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Public Jackson memorial to be held at Staples Center; date unknown

By Kelley L. Carter and Arienne Thompson, USA TODAY


A free public memorial for Michael Jackson will be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, but the date has not been finalized.

Randy Phillips, CEO of AEG Live, which will produce the memorial, said the family is considering holding the event Tuesday. Phillips said Jackson's mother Katherine will make the final decision. Jackson's brother Randy is coordinating all memorial plans.

PR firm Sunshine Sachs & Associates, hired to speak on behalf of the family, is expected to make the formal memorial announcement sometime tonight or tomorrow, Phillips said.





AEG Live was in the process of producing and promoting Michael Jackson's This Is It tour at the time of his death. The company is considering producing a Michael Jackson tribute concert at London's O2 Arena, the venue in which Jackson was scheduled to perform.

Phillips also said AEG has 100 hours of HD Jackson video footage for a possible documentary film and two live albums.

"There are all kinds of things that we've been talking about, potentially a motion picture. A pay-per-view tribute," Phillips said. "This production was breathtaking. Remember, Michael didn?t do anything small. Our production budget was well in excess of $24 or $25 million dollars, which for an arena show is unheard of. It's breathtaking. It's technology people hadn't seen before."

Phillips said AEG doesn't want to be a "burden to the (Jackson) estate" and hopes to recoup the money lost from the tour cancellation via the tribute show, movie or album.

Also Thursday, a judge delayed a guardianship hearing for Jackson's children scheduled for Monday at the request of ex-wife Debbie Rowe's attorneys. The hearing has been rescheduled for July 13.

Rowe's attorney said Rowe is still deciding whether or not she will seek custody of the children she had with Jackson, the Associated Press reports. She is the mother of Michael Jr., 12, and Paris, 11. Jackson's youngest child, Prince Michael, 7, was born to an anonymous surrogate.

Earlier Thursday, Jackson's older brother Jermaine spoke out in an interview with the Today show, saying that he would be "hurt" if toxicology results indicatedthat his brother's death was drug-related.

"In this business, the pressures and things that you go through, you never know what one turns to," he said. "I don't know about these things, because I hate anything with drugs."

Jackson's 7-year-old will was filed in an L.A. court Wednesday, specifying that his estate would go the Michael Jackson Family Trust and that Katherine Jackson would be the beneficiary as well as the guardian of his three children.

Also Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department asked the Drug Enforcement Administration to aid in the investigation in to Jackson's death.

"We cannot comment about our involvement in the investigation of the death of Michael Jackson," DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney said. "We routinely assist other law enforcement organizations on cases involving the diversion of prescription drugs. We often get involved at the request of other law enforcement agencies."

Contributing: The Associated Press, William M. Welch, Donna Leinwand, Alison Maxwell

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