Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson, the sensationally gifted child star who rose to become the "King of Pop" and the biggest celebrity in the world only to fall from his throne in a freakish series of scandals, died Thursday. He was 50. Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Ed Winter, the assistant chief coroner for Los Angeles County, confirmed his office had been notified of the death and would handle the investigation. The circumstances of Jackson's death were not immediately clear. Jackson was not breathing when Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics responded to a call at his Los Angeles home about 12:30 p.m., Capt. Steve Ruda told the Los Angeles Times. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to the hospital, Ruda told the newspaper. Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered...

Los Angles: Britney Spears appeared in a tattoo parlour in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles with her head shaved completely bald. Video on KABC-TV showed the newly shorn Spears with tiny tattoos on the back of her neck as she sits on Friday night for a new tattoo, a pair of red and pink lips. Derrik Snell, who works at the tattoo parlour, said Spears showed up without notice and stayed for about 90 minutes. “I didn’t really notice (the hairdo) at first, she had a hood on when she showed up.” Before heading to the tattoo parlour, Spears grabbed an electric clipper and shaved her own head at a San Fernando Valley salon. “I tried to talk her out of it. I said, ‘Are you sure you’re not having a bad day and tomorrow you’ll feel differently about it?” salon owner Esther Tognozzi said. “She said ‘No, I absolutely want it shaved off right now’. Next thing I know, she grabbed the buzzer and she went to the back of my salon and she was shaving off her own hair,” Tog nozzi said.

Jennifer Lopez has reportedly gone on a special diet to help her get pregnant. The Latin beauty, who is married to singer Marc Anthony , has apparently been trying to conceive for months and is said to have changed her eating habits to increase her fertility. Speculation was further fuelled when J.Lo turned up for an awards ceremony in New York looking slimmer than usual and appeared to have lost her curvy trademark figure. An onlooker said, “It looked like it had gone.” The 37-year-old star has said on many occasions that having a family is one of her ambitions in life, and she has sparked pregnancy rumours on several occasions in the past. Just months after she tied the knot with Marc in 2003, J.Lo was reported to be expecting his baby. Earlier this year, rumours surfaced again when Lopez suddenly pulled out of the movie version of hit TV series Dallas. It was later revealed she quit the project because she was unhappy with the script.