A teary Janet Jackson spoke to the world last night at the BET Awards in LA, saying:

"I would just like to say that to you, Michael is an icon. To us, Michael is family, and he will forever live in all of our hearts ... On behalf of my family and myself, thank you for all your love; thank you for all your support. We miss him so much."

She also told the audience: "My entire family wanted to be here tonight, but it was just too painful so they elected me to speak with all of you."

Well, apparently it wasn't so painful for daddy Joe Jackson because he attended the awards show and basked in the spotlight, giving every media outlet who asked, an interview on the red carpet.

Here's what Joe told CNN:

I know the colors are a little Halloween-ish, but they look good on Angelina Jolie's babydaddy! Johnny Depp might be sexier overall, but Brad's def no slouch. Raise your hand if you wanna hop on the back of his bike!

Yeah, both Eva Longoria AND her hubby Tony Parker! The cute couple participated on a French TV show, competing to raise money for a disabled children's charity association. Aw, we love when celebs do good!

Especially when they do good wearing pink.

A friend of Jackon's, Nancy Malnick (wife of millionaire celebrity lawyer Al Malnick), posted these personal photos of Michael and his kids.



Other pix show Jackson dressed up for a 70's-themed birthday party for Nancy's husband Al.

CHECK OUT THE FULL GALLERY OF 20 PIX!

It's pretty clear that Michael Jackson was taking too many meds at the time of his death... but the real question is why?

MJ had 50 - yes, 50 - concerts in London coming up. His big comeback tour that was going to bring back in the money for him and everyone around him. But he had to have been feeling the pressure to perform, right?

Michael was so hopped up on drugs and his health was so poor, it seems highly unlikely that he could've made good on all fifty concert dates. So is that what pushed Jacko over the edge?

Maybe he made the commitment to perform due to of all his money problems, while secretly believing he'd never be able to follow through. Such a sad explanation... but what other reason is there?

Nah, Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds are both happily married to other people! But I'm sure they're BFFs in real life by now. Sandy is so cute and charming and Ryan... well... Ryan's really hot.

Last time it was for Father's Day - now I think they just wanna show off their hot beach bods!

David Duchovny and Tea Leoni were spotted in the 'Bu again with their kids (not to mention David's Californication co-star and friend Natascha McElhone) havin' a little fun in the sun. Tea's so pretty and talented! I just wish I didn't remember her mainly from Spanglish.

Who knows how much of these stories are true, but here we go...

The News of the World reports that MJ's kids possibly thought that their dad was just "playing dead"when he was lying unconscious in his bedroom this past Thursday.

A source in Jackson's staff claims: "The three children thought their dad was just fooling around. He often played dead and would then jump up and surprise them, so they thought he was just having a bit of fun. But when they saw the emergency trucks arrive, that really shook them."

The source also says that Michael's personal physician (who was by his side when he died) thought the same thing - that Michael was just joking around at first. Uh, weird!

It seems MJ allegedly told a close friend that he "wanted to go out like Elvis," too. Could it be he was more aware of what he was doing to himself than we thought?

Another NOTW story claims Michael wrote a horror story about his two kids, Prince and Paris, falling victim to a person who kills children with a sling blade. Yikes. The pop icon allegedly wrote this one year (2006) after being acquitted of child abuse charges.

The article has copies of the documents in MJ's - again, allegedly - handwriting. A few chilling quotes from the story below:

"He murdered his wife and no one ever sees his kids cause he keeps them tied to the bed like his wife, before he murdered her. He starves them FIRST then he murdered them, Paris. He did it with a sling blade Paris."


"He then got scared and ran into what they call the endless BLACK FOREST... he was never found again. Because they say there is no way out of the endless Black Forest."

What's going on here? Is this all a metaphor for something Michael was going through at the time? Did he write it because of all the meds he was taking? And what's with all the stabbing!

Either way, I just hope his real kids never read this story...