NEW YORK – Kenny Ortega was responsible for some of Michael Jackson's biggest concerts, including what were to be his comeback shows in London. But in the singer's final days, the producer-director-choregrapher felt like he needed to take on another responsibility — making sure Jackson stayed healthy.
"Michael had sleepless nights and we had to look after him. (I'd say to him), 'Stay hydrated, have a protein shake — Did you eat today before you came?'" Ortega said in an interview Thursday to promote the new Jackson documentary, "This Is It."
When Jackson would say he had, a skeptical Ortega would say — "Michael?"
"Michael's an adult. ... We didn't want to baby him," he said. "(But) I had concerns and we had conversations, wanting to make sure he was doing everything he could to build himself and not break himself down."
Jackson died June 25 at age 50. The Los Angeles County coroner has ruled Jackson's death a homicide, caused primarily by the powerful anesthetic propofol and another sedative. Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, has not been charged with a crime but is the focus of the police investigation.
Ortega's work with Jackson included world tours for Jackson's "Dangerous" and "HIStory" albums. He was directing the "This Is It" shows — which would have marked the performer's comeback concerts in London's O2 Arena in July — and was brought on to direct a film adaptation of those taped rehearsals after Jackson's death.
"This Is It" will premiere globally on Tuesday and run for two weeks. The soundtrack for the film, which includes the newly released title track as well as some of his best-known hits, is being released Monday.
In a 12-minute clip previewed for media on Thursday, a strong-voiced King of Pop is shown enthusiastically practicing some of his biggest hits.
Jackson, though frail-looking, is shown warming up his vocals during a performance of "Human Nature." That's followed by the singer running through the song in various outfits.
Later, he playfully dances with a woman as he sings "The Way You Make Me Feel," touching her thigh and holding her waist.
"One more time," Jackson says toward the end of the song after being told the last eight bars were to be cut.
Ortega says although he worried about Jackson's health, he doesn't believe the preparation for the shows wore the singer down. In fact, he says it was the opposite.
"I can tell you this experience, working on this show, was invigorating, was nourishing. ... (it) wasn't taking away from Michael," he said.
Travis Payne, a choreographer who worked on "This Is It" and other Jackson tours, says he remembers spending one-on-one time with Jackson — especially visiting Web sites like YouTube.
"I used to love sitting and just surfing the 'net with him," Payne said. "And we would just do that and we would be able to have our creative reference time in a different way now."
Musical director Michael Bearden recalls Jackson's lofty goal to try to capture all of his music in one, over-the-top show.
"He had so, so much music that we tried to get everything in but not cheat the audience at the same time, which is a delicate balance if you will to try to get everything in and still feel like you're getting a full song," he said.
Ortega says Jackson was very adamant about the look of the tour — from the length of the songs to the stage's lighting.

"From the very beginning Michael was very vocal, and very upfront about what he wanted to do and why he wanted to do it," Ortega said.

"That's what 'This Is It,' Michael Jackson's 'This Is It' the film, is about — it's a privileged peak into the final creative process of Michael's last theatrical work."

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On the Net:

http://www.thisisit-movie.com/

LOS ANGELES -- Sen. Olympia Snowe said last week that in the end, which is near, she may or may not vote for health care reform. But she will, judging by her last comment as the Senate Finance Committee voted out a bill: "When history calls, history calls."

That certainly is one of the wisest quotes to come out of this Congress this year, particularly from the Republican side. The not-so-loyal opposition has been answering all questions with a single answer, "No."

The Republican theory seems to be that their job is to destroy the president of the United States -- and to do it before next year's midterm elections. History might judge that as harshly as some Republican elder statesmen have. Former Sen. Robert Dole, once chairman of the Republican National Committee, a partisan who voted against Medicare in 1965, but not a fool, put it this way the other day: "Republicans all stand up and say they're for health care reforms, so why don't they do something about it? ... I don't believe they could absorb just across-the-board being against everything."

Dole may be out of touch with the party he loves, but he is more in touch with the feel of history. It has taken almost a century, but the people of the United States seem to realize that something has to be done about a dysfunctional system. I assume that is what Snowe and Dole were talking about: If it's broken, there does come a day when you do have to try to fix it.

Howard Dean, the current chairman of the Democratic Party, offered his own interpretation of history last month saying:

"All the really great programs in American history -- Social Security was done without Republicans; Medicare was done without Republican support until the last vote, where they realized they had to get on board. So a lot of the things that have been done that have helped seniors in particular have been done without Republican support at all."

That is an exaggeration. During the great Social Security debate of 1935 and the Medicare debate of 1965, a majority of Republicans argued against the legislation -- even though national health care was first proposed by a party hero, Theodore Roosevelt -- but there were many Republicans for those bills from the beginning. Not a majority of Republicans, but many. Perhaps they felt the breath of history.

But Dean's hyperbole points to a revealing bit of history. There were many moderates and even some liberals representing the Republican Party in those days. Today there are almost none, except perhaps in Maine, the home state of Sen. Snowe. Republicans representing hyperconservative states and districts, mostly in the South and Southwest, are probably not going to be punished for doing what a young conservative, William F. Buckley, advocated in 1955: "Stand athwart history, yelling Stop ..."

That was part of the mission statement of Buckley's new magazine, National Review. Well, Buckley could not stop history, but he did affect it in many ways. That is, I think, where we are going now. Once having declared, as Dole noted, that health care reform is now necessary, it is hard to see all Republicans yelling, "Stop."

What they are yelling now is "socialism." But history has seen that before. In 1965, when a majority of Republicans did vote against Medicare, Sen. Carl Curtis of Nebraska said: "This is not public welfare. It is not charity. It is not kindness. It is socialism. ... It is brazen socialism."

Within weeks, it was also law, and few elderly Americans would argue that it is bad law. Primarily because of Medicare, the number of Americans over 65 living below the poverty level has dropped from 28.5 percent to 9.7 percent.

Socialism or not, history is pushing health care reform into law. It will not be 100 percent of what President Obama wanted. It will be a compromise bill with some Republican input -- and it will be added to and expanded over the years. For now, on passage, Obama will say something historic, similar to what Franklin Roosevelt said in 1935:

"We can never insure 100 percent of the population against 100 percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life. But we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age."

Gambling or gaming is designed at the start so that the odds are not affected by the players' conduct or behavior and not required to conduct risk mitigation practices. But players can prepare and increase their odds of winning in certain games such as poker or blackjack. In contrast to gambling or gaming, to obtain certain types of insurance, such as fire insurance, policyholders can be required to conduct risk mitigation practices, such as installing sprinklers and using fireproof building materials to reduce the odds of loss to fire. In addition, after a proven loss, insurers specialize in providing rehabilitation to minimize the total loss.

What is often missing from the debate is that prohibiting the use of legitimate, actuarially sound factors means that an insufficient amount is being charged for a given risk, and there is thus a deficit in the system. The failure to address the deficit may mean insolvency and hardship for all of a company's insureds. The options for addressing the deficit seem to be the following: Charge the deficit to the other policyholders or charge it to the government (i.e., externalize outside of the company to society at large).

Florida Homeowners Insurance

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) –
A suspected suicide car bomb ripped through a police building in an army garrison of Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar on Friday, killing up to 11 people, police said.

It was the second bomb attack in Peshawar in 24 hours, striking a day after 40 people died in a wave of militant attacks against security targets in Pakistan's eastern city Lahore and the country's volatile northwest.

"I have counted 11 dead bodies and 13 wounded in the emergency unit of the hospital," police official Mohammad Gul told AFP by telephone from the main government-run hospital in Peshawar.

Ambulances screeched through the streets, sirens blaring as rescue teams rushed to the scene of the attack, where TV footage showed smouldering wreckage and a damaged brick wall.

Police at the scene earlier put the death toll at seven with detainees in custody at the police building among the wounded.

"There are seven killed and 15 wounded in a car bomb blast. There are some prisoners among the injured," said senior police official Mohammad Karim Khan.

North West Frontier Province police chief Malik Navid told Pakistan's state PTV it was an apparent suicide attack, with the bomber driving a car.

The bomb ripped through the police-run Central Investigation Agency (CIA) building in Peshawar -- the largest city in northwest Pakistan which lies on the fringes of the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border.

Navid slammed the attack as a reaction to military operations against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the semi-autonomous tribal belt and parts of the northwest where radicals have carved out sanctuaries.