Green Day is an American rock trio formed in 1987.[1] The band has consisted of Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass guitar, vocals), and Tré Cool (drums, percussion) for the majority of its existence.

Green Day was originally part of the punk rock scene at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. Its early releases for independent record label Lookout! Records earned them a grassroots fanbase, some of whom felt alienated when the band signed to a major label.Nevertheless, its major label debut Dookie (1994) became a breakout success and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. and 15 million worldwide.As a result, Green Day was widely credited, alongside fellow California punk bands The Offspring and Rancid, with reviving mainstream interest in and popularizing punk rock in the United States.Green Day’s three follow-up albums, Insomniac, Nimrod and Warning did not achieve the massive success of Dookie, but they were still successful, reaching double platinum, double platinum, and gold status respectively.Green Day’s 2004 rock opera American Idiot reignited the band’s popularity with a younger generation, selling five million copies in the U.S.The band’s eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, was released on May 15, 2009.

Green Day has sold over 22 million records in the United States.They have won three Grammy Awards; Best Alternative Album for Dookie, Best Rock Album for American Idiot, and Record of the Year for “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.

Band history

Formation and Lookout years: 1987-1993

“Welcome to Paradise”
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Sample of “Welcome to Paradise” from Kerplunk This was before Green Day re-recorded the song for its major-label debut Dookie.
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In 1987, friends Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, 15 years old at the time, formed a band called Sweet Children. The first Sweet Children show took place on October 17, 1987, at Rod’s Hickory Pit in Vallejo, California where Armstrong’s mother was working. In 1988, Armstrong and Dirnt began working with former Isocracy drummer, John Kiffmeyer (also known as Al Sobrante). Kiffmeyer served as both the band’s drummer and business manager, handling the booking of shows and helping the band establish a fan base.

Larry Livermore, owner of Lookout! Records, saw the band play an early show and signed them to his label. In 1989 they recorded their first EP, 1,000 Hours. Before 1,000 Hours was released, the band dropped the name Sweet Children, according to Livermore this was done in order to avoid confusion with another local band Sweet Baby,The band adopted the name Green Day, allegedly due to their fondness of marijuana.

Lookout! would release Green Day’s first LP, 39/Smooth in early 1990. Green Day would record two EPs later that year: Slappy and Sweet Children, the latter of which included some older songs they had recorded for Minneapolis indie label Skene! Records. In 1991, Lookout! Records released 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, a compilation of the 39/Smooth, Slappy, and 1,000 Hours EPs. In late 1990, shortly after the band’s first nationwide tour, Sobrante left the East Bay area to attend college.[9] The Lookouts drummer Tré Cool began filling in as a temporary replacement, and when it became clear that Sobrante did not plan on committing to the band full time, Tré Cool’s position as Green Day’s drummer became permanent. The band went on tour for most of 1992 and 1993, and played a stretch of shows overseas in Europe. The band’s second full length album Kerplunk sold about 50,000 copies in the U.S.

Breakthrough success: 1994-1996

Kerplunk’s underground success led to a wave of interest coming from major record labels, and eventually they left Lookout! on friendly terms and signed with Reprise Records after attracting the attention of producer Rob Cavallo. Signing to Reprise caused many punk rock fans to regard Green Day as sellouts.Reflecting on the period, Armstrong told Spin magazine in 1999, “I couldn’t go back to the punk scene, whether we were the biggest success in the world or the biggest failure … The only thing I could do was get on my bike and go forward.” After signing with Reprise, the band went to work on recording its major label debut, Dookie.

“Longview”
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Sample of “Longview”, the first single from Dookie, which combined a memorable bass line with a guitar riff and drums introduced in the chorus.
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“Basket Case”
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Sample of “Basket Case”, the third single from Dookie, which was about Armstrong’s panic attacks.
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Released in February 1994, and recorded in 3 weeks, Dookie became a commercial success, helped by extensive MTV airplay for the videos of the songs “Longview”, “Basket Case”, and “When I Come Around”, all of which reached the number one position on the Modern Rock Tracks charts. That year, Green Day embarked on a nationwide tour with queercore band Pansy Division as its opening act. At a September 9, 1994 concert at Boston Esplanade, mayhem broke-out during the band’s set (cut short to seven songs) and by the end of the rampage, 100 people were injured and 45 arrested.[15] The band also joined the lineups of both the Lollapalooza festival and Woodstock 1994, where they started an infamous mud fight. During the concert, a security guard mistook bassist Mike Dirnt for a stage-invading fan and punched out some of his teeth. Viewed by millions via pay-per-view television, the Woodstock 1994 performance further aided Green Day’s growing publicity and recognition,[16] and helped push its album to eventual diamond status. In 1995, Dookie won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and the band was nominated for 9 MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year.
The full fold-out artwork to Insomniac, entitled God Told Me to Skin You Alive.

In 1995, a new single for the Angus soundtrack was released, titled “J.A.R.”. The single went straight to number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song was followed by the band’s new album, Insomniac, which was released in the fall of 1995. Insomniac was a much darker and heavier response by the band, compared to the poppier, more melodic Dookie.Insomniac opened to a warm critical reception, earning 4 out of 5 stars from Rolling Stone, which said “In punk, the good stuff actually unfolds and gains meaning as you listen without sacrificing any of its electric, haywire immediacy. And Green Day are as good as this stuff gets.” Insomniac used a piece of art by Winston Smith entitled God Told Me to Skin You Alive for its album cover. The singles released from Insomniac were “Geek Stink Breath”, “Brain Stew/Jaded”, “Walking Contradiction”, and “Stuck With Me”. Though the album did not approach the success of Dookie, it still sold two million copies in the United States. Insomniac won the band award nominations for Favorite Artist, Favorite Hard Rock Artist, and Favorite Alternative Artist at the 1996 American Music Awards, and the video for “Walking Contradiction” got the band a Grammy nomination for Best Video, Short Form, in addition to a Best Special Effects nomination at the MTV Video Music Awards.After that, the band abruptly cancelled a European tour, citing exhaustion.

Middle era and fall in popularity: 1997-2002

After taking a break in 1996, Green Day began to work on a new album in 1997. From the outset, both the band and Cavallo agreed that the album had to be different from its previous records.[22] The result was Nimrod, an experimental deviation from the band’s standard pop-punk brand of music. The new album was released in October 1997. It provided a variety of music, from pop-punk, surf rock, and ska, to an acoustic ballad. Nimrod entered the charts at number 10. The success of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” won the band an MTV Video Award for Best Alternative Video for the song’s video, which depicted people undergoing major changes in their lives while Billie Joe Armstrong strummed his acoustic guitar.[23] The song was also used in the second “clip show” episode of Seinfeld and on two episodes of ER. The other singles released from Nimrod were “Nice Guys Finish Last”, “Hitchin’ a Ride” and “Redundant”. The band made a guest appearance in an episode of King of the Hill entitled “The Man Who Shot Cane Skretteberg”, which aired in 1997.

In 2000, Green Day released Warning, a step further in the style that they had hinted at with Nimrod. Critics’ reviews of the album were varied. Allmusic gave it 4.5/5 saying “Warning may not be an innovative record per se, but it’s tremendously satisfying.”[25] Rolling Stone was more critical, giving it 3/5, and saying “Warning… invites the question: Who wants to listen to songs of faith, hope and social commentary from what used to be snot-core’s biggest-selling band?”Though it produced the hit “Minority” and a smaller hit with “Warning”, some observers were coming to the conclusion that the band was losing relevance,and a decline in popularity followed. While all of Green Day’s past albums had reached a status of at least double platinum, Warning was only certified gold.

At the 2001 California Music Awards, Green Day won all eight awards that they were nominated for. They won the awards for Outstanding Album (Warning), Outstanding Punk Rock/Ska Album (Warning), Outstanding Group, Outstanding Male Vocalist, Outstanding Bassist, Outstanding Drummer, Outstanding Songwriter and Outstanding Artist.

The release of a Greatest Hits compilation, International Superhits!, and an assemblage of B-sides, Shenanigans, followed Warning. International Superhits and its companion collection of music videos, International Supervideos!, sold reasonably well, going platinum in the U.S. Shenanigans contained some of the band’s b-sides, including “Espionage” which was featured in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

In the spring of 2002, Green Day co-headlined the Pop Disaster Tour with Blink-182. Despite the co-headlining title, Green Day would play each show before Blink-182, who at the time were experiencing more success. The tour was documented on the DVD Riding In Vans With Boys.

American Idiot and renewed success: 2003-2006
Spectators watch Green Day from the grass slopes at the National Bowl.

In the summer of 2003 the band went into a studio to write and record new material for a new album, tentatively titled Cigarettes and Valentines.[28] After completing 20 tracks, the master tapes were stolen from the studio. The band chose not to try to re-create the stolen album, but instead started over. By the end of 2003[when?], Green Day collaborated with Iggy Pop on two tracks for his album Skull Ring. On February 1, 2004 a new song, a cover of “I Fought the Law” made its debut on a commercial for iTunes during NFL Super Bowl XXXVIII. The band underwent serious “band therapy,” engaging in several long talks to work out the members’ differences after accusations from Dirnt and Cool that Armstrong was “the band’s Nazi”and a show-off bent on taking the limelight from the other band members.

The resulting 2004 album, American Idiot, debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, the band’s first ever album to top the chart, backed by the success of the album’s first single, “American Idiot.” The album was billed as a “punk rock opera” which follows the journey of the fictitious “Jesus of Suburbia”. American Idiot won the 2005 Grammy for “Best Rock Album” and the band swept the 2005 MTV music awards, winning a total of seven of the eight awards they were nominated for, including the coveted Viewer’s Choice Award.

Through 2005, the band toured in support of the album with about 150 dates - the longest tour in its career - visiting Japan, Australia, South America and the United Kingdom, where they drew a crowd of 130,000 people over a span of two days. While touring for American Idiot, they filmed and recorded the two concerts at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in England, which was voted ‘The Best Show On Earth’ in a Kerrang! Magazine Poll.

These recordings were released as a live CD and DVD called Bullet in a Bible on November 15, 2005. This CD/DVD featured hits from American Idiot as well as a few songs from all its previous albums, except “Kerplunk” and “1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours”. The DVD featured behind-the-scenes footage of the band, and showed how the band prepared to put on the show. The final shows of its 2005 world tour were in Sydney, Australia, and Melbourne, Australia, on December 14 and 17 respectively. On January 10, 2006 the band was awarded with a People’s Choice Award for favorite group.
Green Day live in Germany during the American Idiot tour.

On August 1, 2005, Green Day announced that that it had rescinded the master rights to its pre-Dookie material from Lookout! Records, citing a continuing breach of contract regarding unpaid royalties, a complaint shared with other Lookout! bands. The pre-Dookie material, which remained out of print for about a year, was reissued by the band’s current label, Reprise, on January 9, 2007.

In 2006, Green Day won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year for “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”which spent 16 weeks at the number one position of Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks, a record it shared along with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Scar Tissue” and Staind’s “It’s Been Awhile,” (the record has been since been beaten by Foo Fighters’ 2007 hit “The Pretender” which reigned at the top spot for 18 weeks).

Brandon Flowers of The Killers went on record in 2007 claiming that Green Day’s politically driven concept album American Idiot displays “calculated Anti-Americanism.” He explained that he has problems with the album content itself and also the fact that the band’s live DVD, Bullet in a Bible, was filmed in England. The taping of the concert, featured on Bullet in a Bible, shows thousands of Europeans singing along to “American Idiot.” Stating that he felt Green Day’s DVD is a bit of a stunt, he said, “I just thought it was really cheap. To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids aren’t taking it the same way that he meant it. And he (Billie Joe Armstrong) knew it.”

Foxboro Hot Tubs and 21st Century Breakdown: 2007-present
Green Day performing during a secret show at Webster Hall on May 18, 2009

Green Day engaged in several other smaller projects in the time following the hype of American Idiot. Green Day released a new album under the band name Foxboro Hot Tubs entitled Stop Drop and Roll!!!.

In an interview with Kerrang!, Billie Joe revealed that 2008 would “be a fair estimate of the release date of their new untitled eighth studio album for Green Day.”In an interview with Carson Daly, Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson revealed that Butch Vig would be producing Green Day’s forthcoming album.The span of nearly five years between American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown was the longest gap between studio albums in Green Day’s career. The band had been working on new material since January 2006. By October 2007, Armstrong had 45 songs written, but the band showed no further signs of progress until October 2008, when a video of the group recording with producer Butch Vig in the studio was posted on YouTube. Two videos showing the band in the studio were posted on YouTube. In the tour section of the band’s official website, the message “World Tour coming soon!” is shown.The writing and recording process, spanning three years and four recording studios, was finally finished in April 2009.

The new album is titled 21st Century Breakdown and was released worldwide on May 15, 2009. It has received rave reviews from the likes of Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic.[44] The album had mainly positive reception from critics, getting an average rating between 4 and 5 stars. After the release, the album hit #1 in fourteen different countries, hitting Gold or Platinum in each. 21st Century Breakdown achieved Green Day’s best chart performance to date. The band started playing shows in California in April and early May. It was their first live show in about 3 years. Green Day will be going on a world tour starting with North America in July, 2009 and continuing around the world throughout the rest of 2009.
Musical style and influences

Green Day’s sound is often compared to first wave punk bands such as the Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Jam, and the Buzzcocks.[21][46] The majority of their song catalog is composed of distorted guitar, fast, manic drums, and relatively high-treble bass. Most of their songs are fast-paced and under four minutes. Billie Joe Armstrong has mentioned that some of his biggest influences are seminal alternative rock bands Hüsker Dü and The Replacements, and that their influence is particularly noted in the band’s chord changes in songs.In fact, Green Day has covered Hüsker Dü’s “Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely” as a b-side for the “Warning” single, and the character “Mr. Whirly” in their song “Misery” is a reference to the Replacements song of the same name.[47] Among other influences, Green Day have also cited Queen, proto-punks The Who, and power pop pioneers Cheap Trick.[49] Armstrong’s lyrics commonly describe alienation, (”Jesus of Suburbia”, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, “Road to Acceptance”, “Disappearing Boy”, “Castaway”) hysteria (”Basket Case”, “Panic Song”), girls (”She”, “80″ “Only of You”,”Maria” “She’s a Rebel”), growing up (”Longview” and “Welcome to Paradise”), and the effects of doing drugs (”Geek Stink Breath”, “Green Day”). The Ramones had similar lyrical themes such as hysteria (”Anxiety”, “Psycho Therapy”), alienation (”Outsider”, “Something To Believe In”), girls (”I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”, “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”), and drugs (”Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”, “Chinese Rocks”). Green Day has covered Ramones songs several times, including recording “Outsider” for the tribute album We’re a Happy Family, and performing “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Teenage Lobotomy” when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Beginning with the release of Dookie, and the subsequent explosion of MTV airplay it received, Green Day has received considerable criticism from who see the punk genre as a social movement independent of corporate sponsorship. With the release of American Idiot and the subsequent draw of many new fans[who?], much of this criticism has been revived.

One of the more contentious issues is genre labeling. In reaction to both the style of music and the background of the band, many[weasel words] fans and musicians have taken heavy objection to the use of the term “punk” when applied to Green Day. This is evidenced by the following comments issued by John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), former front man of both the 1970s punk band the Sex Pistols and the 1980s post-punk, Public Image Ltd.:

So there we are fending off all that and it pisses me off that years later a wank outfit like Green Day hop in and nick all that and attach it to themselves. They didn’t earn their wings to do that and if they were true punk they wouldn’t look anything like they do.

Noel Gallagher has also complained about the band, claiming that they ripped off “Wonderwall” in their song “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.

Ever since 1991, some members of the band have branched out past Green Day and have started other projects with other musicians. Notable related projects of Green Day include Billie Joe Armstrong’s Pinhead Gunpowder (which also features Green Day’s live backup guitarist Jason White), The Frustrators in which Mike Dirnt plays bass, and The Network, in which all three members of Green Day play under fake stage names.[51] Billie Joe Armstrong has also confirmed that the main members of Green Day are in the band Foxboro Hot Tubs. A Foxboro Hot Tubs album titled Stop Drop and Roll!!! was released on 2008-05-20.

In September 2006, Green Day teamed up with U2 and producer Rick Rubin to record a cover of the song “The Saints Are Coming”, originally recorded by The Skids, with an accompanying video. The song is to benefit Music Rising, an organization to help raise money for musicians’ instruments lost during Hurricane Katrina, and to bring awareness on the eve of the one year anniversary of the disaster.

“Working Class Hero”
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“Working Class Hero”, a cover of a John Lennon song, was released on the Instant Karma CD.
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In December 2006, Green Day and NRDC opened a web site in partnership to raise awareness on America’s dependency on oil.

Green Day released a cover of the John Lennon song “Working Class Hero”, that was featured on the album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. The band performed the song on the season finale of American Idol. The song was nominated for a Grammy in 2008, but lost to The White Stripes’ “Icky Thump”.

That summer, the band appeared in a cameo role in The Simpsons Movie, where they perform the show’s theme song. Their version was released as a single on July 24, 2007.

Band members

Current

* Billie Joe Armstrong - lead vocals, lead & rhythm guitars (1987-present)
* Mike Dirnt - bass, backing vocals (1987-present)
* Tré Cool - drums, percussion, backing vocals (1990-present)

with

* Jason White - lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals (1999-present)
* Jason Freese - keyboards, piano, acoustic guitar, trombone, saxophone, accordion, backing vocals (2003-present)
* Jeff Matika - rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2009-present)

Former

* John Kiffmeyer - drums, percussion, backing vocals (1987-1990)

Former touring musicians

* Gabrial McNair - trombone, tenor saxophone (1999-2001)
* Timmy Chunks - rhythm guitar (1997-1999)[56]
* Garth Schultz - trombone, trumpet (1997-1999)
* Kurt Lohmiller - trumpet, timpani, percussion, vocals (1999-2004)
* Ronnie Blake - trumpet, timpani, percussion, backing vocals (2004-2005)
* Mike Pelino - rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2004-2005)[57]

Session

* Gabrial McNair - trombone on Nimrod (1997)
* Gary Meek - saxophone on Warning (2000)
* Jason Freese - saxophone on American Idiot (2004) and piano on 21st Century Breakdown (2009)
* Petra Haden - violin on Nimrod (1997)
* Rob Cavallo - piano on American Idiot (2004)
* Stephen Bradley - trumpet on Nimrod (1997) and Warning (2000)

Discography
Main article: Green Day discography

* 39/Smooth (1990)
* Kerplunk (1992)
* Dookie (1994)
* Insomniac (1995)
* Nimrod (1997)
* Warning (2000)
* American Idiot (2004)
* 21st Century Breakdown (2009)

Kate Noelle “Katie” Holmes (born December 18, 1978) is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson’s Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have ranged from art house films such as The Ice Storm to thrillers such as Abandon to blockbusters such as Batman Begins.

In early 2005, Holmes began a highly publicized relationship with actor Tom Cruise, which drew attention due to the sixteen-year age difference between the two. In June, two months after they first met, Holmes and Cruise were engaged. Their relationship made Holmes the subject of international media attention, much of it negative, including speculation the relationship was a publicity stunt to promote the couple’s films.Holmes, who was brought up as a Roman Catholic,joined the Church of Scientology shortly after the couple began dating.On April 18, 2006, Holmes gave birth to their daughter, Suri. On November 18, 2006, she and Cruise were married in Italy.
Early life

Holmes was born in Toledo, Ohio,the youngest in a family of five children (four daughters, one son) of Kathleen A. Stothers, a homemaker and a philanthropist, and Martin Joseph Holmes, Sr. (born 1945), an attorney specializing in divorces.She lived in the Corey Woods section of Sylvania Township, Lucas County, in a brick 1862 Italianate-style home.Her siblings are Tamera (born c. 1968), Holly Ann (born 1969), Martin Joseph, Jr. (born 1970), who works as a lawyer in Ohio, and Nancy Kay (Blaylock), a teacher (born c. 1975).

Holmes, baptized a Roman Catholic attended Christ the King Church and parochial schools in Toledo.Her high school was the all-female Notre Dame Academy, her mother’s alma mater, where Katie was a 4.0 student.At St. John’s Jesuit, a nearby all-male high school, she appeared in school musicals, playing a waiter in Hello, Dolly! and Lola in Damn Yankees.She scored 1310 out of 1600 on her SAT and was accepted to Columbia University (and attended for a summer session);her father wanted her to be a doctor.Holmes loved reading: “I never feel lonely in a bookstore”, she said.A British writer profiling her in 2003 said “The way Holmes approached her unusual education was as American as apple pie: she went to cheerleading practice, got straight A grades, and made a pledge that she would remain a virgin until marriage.”Holmes told her hometown paper The Blade that the three words best describing herself were “honest, determined, and imaginative.”

At age fourteen she began classes at a modeling school in Toledo run by Margaret O’Brien, who took her to IMTA, the International Modeling and Talent Association Competition held in New York City in 1996. There she found an agent after performing a monologue from To Kill a Mockingbird.An audition tape was sent to the casting director for the 1997 film The Ice Storm, directed by Ang Lee. She was cast in the role of Libbets Casey, in the film which starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. Ang Lee told The Blade, “Katie was cast because she had the perfect amount of innocence and worldliness that we needed for Libbets. I was really taken by her wide open eyes. She really is a beautiful girl but there is also a lot of intelligence there and it shows.”

Acting

Early work

In January 1997, Holmes went to Los Angeles for pilot season, when producers cast and shoot new programs in the hopes of securing a spot on a network schedule. The Blade reported she was offered the lead in Buffy the Vampire Slayer but she turned it down.Columbia Tri-Star Television, producer of a new show created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson, asked her to come to Los Angeles to audition, but there was a conflict with her schedule. “I was doing my school play, Damn Yankees. And I was playing Lola. I even got to wear the feather boa. I thought, ‘There is no way I’m not playing Lola to go audition for some network. I couldn’t let my school down. We had already sold a lot of tickets. So I told Kevin and The WB, ‘I’m sorry. I just can’t meet with you this week. I’ve got other commitments.’”
The producers permitted her to audition on videotape. Holmes read for the part of Joey Potter, the tomboy best friend of the title character Dawson, on a videotape shot in her basement, her mother reading Dawson’s lines.[19][20] The Hollywood Reporter claimed the story of Holmes’s audition “has become the stuff of legend” and “no one even thought that it was weird that one of the female leads would audition via Federal Express.”

Holmes won the part. Paul Stupin, executive producer of the show, said his first reaction on seeing her audition tape was “That’s Joey Potter!”Creator and executive producer Kevin Williamson said Holmes has a “unique combination of talent, beauty and skill that makes Hollywood come calling. But that’s just the beginning. To meet her is to instantly fall under her spell.”Williamson thought she had exactly the right look for Joey Potter. “She had those eyes, those eyes just stained with loneliness.”

Dawson’s Creek

“Joey Potter is a headstrong, vibrant, wily, sultry, and determined go-getter. And yet, in a gloriously contradictory manner, in spite of her tough-as-nails exterior demeanor, Joey’s also a frail, sometimes uncertain, emotionally sensitive, in-need-of-love person”, said the show’s official book.Joey, named for Jo in Little Women, for years had been climbing in Dawson’s bedroom window and platonically sharing his bed. Joey’s mother had died from cancer when Joey was thirteen and her father, Mike (Gareth Williams), was in prison for “conspiracy to traffic in marijuana in excess of 10,000 pounds.” Her harried, unmarried, and very pregnant sister, Bessie (Nina Repeta), about five years older than Joey, was raising her while running the Ice House restaurant, where Joey worked as a waitress. GQ described Joey as “kind of an uptight fussbudget-one who’s always twisted up over doing the right thing and bungling-up ways to hook up with her crush and across the creek neighbor, Dawson.”

“I’m a lot like Joey”, said Holmes. “I think they saw that. I come from a small town. I was a tomboy. Joey tries to be articulate and deny that she doesn’t have a lot of experience in life. Her life parallels mine, which is all about new everything-relationships, personal perceptions-and about being guarded.” Holmes filmed the pilot of Dawson’s Creek in Wilmington, North Carolina, during spring break of her senior year of high school in 1997.[26] When the show was picked up by The WB, Holmes moved to Wilmington, where the show filmed.

The tall (5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)) brunette enchanted the press, writers of both sexes commenting how Holmes was the sort of girl one wants to bring home to meet the parents and to marry.”The Audrey Hepburn of her generation”, was one typical comment. Time called her “impossibly lovely” and Entertainment Weekly said she was “next up for idolhood.”Variety, reviewing the pilot, said Holmes “is a confident young performer who delivers her lines with slyness and conviction.” Holmes made such an impression in Hollywood, The New York Times Magazine claimed everyone was seeking to cast a “Katie Holmes type”, who, the reporter claimed, “is a throwback to the 1950s: she is a smart girl next door (as opposed to the babe-o-rama blondes)”-the sort represented by her Dawson’s Creek co-star Michelle Williams.But her “type” was no less attractive, Arena magazine declaring her “the most coquettishly sexy woman on television. Anywhere.”

The show was aggressively marketed by The WB Network before its premiere in January 1998. The cast was featured in the J. Crew catalog and trailers for the program were shown in movie theatres. Before the premiere, the show’s talk of sex caused a stir in the press; one of the show’s producers, Procter and Gamble, withdrew after negative press in its hometown newspapers.Holmes was soon on the covers of magazines such as Seventeen, TV Guide, and Rolling Stone. Jancee Dunn, an editor at Rolling Stone said she was chosen for the cover because “every time you mention Dawson’s Creek you tend to get a lot of dolphin-like shrieks from teenage girls. The fact that she is drop-dead gorgeous didn’t hurt either.”

Reviews were mixed. The Blade said the characters “just talk like they came from a planet ruled by Manhattan psychologists, one where small talk is punishable by death.”Holmes herself needed help with the dialogue. “Sometimes before we read a script, I have to get my dictionary and call people to make sure I’m pronouncing some of the words correctly.”The show brought her national attention and many fans back home; Toledo’s Thanksgiving Day parade in November 1998 had record attendance when Holmes was named grand marshal.

Dawson’s Creek ran from 1998 to 2003, and Holmes was the only actor to appear in all 128 episodes. “It was very difficult for me to leave Wilmington, to have my little glass bubble burst and move on. I hate change. On the other hand it was refreshing to play someone else”, she said in 2004. Holmes confirmed that, as is often the case on soaps, the character was a caricature of the actor:
” I miss her spirit, and her spunk, and I miss her anxiety. She always had these long speeches about her fears and her future and love. It was a great tool for me personally because I got to get it all out. I was able to psychoanalyze all of it everyday with her and then I wouldn’t have to do it on my own. So much of me is in Joey and it really felt like I grew up on television. ”

“As Joey”, said Life magazine, “Holmes has had seismic influences on teen life… Through it all, Joey has managed to hang on to her integrity… The show-and Katie’s character in particular-has touched a nerve.”

Film

In 2005, Holmes characterized her film career as being a string of “bombs.” “Usually I’m not even in the top ten”, she said, the highest grossing film of her career at that time being Phone Booth, in which she played a supporting role.She lamented “It’s not like I have a lot of stuff that’s great just waiting for me to sign on to.”

Her first leading role came in Disturbing Behavior (1998), a Scream-era Stepford Wives-goes-to-high school thriller, where she was a loner from the wrong side of the tracks. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote her character, Rachel, “dresses in black and likes to strike poses on the beds of pickup trucks and is a bad girl who is in great danger of becoming a very good one.”The actress won a MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance for the role, though Holmes said the film was “just horrible.”

Holmes played a disaffected supermarket clerk in Doug Liman’s acclaimed ensemble piece Go (1999).

She had an uncredited cameo with Dawson’s Creek co-star Joshua Jackson in Muppets from Space (1999), which was also filmed in Wilmington.

In Kevin Williamson’s Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), which he wrote and directed, Holmes played a straight-A student whose vindictive teacher (Helen Mirren) threatens to keep her from a desperately needed scholarship.

In Wonder Boys (2000), directed by Curtis Hanson from the novel by Michael Chabon, Holmes had a small role (six and one-half minutes of screen time) but nevertheless attracted the attention of numerous film critics with her performance as Hannah Green, the talented student who lusts after Professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas), her creative writing instructor and landlord. Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times said she was “just right as the beauty with kind of a crush on the old man.”

In The Gift (2000), a Southern Gothic story directed by Sam Raimi and starring Cate Blanchett, she played the antithesis of Joey Potter: a promiscuous rich girl having affairs with everyone from a sociopathic wife-beater (Keanu Reeves) to the district attorney (Gary Cole), and is murdered by her fiancé (Greg Kinnear). Holmes did her first nude scene for the film, in a scene where her character was about to be murdered. The scene was originally written with her character completely nude, but a nervous Holmes opted to wear panties the day before the shoot. Of the scene, she said, “I just hope there aren’t a lot of pauses on DVD players.”Her appearance was lamented by Variety’s Steven Kotler: “It seems the only time we see a naked woman on screen is when someone like Katie Holmes needs to break with her sanitized WB past and march brazenly into a new future.”In Ohio, the scene met with disapproval, Russ Lemmon writing in The Blade:
” Toledo’s Katie Holmes-whose popularity is probably directly proportional to her perceived level of sweetness and innocence-bares her breasts in The Gift. . . Say it ain’t so, Katie. . . Katie’s topless scene was gratuitous. It added nothing to the movie . . I hope it added to her checking account, above and beyond what she would have received for appearing fully clothed throughout. I also hope her contract stipulated that she will receive a percentage of DVD rentals and sales. As one Internet writer on roughcut.com put it: Katie’s topless scene assures that “The Gift will be the DVD most rented by teenage (and not teenage) boys in the history of freeze frame” . . . It seems to me that the four years that she spent cultivating a wholesome image vanished in just a few seconds-in a potential box-office bomb, no less. ”

In Abandon (2002), written by Oscar winner Stephen Gaghan, Holmes was a delusional, homicidal college student named “Katie.” Todd McCarthy of Variety and Roger Ebert commended her performance,[56] but other critics and audiences savaged it.The actress played the mistress of the public relations flack played by Colin Farrell in Phone Booth (2002) and Robert Downey, Jr.’s nurse in The Singing Detective (2003). Holmes’s next starring role was in Pieces of April (2003), a gritty comedy about a dysfunctional family on Thanksgiving. Variety said it was “one of her best film performances.”[58] “Each actor shines”, wrote Elvis Mitchell, “even Ms. Holmes, whose beauty seems to have fogged the minds of her previous directors” in playing “a brat who is slaving to find her inner decency and barely has the equipment for such an achievement, let alone to serve a meal whose salmonella potential could claim an entire borough. Yet it is her surliness, as well as her intransigent determination to make Thanksgiving work, that keeps the laughs coming.”

Holmes played the President’s daughter in First Daughter, which was originally to be released in January 2004 on the same day as Chasing Liberty, another film about a president’s daughter, but was ultimately released in September 2004 to dismal reviews and ticket sales. First Daughter, directed by Forest Whitaker, also starred Michael Keaton as her father and Marc Blucas as her love interest. The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt called her character, Samantha Mackenzie, “a startling example of how a studio film can dumb down and neutralize the comic abilities of a lively young star.”In the 2005 film Batman Begins, the most successful film of her career to date, she played Rachel Dawes, an attorney in the Gotham City district attorney’s office and the childhood sweetheart of the title character. Variety was unenthusiastic. “Holmes is OK”, was its critic’s sole remark on her performance.She received a Golden Raspberry nomination for “worst supporting actress” for the film.

In 2005, she appeared in the film version of Christopher Buckley’s satirical novel Thank You for Smoking about a tobacco lobbyist played by Aaron Eckhart, whom Holmes’s character, a Washington reporter, seduces. Variety wrote one of the film’s “sole relatively weak notes from Holmes, who lacks even a hint of the wiliness of a ruthless reporter” and The New York Times said the cast was “exceptionally fine” except for Holmes, who “strain[ed] credulity” in her role.

After speculation about her reprising her role in The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins, it was finally confirmed that she would not appear. Her role was later recast with Maggie Gyllenhaal in her place. Instead, she decided to star in the comedy Mad Money, opposite Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah.

Holmes had agreed to play in Shame on You, a biopic about the country singer Spade Cooley written and directed by Dennis Quaid, as the wife whom Cooley (played by Quaid) stomps to death. But the picture, set to shoot in New Orleans, Louisiana, was delayed by Hurricane Katrina, and Holmes dropped out because of her pregnancy.

Stage

Holmes made her Broadway debut in the revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons in September 2008. She opened to mixed reviews. The New York Times’ Ben Brantley claimed “the neophyte Ms. Holmes” is a “sad casualty” of director Simon McBurney’s “high concept approach” to the play. He adds that “Ms. Holmes delivers most of her lines with meaningful asperity, italicising every word”. Clive Barnes of the New York Post was similarly unimpressed by Holmes - and had few compliments for her co-stars. He wrote, “Lithgow starts in a sunny, benign fashion, but eventually finds himself screeching alongside Holmes, looking tough under a glossy wig.” However, The New York Daily News’ Joe Dziemianowicz was won over by the actress’ first stint on stage, writing, “Holmes, a TV and film vet, makes a fine Broadway debut. Her rather grand speech pattern takes getting used to, but she seems comfortable and adds a fitting glint of glamour.”In 2009, Holmes appeared in the National Memorial Day Concert on the Mall in Washington, D.C. in a dialogue with Dianne Wiest celebrating the life of an American veteran seriously wounded in Iraq, José Pequeño.

Holmes in the media

Holmes hosted Saturday Night Live on February 24, 2001, participating in a send-up of Dawson’s Creek where she falls madly in love with Chris Kattan’s Mr. Peepers character and singing “Big Spender” from Sweet Charity. On the November 9, 2003 episode, she was Punk’d by Ashton Kutcher and the next year she was the subject of an episode of the MTV program Diary.

Holmes was annually named by both the British and American editions of FHM magazine as one of the sexiest women in the world from 1999 forward. She was named one of People’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2003; its sibling Teen People declared her one of the “25 Hottest Stars Under 25″ that year;and in 2005, People said she was one of the ten best dressed stars that year.She has appeared in advertisements for Garnier Lumia haircolor, Coach leather goods, and clothing retailer The Gap.

On November 4, 2007 Holmes ran, and successfully completed, the New York Marathon in 5:29:58.

After much speculation, in late November 2008, it was confirmed that she is the new face of the Spring ‘09 campaign for the high-end fashion line Miu Miu.

Personal life

Holmes purchased a townhouse in Wilmington in 2002.When Dawson’s Creek ended its run in 2003, she moved to Los Angeles, California, then New York City in 2005, before going back to Los Angeles when she married Tom Cruise.Holmes dated her Dawson’s Creek co-star Joshua Jackson for all the first season and part of the second season, the relationship ending peacefully. She told Rolling Stone, “I fell in love, I had my first love, and it was something so incredible and indescribable that I will treasure it always. And that I feel so fortunate because he’s now one of my best friends.”Holmes met actor Chris Klein in 2000. A Midwesterner like Holmes-he grew up in Illinois and Nebraska-Klein and Holmes were engaged in late 2003, but in early 2005 she and Klein ended their relationship. Press accounts cited the distance imposed by their careers as a factor. In the fall of 2005, Klein said of the split, “We grew up. The fantasy was over and reality set in.”Holmes told a reporter in 2005, “Chris and I care about each other and we’re still friends.”
Weeks after her relationship with Chris Klein ended, Holmes began dating actor Tom Cruise. Their first public appearance together was on April 29, 2005, in Rome, Italy, at the David di Donatello Awards, the Italian equivalent of the Oscars.Her family expressed support, with her father stating, “We’re very excited for Katie”, and saying his daughter was “a very mature young lady with a good head on her shoulders. From all we have read and heard about, he’s a humanitarian and a real class act. From the perspective of a parent, we’re very excited for both of them”. Holmes’s sister Tamara said, “They’re both wonderful people.”

On May 23, 2005, Cruise appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, jumping on Winfrey’s couch and vociferously declaring his love for Holmes. He went backstage and pulled the embarrassed actress onto the program.Cruise proposed to Holmes in the early morning of June 17, 2005, atop Paris’s Eiffel Tower; she accepted.At the press conference, attended by Holmes’s mother, Cruise announced the news, declaring, “Today is a magnificent day for me. I’m engaged to a magnificent woman.”

Back in Toledo, the news was greeted with skepticism. Even before Holmes’ engagement, her hometown paper was already speculating about “what happens if our very own ‘good ole Katie’ morphs into ‘Katie Holmes, the former actress now better known as Tom Cruise’s third wife.’” Asked in an interview how she felt about reports that friends in Toledo are worried about her, Holmes replied, “People who say that aren’t my friends.”Following the engagement, the Chicago Tribune sent a reporter to Toledo who found the citizens felt the biggest star from their city was not Holmes, but Jamie Farr, who played Corporal Maxwell Klinger on M*A*S*H. “I think he’s bigger than Katie. He’s so humble and he’s so proud of his hometown-he name-drops it all the time. If it wasn’t for Jamie, I don’t think people would really know about Toledo”, said a Toledo waitress. Others quoted by the newspaper were puzzled by her interest in Scientology. Farr subsequently wrote a letter to the newspaper declaring “I admire Katie Holmes. She is a wonderful, beautiful actress” and “I do not feel that Katie and I are in any form of competition in the city of Toledo.”

On November 18, 2006, Holmes and Cruise were married at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy, in a Scientology ceremony attended by many Hollywood stars. The actors’ publicist said the couple had “officialized” their marriage in Los Angeles the day before the Italian ceremony. The day after the ceremony, the couple left for a honeymoon in the Maldives.

Scientology

Holmes, who was raised a Roman Catholic, joined the Church of Scientology shortly after the couple began dating Soon after beginning her relationship with Cruise, Holmes fired her long-time manager and agent and acquired a new “best friend”, Jessica Rodriguez, who is from a prominent family of Scientologists. Robert Haskell, who wrote W magazine’s cover story on the actress, said Rodriguez “was described to me as Holmes’s ‘Scientology chaperone’ and it was clear that she would be on hand during our interview despite my protests.” This was in contrast to Holmes’s earlier press, which noted approvingly she “arrives without the ubiquitous PR person in tow.”

On April 18, 2006, Holmes gave birth to a baby girl named Suri. It was said in the Vanity Fair article that Suri arrived exactly one year after Cruise and Holmes met, April 18, 2005. The Los Angeles Times summarized the written statement Cruise released on the birth as saying the name “is a word with origins in both Hebrew and Persian. In Hebrew, it means ‘princess’ and in Persian, ‘red rose,’ it was claimed in the release.” Although some Hebrew linguists had never seen the word for “princess” spelled this way and its meaning,[100] others said it was a Yiddish, not Hebrew, derivation of “Sarah”.

Until September 2006, Suri had not been seen in public, which led to tabloid stories questioning the existence of the child, contrasting Holmes and Cruise to other celebrity couples with newborns such as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Typical was the US Weekly cover story “BABY MYSTERY: Best friends’ visits denied, baby photos cancelled, a wedding delayed, and Katie in seclusion.”

The first photographs of the child appeared in the October 2006 issue of Vanity Fair, shot by Annie Leibovitz.In the accompanying story, Holmes said “we weren’t trying to hide anything” and said she was bothered by the press coverage. “I do know what is being said in the press. This is my future. This is my family and I care so much about them. The stories are not okay. It eats away at me because it’s just not okay.”This issue of Vanity Fair became the publication’s second best selling issue of all time, selling more than 700,000 copies.

In an April 2006 interview with ABC News’s Diane Sawyer, Cruise said he and Holmes were “just Scientologists” and that Suri would not be baptized Catholic.

Michael Jackson’s will sets family trust, funeral sketchy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A will signed by Michael Jackson putting his multimillion-dollar estate in a trust for his children and mother was filed in court on Wednesday, as details of his highly-anticipated funeral remained sketchy. Some media outlets reported a memorial service would take place this coming Tuesday at Los Angeles’ Staples Center arena and others pointed to the city’s Coliseum sports stadium, but a spokesman for Jackson’s family could not confirm those reports nor could officials with the venues.

David Carradine died of asphyxiation: pathologist

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The medical examiner who oversaw a private autopsy on David Carradine said on Wednesday that the “Kung Fu” star died from asphyxiation and the way the actor’s body was bound allowed him to rule out suicide. Carradine was found hanging in the closet of his Bangkok hotel suite on June 4 and his family hired New York-based forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden to conduct a follow-up death investigation to the one handled by Thai authorities.
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Hipster factor poses challenges for movie marketers

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Batten down the hatches — the hipsters are coming. Even as Hollywood studios increasingly aim at the broadest possible audience, a few companies are experimenting with the opposite approach in these summer months and beyond: They’re making smart, quirky movies for a sophisticated young audience.

“Transformers” looks unstoppable at box office

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The ‘bots are still on the trot. The mega-successful bow last week by Paramount’s action sequel “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” has so transformed the competitive box-office landscape, it’s hard to see either of two rival movies opening at No. 1 this weekend.

O’Neal leads mourners at Farrah Fawcett funeral

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Ryan O’Neal led friends and family in a private funeral service on Tuesday for actress Farrah Fawcett, who died last week aged 62 after a long and public battle with cancer. O’Neal, the long-time companion of the “Charlie’s Angels” star, was one of the pall-bearers and gave a reading at the service at Los Angeles Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Kevin Jonas, of Jonas Brothers, engaged

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Kevin Jonas, the eldest member of the teen heartthrobs the Jonas Brothers, may soon be able to shed his purity ring as Wednesday People magazine reported the 21-year-old pop star is now engaged. Danielle Deleasa, a 22-year-old former hairdresser who Jonas met two years ago in the Bahamas, quickly said yes to his proposal, but the two have not set a wedding date yet.

Oscar winning actor Karl Malden dies at 97

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar winner Karl Malden, the bulbous-nosed character actor acclaimed for film roles in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “On the Waterfront” before gaining TV fame as a leading man in “The Streets of San Francisco,” died on Wednesday at age 97. Also remembered as the commercial spokesman for American Express travelers checks, sternly warning tourists, “Don’t leave home without them,” Malden died in his sleep at his Los Angeles-area home, according to his longtime agent, Budd Moss. He said the actor had been in failing health in recent years.

UK comedy actress Mollie Sugden dies at 86

LONDON (Reuters) - British actress Mollie Sugden, best-known for her role as Mrs Slocombe in the television comedy series “Are You Being Served?,” has died at the age of 86. Her agent Joan Reddin told newspapers Sugden died on Wednesday after a long illness. “She was a lovely, lovely person. She was a great professional,” Reddin said.

Jolie, Aniston are Hollywood top-earning actresses

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Angelina Jolie is Hollywood’s top earning actress, banking $27 million in the past year to beat out her partner Brad Pitt’s ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, who raked in $25 million, a Forbes.com study showed on Wednesday. Most of Jolie’s income came from her share of the profits from her action film “Wanted,” but she was also paid a large upfront sum for her role in “Salt,” the study said. Jolie and Pitt have six children.

Neverland could rival Graceland as tour attraction

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Abandoned by Michael Jackson after a humiliating child molestation trial in 2005, the late singer’s Neverland Ranch could now become one of the biggest draws in the world as a memorial to the King of Pop. Jackson’s family has said there are no plans for a funeral or burial of his body at the ranch in central California after his death last week.

At Wednesday night’s rehearsals, the middle-aged man of 50 was showing the kids how it’s done. “He’d take the stage with this group of dancers, all in their 20s, but you couldn’t take your eyes off him,” says Dorian Holley, vocal director for Michael Jackson’s This Is It series of concerts, planned to begin this month in London. During Jackson’s run-through at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, “he was giving a clinic to those dancers,” recalls Bashiri Johnson, the percussionist on the tour. “Whenever he would do a move, he’d raise the bar.” If somebody screwed up, the star took it placidly, saying over and over, “This is what rehearsals are for.” He was psyched to see his comeback extravaganza finally taking recognizable shape. “He was aglow that night - aglow and afloat,” Johnson says. “His feet barely touched the stage, and he wasn’t stressed at all.”

The following afternoon, Jackson was dead. His physician, Conrad Murray, said when the star had stopped breathing, he had done CPR but delayed calling 911 for up to 30 minutes because he wasn’t sure of the street address of Jackson’s Holmby Hills home. The star was declared dead at 2:26 p.m. local time on June 25, and the awful news raced quickly from the ER through the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Even veteran nurses reacted like many of his fans soon would. “They were hysterical. They’re going, ‘Michael Jackson is dead, he’s dead!’ They were catatonic,” Irena Medavoy, wife of studio chief Mike Medavoy and a junior high school friend of Jackson’s, told People. She was arriving for an appointment when the ambulance bearing Jackson pulled up. “I was there for about an hour and a half, and by the time I got out, people outside are sobbing and other people dressed up as Michael are dancing.” (See the top 10 Michael Jackson moments.)

So began the tribute from millions. Mourning is usually a song of celebration in a minor key, but the memorial services, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and around the world, took on the tone of a jubilant revival meeting. MTV remembered that it used to be a music network and became MJTV for a few days. And Jackson’s CDs, which sold torpidly in the past few years, were again best sellers.

The high-speed flowering of interest, melancholy and remorse is common at the sudden early passing of a superstar - James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, Princess Diana - whose life is marked by achievement and controversy. Jackson’s death and commercial resurrection are eerily like those of Elvis Presley, dead at 42. One Hollywood cynic, learning that Presley had just died, commented, “Good career move.” Cutting but prophetic: Elvis sold far more records after his death than before. Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie, Jackson’s wife for 20 months in the mid-’90s, recalled a few days ago on her MySpace page a conversation with Jackson: “He stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, ‘I am afraid that I am going to end up like [Elvis], the way he did.’” (Read “Michael Jackson’s Estate: Saved by the Beatles.”)

Unquestionably, Jackson is worth more dead than alive. The 1,000 hours of video of the final rehearsals of his London show could be worth about $500 million in gross sales of DVDs, CDs and other items. His assets include half ownership of music publisher Sony/ATV, worth $1 billion. His small remaining interest in Neverland could skyrocket in value; so will his personal items when sold. But his staggering debt, perhaps $500 million, reflects a lifetime of indulgence on antiques, houses, helicopters, more than $100 million in annual upkeep on the 2,500-acre (1,000 hectare) Neverland estate and the hosting of an army of parasitic hangers-on, pseudo advisers and business partners whose main concern did not seem to be him. Says a source with knowledge of Jackson’s finances: “All these other guys tried to set these deals up - lucrative deals up - everything from starting theme parks in different countries to other brand-extension-type ideas. They were trying to set up deals and take fees regardless if they made him money or not.”

The King died from a surfeit of pills and junk food. But what or who killed the King of Pop? Amateur pathologists in the entertainment-news industry flooded TV, newspapers and the Internet with lurid theories. British tabloid the Sun claimed that an autopsy revealed that Jackson’s body, weighing an emaciated 112 lb. (50 kg), was riddled with needle marks from painkiller injections, a report swiftly denied by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. (See Michael Jackson’s last photos.)

Not that Jackson hadn’t punished his body - sculpted, spindled and mutilated it - on his own. The extensive plastic surgery he permitted on his face left a beautiful young man looking like the Phantom of the Opera; he often wore a mask to hide his disfigured features. After he was injured in a fire while shooting a Pepsi commercial in 1984 and, later, in a stage fall, he became dependent on prescription medication and on the Dr. Feelgoods who cater to the pharmacological demands of the stars. “The doctors prescribed so much drugs, it was crazy,” said a longtime Jackson-family attorney, Brian Oxman. Jackson often looked frail and wasted away in his public appearances, the result, said another tabloid, of a malady called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic condition that leads to the breakdown of the lungs. Yet according to those who worked with him, he was vital and tireless the night before his death.

A harsh spotlight fell on Murray, the cardiologist who had been hired to accompany Jackson on the tour. The autopsy dismissed foul play, and Murray denied injecting Jackson with Demerol, a powerful painkiller.

The star’s survivors and friends are also pressing for answers. “The doctor has showed some bizarre behavior,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has ministered to the family in recent days, told People. “Apparently, the doctor was with Michael, maybe administering to his back pain. And then, the next thing that happens is there is a 911 call … Then, of course, the doctor did not confer with the family … He didn’t sign the death certificate. He didn’t talk with the coroner. And then he was missing in action. Finally, when he surfaced, he surfaced with a lawyer. All these are rather bizarre actions. There may be plausible answers, but we don’t know.”

Bizarre behavior was a phrase often applied to the Michael Jackson who, for the past 20 years, seemed so remote as to be extraterrestrial - the moonwalking moon child. But that was just the last of many Michaels who fascinated, seduced and troubled the world of popular music. In his first prodigious eminence, at 11, as the Cupid and Kewpie doll of the Jackson 5, he was no more complicated than he was adorable: the family singing group’s star, dimpled and lithe, the young emperor of elfin cool. Five of Katherine and Joe Jackson’s nine kids were in the group, which had a slew of hits for Motown Records, then went to Epic, called themselves the Jacksons, and let Michael branch out on his own.

Confused by the cast of characters surrounding Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed “King of Pop” who died June 25 at the age of 50?

As details surrounding Jackson’s death emerge, his web of family, friends and associates keeps growing, with names new and old coming out of the woodwork claiming a connection with the pop icon.

Below, a look at 25 people who played a part in Jackson’s life and continue to do so after his death:

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A suspected suicide bomber on a motorcycle hit a bus carrying workers from a nuclear facility and blew himself up in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Thursday, killing up to six people, police said.

Pakistan has been hit by a wave of bombings in recent weeks in response to a military offensive against Taliban militants in the northwest of the country.

“About 25 people were on board and as the bus reached a square, a motorcyclist hit its fuel tank,” city police chief Nasir Durrani told reporters. “According to our reports, five to six people were martyred and 16 wounded.”

Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, is home to the headquarters of the Pakistani army and other state agencies.

A senior police officer said the bus was carrying workers from a main nuclear facility, the Khan Research Laboratories.

A bomber attacked a bus carrying workers from the same facility in 2007.

The army went on the offensive in the Swat region two months ago after the Taliban seized a district 100 km (60 miles) from Islamabad, raising alarm at home and among allies who need Pakistani help to fight al Qaeda and tackle Afghanistan’s insurgency.

Nearing the end of the offensive in Swat, the military has been attacking Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in his South Waziristan stronghold in mountains on the Afghan border.

The army says Mehsud, who carries a U.S. reward of $5 million and a Pakistani reward of 50 million rupees ($615,000), is behind 90 percent of militant attacks in Pakistan.

(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Alex Richardson)

The Mets rewarded the rookie after all. New York dealt catcher Ramon Castro and cash to the White Sox in exchange for pitcher Lance Broadway, opting instead to keep surprising 28-year-old Omir Santos in the bigs.

Santos wasted no time Friday night assuring the Mets they made the right choice, hitting a game-winning RBI single in the 11th inning to give New York a 2-1 win over the Marlins.

Santos, a former Yankees prospect, has totaled three homers and 17 RBI in 76 at-bats since his call-up. He’s also batting over .330 with runners in scoring position and has hit safely in 16 of his 20 starts.

“On a night like tonight, when Omir Santos plays the way he has, it makes the decision easy for us,” said GM Omar Minaya, who admitted he’s been taken aback by Santos’ rapid progress.

In a season where fans have dogged the Mets about their lack of moves, this was a no-brainer considering how big of a spark plug Santos has been for this team lately. Castro is owed $1,748,634 of his $2.5 million salary, and the White Sox should be receiving at least $1.4 million.

With the White Sox, at least Castro will be able to get into the starting mix since A.J. Pierzynski isn’t exactly tearing the cover off the ball. At age 33, he’s still a solid defensive catcher as well.

Broadway, Chicago’s first-round draft pick in 2005, was 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA in eight games with the White Sox this season. Minaya said the right-hander will be sent to Triple-A Buffalo and work as a starter.

Happy Friday, y’all! It’s a big day here for us - it being our last day before our debut on Monday - but it’s an EVEN BIGGER day for another group of fine people: Everyone over at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, who are having their final, farewell episode tonight (which Conan will be on, so make sure to tune in)!

Everyone here at our show would like to wish Jay and everyone at his show the best of luck on a terrific last show. Good luck, guys!! Thanks for all your hard work entertaining America (and the world) these past years, and good luck putting together your new 10 pm show!!

It’s particularly touching for us, because we all went through that kind of emotional farewell back in NY a few months ago… So we know exactly how it’s gonna be for them tonight! All I can say is this: Please don’t drink as much at your wrap party as I did at mine! Unless of course you want to wake up tomorrow with a half eaten hotdog in your pocket (no bun, by the way - just dog. And it was still good).

Now, ONTO THE FINAL TWO WINNERS OF OUR TONIGHT SHOW TRIVIA SWEEPSTAKES!!! Are you ready, sugarsnap? Are you really ready? Really REALLLLLY ready? Are you re- Sorry, I’ll just announce them.

Chewin’ on a piece of grass walkin’ down the road
tell me, how long you gonna stay here Joe?
Some people say this town don’t look good in snow
You don’t care, I know.

Ventura Highway, in the sunshine
Where the days are longer
The nights are stronger than moonshine
You’re gonna go I know

Cause the free wind is blowin’ through your hair
and the day surround your daylight there
Seasons cryin’ no despair
Alligator lizards in the air

Wishin’ on a fallin’ star
Watchin’ for the early train
Sorry boy, but I’ve been hit by purple rain
Aw, come on Joe, you can always change your name
Thanks alot son, just the same

Ventura Highway, in the sunshine
Where the days are longer
The nights are stronger than moonshine!
you’re gonna go, I know

Cause the free wind is blowin’ through your hair
and the days surround your daylight there
seasons cryin’ no despair
Alligator lizards in the air
in the air

In these tough economic times, layoffs are sadly happening left and right, and even A-list pop stars aren’t selling albums like they used to. But there seems to be one line of work not at all affected by the recession: the legal field. Lawyers still have plenty of business coming their way, and many of their customers are in fact A-list pop stars. Here’s who was creating disorder in the court this week.

First up, Chris Brown’s celebrity attorney, Mark Geragos (the former rep for Michael Jackson), was working overtime this week–and he may have found a loophole in the Chris Brown/Rihanna assault case as a result. This week Mark requested an investigation into that infamous leaked police-file photo of Rihanna’s bruised face, which first turned up on TMZ, claiming that the photographic evidence might have been unethically sold to the celebrity gossip site by an actual member of the police. If that turns out to be the case, Mark might have grounds to get charges against his star client (who faces up to five years in prison if convicted) dismissed entirely on a technicality.

Watch this space for more developments on the “Chrianna” saga…

And speaking of Michael Jackson, the frequently legally troubled superstar also found himself needing a lawyer’s services again this week, when his publicist and general manager of five years, Raymone Bain, filed suit against him for a cool $44 million. Raymone claimed Jacko didn’t pay her for various negotiations she allegedly handled, including those involving the 25th-anniversary reissue of Thriller, the refinancing of a loan so he could maintain ownership of the Beatles’ catalog, and Michael’s sold-out July 2009 concert residency at the O2 Arena in London.

“Despite the action I have been compelled to take for professional and business reasons, when looking back, I have no regrets,” Raymone said in a statement issued last Wednesday. “Michael Jackson, in my opinion, is the ‘King of Pop.’” And he’s also the King Of Lawsuits, apparently, since this is just the latest case filed by a former associate claiming to have been jacked by Jacko.

Meanwhile, Michael’s little sister Janet Jackson may soon be back in court as well–the Supreme Court, that is. Her notorious “wardrobe malfunction” Super Bowl case was sent back for review last Monday, with the Supreme Court ordering a federal appeals court to re-examine its ruling in favor of CBS over the 2004 overexposure incident. Last year the appeals court threw out a $550,000 fine against CBS, deciding that Janet’s scandalous live-broadcast breast-baring (which only lasted nine-sixteenths of one second) could not have been anticipated by the network. In a statement issued this week by CBS, the network expressed confidence that the federal court will once again rule in CBS’s favor.

Janet, perhaps wisely still trying to distance herself from that nearly career-killing debacle, refrained from commenting on the case.

Another R&B diva associated with legal issues this week was Toni Braxton, after Surinamese Braxton impersonator Trina Johnson-Finn was jailed for allegedly trying to pass herself off as the real deal at a concert in South America. The phony Toni’s husband claimed Trina was actually the victim of a local con artist–that she was tricked by a shady concert promoter, who scammed 3,000 Toni-loving ticket-buyers into thinking they’d see the real Toni perform live. (The promoter, Angel Ventura of Events For Suriname, was arrested as well.) The case heads to court May 26, when Trina will go on trial for allegedly attempting to defraud the Toni fans who bought $53 tickets.

But Kathleen Brandon, Trina’s Surinamese lawyer, continued to defend her client’s innocence, lamenting: “She has done no wrong, so it is difficult for her to spend so much time in jail to await the start of the trial.”

In other legal news, 50 Cent ought to give his lawyer a big fat bonus right about now. The week started off well enough for Fiddy, with the rapper claiming that he was officially cleared of having any involvement with a house fire at his ex-girlfriend’s home in Long Island last year. (The home, where 50’s ex Shaniqua Tompkins and her son Marquis resided, caught on fire in May 2008, at a time when 50 and Shaniqua were embroiled in a legal dispute over his assets, including the $1.4 million estate.) The hip-hop star’s triumphant statement on thisis50.com read: “The police department and insurance investigators ruled that there is absolutely no proof or evidence suggesting that Curtis Jackson [aka 50 Cent] or any affiliated parties were involved. Curtis Jackson has just been cleared of all the accusations. The investigation will continue until the guilty party is found.”

However, cops weren’t exactly letting Curtis off the hook just yet. Detective Thomas Wieland of the Suffolk County police later rebutted 50’s statement, saying: “That fire is still under investigation. It hasn’t been closed either way.” So Fiddy better keep his attorney on retainer, just in case.

In alternative rock legal news, this week former Wilco member Jay Bennett sued his ex-bandmate Jeff Tweedy over at least $50,000 in royalties, claiming he was partially paid for work he did with the alt-country group over the course of seven years and five albums. “As a recording musician in Wilco, Bennett is entitled to compensation for his services rendered in the form of continuing and perpetual artist royalty payments from [Tweedy],” the lawsuit paperwork alleged.

Meanwhile, alt-rock icons Nine Inch Nails came under fire from Apple, when an update of their iPhone app was rejected due to “obscene, pornographic, offensive, or defamatory content.” NIN frontman Trent Reznor addressed the Apple controversy on his website, likening the situation to one NIN dealt with previously:

“I’ll voice the same issue I had with Wal-Mart years ago, which is a matter of consistency and hypocrisy,” he blogged. “Wal-Mart went on a rampage years ago insisting all music they carry be censored of all profanity and ‘clean’ versions be made for them to carry. Bands (including Nirvana) tripped over themselves editing out words, changing album art, etc. to meet Wal-Mart’s standards of decency–because Wal-Mart sells a lot of records. NIN refused, and you’ll notice a pretty empty NIN section at any Wal-Mart. My reasoning was this: I can understand if you want the moral posturing of not having any ‘indecent’ material for sale–but you could literally turn around 180 degrees from where the NIN record would be and purchase the film Scarface completely uncensored, or buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto where you can be rewarded for beating up prostitutes. How does that make sense?”

However, by the week’s end the issue was resolved, and the NIN iPhone app was approved after all. If only Chris, Jacko, Janet, Fiddy, Trina, and Wilco had it so easy.

There’s one more alt-rocker who may be headed to court soon, but fortunately in this case it will be to pay a visit to the Justice Of The Peace. White Stripes drummer Meg White–who at one time was legally married to her bandmate Jack White, although they disturbingly claimed to be brother and sister to stir up publicity–announced her engagement this week to musician Jackson Smith, son of punk legend Patti Smith and late MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith. When the Detroit twosome marry later this year, they will no doubt become the ultimate power couple of Motor City rock ‘n’ roll royalty.

And finally, in a non-legal bit of news but perhaps the most serious story of all, last weekend Adam Cook–the eldest brother of American Idol David Cook–lost his decade-long fight with brain cancer, at the tender age of 37. (Adam’s cancer first came to public attention while David was still competing on season 7 of American Idol, when producers famously and generously spent $45,000 flying Adam on a chartered medical jet from Terre Haute, Indiana to an Idol taping.) David cancelled two concerts earlier this year to spend time with his ailing brother, and last Sunday morning at a benefit before the 12th annual Race For Hope 5K in Washington, D.C., he announced the sad news of Adam’s passing. He then told the shocked and sympathetic crowd, “I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else in the world,” and ran in the race as planned, raising $98,000 for brain cancer research with his team.

And on that sad note, thus concludes another week in music news. Come back next week for more headlines, and have a great Mother’s Day weekend in the meantime.