The Lyric Theatre on London’s iconic Shaftsbury Avenue will be running the musical Thriller from September 9 to October 22, 2010.

See the show and dine at Planet Hollywood with a new deal from Britain’s leading discount voucher specialist, discountvouchers.co.uk, and ticketing specialist lastminute.com. To see this amazing show simply head to the website to buy tickets and benefit from the great discounts through vouchers and voucher codes.

Thriller is a high-octane, spectacular live show in honour of the King of Pop and The Jackson 5. With full support from Sony BMG the show is the first major live theatre interpretation of Jackson’s work, and includes hits such Beat It, Billie Jean, Show You The Way To Go, Can You Feel It,  I Want You Back, I’ll Be There, Rock With You and She’s Out Of My Life. Thriller – Live found its new residency after standing ovations at European concerts, and three highly acclaimed tours of the UK.

The dazzling choreography, sensational dancing and distinctive sound of Michael Jackson has been uniquely captured thanks to award-winning director Gary Lloyd, who has worked with Robbie Williams, Leona Lewis and Will Young to produce imagery that compliments eye-popping multi-media effects. Join the celebration of the 40 year career that saw more than 750 million records sold worldwide, with the album of the show’s title remains the best-selling recording of all time.

Doctor Conrad Murray, the physician who was responsible for the good health of pop super star Michael Jackson, has been charged in a Los Angeles court and now faces up to four years in prison for the accidental death of the performer.

Said to have acted “unlawfully and without malice” in regards to his involvement in the prescription drug death of the  biggest music star in history, Doctor Murray was described for his behaviour in the moments leading to the tragic passing that he had acted “without the caution and circumspection required”, as he injected a powerful sedative in order to induce sleep for the struggling Jackson.

Ed Chernoff, Doctor Murray’s legal representation, announced that his client would plead “not guilty” despite the charge and that he was ready fight the accusation “like hell.”

King of Pop fans present during the hearing jeered at Doctor Murray and brandished banners reading “Justice For Michael” as the accused arrived in court.

Joe and Katherine Jackson, the star’s parents, were in attendance at the court hearing as well as Michael’s siblings Tito, Jermaine and LaToya.

Meanwhile, Jackson’s family has claimed the singer had been a victim of a murder plot.

Hours after Doctor Murray’s hearing, Jackson’s father Joe made the controversial claim on the hugely popular American chat show Larry King Live.

Joe Jackson told host Larry King: ” I don’t like those charges. He (Murray) got off too easy in court. Justice, to me, would be the murder charge.”

According to Jackson father, Doctor Murray is a simple scapegoat, adding that other people were involved.

Micheal’s sister, La Toya, echoed the sentiments of her father said via a statement that: “Michael was murdered and although he died at the hands of Conrad Murray, I believe that Dr Murray was a part of a much larger plan.”

Joe Jackson claimed several people gained form the death of his son.

Jackson family sources said Michael Jackson’s children are set for a Grammy appearance on Saturday.

The two eldest children of late superstar Michael Jackson are scheduled to walk on stage this weekend and accept on the behalf of their father a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

This event would mark the firs public appearance of the two children – twelve-year-old Prince Michael and eleven-year-old Paris — since the memorial service held in honour of their father 12 days after his death of an alleged overdose of medication.

Sources close to the Jackson family have said the pop star’s youngest child, 7-year-old Blanket, was not scheduled for an appearance at the Grammys, but things could change.

There are no plans for the children to perform a song at the glitzy event.

The Recording Academy – the American organization which operates the Grammy Awards – is said to honour the late King of Pop with a Lifetime Achievement Award during the Special Merit Awards ceremony.

The Grammys are scheduled for this coming Saturday night, January 30.

Meanwhile, a California judge has set a hearing date to decide if Joe Jackson, the father of Michael Jackson, is entitled to receive a monthly allowance exceeding $15,000 from the estate of the late superstar.

Judge Mitchell Beckloff, of the Los Angeles Superior Court, said on Thursday he scheduled an evidentiary hearing for the 26th of May in regards to Joe Jackson’s petition.

The relationship between Michael Jackson and his father has been reported as often being strained and difficult.

The star is reported to have purposely omitted his father from his will and trust.

Jackson’s will did take care of his three children, his mother and a string of charities.

According to an anonymous source, it’s expected that Murray will face criminal charges after the results of an investigation into the death of the star performed by the Los Angeles Police Department will present it presented to the city’s District Attorney in a few weeks.

For his defense, Murray is rumoured to have hired a lawyer who has previously worked with Britney Spears and is said to be experienced with cases involving the drug – Propofol — which allegedly precipitated the death of the king of Pop.

Murray is said to have hired the services of J. Michael Flanagan, who, in 2007, defended Spears in a hit and run.

Flanagan claimed to probably be the only lawyer in Los Angeles who has been successful in trial involving Propofol.

Meanwhile, it was revealed yesterday that death certificate of Michael Jackson has been published online.

Published by the News Of The World, the certificate indicates the cause of death first marked was “Deferred”. Subsequently, authorities added the terms of “Acute Propofol intoxication”, “Homicide” as well as “Intravenous injection by another” to the document.

A Jackson family museum is already included in the plans, as well as a 300-room hotel and a performing arts centre. These are all scheduled to go up on some 100 acres of city-owned land in Gary, Indiana, birthplace of the Jackson family, said project promoter Odie Anderson.

Anderson said that everything is still going through planning stages at the moment, although things are moving rapidly and construction is expected to kickoff sometime in 2010.

The project is very likely to be constructed in phases, with the initial facet of the concept being the museum, hotel and arts center, which would be followed by theme park and the golf course.

Promoters have estimated the total project cost at $1 billion and that constructions would be spread through a decade.

To finance the project, Anderson said he was looking for tax incentives from the town of Gary, adding that the majority of the bill would be covered by private donors.

He refused to reveal how much money he managed to raise since October, when Mayor of Gary Rudy Clay unveiled two foundations to raise funds for the project.

Promoters have revealed that they’re tinkering with idea of constructing a replica ot the Jackson family home or to simply bus visitors to and from the real house.

Based on reports by the Associated Press, the files revealed that even if the FBI kept track of the pop singer for more than a decade, there are no important revelations contained in the files about his private life or any real incriminating evidence against him regarding allegations of two child molestation incidents.

The FBI files date between1992 and 2005, and although there are a total of about 600 pages, only 333 were made public because of privacy regulations as well as keeping some investigative techniques secret.

Despite the fact the document doesn’t reveal anything new, one important item emerges as the 1993 case of Frank Paul Jones. At the time, Jones was said to be obsessed with late pop star’s sister Janet Jackson and he was also said to have made death threats to Michael, George H.W. Bush, then president of the United States and now deceased mafia boss John Gotti. Jones even claimed to be the son of Gotti.

The FBI got there hands of written correspondence stemming from Jones. In a letter dated July 6, 1992, he wrote that he had made his mind due to the fact that he was not taken seriously. He continues by saying that he will head towards Washington DC and assassinate George Bush (Senior). He added in the same letter that he would also murder Michael Jackson unless he would agree to pay him (his money).

The move is due to grieving cinema theater owners who believed the quick turnaround between the documentary’s release and the launch of the DVD would negatively impact their ticket sales.

In what now appears to have been a publicity stunt, the music production company had originally promised that “This Is It” would only be screened in theaters across the world for two weeks starting from October 28. The company, pressed by the huge demand for the film, has decided to have that window extended.

Has of this week, the worldwide screenings of the documentary film has generated more than $200 million.

This week’s announcement means the “This Is It” DVD will be available on store shelves only a few days before the Grammy Awards, which is planned to take place on January 31.

Both the DVD and Blu-ray are said to feature a series of mini-documentaries depicting Jackson’s preparations for what was scheduled to have been his comeback gigs.

Some of the short clips feature backup dancers going through grueling auditions. Others show the costuming process for the “This is It” gigs as well as personal memories from director Kenny Ortega about working with the mega star.

The Blu-ray version promises to contain two never-released “Thriller” and “Smooth Criminal” music videos constructed from rehearsal film footage.

In other Jackson related news, it was reported last week that one of the star’s rhinestone-encrusted gloves was heading towards the Chinese gambling resort town of Macau to be displayed at a luxury hotel.

The gaming resort which now owns the glove, Ponte 16, paid 350,000 dollars for the iconic object at an auction in New York.

This particular glove is said to be the first one ever used by the King of Pop during his 1983 “moonwalk” performances.

The sparkling glove became famous in 1983 as the King of Pop wore it when he performed his now celebrated the world over “moonwalk” dance.

Saturday’s New York auction featured in excess of 70 Jackson items.

Ponte 16 deputy chief executive Hoffman Ma won the glove after bidding for the hotel. Including commission, the Macau gambling resort paid a total of 420,000 dollars for the item.

Owned at 50% by gambling tycoon Stanley Ho through his firm, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, the five-star hotel has scheduled to open a gallery in the new year to display the glove as well as nine other objects formerly belonging to Jackson and purchased at the auction.

A former Portuguese colony, Macau was returned to China in 1999 and is the country’s only mainland city where casino gambling is allowed.

The decision to bid on the glove had stemmed from several months of discussions amongst senior executives at Ponte 16.

The luxury hotel is hoping the gallery will evolve into a sort of ‘shrine’ for Michael Jackson fans all over Asia.

A Ponte 16 spokeswoman said the hotel aims at creating a gathering spot for the greatest 20th century performer.

The nine other objects won by the resort included drawings of Charlie Chaplin sketched by Jackson when he was a child, a pair of sequin-encrusted socks and a shirt worn during his Thriller video.

The New York auction house had given a pre-sale estimate of 40,000 to 60,000 dollars for the glove. But five months after the death of the mega star, a buying frenzy has emerged.

The event held at the infamous Hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan’s Times Square saw unprecedented prices.

Jackson owned several of these gloves, which at the time, cost only 30 dollars. At another auction in Australia in September, a similar glove sold for only 49,000 dollars.

But the one purchased by Ponte 16 benefits from a special claim to fame. It’s reported to be the first one used by Jackson during a cult “moonwalk” live concert dance.

Jackson died in June and was given a large tribute at LA’s Staples Center in July, but the September 3 private funeral seems to have been organised urgently.

Court documents from Michael Jackson estate administrators showed that the funeral was threatened to be cancelled unless a payment was made to the funeral home and the Glendale Police Department by September 1.
 
At the time, Jackson’s mother, Katherine, and the rest of the family were warned by lawyers that such a development would cause them grief, public embarrassment and the daunting task of having to organise new funerals for the pop star.

Meanwhile, Jackson’s father has been told by a judge that he may be entitled to monthly allowance, although he is not eligible for any inheritance from his son’s estate.

Mr Jackson was told by the judge that it had been his son’s decision to leave him out of the will and any further court action would prove to be unsuccessful.

According to legal documents, Joe Jackson has been asking  $15,000 (£9,000) a month in order to pay for his expenses including restaurants bills, hotels, and gifts.

In a Los Angeles court, Mr Jackson’s legal representation was informed that he was not mentioned in the star’s will and thus has no chance to inherit anything. But according to Judge Mitchell Beckloff, the family patriarch may initiate a motion which would force his son’s estate to pay him a monthly allowance because Michael had been supporting his father financially.

Amongst Mr Jackson monthly expenses were listed $1,200 (£717) rental fee on his Las Vegas home, $2,500 (£1,494) for restaurants, $3,000 (£1,792) in hotel bills and $1,000 (£598) for entertainment.

Joe Jackson is scheduled to return to court for a hearing over his allowance on December 10.

Michael Jackson died on June 25 in a luxury home renting in Los Angeles. The relationship between the performer and his father was often strained. Michael once said that the sight of his domineering father made him physically ill.

Through legal documents dated of March 25, 2009, Rowe said Jackson had signed an agreement in which Rowe to manage his finances as well as the series of shows scheduled for the O2 in London.

Rowe claimed that this year, because of involvement with Michael Jackson, he had totaled $51,218 in expenses which included hotel fees, car rental fees, restaurant bills and airline tickets.

The legal document also includes the agreement that the King of Pop had allegedly written on and signed.

Meanwhile, Jackson performed well among a list of high earning deceased celebrities, but didn’t finish in first place, despite amassing millions of dollars via the sale of rights to video footage taped during his final rehearsals.

Forbes magazine has put Jackson in third place on the list of dead celebrities, behind celebrated French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and the composer duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Over the last year, the estate of Yves Saint Laurent earned 350 million dollars (£214 million) during the last 12 month, an amount which dwarfs the 90 million dollars (£55 million) earned by  the King of Pop’s estate.

Saint Laurent, who had succumbed to brain cancer in 2008, topped the list thanks largely to an auction of artwork which included paintings by masters such as Mondrian and Matisse.

As for Jackson, the vast majority of his posthumous earning came through the rights of This Is It.

Forbes also estimated that his posthumous income was increased by the sale of about 9 million albums and 5.5 millions digital downloads since last June, when the singer died.

The Forbes list also included Elvis Presley, who came in fourth place with 55 million dollars (£34 million) during the last year.