If you’re a resident of Earth, you’ve seen the video of prisoners dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller before. The video was such a huge hit (over 38 million views!), that Michael Jackson’s choreographer for the This Is It tour went to the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center where the first video was filmed and taught them a dance to “They Don’t Care About Us”. It’s amazing. Honestly, it’s a spectacle and you’ll be doing yourself a disservice not to watch it at least once.

It’s obvious that learning and performing these dances is a great way to keep the prisoners both disciplined and occupied (I can imagine that it’s somewhat of a reward for inmates to be able to channel their energy in to something positive like this), but let’s not forget: Homeboys are all in jail. This isn’t a step team or a dance squad and those orange pants aren’t incidental. Enjoy the video, but remember: Those are some bad, bad dudes getting their dance on.

As I told you yesterday, Michael Jackson’s kids paid tribute to their father last night at the Grammys with a speech and then accepted his lifetime achievement award. Unfortunately, young Blanket became overwhelmed moments before he was supposed to go on stage, and he hung back while Prince Michael and Paris went out to accept the award.

There’s nothing to snark about here. Say whatever you will about Michael Jackson, those little munchkins up there were his kids. They’re children. And they are also incredibly brave. To stand in front of a room full of celebrities after living a fairly guarded life and losing everything you’ve ever known in one under a year… that’s quite courageous. Also, it was comforting. By all accounts these kids seem normal, smart, well-spoken and interesting. Paris Jackson is gorgeous. These seem like loved, well taken care of kids and I hope that they’re doing OK.

It has been confirmed that Michael Jackson’s kids will be speaking tonight during a tribute to their father at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Several members of the Jackson family will be there to see Prince Michael, Paris and Blanket’s speech, as well as performances by Carrie Underwood, Smokey Robinson and Usher, in what will likely be an unforgettable television moment. Also featured will be a 3-D mini-movie that was made for Michael’s This Is It tour.

I remember after Michael’s death that there were a lot of mixed reactions to his kids speaking at his funeral. Many people thought that the King of Pop would be saddened to see his children in the public eye considering that he spent their lives trying to protect them from cameras and fame. It’s difficult to say whether or not he would be happy about his kids being on stage at the Grammys, but as long as they’re getting some much-needed closure, I suppose this is a good thing.

As if there were any real doubts about it prior to this.

Authorities have officially determined MJ’s cause of death as “acute Propofol intoxication” which was due to an “intravenous injection from another.”   This is so, so sad.

What’s even sadder is that while yes, while there are people out there who have severe addictions and need help, there are individuals who will do everything in their power to secure as much money as possible — even if it knowingly means endangering the life of another.

Doctor Conrad Murphy is expected to be charged with involuntary manslaughter.

To think the King of Pop might still be alive — and better than ever — if someone, anyone, had intervened in his dangerous habits.  You know, someone like his own doctor, even.

FINALLY! TMZ just broke that this Monday the FBI will be releasing 333 pages of what were once sealed documents relating to Michael Jackson. Most of the new information will pertain to the 1993 and 2004 molestation cases that Jackson was involved in. Unfortunately, the details on his death are remaining sealed, but there’s no question that whatever we read on Monday is going to be completely explosive.

The FBI has opened sealed documents from celebrity cases before. Just recently they unsealed documents relating to Anna Nicole Smith’s alleged attempt to have J. Howard Marshall II murdered. While there is something to be said for respecting the privacy of the deceased individual, it’s stories like this that we all follow and become invested in over time. Michael Jackson probably wouldn’t be thrilled about these documents being open to the public, but for anyone out there who has been wondering for almost two decades about the molestation and extortion attempts, this is a chance to gain some insight and base their opinion on fact.

Evan Chandler, the 65 year old father of the now 29 year old that accused Michael Jackson of molestation in the early 90’s is dead.  Chandler was a wealthy Beverly Hills dentist who reported Jackson to Santa Barbara authorities in 1994, claiming that his son had been molested by the singer during sleepovers.

Michael’s attorneys eventually settled with the Chandler family for $22M.  The son, Jordan, has never spoken about the case due to a non-disclosure agreement, but I wonder if he’s still bound by that contract now that both of the involved parties are dead.  In any case, Jordan became estranged from his father after Evan reportedly attacked him with a dumbbell back in 2006.

After the case was settled, Evan Chandler reportedly had many plastic surgeries to change his appearance in an effort to hide from unhappy Michael Jackson fans.

The former dentist appears to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and did not leave a suicide note.  He did have prescription medicines in his home that indicated that he was suffering from a serious illness.

I think execs over at Sony kind of screwed themselves by spending months acting like it would be impossible to get tickets to This Is It, the Michael Jackson concert flick. They were trying to create buzz, but it seems like fans really believed them, and didn’t even bother trying. The film brought in just $20.7 million over the Halloween weekend, much less than Sony expected. They’ve realized their mistake, and now they’re trying to make it clear to audiences that they can, in fact, get tickets — and that the flick will be airing in theaters for longer than the originally stated two weeks. It’ll be in theaters up through Thanksgiving — and probably longer, if you want my guess. Says the studio in a press release:

In just 5 days, Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT has become the highest grossing concert film of all time and we are elated by the response to this special film by fans, critics and moviegoers from all over the world. With this kind of global response, it’s clear that the motion picture deserves an extended run and we are going to do everything we can to make the film available to everyone who wants to see Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT on the big screen.

It’s interesting to look at this from a marketing perspective. Obviously the goal was to drum up crazy buzz for the film by treating it like a very exclusive engagement. It doesn’t necessarily sound like a bad idea — and it’s a marketing strategy that’s worked many times before — but in this case it just totally backfired. Why? Thoughts?