she was married to Jackson.

But her lawyer said it would be a "distortion of the truth" to interpret Rowe's comments to the television reporter as her final decision in the custody case.

He described the custody proceedings as "the most private and the most sensitive of matters as they impact the lives and fates of young children."

As the biological parent, Rowe, 50, would be in line to obtain the children unless a judge determined that would not be in their best interests. Rowe appears to have had little contact with the children over the years, though she does have visitation rights.

Katherine Jackson has temporary custody of the children. A custody hearing scheduled for Monday has been postponed until July 13 at the request of attorneys for Katherine Jackson and Rowe.From:www.latimes.com

Top-earning Australian actress in Hollywood:NICOLE Kidman

NICOLE Kidman has been named as the top-earning Australian actress in Hollywood, after a big lift from the Baz Luhrmann epic Australia.Kidman has been placed eighth -- but was the highest ranked Aussie -- in a list of Tinseltown's top female earners complied by Forbes magazine.

The list is set to further the bitter rivalry between Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston, with Jolie just pipping Aniston as the top female earner.Jolie earned $33.6 million last year, ahead of Aniston, who took home $31.2 million, according to the magazine.Kidman's take-home pay was $15 million, putting her in equal eighth spot with Drew Barrymore.Kidman made much of her income after staring in the Baz Luhrmann epic Australia.She is filming Rabbit Hole in New York.

Fellow Aussie Cate Blanchett was just out of the top 10, coming in at No. 11 after making a cool $10 million in the past year.Blanchett is working on the Ridley Scott adaptation of Robin Hood, as damsel-in-distress Maid Marian.

Third on the list was Meryl Streep, $29.8 million, ahead of Sarah Jessica Parker, Cameron Diaz, Sandra Bullock, Reese Witherspoon, Kidman, Barrymore, Renee Zellweger, Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Halle Berry and Scarlett Johansson, with Kate Winslet rounding out the top 15.
Forbes arrived at the estimated earnings for the 2008-09 financial year by talking to agents, managers, producers and lawyers to determine what the stars received for the movies they are currently shooting, as well as back-end pay earned after a movie hit the theatres.

They also took into account money earned through endorsements.But it's no surprise the women couldn't come close to their male counterparts, with Harrison Ford named as the top-earning actor, making a jaw-dropping $81 million.From:www.news.com.au