Michael Jackson Dead at 50...

Pop icon Michael Jackson dead: TMZ.com website
53 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Pop icon Michael Jackson died Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest, the entertainment website TMZ.com reported.

The website reported that Jackson, 50, suffered a heart attack just after 12:00 pm (1900 GMT) local time and paramedics were unable to revive him.

Jackson's manager Tohme E. Tohme was not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP. Officials at UCLA Medical Center where Jackson was treated also could not be reached for comment.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Devin Gales would not confirm Jackson's identity but said paramedics went to an address corresponding to the star's home at 12:21 pm (1921 GMT) and the person was taken to UCLA Medical Center.

This is from the NY times... they say he is a coma....


June 25, 2009, 5:41 pm
Michael Jackson Hospitalized
By The New York Times
This post is written by Brooks Barnes in Los Angeles and Ben Sisario and Brian Stelter in New York.

Update | 6:11 p.m. LOS ANGELES – An unconscious Michael Jackson was rushed to UCLA Medical Center on Thursday afternoon by paramedics who performed C.P.R., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Early reports indicated cardiac arrest, but a hospital spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment. Mr. Jackson, 50, has been renting a mansion in the Bel Air neighborhood, a short distance from the hospital, and rehearsing for a series of 50 sold-out shows in London.

Joe Jackson told to E! News, an entertainment Web site and cable channel, that the singer’s family was scrambling to determine his condition. “I am in Las Vegas, but yes, people in Los Angeles called me and are with Michael and tell me he was taken to the hospital,” Mr. Jackson told E! News. “His mother is on her way to the hospital now to check in on him.”

Mr. Jackson is scheduled to perform in a series concerts in at the O2 arena London, beginning next month and continuing into 2010. The shows have been widely seen in the music industry as an important potential comeback for him, with the potential to earn him up to $50 million, according to some reports. But there has also been worry and speculation that Mr. Jackson, who is 50, was not physically ready for such an arduous run of concerts, and Mr. Jackson’s postponement of the first of those shows from July 8 to July 12 fueled new rounds of gossip about his health.

A member of the pop group the Jackson 5 as a child, Mr. Jackson was a pint-size musical dynamo. He spent years in talent shows and performing in seedy Midwestern clubs under the aegis of Joe Jackson, his dictatorial and ambitious father. Joe Jackson and Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records, were the singer’s twin mentors during the early career.

Mr. Jackson eventually broke with his father and the Jackson 5, a move toward creative and financial independence marked by his collaborations with Quincy Jones on a trio of albums. The most memorable of those is 1982’s “Thriller,” which eventually racked up sales of 51 million copies globally, according to the Guinness World Records, making it the best-selling album in history.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department told CNN said rescuers were called to Mr. Jackson’s home at 12:21 p.m. Pacific. “When paramedics went on the scene, they treated the patient, then they immediately transported the patient to UCLA,” the spokesman told CNN. Mr. Jackson’s home is located only a few minutes from the hospital center.

Just before 3 p.m. Pacific, the Los Angeles Times reported that Mr. Jackson “is in a coma.” The newspaper attributed the news to one law enforcement source.

bjdksl wrote:wow, first, Ed, then Farrah, now Michael, who's next!
aloooha!

Well we lost Ed McMahon yesterday so that is the 3....

Just heard on ABC news MJ was already dead in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. They couldn't announce it until they received the families blessing, that's why it wasn't announced til later this evening. Been watching that special on ABC about Farah Fawcett... so sad