“It’s one final payday. They felt it was like a ransom-type thing. [Rowe] jumped back into the picture because she wanted money. This would be it. This takes away any rights she has to challenge custody at any given time. If something happens to Katherine, [Rowe] can’t challenge the next [guardian], whether that is Diana Ross or someone in the family.”

Update:
Apparently, Debbie Rowe did not take the cash. CNN is reporting that Eric George, Rowe’s lawyer, claims the above story is “completely false.” Next Monday is the custody hearing and George added, “Debbie has not reached a final decision concerning the pending custody proceedings.”

We’ve learned Michael Jackson was not the biological father of any of his children. And Debbie Rowe is not the biological mother of the two kids she bore for Michael. All three children were conceived in vitro — outside the womb. Multiple sources deeply connected to the births tell us Michael was not the sperm donor for any of his kids. Debbie’s eggs were not used. She was merely the surrogate, and paid well for her services in the births of Michael Jr. and Paris. In the case of Prince Michael II (the youngest), we’re told the surrogate was never told of the identity of the “receiving parent” — Michael Jackson. Three days after Prince was born at Grossmont Hospital in San Diego County, Jackson’s lawyer came to the hospital to pick the baby up and deliver him to Michael. We do not know if Jackson chose the sperm or egg donors or if he even knew who they were. Although Rowe is not the biological mother, it’s not a slam dunk that she would lose a custody battle. This type of case has never been litigated in California courts. Since Rowe was married to Jackson when Michael Jr. and Paris were born, there’s a presumption that she’s the biological parent. That presumption can be rebutted by other evidence. We know there are documents outlining the whole arrangement for the birth of all three kids. Nonetheless, it’s still an open issue with the courts.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Michael Jackson’s body will be taken to his Neverland Ranch on Thursday morning for a public viewing Friday, CNN has learned.A private memorial service is scheduled for Sunday at Neverland. Planning is under way for a 30-car motorcade carrying Jackson’s remains to leave the Los Angeles area at 10 a.m. for Santa Barbara County, California, on Thursday, a source said.

The question of where Jackson will be buried remains unanswered. The singer’s hometown of Gary, Indiana, is asking the family to send him there, according to the mayor’s spokeswoman. Gary Mayor Rudy Clay has been in contact with the Jackson family, hoping to make that happen, spokeswoman Lalosa Burns said Tuesday. Clay told Chicago radio station WGN that he expects that Jackson’s body will, at the least, be taken to Gary for a memorial service he is planning next week. “I believe that his body will lie in state in Gary, Indiana,” Clay said Tuesday. “Now, it may not happen, but I believe it will.”

The Jackson memorial service is set for July 10 at U.S. Steel Works ballpark in Gary, Burns said. It would be “a memorial that’s fit for the prince of peace and a memorial that’s fit for Gary, Indiana’s favorite son, the greatest entertainer that ever lived,” Clay said. A burial site for the singer could be near a proposed Jackson family museum and a performing arts center, Burns said. “The mayor had spoken with a contact of the Jackson family and expressed our interest in having that to be a part of the history of this great family,” Burns said. “We have not received confirmation on that.”

… Many prescriptions were bought under the fictitious name Omar Adams. As well as the narcotic pain reliever Vicodin, 50-year-old Jacko gorged on other drugs like muscle relaxant Soma and sedative Xanax. He also took antidepressant Zoloft, anti-anxiety drug Paxil and heartburn pill Priolosec.

The revelations on the true scale of the tragic star’s pills habit came as his family said they now wanted an investigation into the quantity of drugs he was prescribed.

Family lawyer Brian Oxman told us yesterday: “Randy (Jacko’s brother) was due to be sent a copy of the autopsy yesterday, but the coroner’s office still haven’t sent it. But the autopsy details from you are — as you can expect — unbelievably awful, horrifying reading. The family response? ‘Oh My God’. That’s what they shouted. They kept saying, ‘Oh My God’. They suspected the drugs were harming Michael — but not as badly as this. They are beside themselves, it’s truly, truly, awful. What is crucial to them is not the drug types Michael was taking, but the quantities he was taking them in. This is a huge and major concern. During Michael’s court trial he was taking 40 Vicodin a day — and this may have even increased. It’s an insane amount of drugs to be given — and to be taken.”

Some of the King of Pop’s prescriptions were allegedly written by his Beverly Hills dermatologist Dr Arnold Klein. Most were taken to Jacko’s local drug store Mickey Fine Pharmacy.

But many paid for by the singer were made out not to him, but to his aides and nurses. And the majority were filled in for Omar Adams — claimed to be a name Jackson devised for a fictitious alter ego. The cost of the superstar’s spiralling prescription drugs usage led to a number of lawsuits.

In 2001 he was sued by Mickey Fine Pharmacy for arrears of about £7,000 on his account. Jacko also owed Dr Klein around £18,000 at the same time. And in 2002 lupus specialist Dr Allen Metzger claimed he was owed £16,000.

Harrowing leaked autopsy details showed the singer, who had been rehearsing for a string of 50 London gigs, was a virtual skeleton — barely eating and with only pills in his stomach at the time he died. His hips, thighs and shoulders were riddled with needle wounds — believed to be the result of injections of narcotic painkillers, given three times a day for years. And a mass of surgery scars were thought to be the legacy of at least 13 cosmetic operations.