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In documents filed in Superior Court, Jackson's parents said they believe their 50-year-old son died without a valid will.
They also made it clear they believe they should take charge of both his debt-ridden but potentially lucrative financial empire and act as permanent caretakers of his three children.
Judge Mitchell Beckloff granted 79-year-old Katherine Jackson temporary guardianship of the children, who range in age from 7 to 12. He did not immediately rule on her requests to take charge of the children's and Jackson's estates.
Beckloff scheduled a hearing for July 6 and another for Aug. 3 to consider those issues and whether Katherine Jackson should be appointed the children's permanent guardian.
The judge later on Monday also granted Katherine Jackson the right to take control of her son's personal property that is now in the hands of an unnamed third party. The ruling does not detail the nature of those items and does not provide control of any money in the estate.
L. Londell McMillan, the family's attorney, said in a statement that the Jacksons are pleased with the results of their Monday filings.
"Mrs. Jackson deserves custody, and the family should have the administration of the brilliance of Mr. Michael Jackson. Mrs. Jackson is a wonderful, loving and strong woman with a special family many of us have admired for years. The personal and legal priorities are focused on first protecting the best interests of Mr. Michael Jackson's children, his family, his memorial services and then preserving his creative and business legacy with the dignity and honor it deserves."
When Jackson died Thursday, he left behind a 12-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter by his ex-wife Deborah Rowe, as well as a 7-year-old son born to a surrogate mother.
The Jackson family said the children — Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (known as Prince Michael), Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince Michael II — are living at the Jackson family compound in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.
"They have a long established relationship with paternal grandmother and are comfortable in her care," the family said in court documents.
Family patriarch Joe Jackson, 79, said at a news conference that the children were enjoying playing with other kids — something they do not normally do.
The documents state that although Rowe is the mother of the two older children, her whereabouts are unknown. The document simply listed "none" for the mother of the youngest child, Prince Michael II.
Supporting Katherine Jackson in her petition bid to administer the estate was Jackson's father, Joe Jackson.
The Jacksons say they have not heard from Rowe since their son's death. Rowe's attorney, Marta Almli, did not respond to an e-mail message seeking comment Monday. She previously said, "Ms. Rowe's only thoughts at this time have been regarding the devastating loss Michael's family has suffered."
Mark Lester, a former British child star who is godfather to Jackson's children, told The Associated Press he believes they belong with Jackson's mother.
"She is a very loving, kind and gracious woman, and she had a very close relationship with Michael and a very good rapport with her grandchildren," Lester said. "I know the kids are fine. They are deeply saddened by what's happened, but they're coping."
Meanwhile, authorities continued to investigate Jackson's death. Officials with the Los Angeles County coroner's office returned to the mansion he was renting at the time of his death and left with two large plastic bags of evidence.
Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said the bags contained medication. He declined to elaborate.
Lawyers for Jackson's cardiologist Dr. Conrad Murray said the physician never prescribed the powerful drugs Demerol or Oxycontin for Jackson and did all he could to revive him when he found the entertainer near death.
Attorney Matt Alford told the AP it took as long as 30 minutes for paramedics to be called after Murray found Jackson with a faint pulse and performed CPR.
The delay was partly because Jackson's room in the rented mansion didn't have a telephone and Murray didn't know Jackson's street address to give to emergency crews, Alford said.
Eventually, Murray found a chef in the house and had him summon a security guard, who called for help while the doctor continued to perform CPR.
Jackson's father told reporters at the family compound that his son's funeral was still in the planning stages.
"It will be some private, but not closed all the way down to the public," he said without elaborating.
He added that his son would not be buried at Neverland Ranch, the sprawling playground he built in the rolling hills of Santa Barbara County then abandoned after going into seclusion following his acquittal on child molestation charges in 2005.
Jackson's father also used the news conference to plug a record company he said he's founding with a business partner.
"We have a lot of good artists pitching to come out," he said.
His son, who had not released a new recording or performed publicly in years, was believed to be hundreds of millions of dollars in debt at the time of his death. However, his finances are complicated and could take years to unravel.
Clearly one of his most valuable assets is his recording catalog, which his father could potentially rerelease through his new record company if the family gains control of his assets. There could also be recordings in Jackson's estate that he had never released.
The AP learned that Jackson had finished an elaborate video production project just two weeks before he died. The five-week project dubbed "Dome Project" could be the final finished video piece overseen by the star.
There's also a financial bonanza to be had in the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalog of which Jackson owned 50 percent. The 750,000-song catalog includes music by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Lady Gaga and the Jonas Brothers, and is estimated to be worth as much as $2 billion.
"Quite frankly, he may be worth more dead than alive," Jerry Reisman, general counsel for the Hit Factory, a recording studio where Jackson produced his best-selling album "Thriller," said recently.
Jackson nearly lost his beloved Neverland, which was once filled with amusement park rides and wild animals, to foreclosure in March. Billionaire real estate investor Thomas Barrack bailed him out at the 11th hour, setting up a joint venture with Jackson that took ownership of the 2,500-acre property.
The ranch's future is uncertain, but three of Jackson's brothers visited the estate with Barrack over the weekend. A spokesman for the holding company that now operates it said it was premature to talk about the ranch's future.
Dr. Conrad Murray, who was at Jackson's side when he died, told police he did not inject the singer with painkillers before his fatal cardiac arrest on Thursday, his lawyer said on Sunday after reports he received a shot of narcotic Demerol.
When asked at Sunday's BET Awards about the care his son received from doctors in his last moments, Jackson's father, Joe, said, "I have a lot of concerns. ... I can't get into that, but I don't like what happened."
He said funeral arrangements for the King of Pop were still being discussed. A family friend said services could take place on Wednesday and the body could be buried at Jackson's famous Neverland Ranch.
Tension over the mysterious death came to the surface at the BET Awards, modified at the last minute as a tribute to Jackson's musical genius. Some stars bristled over coverage of Jackson's downward spiral during the last decade, filled with accusations of child molestation and bizarre behavior.
"He is one of our heroes," said rap artist and music impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs. "As African Americans, we are not going to let everybody beat him up."
Jackson, 50, was weeks away from an anticipated comeback with a series of 50 concerts in London. He rehearsed regularly up to the night before his death.
Concerns about his health had been rampant during his 2005 trial in California on charges of child sex abuse, of which he was acquitted. Last year, he was photographed in Las Vegas in a wheelchair.
'BARELY ATE, DRANK'
Promoter AEG Live said Jackson had passed a four-hour medical exam earlier this year.
Murray -- a cardiologist hired ahead of the concerts and paid by AEG, according to his lawyer -- was surprised to find Jackson unconscious and not breathing in his rented chateau in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood.
"He barely ate, he barely drank. But (there was) nothing which would lead the doctor to believe that he had any possible problems that would cause sudden death," said Edward Chernoff, the attorney who accompanied Murray during three hours of police questioning on Saturday.
Los Angeles police said after questioning Murray that they do not consider him a suspect. Law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times the meeting revealed "no red flag" of criminal activity.
The Jackson family holed up in their L.A. compound making plans for a funeral that could take place on Wednesday, possibly at the Neverland estate in central California, family friend Stacy Brown said.
Brown told Reuters that a family source said Jackson had received an injection of the narcotic painkiller Demerol shortly before paramedics were called to the mansion.
"They have been concerned about his addiction to medicines for years," said Brown, who co-wrote the book "Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask."
"It's been no family secret that they've been trying to get him help for his addiction," Brown said.
The family arranged for a second, private autopsy on Saturday after the Los Angeles coroner said it would need four to six more weeks to determine the exact cause of death.
Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who was with the Jackson family last week, echoed Joe Jackson's doubts about what transpired in his son's final hours.
"There is a concern about what happened the last 12 hours of Michael's life," Jackson told People magazine. "The doctor has shown some bizarre behavior."
Jackson is survived by three children aged 12, 11 and 7, the first two from his ex-wife Debbie Rowe and the last from an unidentified surrogate mother.
Addressing speculation of a custody battle over the children, Joe Jackson said in a statement from the BET red carpet that only he and wife Katherine "have authority for our son and his children."
"I go, 'Oh my God, I've got to lose weight so I can fit into this.' But I also go, 'I haven't been to the gym in a year. Do I want to go to the gym? No.' At some point I will start running again and I will get there," she said. "There's something sexy about a gut. Not a 400-pound beer gut, but a little paunch. I love that."I think this is a crazy plan to get rid of all other thin, sexy actresses. First, get them all feeling good about their bodies. Second, stop them from going to the gym.
First they reputedly flirted at a party. Then, June 18, they definitely had dinner together. So, what is going on between Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Aniston?
That was the question put to The Hangover star on Friday in Paris, where he had accepted an invitation from Louis Vuitton to be their guest at a menswear event. Told there had been talk that he and Aniston had been out together, Cooper replied with a laugh: “Who talked about it? It wasn’t me. It was someone else.”
In a more serious vein, Cooper, 34, said of Aniston (in French, which he speaks fluently from his 1996 exchange-student days): “She’s a friend of mine. Simply, simply, just a friend.”
He further clarified, “In America, its not like it is here. She’s someone who is super, super known. Famous. If someone says ‘hello’ to her, it’s given that he’s fallen in love with her. So, no. No. She’s a very, very interesting woman, but she’s simply a friend.
“We made a film together” – He’s Just Not That Into You – “but we didn’t have any scenes together. I got hired in at the beginning of the casting, and my part was solely with Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Connelley. Which isn’t bad at all.”
Next up for Hollywood’s hot new leading man – whose sequel to The Hangover won’t shoot until 2011 – is a reunion with another “good friend,” Jennifer Garner, in Valentine’s Day. Also starring Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba and Ashton Kutcher, the film begins production in September.
[From People]
Cooper was seen out on another lunch-type date with an unknown woman on June 22, and he’s been linked to Lake Bell after the two were seen looking “cosy” at an event - also last week. Is Cooper playing the field and will he ever be ready to settle down? I’m beginning to think that his date with Aniston wasn’t some kind of PR move, as I suspected after seeing a suspicious profile of him in People Magazine shortly afterwards. He’s a single 34 year-old guy whose Hollywood career is about to take off, of course he’s dating and having fun. At least Aniston is going out with a guy who doesn’t Twitter his every thought and make insinuating remarks to the press. Cooper is trying to remain classy about the whole thing, and I bet the “falling in love” part might come in time if he finds her so interesting. It was telling that he brought the L word up.