Michael Jackson

Almost everyone has their own Michael Jackson moment. Mine came when I was lucky enough to see what was probably the most important live performance of his career, the night he caused the world to stop and gasp. It was five minutes that broadened his reach from pop star to entertainment icon at a level that nobody had seen before and which hasn't been matched since. On March 25, 1983, Motown threw itself a self-congratulatory showcase, a multi-act fundraiser to fight sickle cell disease.

When news broke in early 2009 of Michael Jackson's return to Los Angeles, it was not via reports of him being spotted dining at the Ivy or dancing at the hottest new Hollywood club but book-shopping in Santa Monica. "He was a longtime and valued customer," a store representative of art and architecture bookstore Hennessey + Ingalls said Thursday. "We'll miss him." If Jackson's bookstore appearance surprised his pop fans, it was nothing new for booksellers.

Tom Barrack, a Westside financier who made billions buying and selling distressed properties, flew to Las Vegas in March 2008 to check out a troubled asset. But his target was not a struggling hotel chain or failed bank. It was Michael Jackson. The world's bestselling male pop artist was hunkered down with his three children in a dumpy housing compound in an older section of town. At 49, he was awash in nearly $400 million of debt and so frail that he greeted visitors in a wheelchair.

Four mornings a week, an SUV with darkened windows bears Michael Jackson through the gates outside a nondescript building near the Burbank airport. He spends the next six hours on a soundstage in the company of 10 dancers and pop music's best-known choreographer. The details of rehearsals for Jackson's upcoming concerts in London are closely held secrets, but what's at stake for him is not.

Within minutes of the first reports of Michael Jackson's cardiac arrest, the TV trucks and platoons of reporters had moved into place outside Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Cellphones flashing and glances darting, fretful news-hounds lacked only one thing that afternoon eight days ago: a single news source capable of filling the desperate information vacuum. Then Brian Oxman arrived. He delivered quote after emotive quote. He worked his cellphone. He held reporters' hands.

The surge in sales of Michael Jackson's music catalog continued Wednesday with the announcement that his recordings dominated the pop charts for the third consecutive week, and a source told The Times that more than 9 million of Jackson's albums have been sold worldwide since his death June 25. Nielsen SoundScan said Jackson's albums sold 1.1 million copies over the last seven days and had combined to sell an impressive 2.3 million in the U.S. in the nearly three weeks since he died.

Sony Pictures Entertainment received court approval to bring Michael Jackson to the big screen, and it set a release date on what just may be the toughest weekend of the year at the U.S. box office. The court's authorization, announced Monday in Probate Court by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff, allows them to edit more than 80 hours of rehearsal and behind-the-scenes footage into a movie. The deal was negotiated last month by Sony Pictures and its sibling unit, Sony Music Entertainment, with the Michael Jackson Estate and AEG Live, producer of the late singer's planned London concert series.

Michael Jackson spent his final night alive in his favorite spot on Earth: the stage. At Staples Center on Wednesday night, the performer did a full run-through of his planned comeback concert. He and his company -- dancers, musicians, singers, aerial performers, choreographers and costumers -- planned to fly to England early next week for dress rehearsals at London's O2 Arena, the site of the superstar's 50-night sold-out run. By lunchtime Thursday, Jackson was in cardiac arrest.

Michael Jackson left a philanthropic legacy almost as large as his cultural one. In all the financial and personal turmoil that characterized his latter years, it was easy to lose sight of the fact that he was a pioneer not only in popular music but also in charitable fundraising within the entertainment industry.

So this is "It." Sony Music announced Wednesday that on Oct. 12 it will issue a new Michael Jackson single called "This Is It" -- the first previously unreleased recording to be put on sale since the superstar's death. The song's debut will be followed by a blitz of posthumous releases from the man remembered as the King of Pop, including a traveling exhibition of Jackson memorabilia and a two-disc album also titled "This Is It" (which hits retail internationally Oct. 26 and in North America on Oct. 27)