MJ driven to early death by concert promoters says family lawyer

Michael Jackson was driven to an early death because concert promoters were desperate for him to make them money, according to the Jackson family lawyer. Launching a 40 billion-dollar lawsuit by the Jackson family, lawyer Brian Panish said bosses at AEG were so keen to get the star to perform that "they didn't care who got lost in the wash". The family claim AEG ignored the pop legend's drug addiction and pressured him to sign up for a run of shows at London's O2 Arena, the Sun reported. Panish said AEG chiefs are the only people to claim they did not know about the King of Pop's addiction to prescription drugs. The lawyer - acting for Jackson's mum Katherine, 82, and kids Prince, Paris and Blanket - showed jurors emails between key AEG bosses. In March 2009 - before a press conference where Jacko announced his O2 shows - AEG Live boss Randy Phillips wrote to the former chief of AEG's parent company, Tim Leiweke, claiming the singer was drunk and refusing to address fans. Panish said that the singer's behaviour was just one of several warning signs that AEG ignored. Panish said AEG was under pressure from rival gig giant Live Nation and ruthless bosses were ready to exploit Jackson to catch their competitor. Jackson's family accuse AEG of failing to properly probe Murray - and say his 100,000 pounds-a-month wage demands should have been a warning. However, AEG's lawyer Marvin Putman claimed that the firm could not have known Jackson was on Propofol, a powerful anaesthetic usually only used in hospital. He said AEG had no access to private information between Jackson and his doctors. He branded the star an addict and said the company should not be held responsible for his death.

Now music app that shows 25 most-played songs by listeners

For those tired of music charts dictated by 13-year-old girls and Justin Bieber, there may be a solution in the form of a new app. Herne Bay resident Anthony Gardiner has developed 25mostplayed.com, a new website dedicated to creating custom music charts based on what interests each listener, Stuff.co.nz reported. It could signal the end of the top 20 music chart replacing it with playlists selected by users based on a selected age-range, location, interest or genre. The 33-year-old started developing the site last year as a means of discovering what people were listening to as opposed to buying. "I've always found people's 25 most-played playlist on iTunes a really interesting insight into their personality, so whenever I meet a new person I always look at what their 25 most-played are," he said. Initially the site was designed just for that purpose but he soon discovered that by blending the demographic data provided by each user with their music listening habits filters could be put in place which would allow others to create custom playlists and discover new music. The app is still in stage one of its development but Gardiner hopes that as it grows he will be able to have the most definitive answer to the question of what the most popular song of all time is. Both Apple and Facebook have shown interest in the app, he said.

MJ haunting family home says sis La Toya

Michael Jackson's sister, La Toya, has claimed that the late singer is haunting his childhood home in Encino, California. The 56-year-old believes that Jackson's spirit is looking over his three kids Prince, Paris and Blanket, who live there with his mum Katherine. She told the Sun that the pop-star can be heard tap dancing in the mansion. "You don't see anything but you feel a presence," the former Celebrity Big Brother star said. Toya has also been using a psychic to speak to her late brother, who died of an overdose in 2009 aged 50. She said that Michael wants to tell her something, which she is keen to know.

Why people love listening to new music

A new study has identified the specific brain activity that makes new music rewarding and predicts the decision to purchase music. The study was conducted at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - The Neuro, McGill University. Participants in the study listened to 60 previously unheard music excerpts while undergoing functional resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, providing bids of how much they were willing to spend for each item in an auction paradigm. "When people listen to a piece of music they have never heard before, activity in one brain region can reliably and consistently predict whether they will like or buy it, this is the nucleus accumbens which is involved in forming expectations that may be rewarding," said lead investigator Dr. Valorie Salimpoor, who conducted the research in Dr. Robert Zatorre's lab at The Neuro and is now at Baycrest Health Sciences' Rotman Research Institute. "What makes music so emotionally powerful is the creation of expectations. Activity in the nucleus accumbens is an indicator that expectations were met or surpassed, and in our study we found that the more activity we see in this brain area while people are listening to music, the more money they are willing to spend," Salimpoor stated. The second important finding is that the nucleus accumbens doesn't work alone, but interacts with the auditory cortex, an area of the brain that stores information about the sounds and music we have been exposed to. The more a given piece was rewarding, the greater the cross-talk between these regions. Similar interactions were also seen between the nucleus accumbens and other brain areas, involved in high-level sequencing, complex pattern recognition and areas involved in assigning emotional and reward value to stimuli. In other words, the brain assigns value to music through the interaction of ancient dopaminergic reward circuitry, involved in reinforcing behaviours that are absolutely necessary for our survival such as eating and sex, with some of the most evolved regions of the brain, involved in advanced cognitive processes that are unique to humans. "The brain activity in each participant was the same when they were listening to music that they ended up purchasing, although the pieces they chose to buy were all different," added Dr. Salimpoor. "These results help us to see why people like different music - each person has their own uniquely shaped auditory cortex, which is formed based on all the sounds and music heard throughout our lives. Also, the sound templates we store are likely to have previous emotional associations," the researcher added. The study was published in the journal Science.

Annette Funicello

Annette Funicello starred with Frankie Avalon in a series of "Beach Party" movies in the 1960s. She moved from Mouseketeer ears to a "Beach Party" bikini to fame with a new generation for selling peanut butter and gently poking fun at her own image. And in the end, she faced the biggest test of her life, a decades-long battle with multiple sclerosis, with strength and courage, hoping her own experience could help others. Actress, singer and former Mouseketeer Annette Funicello died Monday at age 70, The Walt Disney Company confirmed in a statement. Funicello "died peacefully from complications due to multiple sclerosis, a disease she battled for over 25 years," the company said. The actress passed away Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, Calif. "Annette was and always will be a cherished member of the Disney family, synonymous with the word Mouseketeer, and a true Disney legend," said Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger in a statement. "She will forever hold a place in our hearts as one of Walt Disney's brightest stars, delighting an entire generation of baby boomers with her jubilant personality and endless talent. "Annette was well known for being as beautiful inside as she was on the outside, and she faced her physical challenges with dignity, bravery and grace," Iger went on to say. "All of us at Disney join with family, friends and fans around the world in celebrating her extraordinary life." "We are so sorry to lose Mother," said Funicello's children, Gina, Jacky and Jason Gilardi. "She is no longer suffering anymore and is now dancing in heaven. We love and will miss her terribly." "I'm just devastated," Funicello's friend and frequent co-star, Frankie Avalon, who starred with her in a half-dozen "Beach Party" movies in the 1960s, told TMZ. "I loved this gal. We worked together, we were friends, we were family." Singer Paul Anka once dated Funicello and wrote some of her hits. "She was a lovely lady," he told TMZ. "She was a great star. It's a very, very sad ending." Born in Utica, N.Y., Funicello moved to California at age 4 and was discovered by Walt Disney himself when she was just 13. She was cast in "The Mickey Mouse Club," which debuted in 1955, and quickly became the most popular Mouseketeer. She would move on to careers in both singing and acting, often combining the two, as when she sang and acted in the "Beach Party" movie series with teen idol Avalon. Her attire in those films was a topic of discussion, as it was widely reported that Disney asked Funicello to cover her navel even while in swimwear, and she wrote in her autobiography that she did so. But photos and websites point out that her navel was indeed exposed in three of the "Beach Party" films. Funicello had a series of pop hits in the 1950s and 1960s, including "Tall Paul" and "Pineapple Princess." Liner notes on one of her albums fondly dubbed her "Queen of the Beach." She became one of the most enduring pop-culture images of that decade, starring in comic books and a series of Disney-approved Nancy Drew-style mystery books. In 1979, Funicello starred in a series of popular commercials for Skippy peanut butter. She poked fun at the commercials in the 1987 movie "Back to the Beach," which reunited her with Avalon and parodied their beach-party era. It was while working on "Back to the Beach" that Funicello first noticed signs of multiple sclerosis. She was officially diagnosed in 1992, and established the Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Diseases in 1993. Funicello was always open about the disease, saying "I think you only have two choices in this kind of situation. Either you give in to it or you fight it. I intend to fight." Fight she did, but even the perkiest of Mouseketeers could not fight off the ravages of multiple sclerosis. Funicello's later years saw her confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak, her hands and arms permanently curled. Her second husband, horse breeder Glen Holt, gave a lengthy interview to "W5," a Canadian news magazine television series, in which he discussed Funicello's condition. In the program, Holt is seen caring for Funicello, whom he fondly calls "Annie," brushing her hair, moving her from bed to wheelchair and taking her to the doctor and for wheelchair rides in the sun. "I talk to her," he said. "She understands me in her own type of way." Holt said that Funicello's fame made her prey to a "parade of charlatans" with false cures, but that the couple did find some hope in a procedure that opened up the actress' blocked jugular veins. After the procedure, Holt said he could perceive slight changes in his wife's condition -- she became able to swallow on her own, blink on command, and appeared to be trying to respond to his questions. He noted that Funicello would have wanted her experience to help others, saying she told him that "if we did find something that would help me, maybe we could help many, many other people."

Swift clueless about future

Singer Taylor Swift says she is quite clueless about where her life is heading. "I have no idea if I'm going to get married or be single forever or have a family or just be on my own. You know, paint in a cottage by the ocean by myself," Wonderland magazine quoted Swift as saying. "I just have no idea and I'm kind of into that. You can make a board for all the goals you want in your life with the pictures on it, and that's great, daydreaming is wonderful, but you can never plan your future," she added. The 23-year-old has struck gold with her famous numbers like "Love story", "You belong with me" and "We are never getting back together".