The Jackson family patriarch, Joe Jackson, was released from the hospital Saturday after being treated for bleeding ulcers. Joe, along with wife Catherine, have supported their son through his ongoing trial. Now, Access reveals some of our interview with Joe Jackson that was conducted in June.

“I have to stay cool, stay focused and don’t get nervous and have high blood pressure and have strokes and things of that sort,” said Joe. In a wide-ranging interview with Access Hollywood’s international correspondent, Daphne Barak, the family patriarch made it clear he stands firmly behind his embattled son.

“Michael is a superstar. He’s a superstar that was raised right,” said Joe.

In addition to believing his son’s innocent of child molestation charges, Jackson blames the media for presenting the public with a warped perspective on the case.

“They never tell the truth about anything,” said Joe. “I don’t care whether it’s Michael or someone else. When they get to be that big up in the entertainment field or whatever, they always try to tear you down.”

He also sees nothing strange about Michael’s post-arraignment behavior, including is dance atop an SUV.
“He loves his fans and his fans love him. I don’t care how the media try to twist it, but those are Michael’s fans,” maintains Joe.

When asked about the giant open house Michael threw at Neverland Ranch, Joe told Access: “He wanted everybody to enjoy themselves and that’s what they did. They enjoyed themselves.”

The elder Jackson also thought it was unfair for people to criticize Michael’s decision to allow the Nation of Islam to provide security.

“He was getting a lot of threats and stuff and it was bothering him… He couldn’t sleep at night and so what he did was he just got some real good security,” explained Jackson.
Despite trying to stay positive, Joe admits the ordeal has been particularly difficult on his wife.

“[Catherine] don’t sleep at night because she worries about how things are being changed here and there,” revealed Joe. “She knows her son and she knows Michael’s just as innocent as the day is long.”

And before daughter Janet’s now infamous Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction, Joe predicted she would become the subject of controversy.

“I said, ‘Janet’s going to be next.’ And sure enough it was that,” said Joe. “She’s a superstar too, and there’s ways to get after her.”

Access’ Daphne Barke also gave Joe an opportunity to address the mother of Michael’s accuser.

“If instead of me, the mother of the kid who started the child molestation allegation against your son was sitting on this chair, what would you tell her?” inquired Daphne.

“I would tell her, ‘You know the truth. You know what you have done before with other people and you’re trying to do it with my son. Do you think that’s right? Do you think you should get away with this?’” replied Joe.

Source: Access Hollywood

Access Hollywood has learned that Joe Jackson, Michael and Janet’s father,
was released from hospital on Saturday.

Joe was admitted to a hospital near his Encino, Calif., home on Wednesday
from what he thought to be a case of food poisoning. However, doctors later
diagnosed him with two bleeding ulcers.

“He had two bleeding ulcers that were operated on and they were controlled
and under good condition now,” said Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman. “He
is awake alert, laughing, talking and joking. Michael has been here, Janet
has been here. And Joe is doing just terrific.”

Source: Access Hollywood

By Roger Friedman

There’s a young man at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch who looks just like
Michael, dances like Michael and — according to the King of Pop himself — is
Michael’s biological son.

Not so, my sources say.

The young man, Omer Bhatti, is currently staying at Neverland and has been
with the singer on and off for the last eight years.

Jackson has told several of his closest associates that he is the boy’s
father, and that Omer’s mother is a Norwegian fan with whom Jackson had a
one-night-stand around 1987.

According to Jackson’s story, because the fan was unable to take care of the
baby, she allowed Jackson to send two employees to Oslo to raise the baby as
their own. Omer, according to the story Michael offered, was told he was
Michael Jackson’s son, but that the fact had to remain a secret in order to
ensure his security and privacy.

However, Jackson only told my sources that the boy was his biological son
after questions arose about the boy’s constant presence at Neverland Valley
Ranch.

In fact, my sources tell me it’s not possible that Jackson is Bhatti’s
father, and that 1996 newspaper reports of Jackson’s first meeting the
family in front of a Tunis hotel are accurate.

One Jackson insider, who was with the singer when he met Bhatti, told me: “I
met the mother and the boy with Michael. We were afraid she was stalking him
in the hotel lobby. But then we met her, and the boy did his imitation of
Michael.”

Jackson, according to my sources, was so taken with the boy and his family
that he “adopted” them. He immediately moved them from their native Norway —
the father is Pakistani, the mother Norwegian — to Neverland.

Says another Jackson insider: “I’m not surprised Michael says he’s the
father. It’s a fantasy. But these people did not exist in Michael’s life
before 1996.”

Sources told me that the boy’s parents have long been on Jackson’s payroll.

“Michael hired Omer’s parents to work for him,” say two of my sources. “The
mother, Pia, became a nanny for Michael’s son, Prince, when he was born a
few months later. The father, Riz, became a driver for Michael.”

Omer, dressed like Jackson’s “mini-me,” has traveled the world with the
singer. There are photographs of him on tour with Jackson in places like
Japan and Poland. The pair, at least superficially, resemble each other.
Bhatti, even as a 12-year-old, had long flowing black hair, white-ish but
not exactly Caucasian skin, and an upturned nose. In a February 2003 NBC
“Dateline” special that showed home movies of Christmas 1998 at Neverland,
Bhatti is seen receiving gifts from Jackson and hugging him gratefully over
and over. A voice-over intones: “Here’s a boy who looks like Michael getting
gifts from him.”

Back in Norway, Omer has become a local celebrity thanks to his Jackson
connection. In 2001, Jackson dedicated his “Invincible” album to one of
Omer’s friends, an Afro-Norwegian boy named Benjamin Hermansen who was
killed by neo-Nazis. Bhatti has also picked up a following as something of a
Michael Jackson imitator, doing moonwalk-like steps to public acclaim.
Bhatti also made news when he announced that Jackson had agreed to let him
record some of his songs with a local rapper named Jae-R in Norway. Bhatti
subsequently signed a record deal to perform under the stage name O-Bee.

But more recently the relationship has put Omer in negative headlines. Last
November, he and two male friends made the newspapers in Norway, when the
parents of one of the pals complained that she had not heard from her son in
some time. This was the same time as the Nov. 18 police raid on Neverland,
where the boys turned up. Evidently the police did not ask who the three
young men were as they barreled through the singer’s ranch with search
warrants.

Last winter, Omer surfaced again when tabloid photographers shot pictures of
him with Jackson in Colorado during the singer’s self-proclaimed “detox”
vacation. Bhatti was cited by Norwegian newspapers as Jackson’s only
non-family visitor on the trip.

Last month, when I made queries about Bhatti and his status at Neverland and
with Jackson, several insiders insisted Jackson had told them recently that
Omer was his biological son. (Calls to Jackson’s brother Randy, his manager,
have not been returned.)

Among those who confirmed they had heard the story of Omer being Jackson’s
son are former Jackson employees Marc Schaffel and Stuart Backerman. Their
take on Omer will be included in a forthcoming book.

The question remains, then, why has Michael Jackson said that Omer Bhatti is
his son? Here’s one explanation: “Michael wants to have more children than
his father,” says a friend. “He’s very competitive with him.”

But how would he get away with it? According to the same friend: “Omer is
very beautiful. He looks like a child Michael could have had with a
Norwegian woman. But trust me. Omer is not his.”

Source: FOX News

Speculation and rumors will form part of a new book, according to Roger Friedman of Fox News.

Former Jackson employees Marc Schaffel and Stuart Backerman will have their take on various Neverland activities , including claims that Michael has another son.

Source: Roger Friedman / Fox News

The late Bee Gee Maurice Gibb is to be honoured with a tribute concert with
stars including Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake invited to perform.

The event, to be held in the US next year, is being organised by Maurice’s
twin brother Robin.

“Maurice loved life. We want to celebrate his life and talent the best way
we know how - through music,” Robin said.

Source: BBC

Thriller climbs one place to #36.

Source: MJ.INF

Michael Jackson’s father, Joseph Jackson, has been hospitalized in Los
Angeles with a bleeding ulcer, his attorney said on Friday.

Joseph Jackson, who turned five of his sons into one of pop music’s biggest
sensations as the Jackson 5, was admitted to a hospital near his home after
suffering what he thought was food poisoning, attorney Debra Opri said.

“Everything is terrific, he’s doing great and the ulcers have been
resolved,” Opri told Reuters. “He’ll be around a lot longer to fight those
good battles.”

Opri said he would likely be released from the hospital in the coming days.

Source: Reuters

Despite an official statement released by Michael Jackson’s attorney’s yesterday, some people are not getting the message.

Michael Jackson’s defense attorney said in a court-approved statement Tuesday that news reports about photographs reportedly seized from the singer’s home are false and that the prosecution in the child-molestation case agrees.

The information was not specified, but defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr.’s statement followed a report by Los Angeles radio station KFI that among a half-dozen photos seized were images of a naked boy or boys.

KFI news director Chris Little said an attorney for Jackson called and asked for a retraction but was turned down.

“We stand by the story,” Little said.

Parties in the Jackson molestation case are under a gag order, but Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville has allowed attorneys to comment on news reports in approved statements.

Mesereau read his statement in a law office in Birmingham, Ala., but took no questions from reporters.

Source: Associated Press

Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2004

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL JACKSON’S ATTORNEY, THOMAS A. MESEREAU, JR.

The Michael Jackson defense team has learned that information is circulating throughout the media regarding alleged photographs supposedly seized from Mr. Jackson’s residence. That information is false. The prosecution has confirmed that it is false.

We demand an immediate retraction from any news or media organization that made such an announcement. Journalistic integrity is an important factor in all reporting. This kind of reporting is irresponsible. Mr. Jackson, like all other people in America, is entitled to a fair trial. This case will be fought in the courtroom, not in the media. Mr. Jackson is innocent and will be vindicated.

Source: MJJSource

While his son tells of a doting, eccentric father as the famed actor’s heirs and associates sort his estate and set out to craft his legacy.

More than a year before he died, Marlon Brando traveled north to the Santa Ynez Valley. The destination was a familiar one for the aging movie legend: Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, where Brando settled in for a long stay at the home of the pop star who, improbably, had become one of his closest friends.

“The last time my father left his house to go anywhere, to spend any kind of time, it was with Michael Jackson,” Brando’s son Miko, a longtime Jackson employee, recalled. “He loved it…. My father had a 24-hour chef, 24-hour security, 24-hour help, 24-hour kitchen, 24-hour maid service. Just carte blanche.”

Source: LA Times