Obituaries

Last night, thousands of Michael Jackson fans gathered at New York's legendary Apollo Theater to honor the pop stars life and work. But they aren't the only ones paying tribute to Jackson almost a week after his sudden death; more magazines are getting into the mix.

Entertainment industry bible Entertainment Weekly is honoring Jackson with four separate covers featuring Jackson at home in 1972, on the set of the Thriller video, in a portrait taken in 1983 and performing in NYC on Sept. 10, 2001. People magazine also has Jackson on the cover of its latest issue -- a special double issue. If you flip the issue over, the back cover also features Jackson and opens to a 27-page tribute section. The magazine is putting out two versions of the back cover and has increased its print run to meet anticipated demand for the special issue.

People magazine's editors are also producing a hardcover tribute book about Jackson and his life, due out July 10. You can preorder on Amazon.com now, though.

MJ is also on the cover of Jet and Newsweek's latest issues, along with a cover story about his death.

Earlier: Magazines Remembering Michael Hit Newsstands

The celebrities -- and quasi-celebrities -- have been dropping like flies this week. So yesterday, when news of Oxiclean hawker Billy Mays' death interrupted the marathon of Michael Jackson video retrospectives we have been watching for days, we numbly raised a remote control in honor of the fallen salesman.

Mays, whose wife found him dead Sunday morning, had just appeared on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" last week to promote his reality show "Pitchmen," which debuted on the Discovery Channel a couple months ago.

Mays was 50, just like MJ. He was also on board a US Airways flight that made an emergency landing in Tampa on Saturday after its front tires blew out. Just freaky coincidences or proof that the apocalypse is upon us?

The news is still saturated with wall-to-wall coverage of Michael Jackson's death, so we thought we would check in with how some of our medibistro.com blog colleagues are looking at this tragedy and how it affects the industries they cover. We discovered some unique points of view:

FishbowlLA, the blog most immersed in the celeb scene, reports that Jackson's death has already made trouble for Sascha Baron Cohen and button-pushing blogger Perez Hilton. They also have a survey asking the burning question: Which Michael Jackson gadfly are you most looking forward to being interviewed in the next month? Our vote's for Elizabeth Taylor (who was to comment yesterday).

Publishing blog GalleyCat highlights three books written by the King of Pop during his life. (And we were on the Morning Media Menu podcast this morning with Galleycat editor Jason Boog talking about it!)

Advertising blog AgencySpy takes a look at iconic ads starring Jackson over the years.

TVNewser has a great clip of Anderson Cooper talking about hanging with MJ at Studio 54 when he was 10.

And design blog UnBeige Jackson's design esthetic.

This morning, not surprisingly, the news is flooded with coverage of Michael Jackson's death yesterday. But there is also news about how the media has covered the King of Pop's death, and life.

The Los Angeles Times has a report this morning on gossip outlet TMZ, which got the scoop about Jackson's death less than half an hour after it occurred.

Across the Internet, Web sites crashed as fans around the world scrambled to find information about MJ. Even Google wasn't immune from the flood of information-hungry mourners: the search site temporarily blocked users from searching for "Michael Jackson" after it's computers misinterpreted the influx of searches as an attempt to crash the site.

And New York media outlets are doing some unique things with their coverage. For example, the New York Post has a retrospective of past covers featuring the pop star and Long Island newspaper Newsday has two special edition covers today, one celebrating Jackson (above) and the other a tribute to Farrah Fawcett, whose death yesterday from cancer has been overshadowed by the international superstar's untimely passing.

What a strange, sad day in the entertainment world today. First, Farrah, and now a number of sources have confirmed that King of Pop Michael Jackson died this afternoon at the age of 50.

The New York Times' started live-blogging the coverage as soon as news broke that Jackson had been rushed to the hospital after suffering from cardiac arrest.

After the confirmation of his death was announced, the news turns to possible memorials: "Expect a number of Jackson music marathons in the days to come," the Times reported. "According to our colleague Stuart Elliott: WCBS-FM, the oldies station in New York, is broadcasting some of Mr. Jackson's greatest hits. The station said it would have special programming later in the day."

Sad news from Hollywood: Earlier today, former Charlies Angel Farrah Fawcett lost her battle with cancer.

Our colleagues at TVNewser are reporting that a special edition of "20/20" -- called "Farrah's Journey" -- will air tonight on ABC at 10pmET, hosted by Barbara Walters in honor of Farrah.

Farrah's longtime partner, Ryan O'Neal, has already put out a statement about her death:

"She's gone. She now belongs to the ages...She's now with her mother and sister and her God. I loved her with all my heart. I will miss her so very, very much. She was in and out of consciousness. I talked to her all through the night. I told her how very much I loved her. She's in a better place now."

Yesterday, we heard from the Brooklyn Paper that Studio B, the Greenpoint hipster hangout, had been closed down by the Department of Buildings, which revoked the club's license to host large crowds indoors. Neighborhood locals complained that the club was "too noisy, doesn't control its customers and built a second floor addition without a permit," forcing the city's hand.

Having never had anything more than a marginally good time at Studio B, we can't say we're sorry to see it go, but those nostalgic for the good old days of February won't be left without options. Galapagos, recently relocated to Dumbo, is now open, hosting theater, cabaret, dance, orchestral music, puppetry and whatever else you can imagine (although no rock and/or roll).

Brooklyn Based, the thrice-weekly email list of the borough's best offerings, has an interview with the art space's director and founder Robert Elmes, in which he reveals that they might start a "new ferry planned for N. 8th Street to Dumbo" to help shuttle the crowds from Williamsburg. And all this time we were worried the Real World would be bad.

There has been a lot of chatter this week about the ever disappearing "New York of Old." First there was a Times article on the last remnants of Manhattan's Lower East Side shops, and then came word that everyone's favorite late night eatery "Florent" would close its doors next month (the addition of mac 'n cheese to the menu was apparently a sign of the end times). Now the NYTs "City Room" wants to know what you miss about "Old New York."

Personally, we've never been one hundred percent convinced that the place actually existed — not that this ever stops us from bemoaning the current state of Ave B or complaining about the fact there are tour buses in Brooklyn. A glance over the comments reveals that, so far, the winner (or loser depending how you look at it) seems to be the old Penn Station. However, this guy definitely gets top marks for sarcasm (or is he merely channeling the future?).

Banks. I miss banks. Have you noticed there aren't any more BANKS in Ol' Gotham? Can't find a one anywhere. And drugstores! Oh, how I miss seeing those Duane Reade's and CVS's and Walgreens.

FishbowlDC reports the sad news that Bloomberg's Lee Walczak lost his two-year battle with cancer Sunday night. Before joining Bloomberg in 2006, he had been BusinessWeek's Washington bureau chief for 20 years.

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Veteran ZDNet blogger Russell Shaw passed away this weekend. He covered internet telephony for the company.

Our thoughts go out to his friends and family.