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Yes, Jacko news is back!
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 21 June 2010
Michael Jackson’s three children are still fighting a “daily battle” to cope with life without their father, says the late king of pop’s mother Katherine.
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror as the first anniversary of Jacko’s death approaches, the Jackson matriarch said: “It has been a daily battle to cope with our huge loss… I wanted to hang pictures of flowers or ballerinas in Paris’ room, the sort of things I expected a girl would like. But she went into a closet and she brought out seven or eight pictures of Michael and she told me, ‘No, I want Daddy hanging in my room’. So she goes to bed looking at him and wakes up looking at him. She said, ‘I always want to be able to see him'”.
Katherine added that, while the three siblings have plenty of cousins, aunts and uncles to look after them, she feels they need friends outside the family. Currently they have none, mainly because of their home schooling. But, she added: “[The kids] don’t have any friends. They don’t go to school, they have private lessons at home – but that will change in September, when they are due to enrol at private [school]”.
According to TMZ, Katherine plans to take her grandchildren back to Gary in Indiana, the Jackson clan’s home town, for the first anniversary of their father’s death, partly to be away from the hoo haa that is expected to occur in LA as Jackson’s fans prepare to commemorate the first anniversary of their hero’s sudden demise.
There will be a little bit of hoo and possibly some haa on that anniversary in London too, with plans to erect a plaque paying tribute to Jackson at the Lyric Theatre in the West End, which has been hosting the ‘Thriller Live’ show since the start of last year. The plaque will be unveiled on 24 Jun, the evening before the actual first anniversary of Jackson’s death.
Elsewhere in Jacko news, AEG Live, producers of the big Jacko memorial event that took place at the Staples Center in LA last July, have announced that they and the Jackson estate will donate a million dollars to the city to cover the costs incurred by local authorities and police as a direct result of the memorial show.
As previously reported, some local politicians hit out at the cost to the city of policing the event, and called on the Jackson family and/or AEG to reimburse the city for its expense. Mayor Antonio Villargaigosa initially said the cash-strapped city could afford to cover the costs associated with the memorial show, but last week welcomed the million dollar commitment made by the live music giant and the Jacko estate.
He told reporters on Friday: “I applaud this team effort and thank everyone involved for doing what was best for the people and the city of Los Angeles. Through the continued good corporate citizenship of AEG and the Michael Jackson Estate, we will be able to promote and support important civic events that hold so much meaning for the people of Los Angeles and bring us together as a city”.
AEG will also make a $300,000 donation to the city’s Police Foundation. $90,000 in cash had already been committed, raised through the sale of suites at the Jackson tribute show. They will donate an additional $210,000 of equipment to the city’s police force.
