LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – A Michael Jackson statute at Fulham FC’s soccer stadium has prompted controversy. But the Michael Jackson statute is being defended by the person who commissioned it in the first place: Mohammed Al Fayed.

Mohammed Al Fayed was a friend of Jackson. In 2009, he commissioned the statute to be placed outside his department store to greet shoppers at Harrods. But last year, Al Fayed sold Harrods, and kept the statute.

Now he’s moved the statute to his soccer stadium. As Fulham FC chairman, Mohammed Al Fayed believes the statute of the pop singer dancing and holding a microphone (photo here) belongs in a soccer stadium.

Fulham FC fan site Cottage Corner has been filled with furious remarks, calling the erection of a pop singer’s statue at a soccer stadium as “inappropriate and ridiculous”. Many comments by fans of Jackson thought the statute was inspiring, but “disrespectful” to Jackson and disrespectful to soccer athletes. One fan even questioned if it was a practical joke for April Fools day.

Al Fayed met with news reporters Sunday about the unlikely controversy. He told soccer fans that, if they don’t approve of Jackson in his soccer stadium, then he doesn’t want them as fans of his soccer team.

“Football fans love it. If some stupid fans don’t understand and appreciate such a gift they can go to h–ll. I don’t want them to be fans. If they don’t understand and don’t believe in things I believe in they can go to Chelsea, they can go to anywhere else.”

Local news reports that Jackson attended only one soccer game in his life, a Fulham vs Wigan game in 1999 as a guest of Mr Al Fayed.

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LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Lisa Marie Presley tells Oprah today that Michael Jackson feared being murdered. Lisa Marie Presley says Michael Jackson thought certain persons would eventually kill him for his music catalog.

Lisa Marie Presley, who now lives in London with husband Michael Lockwood (pictured above), told Oprah several details about her marriage to Jackson during a Thursday interview. Many of Presley’s remarks were consistent with her blog post about Michael after her passing. But among her statements today, Lisa Marie Presley remembers what she calls her last “coherent” chat with Jackson in 2005.

“I was very distanced, and he was checking to get a read, you know? He was trying to throw a line out to see if I would bite emotionally, and I wouldn’t.” Jackson asked Presley if she still loved him. “I told him I was indifferent. He didn’t like that word. He cried.”

How did that conversation end? Presley said it ended with Jackson telling her that he was going to be murdered. “He felt that someone was going to try to kill him to get hold of his catalogue and his estate”. Who did Jackson suspect? Presley says specific names were mentioned by Jackson. Presley tells Oprah she has no intentions of revealing the names.

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LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Chris Brown’s Michael Jackson tribute during the BET Awards 2010 ended up in Brown crying to “Man in the Mirror”. Chris Brown’s crying came after the beloved singer took to the stage for one of his first major tv performances since pleading guilty to the Rihanna felony assault in February last year.

Brown was a master of every Jackson move. But dressed in “Billie Jean” attire, his attempt to sing “Man in the Mirror” became too reflective of his own pain the last 12 months. It resulted in Brown breaking down in tears and unable to sing clearly. Following the lyrics of “Man in the Mirror”, Brown told viewers “I let you all down before, but I won’t do it again. I promise you”.

The night also marked the first time T.I. has taken to a tv stage since his prison release and the first time for Kanye West headlined an awards show since his 2009 Taylor Swift meltdown at the MTV Video Music Awards.

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LOS ANGELES (LALATE) -  Michael Jackson fans are paying tribute to Jackson today near Jackson’s 2009 rented house of 100 North Carolwood Drive and at Forest Lawn Mortuary in Los Angeles.

For many Jackson fans, remembering Michael has involved trips from around the world. Fans are visiting Michael’s final home  before his death and his final resting place today. MTV interviewed fans who traveled from as far as Australia for today’s one year anniversary.

A “Forever Michael” memorial is set for this weekend at the Beverly Hilton. Chris Brown is scheduled to perform.

Jackson’s final residence was covered in news on LALATE roughly six months before Jackson’s passing, a rented home in Los Angeles’ Holmby Hills. The home was just yards from Beverly Hills’ City border and just minutes from UCLA Medical Center where Jackson would today.

Jackson was reportedly renting the Holmby Hills home allegedly from Roxanne Guez, wife of the head of Ed Hardy.

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After Jackson’s death, street closures around the home remained in place for weeks. Many tourists would camp out along Sunset Boulevard, tour buses arriving regularly.

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Jackson was set to reportedly do a fashion line with Christian Audiger, with Jackson appearing at Audiger’s birthday that year.

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PARIS (LALATE) – Photos that Michael Jackson had taken by Arno Bani at age 23 are now in a Paris auction with Pierre Berge Associes. The Michael Jackson Paris auction features 12 pictures, none of which have ever been seen. In fact, news of the auction today from Paris does not come with a preview of the images.

The pictures were taken in 1999 by Parisian photographer Arno Bani. Bani claims that in 1999 a 23-year old Jackson had seen Bani’s work in a French fashion magazine. Arnon claims Jackson called him and asked him to take his pictures. It remains unanswered for which purpose Jackson sought the pictures to be taken, how many were eventually snapped, and who retained the pictures after the photoshoot.

The auction has set bidding on each photo to start at roughly $1300.  The Paris auction has 12 total pictures from that shoot. The Jackson estate has yet to make a statement about the auction. One of the pictures is named “Michael Jackson’s Blue Eye.”

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