Katherine Jackson

A Los Angeles judge ordered an investigation Friday into the care of Michael Jackson's children, capping a tumultuous week of family feuding in which some relatives of the late pop star accused others of kidnapping their elderly matriarch. Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff, acting on his own initiative, instructed a probate court investigator to prepare a report "addressing the status of the minor children" and their grandmother, Katherine Jackson. The judge stripped the 82-year-old of guardianship of the three children Wednesday after hearing allegations that some of her children were holding her against her will in Arizona.

The headline on this post has been corrected, as noted below. Would-be jurors in the Michael Jackson wrongful death case were asked to review the extensive list of witnesses who might be called to testify, and to let the court know if they recognize any of the names. Selecting a panel in what's expected to be a lengthy and potentially sensational trial  has been a laborious and time-consuming process  since scores of potential jurors were first brought to the downtown Los Angeles courtroom last week to see whether they had the time to even commit to a months-long case.

Federal marshals seized a grand piano and an aged Rolls-Royce Thursday from the home of entertainer Michael Jackson's parents to satisfy part of a $1.3-million default judgment in connection with the purchase of a guitar company. "This is a tempest is a teapot," said Brian Oxman, attorney for Joseph and Katherine Jackson. Oxman said the seizure was illegal because the couple had not been served with court papers before the default judgment was obtained.

Michael Jackson's father wants the late singer's estate to help him cover living expenses that exceed $20,000 a month, according to court papers filed Friday. The estate is already paying Jackson's mother a monthly allowance of $26,000 and an attorney for Joe Jackson, 81, wrote in the Los Angeles County Superior Court filing that the family patriarch was entitled to the "same manner" of support. In the papers, his lawyer wrote that Michael Jackson had footed his father's bills for decades.

Eight years ago, Debbie Rowe, the mother of Michael Jackson's two older children, told a Los Angeles court she wanted to give them up. "These are his children . . . ," she testified. "I had the children for him. They wouldn't be on this planet if it wasn't for my love for him. I did it for him to become a father, not for me to become a mother. You earn the title 'parent.' I have done absolutely nothing to earn that title."

For someone trying to sell a book, it couldn't get much better than this: Oprah Winfrey, the nation's reader-in-chief, was holding up a glossy volume of Michael Jackson photographs for her vast television audience while tossing softball questions to its co-author, the late singer's 80-year-old mother. The gauzily shot moment of marketing gold last month was not the work of the official Jackson estate but of a little-known Toronto businessman, Howard Mann, a brash, goateed 38-year-old who cut his teeth in the titillation trade ?

The judge overseeing the settling of Michael Jackson's affairs ordered the appointment Monday of a special guardian to represent the legal and financial interests of the pop singer's three children, who are heirs to his lucrative music empire. L.A. County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff came to the decision during a day-long hearing in which he also announced that he had approved a $60-million deal that will transform 80 hours of rehearsal footage from the final months of Jackson's life into a feature film.

Angela Bassett idolized the Jackson 5 singing group while growing up in the projects in St. Petersburg, Fla. "That was the only group my mother paid money to have outfits made to go to their concerts," Bassett, 34, said in a recent interview. "When I was 12, (my mother asked), 'What do you want for Christmas?' 'I want a guitar like Jermaine.' I took lessons until the money ran out. I grew up with them."