Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Randy Jackson, Michael's Brother, Hospitalized For Chest Pain



Randy Jackson, brother of the late pop legend Michael Jackson, was hospitalized Tuesday in Southern California.

Jackson, 48, experienced chest pains around noon on Tuesday and was taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, where he is currently awaiting the outcome of tests, a source close to the Jackson family who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly said.

The source told The Associated Press that doctors at the hospital think it was a mild heart attack, but this has not yet been confirmed.

On Monday, Randy Jackson was in court with his family for a hearing in the involuntary manslaughter case of Dr. Conrad Murray who is accused in connection with Michael Jackson's death. Randy Jackson arrived after everyone else and stopped to hug his parents, his brothers and sister LaToya before the hearing began.

Last week, he made an appearance on CNN's "Newsroom" and expressed the opinion that Murray should be charged with first-degree murder. He also said he thought others were implicated in Michael's death.

In a series of posts on Twitter in the last few weeks, Randy Jackson said he had succeeded in stopping an unapproved tribute show to Michael in Rome which had been scheduled on June 25, the anniversary of his death. He said he also had been talking to officials at Forest Lawn Glendale in an effort to have fans admitted to the area near Jackson's tomb on the anniversary.

He said in his posts that the fans had been a great source of comfort to him.

"At times, I'm sad & broken," he tweeted. "But ur supprt helps 2 encourage me and fuel my motivation 2 continue this fight 4 truth&justice."

Michael Jackson Fans Will Moonwalk In Motion-Sensing Game


Gamers will have the opportunity to moonwalk alongside the King of Pop.

Video game developer Ubisoft announced it would release a new dancing-and-singing game featuring Michael Jackson this holiday season. The as-yet-unnamed game will be among the first to use Kinect and Move, the respective motion-detecting camera systems for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 due out later this year.

"Your goal is to dance like Michael," said Tony Key, Ubisoft's marketing vice president. "Do what the guy on the screen is doing and you're there. It'll score you based on the quality of your performance."

The game's launch will roughly coincide with the November debut of a new album containing unreleased Jackson recordings. Versions of the game, which will feature songs from Jackson's catalog, including "Billie Jean" and "Beat It," will also be available for Nintendo's Wii and the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable handheld consoles.

The announcement was made during Ubisoft's Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference at the Los Angeles Theater. No footage from the game was shown, but dancers from Jackson's "This Is It" tour took to the stage to perform a routine set to "Beat It" at the conclusion of Monday's event.

"With the technology that is available today, you will be able to learn how to be as good as those guys are and even better," said Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft's CEO.

It won't be Jackson's first appearance in a game. He starred in 1989's action game "Michael Jackson's Moonwalker."

Ubisoft has already found the right moves with the dancing game genre. The game maker's "Just Dance," released for the Wii last year, has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.

"Rock Band" developers Harmonix are also choreographing their own dancing title, unveiled at Microsoft's press conference Monday with a routine set to Gwen Stefani's "Keep On Dancing." "Dance Central" uses Kinect to detect players' movements and translate them to a flashy avatar on screen.