Jackson TV Special Canned

In the wake of police issuing a warrant for Michael Jackson's arrest on multiple counts of child molestation, CBS announced that it has postponed the TV special Michael Jackson Number Ones, which was to air November 26th.

"Given the gravity of the charges against Mr. Jackson, we believe it would be inappropriate at this time to broadcast an entertainment special," reads a press release from the network. "However, we are very mindful that Mr. Jackson is innocent until proven guilty. We will consider broadcasting the special after the due process of the legal system runs its course."

The special, produced by Jackson, was to coincide with Tuesday's release of the Number Ones greatest hits album and was slated to feature testimonials from Dick Clark, Beyonce Knowles and Mary J. Blige.

Jackson was in Las Vegas on Tuesday filming a video for the special when seventy Santa Barbara County sheriff's deputies and district attorney's office investigators swarmed his 2,600-acre Neverland Ranch with search warrants.

Jackson plans to turn himself in to authorities today, and his bail has been set at $3 million.

The charges reportedly stem from allegations made by a twelve-year-old male cancer survivor who was a frequent visitor to Neverland. The boy confessed to his psychiatrist that Jackson supplied him with wine and sleeping pills when the alleged molestation took place. The boy's family has hired lawyer Larry Feldman, the same attorney who represented the family of a fourteen-year-old boy who made sexual abuse allegations against Jackson more than a decade ago.

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Song Stories

“Helen Wheels”

Paul McCartney | 1973

A rollicking good-time hard rocker, "Helen Wheels" was not about a woman but about Paul McCartney's Land Rover, the anthemic chorus voicing the vehicle's reckless joy as "she" took to the road. The song was added to the U.S. version of Band on the Run but was issued only as a single in McCartney's native U.K. "I like that because it's a British road song and there's not many of those around," said McCartney. "It's always Route 66. But Carlisle? How many songs have got Carlisle in them?"

More Song Stories entries »

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