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The president and the potato

Sam Errama — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:09:34 +0000

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer Mon Sep 21, 5:00 PM PDTAdd this one to the presidential collection: the heart-shaped potato.

By the time Barack Obama came on stage to the taping of the “Late Show” on Monday, host David Letterman had offered up 10 reasons why in the world the president had agreed to do it.

Among Letterman’s theories: Obama said yes without thinking about it, or as Letterman put it, “Like Bush did with Iraq.”

But Obama had other ideas. It turns out he was listening when Letterman had bantered with a woman in the audience who brought — yes — a potato in the shape of a heart to the show.

Obama told Letterman: “The main reason I’m here? I want to see that heart-shaped potato.”

The woman tossed the potato to Letterman.

She agreed to let Obama keep it. Said the president: “This is remarkable.”

Obama also had his most irreverent answer yet on the question of whether some of the vitriolic reaction to his health care plan is driven at least partly by racism.

“First of all, I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election,” Obama said to huge laughs from Letterman and the audience.

Responded Letterman: “How long have you been a black man?”

Letterman covered a number of topics with Obama — many of them serious — in a taping that ran about 40 minutes. The show will be broadcast on CBS on Monday evening.

On the economy, Obama offered a sober prediction as the country deals with 9.7 percent unemployment, the worst level since 1983. He said he expects unemployment will be a “big problem” for at least another year. But he also said the economy will rebound even stronger.

As for the war in Afghanistan, Obama said he knows some people want him to bring troops home, and others are calling for him to increase U.S. force levels to combat the insurgency. The top U.S. commander there is warning the war could be lost without more troops.

Obama said he won’t make a decision on sending in more troops, though, until he completes a comprehensive review of the war effort and settles on his next strategy.

“I’m going to be asking some very hard questions,” Obama said.

Obama’s visit made him the first sitting president to appear on Letterman’s program. He had been on Letterman’s show five times before, though, most recently in September 2008.

The White House said it was a good way for him to reach yet another audience as Obama wraps up a blitz of TV appearances, trying mainly to build support for his health care plan.

As president, Obama also went on NBC’s “Tonight” show when it was hosted by Jay Leno.

After the taping, the president returned to his midtown Manhattan hotel and quietly emerged a while later in gym clothes and a baseball cap. His destination: the church across the street for some basketball with his aides.

Tomorrow starts Obama’s main mission in New York: His participation in the United Nations General Assembly.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Kayne West tearful apology to Swift for his actions.

Sam Errama — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:24:17 +0000

Rapper Kanye West appeared on the premiere episode of NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ on Monday night and expressed regret about the fiasco that occurred on Sunday night at MTV’s Video Music Awards.

While country singer Taylor Swift was accepting the award for Best Female Video, West rushed on stage and snatched the microphone out of her hand, saying “I’m sorry, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!” Swift was stunned and the audience was outraged.

West had begun the evening drinking from a bottle of cognac as he made his way down the red carpet to the awards show.

He told Leno he will “take some time off” to thing about how he’s going to “make it through the rest of his life.”

West also said “I immediately knew in this situation that it was wrong. And it wasn’t a spectacle, you know. It was actually someone’s emotions, you know, that I stepped on and it was very, it was just, it was rude, period.”

West’s mother unexpectedly died two years ago during a surgical procedure and Leno asked him what she would have thought of his behavior, almost bringing West to tears.

“…you know, I deal with hurt and, you know, so many, you know, celebrities, they never take the time off, and I’ve never taken the time off to really, you know, I just, music after music and tour after tour on tour, and I’m just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else’s hurt.”

West expressed his wish to apologize personally to Swift, and according to ABC 7 News, he did so after the country singer appeared on the ‘View’ Tuesday morning.

According to the report, Swift has accepted his apology, but would not elaborate on the conversation

Kanye West apologises to Taylor Swift

Sam Errama — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:54:30 +0000

The rap star interrupts the country singer’s acceptance speech for ‘best female video’ award to say Beyonce should have won

By Rachel Helyer Donaldson

FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Rap star Kanye West has apologised to teenage country singer Taylor Swift after he interrupted her acceptance speech at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) for ‘best female video’ to say Beyonce should have won. Swift, who won for her single You Belong With Me, was in the middle of talking about the difficulty country artists face in crossing over to the MTV audience when West leapt on stage and snatched the microphone out of the 19-year-old’s hands.

“I always wondered what it would be like to maybe win one of these someday, but never actually thought it would happen,” Swift was saying, when West interrupted.

“Taylor, I’m really happy for you,” said West, “and I’m gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.” The rapper was referring to Beyonce’s video for Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It). The crowd at New York’s Radio City Music Hall began to boo, and Beyonce was clearly embarrassed.

Swift eventually got the chance to finish her acceptance speech when Beyonce won video of the year and called Swift back onstage saying, “I’d like Taylor to come out and have her moment”. Russell Brand, the flirtatious British comedian who hosted the event, offered Swift a “shoulder to cry on” as he closed the show.

West, who was jeered each time his name was mentioned during the rest of the ceremony, was later ejected from the awards show. He had been spotted drinking at the start of the night, swigging Courvoisier as he made his way up the red carpet.

Last night Kanye West used his blog to issue an apology to Swift and her mother, who had given the rapper a dressing-down backstage. In his signature all-capitals style, West wrote: “”I’M SOOOOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM… I’M IN THE WRONG FOR GOING ON STAGE AND TAKING AWAY FROM HER MOMENT!”

West has ‘lost it’ at previous music events, taking umbrage at losing out on awards at the Grammys, the American Music Awards and a previous VMAs night. This is the first time he has complained on someone else’s behalf.

Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Green Day dominated the awards, winning three ‘moonmen’ each. Madonna opened the show with a Michael Jackson tribute, and Janet Jackson was later joined on stage by her brother’s tour dancers to recreate some of Jacko’s most memorable music videos, including Thriller, Bad and Smooth Criminal.

Kanye West ruined Taylor Swift’s moment.

Sam Errama — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:38:02 +0000

September 13, 2009, (Saawf News) – Taylor Swift set the MTV VMA evening rolling winning the Moonman for best female video, but her big moment was ruined when Kanye West stormed the stage in protest.

The fan voting notwithstanding, West declared that Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time, even as a horrified Beyoncé looked on in utter disbelief.

Not surprisingly, he was vociferously booed by the audience and, not surprisingly again, he gave the audience the finger on the way back to his seat.

If Swift was upset by West’s rude interruption, it wasn’t evident in her subsequent performance of her hit song You Belong With Me.

Considering MTV’s proclivity to rig such seemingly spontaneous but scandalous moments, evident from the Bruno / Eminem stunt at MTV Movie Awards in June, it is moot if there was a cause for Swift to be offended.

Earlier the Country music hottie made jaws drop as she arrived at the event in New York riding a horse-drawn carriage wearing a asymmetrical silver sparkle gown. The glamorous singer joked that her horses’ names are “V” and “MA.”

Shakira and Taylor Lautner presented the award to 19-year-old Swift who competed for the honor against Beyoncé’s Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), Katy Perry (Hot n Cold), Kelly Clarkson (My Life Would Suck Without You), Lady Gaga (Poker Face) and P!nk (So What).

Like Elvis, Jackson was a King who died young

Sam Errama — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:21:22 +0000

Michael Jackson didn’t want to be just a superstar. Like the Beatles, he wanted to be the biggest, the king. He wanted to topple the reigning man with the crown, Elvis.

In life and in death, there was Elvis.

“It’s just so weird. He even married Elvis’ daughter,” said author-music critic Greil Marcus, who wrote at length about Presley in his acclaimed cultural history, “Mystery Train.”

Elvis Presley overdosed — in his bathroom — on prescription drugs in 1977 at 42, his bloated, glazed middle age a cautionary tale to rock stars and other celebrities. Jackson died Thursday at 50, rushed from his Los Angeles home and pronounced dead at the UCLA Medical Center.

The death shocked more than surprised. While endless fame seemed to inflate Elvis like helium, Jackson’s fame seemed to scrub the flesh and wear into his bones until you could almost see him shiver.

Like Elvis, Jackson was once beautiful, outrageous, a revolutionary without politics who shook down the walls between black and white. He had the hits, the style, the ego, the talent. He was the King of Pop and he needed only to fill in the life: He married Elvis’ daughter. He bought the rights to some of Elvis’ songs. Elvis owned Graceland, its name a symbol for a deliverance the singer prayed for until the end of his life. Jackson had Neverland, a fantasy for a child-man for whom money meant the chance to live in a world of his own.

He did, and did not, want to be like Elvis.

In “Moon Walk,” a memoir published in 1988, Jackson insisted Elvis was not important to him growing up and that he was unhappy to learn a song he recorded with his brothers, “Heartbreak Hotel,” shared the name of Presley’s first national hit.

“I swear that was a phrase that came out of my head and I wasn’t thinking of any other song when I wrote it,” he wrote. “The record company printed it on the cover as `This Place Hotel,’ because of the Elvis Presley connection. As important as he was to music, black as well as white, he just wasn’t an influence on me. I guess he was too early for me. Maybe it was timing more than anything else.

“By the time our song had come out, people thought that if I kept living in seclusion the way I was, I might die the way he did. The parallels aren’t there as far as I’m concerned and I was never much for scare tactics. Still, the way Elvis destroyed himself interests me, because I don’t ever want to walk those grounds myself.”

The king of pop is dead

Sam Errama — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:53:34 +0000

Michael Jackson, 1958-2009.

The life of Michael Jackson, so often in the public eye, so picked at by the world’s press, is over. In the hours after he died, the speculation has already begun about whether his heart problem was known, or treatable, or exacerbated by his preparations for the his upcoming performances. But what will he be remembered for? His music, or his life?

In the coming days every aspect of his life will be combed over again, from the childhood star to becoming one of the leaders of the MTV video revolution, making his promotional videos for his songs into miniature films and events in and of themselves. He wrote We Are The World, for goodness sakes. It might not be a very good song, but it was a good thing – he was, for a long while, the biggest star in the world.

Like many people growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, Thriller was the first music video I ever remember watching, from behind a sofa – literally – so scared that I dreamt of his zombie horde for nights afterwards. He was the pop star of pop stars, the person wannabes, well, wanted to be. His were the songs that kids knew all the words to, and his dance routines the ones they faithfully tried to copy – often leading to an unsightly mess of juvenile crotch-grabbing and spinning on the spot.

And later on, the press had turned on his eccentricities, his apparent oxygen-tent sleeping, questions over the gradual lightening of his skin and changing of his facial features until, by the mid-1990s appearances, he looked less like the boy that became famous and more like a young Elizabeth Taylor.

The bizarre stories kept coming, in volume more frequent and shouting far louder than the music he continued to release. The marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, the three children born of surrogates, the baby-dangling from high-up Berlin hotel windows. The songs may still have been strong and soulful, but the man visibly became weaker, ever more reclusive and swaddled from the public gaze.

And then, of course, there was the extremely famous court case in 2005, charged with seven felony counts of child abuse and three of administering an intoxicant to an underage person. He was found innocent of the charges, but the case polarised people in their opinion of him.

Whatever he was, and despite all his troubles he remained popular, the King of Pop for millions of people. He was a complex being, seeking fame and shunning it, he is unarguably, an icon. Michael Jackson fans are fervent and fiercely defensive of their hero – they took the fan out of fanatic and really decided to run with it. As I write this there are shots of people in Los Angeles, running toward the hospital where he died, in their thousands, to mourn – and to say they were there at the end.

Michael Jackson, ‘King of Pop,’ dead at 50

Sam Errama — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:11:39 +0000

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop” who once moonwalked above the music world, died Thursday as he prepared for a comeback bid to vanquish nightmare years of sexual scandal and financial calamity. He was 50.

Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

“It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known,” his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.

Jackson’s death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music’s premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album “Thriller” which included the blockbuster hits “Beat It,” “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.

At the time of his death, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13.

As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson’s heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York’s Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

“No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow,” Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. “It’s like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died.”

The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No. 1 hits were “I Want You Back,” “ABC” and “I’ll Be There.”

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.

“For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words,” said Quincy Jones, who produced “Thriller.” “He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”

Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music’s biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie, and Jackson’s death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.

As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions, and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him “Wacko Jacko.”

“It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It’s as if he was trying to defy gravity,” said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a “disciple of P.T. Barnum” and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was “much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew.”

Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.

In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.

The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.

Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.

Michael Joseph Jackson was born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary. He was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.

The album “Thriller” alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of “Billie Jean,” the grinding Eddie Van Halen solo on “Beat It,” and the hiccups and falsettos on “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.”

The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through “Billie Jean.”

The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.

By then he had cemented his place in pop culture. He got the plum Scarecrow role in the 1978 movie musical “The Wiz,” a pop-R&B version of “The Wizard of Oz,” that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy.

During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson’s scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.

He had strong follow-up albums with 1987’s “Bad” and 1991’s “Dangerous,” but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy’s family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.

Jackson’s expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album “HIStory,” which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson’s music was clearly waning, even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.

Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and they divorced in 1996. Later that year, Jackson married Deborah Rowe, a former nurse for his dermatologist. They had two children together: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.

Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.

Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson’s star power was unmatched. “The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it,” Werde said. “He’s literally the king of pop.”

Jackson’s 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.

“He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit,” he said. “People might have started to think of him again in a different light.”

Michael Jackson is dead

Sam Errama — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:56:02 +0000

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 Jackson 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 of anonymity, 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 that 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. A Los Angeles Fire Department source told The Times that Jackson was in full cardiac arrest when rescue units arrived.

A doctor was in the house performing CPR on Jackson, said the source who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Paramedics were called to a home in 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.

Jackson, 50, died as he 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 had rented the Bel-Air residence and was 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.

His backers envisioned the shows at AEG’s O2 as an audition for a career rebirth that could have ultimately encompassed 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 have wiped out Jackson’s massive debt.

SOURCE: L.A. Times

Tributes paid as Michael Jackson dies of cardiac arrest aged 50

Sam Errama — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:35:56 +0000

POP icon Michael Jackson has died from a suspected cardiac arrest. He was 50 years old.
Jackson, who was due to perform a number of farewell concerts in London later this year, was not breathing when paramedics arrived at his Los Angeles home at 12.26pm local time,
He was given CPR before being taken to hospital, but – according to the LA Times and celebrity news site TMZ – failed to recover and was certified dead by doctors later in the afternoon.
Jackson leaves behind three children: Michael Joseph Jackson Junior, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince Michael Jackson II.
Fans quickly gathered outside the UCLA medical centre in Los Angeles after news had broken to pay their respects to the musician.
Fears were sparked for Jackson’s health last month when four of his This Is It concert dates were pushed back, but organisers insisted the dates were moved due to the sheer magnitude of the spectacle.
The first scheduled show was due to take place on July 8 and was pushed back to July 13. But the other three dates were rescheduled to spring 2010.
At the World Music Awards in London in November 2006 he performed just a few lines from We Are The World.
Jackson last toured 12 years ago when he played 82 shows in 58 cities for the HIStory tour.
He spent time living outside the United States since his 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges.
One of nine children, Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana in 1958 and gave his first public performance aged just five years old. He shot to fame singing alongside his brothers in the Jackson Five, who signed with Motown Records in 1968, then found even greater fame as a solo artist.
His 1982 album Thriller, regarded as one of the all-time great pop records, became the biggest selling album of all time and spent 37 weeks at number 1 in the US charts.
But his life was not without controversy. In 1993 he was accused of sexually molesting a 13-year-old boy at his Neverland ranch, and 12 years later was acquitted of molesting another boy.
He wed Lisa Marie Presley – daughter of Elvis Presley – in 1994 but the marriage lasted only 19 months before they divorced. He married a second time – in 1996, to nurse Debbie Rove – but they too divorced three years later.
In 2002 he caused outrage after dangling the then six-month old baby Prince Michael II off a balcony in Germany, and moved to Dubai in the aftermath of his molestation trial, amid claims of financial problems.
Reaction to the news of Jackson’s death has been swift.
Music producer Quincy Jones paid tribute.
He told MSNBC: “I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news.”
He said Jackson “had it all – talent, grace, professionalism and dedication”.
He added: “I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”
Demi Moore paid tribute on Twitter, writing: “I am greatly saddened for the loss of both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Especially for their children!”
Her husband, Ashton Kutcher, also posted: “RIP. Sending love and light to family and friend but especially his kids.”
He added: “Plea to the press to respect his wishes of maintaining the anonymity of his children. I plea to the public to refuse to consume media that does not respect the anonymity of Michaels children.”
Foreign Secretary David Miliband wrote on Twitter: “Never has one soared so high and yet dived so low. RIP Michael.”
Rev Al Sharpton, a leading US civil rights campaigner and friend of Jackson, told Sky News: “As a friend of Michael’s for the past 35 years, I call on people from around the world to pray for him and his family.”
Close friend Uri Geller told Sky News: “I’m absolutely devastated and shocked. He was a young man terribly fit and basically in good shape.”

MICHAEL JACKSON DIES IN LA HOSPITAL

Sam Errama — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:23:10 +0000

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson, the sensationally gifted “King of Pop” who emerged from childhood superstardom to become the entertainment world’s most influential singer and dancer before his life and career deteriorated in a freakish series of scandals, died Thursday, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. He was 50.

The person said Jackson died in a Los Angeles hospital. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear. Jackson was not breathing when Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics responded to a call at his Los Angeles home about 12:30 p.m., Capt. Steve Ruda told the Los Angeles Times. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda told the newspaper.

His 1982 album “Thriller” — which included the blockbuster hits “Beat It,” “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” — remains the biggest-selling album of all time, with more than 26 million copies.

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves, his high-pitched voice punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove and tight, military-style jacket were trademarks second only to his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.

As years went by, he became an increasingly freakish figure. His skin became lighter and his nose narrower. He surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, often wore a germ mask while traveling and kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions.

In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him. The case took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital as word of his death spread. The emergency entrance at the UCLA Medical Center, which is near Jackson’s rented home, was roped off with police tape.

In New York’s Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

“No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow,” Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend sent to his telephone. “It’s like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died.”