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The casket is pictured during memorial services for pop star Michael Jackson in Los Angeles - Source: Reuters -
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Coroners have completed the autopsy report on the body of pop
star Michael Jackson, but details remained under wraps as police
probe the cause of the singer's death and his prescription drug
use.
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said detectives requested
the autopsy, which includes toxicology tests, remain sealed until
their investigation was finished.
He could not say when it would be completed and declined to
offer more details.
Some media outlets reported that the Thriller singer's body has now
been buried at the
Forest Lawn cemetery in Los Angeles , but that
could not immediately be confirmed through a family spokesman.
A cemetery spokesman declined to comment.
Police are looking into why the 50-year-old singer died suddenly of
cardiac arrest on June 25.
Numerous media reports have said officials are focused on Jackson's use of a powerful anesthetic called propofol to sleep.
Police and federal agents have raided several offices of
Jackson's doctors as part of their probe.
Meanwhile, the judge overseeing the singer's will said he had
approved
several business deals , including a $US60
million agreement with Columbia Pictures to
make a movie from video of the King of Pop's rehearsals for a
series of concerts that had been set to take place in London this
past July.
Those shows were dubbed This Is It by Jackson, and the movie will
be similarly titled.
Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp's Sony Pictures Entertainment, said the film, due to be in theatres on October 30, will have performances and behind-the-scenes video of Jackson preparing for the concerts.
Some of it will be shown in movie theatres in 3-D.
The judge also agreed to the re-issuance of the singer's
autobiography, Moonwalk, currently planned for October.
Lawyers spent much of Monday in court wrangling over merchandising
deals still being planned and a travelling exhibition of Jackson
memorabilia that concert promoter AEG Live, which had backed the
London concerts, wants to mount.
Resurgent popularity
Attorneys for Jackson's mother, Katherine, said they had concerns
about the involvement of AEG in deals struck with the executors of
the pop star's estate.
Judge Mitchell Beckloff said he could not approve the deals for the
travelling exhibition and merchandising rights until he appoints an
attorney to represent the interests of Jackson's three minor
children, who along with Katherine Jackson are beneficiaries of the
estate.
As a result, he put off his decision on whether to approve the two
deals until August 17.
An attorney for AEG Live, which spent as much as $US30 million
preparing for the comeback concerts, had argued that to help recoup
its investment it needed to move quickly to take advantage of the
resurgence in the singer's popularity.
Several of the Thriller singer's albums, for instance, have
returned to the top of the music charts in recent weeks, whereas
before his death his CD sales had languished.
"The longer we wait, the more time passes, frankly the less
interest there will be on the part of the public to come see the
exhibit," said Kathy Jorrie, an attorney for AEG Live.
Jackson's Number Ones CD, originally released in 1993, is the
second-best selling album of 2009 in the United States, with sales
this year of 1.4 million copies, according to tracking firm Nielsen
SoundScan.
Only Taylor Swift's 2008 release Fearless, with 1.5 million
copies sold so far this year, stands in the way.
Jackson was said to be as much as $US500 million in debt when he
died, but the value of his estate was reported to be as high as
$US1 billion given his part ownership in a music catalogue and his
control of his own songs.
Jorrie told the judge that attorneys for his mother have demanded
AEG Live give the estate its rehearsal video, something that AEG is
not willing to do.
AEG is owned by reclusive Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz.
