Michael Jackson’s death certificate has been released without a listed cause of death and a coroner said investigators are still testing the singer’s brain.

Public health officials issued the death certificate on Tuesday, the same day public and private memorials were held in Los Angeles. The cause of death is listed as “deferred.”

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Jackson’s brain, or at least part of it, was still being held by investigators and would be returned to the family for interment once neuropathology tests were completed.

“As soon as we are done with the brain, we will return it,” Winter said. “There is a whole series of tests that will be done.”

It is not uncommon for the coroner to hold on to a brain or samples from it. Winter said families sometimes delay burying a loved one until after the brain has been returned, but he had received no word from the Jackson family about their intentions.

“The last I heard, they are not burying the body yet,” Winter said.

Police and coroner’s officials continue to probe what killed the 50-year-old singer on June 25.

On the certificate, Jackson’s occupation is listed as a musician. He is described as a high school graduate and divorced. The information provided for the document was given by Jackson’s sister, La Toya, one of several family members who rushed to the hospital where Jackson was pronounced dead.

The document doesn’t state where Jackson will be buried.

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Debbie Rowe will likely fight for custody of Prince Michael I, 12, and Paris Katherine, 11 — her two children with Michael Jackson — when a hearing takes place July 13. (Katherine Jackson remains the children’s temporary guardian until then.)

But in 2003, Rowe — whose babies were born through artificial insemination (dad is Arnold Klein, Jackson’s L.A.-based dermatologist) — sat down with Us’ Ian Drew and confessed she “never” wanted to be a mother.

“Parenting is an art; you earn the title,” Rowe, now 50, said during the interview, which is featured in the new issue of Us Weekly (on newsstands now). “Because you give birth and impregnate someone does not automatically give you the title of mother or father – you earn the title.

“My kids don’t call me mom because I don’t want them to,” she went on. “They are Michael’s children. It’s not that they’re not my children, but I had them because I wanted him to be a father.”

After Rowe and Jackson divorced in 1999 after three years of marriage, she agreed to give up her parental rights, insisting Jackson was a good father.

During her 2003 interview with Drew, Rowe addressed critics who claimed she abandoned her kids.

“They say, ‘I can’t believe she left her children.’ Left them? I did not leave my children,” Rowe told Drew. “My children are with their father where they are supposed to be.”

Asked why the children are not with her, she said, “I didn’t do it to be a mother. Like I said, you earn the title. I didn’t change diapers. I didn’t get up in the middle of the night – even when I was there. Michael did it all. I am telling you that he is the most brilliant father. Almost before the baby needed something, he knew what it was. And that’s not for me.”

She added that she never wanted children before she wed Jackson.

“If it hadn’t been for how much I love him and because of our relationship, I would never have had children,” she told Drew. “And how spoiled am I? I get to go through the whole experience with a loving, caring person, and I can still have the opportunity to have the life I never thought I would have back again. I am still waiting for that and working on it. I’m the one who feels selfish about having the kids.”

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Many blogs have speculated that Paris Jackson’s speech at her late father’s memorial was planned.

But Rev. Al Sharpton insists it was impromptu.

“That touched everyone. And I think you couldn’t script that. She’s not reading a prompter,” he told CNN’s Larry King on Tuesday night. “This is a young lady — in fact, if you saw it, they had really said they wanted Janet Jackson to speak. And Janet kind of brought her forward. And she spoke from the heart about her father. I think she’s worried [about] the whole world [understanding] how human Michael Jackson was.”

The producer of the memorial, Ken Ehrlich, echoed the sentiment to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

“A lot of the show was not scripted,” he said Tuesday. “Music was laid out, but most of the speakers really spoke from their heart – people who knew Michael well – and I think that’s what gave the show its heart.” He also said that the Jackson family told him “we don’t want to do a TV show, we want to do a memorial service. We hope you got the feeling you were watching a memorial service.”

Source

As the star-studded tribute to the King of Pop concluded, Michael Jackson’s own children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris Katherine, 11, and Prince Michael II (Blanket), 7, took the stage during a group performance of “Heal the World.”

After the song, Paris gave an impromptu speech from the stage surrounded by the Jackson family.

“I just want to say ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine,” she said through tears. “And I just want to say I love him so much.”

Her aunt Janet Jackson then took her into her arms for a hug before the entire Jackson family then left the stage, closing the service that lasted more than two hours.

The moving tribute was especially startling because it marked one of the first times Jackson’s daughter has ever been heard publicly.

Paris and her siblings are also the subject of an ongoing custody dispute. Currently, her grandmother Katherine Jackson has been granted temporary custody of the three children, but Debbie Rowe has parental rights over the eldest children which she may choose to exercise.

Blanket’s mother has not been identified.

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We’ve learned Michael Jackson’s body will not be going back to Forest Lawn.

The body will go somewhere else pending final burial — we don’t know where that is. If a casket goes to Forest Lawn, it’s a decoy.

We’ve learned the death certificate lists Forest Lawn as the responsible mortuary because the body was embalmed there — but the rest is being kept secret.

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Michael Jackson’s 12-year-old son Prince Michael attended his late father’s public memorial Tuesday at L.A.’s Staples Center (see photo, above). His other children, Paris, 11, and Prince Michael (Blanket), 7, also attended.

Prince Michael sat with his grandparents Joe and Katherine Jackson as a myriad of celebrities paid tribute to the King of Pop, who died at age 50 after suffering cardiac arrest June 25.

Katherine Jackson remains the children’s temporary guardian. A hearing is set for July 13. Debbie Rowe, mother of Jackson’s two eldest kids, has yet to announce if she will seek custody.

“Those three children will have the most incredible grandmother that God has put on this earth to take care of them,” said Magic Johnson at Tuesday’s memorial. “Michael’s three children will have incredible uncles and aunts to take care of them as well, and [plenty] of cousins!”

At the end of the memorial, Paris Jackson took the microphone and spoke of her father. That was the saddest part of the whole thing. Well, that and Brooke Shields giving an account of her memories of him.

What did you like about the memorial? What could you have done without?

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The event gets underway 10 a.m. at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Kobe Bryant, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Hudson, Usher and Lionel Richie are among the celebrities who will participate. It is expected to run 6+ hours.

More than 1.5 million people entered a free draw for tickets and ticket holders began arriving in the early hours of Monday to collect their wrist bands for the six-hour show at the home of the LA Lakers.

Streets surrounding the stadium have been closed off by an army of 3,200 police officers.

Organizers expect upwards of one billion people to tune in via CBS & MTV in the US, BBC2 & Sky in the UK and on the web all round the world. Experts are saying the service is expected to be the biggest event in the history of the internet.

ICYDK will continue to cover the memorial all day – so check back here!