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?

Michael Jackson’s live concert movie ‘This is It’ was originally scheduled to run for two weeks only, but the box office has given its producers $101 million little reasons to run the show longer. (Gee, didn’t see that one coming.) The movie will now run through Thanksgiving and is the first in what is expected to be a long, looooong, looooooooong line of products and productions designed to make money off the MJ estate.

Two thirds of the gross came from world wide audiences, proving that even postmortem, Jackson is still a bigger draw overseas than he is here in the U.S.

Japan, the U.K.  and Germany led the list of countries who paid big bucks to see the flick.

As expected, last night turned out a huge amount of celebs attending the This Is It L.A. premiere.  (Lionel Richie actually attended the premiere in Japan, but who can resist a picture like that?)

I know Michael Jackson’s premature and unexpected death was tragic, but is there anything more tragic than Paris Hilton’s Paula Abdul’s cleavage?  I’ll just answer my own question:  Yes.  The status of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jamie Kennedy’s relationship is the most tragic as evidenced by last night’s body language.

Also there:  Adam Lambert, Ashley Tisdale, Macy Gray, Mickey Rooney (can never look at him and his wife without thinking of their Garden State Life Insurance commercials), Anne Heche, Mario Lopez, Nia Long, and Will Smith.

Today’s event will be live streamed starting at 4:30 PDT so you can see everything as it happens.  Read the deets below for information on where you need to be to view the webcast:

CULVER CITY, Calif., October 26, 2009 – When Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT makes its worldwide premiere from Los Angeles tomorrow, Tuesday, October 27, viewers around the world will have a chance to join in during the live webcast of the event, which will take place at Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles, beginning at 4:30 p.m. PDT.

The live webcast can be seen on www.ThisIsIt-Movie.com and www.crackle.com.  Viewers can interact by commenting and discussing on these pages during the live coverage. The webcast will be streamed in the U.S. and around the world.  In the U.S., the webcast will be hosted by radio personalities Big Boy and Luscious Liz, and five international hosts will webcast to their regions.

Columbia Pictures’ partner on the live webcast is UStream.tv, the internet’s premiere live video platform.  UStream.tv, which also webcast Michael Jackson’s memorial service to four million people, reaches 40 million viewers per month and is the premier live video site for talent. Premiere Entertainment will produce the webcast for Ustream.tv and Sony Pictures.

Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT, to be released on October 28th, will offer Jackson fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer as he developed, created and rehearsed for his sold-out concerts that would have taken place beginning this past summer in London’s O2 Arena.  Covering the months from March through June, 2009, the film is produced with the full support of the Estate of Michael Jackson and drawn from more than 120 hours of behind-the-scenes footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing numerous songs for the show.  Audiences will be given a privileged and private look at Jackson as he has never been seen before.  In raw and candid detail, Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT is the last documentation of Michael Jackson in action, capturing the singer, dancer, filmmaker, architect, creative genius, and great artist at work as he and his collaborators move toward their goals of London, the O2 arena, and history. Kenny Ortega, who was both Michael Jackson’s creative partner and the director of the stage show, is also directing the film, which is being produced by Randy Phillips, Kenny Ortega and Paul Gongaware. Executive producers are John Branca and John McClain.

Yesterday, TMZ announced that Michael Jackson’s mother Katherine will not inherit her son’s estate, but instead it will go to the people who probably deserve it the most: his three children. Well, mostly.

The plan that was originally drawn up was this: 40% goes to Katherine, 40% goes to the kids, and 20% goes to charity. However, the trustees of the estate get final ruling on how much of that 40% Katherine’s going to get and after she passes on, the kids get the rest of it. Seems OK.

One thing I don’t understand is this: Why does Katherine get any of it? While Michael was supporting her for the last many years of his life, now that she has taken on three children to raise for him, shouldn’t she get a standard percentage for that (like she already is) and nothing else? Wouldn’t it be best for the kids to have as much of that money as possible, and what exactly does an elderly woman need all that dough for?

Hey guys! Guess what just hit the Internet 17 minutes ago? This new MJ song, “This Is It,” and now we have it here on Evil Beet. We’re prompt like that. It’s a good song. But, ya know, this dude could sing the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting schedule and Lindsay Lohan would be hanging on every note. He was just such a phenomenal talent. It’s something I’ve always maintained and still maintain: setting aside the events of his personal life, this is one of the greatest musical talents of our history.

And the Jackson saga continues. His autopsy results indicate that, overall, he was in good health for a 50-year-old man.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s report shows Jackson’s weight of 136 pounds was in the acceptable range for a 5-foot-9 man. His heart was strong with no sign of plaque buildup. His kidneys and most other major organs were normal.

The singer did have health issues, however, including arthritis in the lower spine and some fingers, and mild plaque buildup in his leg arteries. Most serious was the condition of his lungs, which the autopsy report said were chronically inflamed and had reduced capacity that might have left him short of breath.

But the lung condition was not serious enough to be a direct or contributing cause of death, according to the document.

“His overall health was fine,” said Dr. Zeev Kain, chairman of the anesthesiology department at the University of California, Irvine, who reviewed a copy of the autopsy report for the AP. “The results are within normal limits.”

Basically all of this means that Michael died strictly of complications from the propofol and the benzodiazepines, which we already knew. This wasn’t a generally unhealthy man, he was just crazy about his insomnia, and he was unlucky enough to find a doctor willing to enable that insanity. The more I read about this case, the more I feel Dr. Murray ought to be convicted of homicide. Shit, dude, I tried to get my doctor to prescribe me a low dose of phentermine last week to help me lose ten pounds, and she was all like, “No way. Your BMI is in the normal range, so you need to focus on exercise and portion control.” I hate the term “portion control” so much. Like, who wants to eat the yummy stuff in reasonable portions? Why eat it at all if you have to control your portions? But the point is this: I knew she’d never prescribe it; it was a long shot. Of course no ethical doctor is going to prescribe phentermine for someone whose weight is in a normal BMI. And yet this asshole had Michael on propofol and three different types of benzos — for insomnia. It’s insane. This dude should go to jail forever.

The single, white, bedazzled glove that Michael Jackson wore to a screening of the short film Ghosts (above) and during his marriage ceremony to Debbie Rowe in 1996 sold for A$57,600 or ($49,000 USD) at an auction yesterday in Australia– nearly twice what auctioneers expected. (You can see a picture of it here.)

But you’ll be happy to know that the glove was not purchased by some obsessed individual with sickening amounts of money to throw at dead celebrities’ personal effects. It was purchased by a corporation with sickening amounts of money to throw at dead celebrities’ personal effects– The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

If only the rest of us could fetch $49,000 for an unmatched glove covered with bedazzler rhinestones, I would be holding a yard sale every weekend.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian has something to say about Michael Jackson’s death and it’s a bit of a surprising perspective:  He doesn’t think Dr. Conrad Murray is to blame.

In a lengthy interview — you’ll want to fast forward to 9:30 — the good doctor states that Michael cannot have been murdered since he doesn’t believe malice was a component of the chain of events.  ”I don’t think he was malicious. Murder is defined as malice or forethought… Did the doctor have forethought? I doubt it.”

Dr. Kevorkian also thinks that Michael bears responsibility for his death.  ”Maybe Jackson craved these things so much he pestered the doctor until he got it.  The patient got what he wanted. He is the one who said yes or no to take a drug.”  Does this mean I can go to my physician and pester him to overdose me with Xanax?  Because I really need to do that.

I’ve actually been thinking about this since the death of DJ AM.  Maybe drug addicts are on some sort of suicide mission.  Maybe death is what Michael was chasing.  I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure.

There’s something that really bothers me about Joe Jackson.  Every time he opens his mouth to say mumble something, I think he’s lying.  It troubles me that he never offers any insight as to who his son was as a person.  Joe obviously thinks Michael was the best performer in the world, but he doesn’t speak of him as a son, father, friend.

The Today Show aired a JJ interview this morning that was recorded over the weekend, on the day that would have been Michael Jackson’s 51st birthday.  If you don’t have speakers on your computer or you’re at work and can’t really take a listen, let me offer you a brief, paraphrased summary:

Interviewer:  Joe, how are you holding up?

JJ:  Me?  Oh, I’m fine!  Uh, oh, I mean, I’m still grieving the loss of Michael.

Interviewer:  Are you angry about Michael’s death?

JJ:  No.  I’m not angry.  I’m mad but I’m not angry.

Interviewer:  What do you want people to know about your son?

JJ:  He was the best performer in the world.

Interviewer:  Did you know that Michael was using these drugs?

JJ:  No.  I knew nothing about anything.  This is foul play!

Interviewer:  Do you want justice done?  Do you want to see people go to jail for the death of your son?

JJ:  Yes, I want justice.  I don’t know if I want anyone going to jail.  But they will pay.

Interviewer:  Do you want these doctors to be held responsible for administering these medications to Michael?

JJ:  No.  I never said anything about any doctors.

Interviewer:  Do you see your grandchildren?  And if so, how often?

JJ:  I do see them.  Uhhhhh … I see them.  Often enough.  Let’s end this interview now.

I cannot believe it took an astounding 60 days before I could report this news to you, but as expected, the King of Pop is alive!  The person who submitted this totally conclusive video also sent along the following statement:

This video shows that Michael was still alive after his dead body was transported to the Los Angeles Dept. of Coroner I checked the license plate number and it looks like the King of Pop is jumping out of the same van, his dead body has been in. I got the original video tape from a trustworthy source. I know him for years. And I am sure it´s real and Michael is alive.