“He’ll probably play a couple of shows, then get a doctor’s sick note. Jackson’s not a well man. To do 50 concerts you need real strength, mentally and physically. He couldn’t even read the teleprompter at the press conference.”An in-depth look at Michael Jackson’s physical and financial health. 800,000 tickets have been sold for his upcoming 50-concert stand in London.
British talent show singer Susan Boyle has been sent to a London clinic after coming in second place on Britain’s Got Talent.
Elizabeth Gladys Dean died yesterday at a nursing home in Southampton at the age of 97. Known as Millvina, she was the last surviving passenger on the Titanic, the ocean liner that sank in 1912.She was only nine weeks old at the time, traveling with her parents and brother from Southampton, England to Wichita, Kansas. Her father didn’t survive, but her mother and brother did. Millvina didn’t find out until she was eight years old that she’d been a passenger on the ship.
It’s irresistible:
Released from prison at the end of 2007 after serving 32 years, would-be presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore was interviewed by Matt Lauer on TV this week.Moore was sent to jail for taking a shot at President Gerald Ford in 1975. She says she’s tired of being thought of as “a kook, a monster… an alien.”
In Germany somebody paid $93,800 for a rare postage stamp that shows Audrey Hepburn with a cigarette holder in her mouth.The stamp was printed in 2001 by Germany, but Hepburn’s son objected to the image of her smoking and didn’t give his permission so the stamps were destroyed. Most of them, anyway. They say an employee scampered off with some and used them as regular postage stamps. Since 2004 five of the stamps have been found.You can see the stamp in this exceedingly dull video from the Associated Press:
Miles Davis would have been 83 today, but he died in 1991.To honor the master trumpeter, we looked around and found this video of him playing that wild, ground-breaking piece “Bitches Brew”:
Just before heading to prison for a year (for trying to buy machine guns), rapper T.I. — born as Clifford Harris, Jr. — gave a concert at an Atlanta arena this weekend. There’s news and video about the event here.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mystery stories, was born on this day in 1859.Given how charmingly ancient those stories seem now, it’s surprising to realize that it’s only 150 years since Doyle was born. He died in 1930 — the same year that Neil Armstrong and Clint Eastwood were born.
Actor Zachary Quinto, lately of the new Star Trek movie (he plays Mr. Spock), has this really cool video on his official site.