By GalaTView Staff

Photo cortesy google

Los Angeles courtroom begun the trial of the doctor Conrad Murray accused of killingMichael Jackson. As a worldwide audience watched on TV and Jackson’s family looked on from inside the courtroom.

Defense  attorneys countered that Jackson caused his own death by taking a drug dose, including propofol, after Murray left the room.

Prosecutors played the audio for the first time during opening statements as they portrayed Dr. Conrad Murray, 58, as an incompetent physician who used a dangerous anesthetic without adequate safeguards and whose neglect left the superstar abandoned as he lay dying.

Nothing the cardiologist could have done would have saved the King of Pop, defense attorney Ed Chernoff told jurors, because Jackson was desperate to regain his fame and needed rest to prepare for a series of crucial comeback concerts.

A number of Jackson’s family members were in the courthouse, including his father Joseph, mother Katherine, sisters LaToya and Janet, and brothers Jermaine, Randy and Tito. LaToya Jackson carried a sunflower, her brother’s favorite flower.

Murray, who arrived at court holding hands with his mother, is charged with involuntary manslaughter. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison and the loss of his medical license.

Speaking for more than an hour, prosecutor David Walgren relied on photos and audio recordings to paint Murray as an inept and reckless caretaker.

Walgren showed a photo of a lifeless Jackson on a hospital gurney. He juxtaposed the image with those of Jackson performing. Walgren also played the recording of Jackson speaking to Murray while, the prosecutor said, the singer was under the influence of an unknown substance roughly six weeks before his death.

Jackson trusted Murray as his physician, and “that misplaced trust in Conrad Murray cost Michael Jackson his life,” Walgren said.

Jurors were told that it was a powerful anesthetic, not a sleep aid, and the prosecutor said Murray severely misused it.

“The evidence will not show you that Michael Jackson died because Dr. Murray gave him propofol. The evidence is going to show you Michael Jackson died when Dr. Murray stopped,” the attorney said. He said Murray was trying to wean Jackson off of propofol and had been giving him other sleep aids known as benzodiazepines trying to lull him to sleep.

On June 25, 2009, the last day of Jackson’s life, Chernoff said, he was in the third day of a weaning process and it didn’t work.

Murray, in a recording of his interview with police detectives, acknowledged that he relented and agreed to give Jackson a small dose of propofol.

Walgren said Murray’s claim that he gave the singer a minuscule dosage, enough to keep him asleep perhaps five minutes, was not true. He also accused Murray of deception when he hid from paramedics and hospital emergency staff that he had given Jackson propofol. He said they were desperately trying to revive him but didn’t know about the drug.

He returned repeatedly to the fee Murray was to be paid — $150,000 a month — and pointed out that he first had asked for $5 million.

Jackson’s family members appeared pained as Walgren described the singer as a vulnerable figure, left alone with drugs coursing through his body.

Following opening statements, Jackson’s choreographer and friend, Kenny Ortega, testified that Jackson was in bad shape physically and mentally less than a week before his death.

He said he sent a message to Randy Phillips, producer of the “This Is It” concert, telling him that Jackson was ill, probably should have a psychological evaluation and was not ready to perform.

2,450th Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Category of Recording,The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored   Melissa Etheridge with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, September 27, at 11:30 a.m. in front of Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood, 6901 Hollywood Boulevard.   The star ceremony ties into Hard Rock’s PINKTOBER™ month-long campaign featuring star-studded PINK carpet events, high-energy concerts and more at Hard Rock Cafes, Hotels and Casinos worldwide, raising awareness and funds for breast cancer research.

By Jenny Alvarez

Photos cortesy:  Cirque du Soleil

This incredible show was presented in Los Angeles on September 25^th, at the Kodak Theater, the home of the Academy Awards. This is full of lyrical, fanciful, kinetic foray into the seventh art. Bringing together dance, acrobatics, live video, filmed sequences and animation, the show takes spectators on a fantastic voyage through the history of cinema and its genres, taking them into the heart of the movie-making process. From illustration to animation, black and white to color, silent films to talkies, fixed shots to swooping camera movements, spectators witness the poetic construction/deconstruction of this art as an object and as a way of transcending reality.

Featuring 72 performers, 200 costumes, 8,300 square feet of floor surface, 174 loudspeakers, 603 lighting features, 20 video projectors, and 166,000 watts of sound, IRIS joins the other Cirque du Soleil resident productions in scale, scope and size. This production is absolutely worth the money. It is a more cohesive story, easily understood, the acts are tight and the transitions are smoother. The dancers have incredible technique and flexibility. The performers/stunts are dynamic and spot on. And the most important thing, this show does not forget the comedy and parody. However, seats under the balcony cannot see the finale at all; performers are too high, the balcony totally blocks the view but this is not an issue, the audience will enjoy a weird, good and strange show. You have to go see it because is highly recommended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LBajou7a_g