Michael Jackson
Photo: Time Life Pictures/DMI/Time Life Pictures/Getty Im

The A&E network reality show depicting the aftermath of Michael Jackson's death on his family, "The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty," is slated to premiere on Sunday, December 13, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. According to an A&E spokesperson, the series will kick off a six-show run that night with two hour-long episodes.

The show will focus on the lives of brothers Jermaine, Jackie, Tito and Marlon Jackson as they make preparations for a reunion tour that was reportedly to include a performance by Michael at a concert in Texas next summer. Shooting on the series cranked up again following Jackson's death in June, and episodes will also reportedly focus on the brothers' reactions to the shocking passing of the King of Pop.

There have been conflicting reports about whether Jackson's three young children — whom the singer vigorously tried to hide from cameras and paparazzi during his life — will appear on the program. An A&E spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on whether the children will be included in the show.

In a 30-second preview of the show, tagged "You only think you know them," the brothers can be heard in voiceover discussing their comeback. "It's been 20 years since we were in the studio," one says. "How are we going to make this happen?" another replies.

"I never wanted to hurt y'all; I never wanted to be separated," a third pleads over stock footage of their modest upbringing in Gary, Indiana, as the phrase "The wait is over" flashes on the screen. "We've never forgotten where we come from," another says. "What do we got? Each other. Let's show them who we are."

The second half of the clip shows the brothers rehearsing dance steps to the strains of the group's hit "ABC," as one of them intones, "We're family; we'll be Jackson 5 until the day we die."

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LaToya Jackson
Photo: Mark Ralston/ AFP/ Getty Images

Just days after a British tabloid published a story in which Michael Jackson's older sister LaToya Jackson alleged that the 50-year-old singer was murdered for his money by unnamed members of a "shadowy entourage," CNN has reported that LaToya was paid for her interview.

A common practice in tabloid journalism, Jackson's payment for the interview was confirmed for CNN by an unnamed source said to be close to the Jackson family and "another source familiar with the interview arrangements." It was not disclosed how much money LaToya was paid, but Caroline Graham, the reporter for the Daily Mail who conducted the interview last Thursday, said Jackson was "very candid" throughout the four-hour sit-down, which took place in Los Angeles just two days after her brother's public memorial.

LaToya, 53, a onetime Playboy model who was estranged from the rest of the Jackson family for a time in the early 1990s after she claimed her brother acted inappropriately with children, did not give any proof to back up her murder claim. She told the Mail that the family has received the results of a private autopsy it ordered, but she declined to reveal the findings of those tests.

"I believe Michael was murdered, I felt that from the start," the Mail quoted LaToya as saying over the weekend. "Not just one person was involved; rather it was a conspiracy of people."

Reporter Graham said the choice of words from LaToya "stopped me dead in my tracks," prompting her to ask, "Are you sure the word 'murder' is what you want to use?" Jackson responded that she purposely chose that word. "He was surrounded by a bad circle," LaToya said in the interview. "Michael was a very meek, quiet, loving person. People took advantage of that. People fought to be close to him, people who weren't always on his side."

A cause of death has not yet been announced pending the results of toxicology tests. The tests were ordered after the initial coroner's autopsy could not determine what triggered the cardiac arrest that is believed to have felled the singer just weeks before he was to begin a 50-show residency at the O2 Arena in London.

While at press time the family had not commented on LaToya's interview, Jackson's father, Joseph Jackson, has also suggested in several interviews that he believes foul play was involved in Michael Jackson's death, though he too has not revealed what evidence he has to support those claims. Los Angeles' assistant chief coroner told CNN that the autopsy report on Jackson could be released within a week, and several media outlets reported on Tuesday (July 14) that the results of the toxicology tests could also be available within the week.

For complete coverage of the life, career and passing of the legendary entertainer, visit "Michael Jackson Remembered."

Share your Michael Jackson memories by uploading video and comments to Your.MTV.com or joining the discussion below.

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La Toya Jackson attends Michael Jackson's Public Memorial Service at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on July 7, 2009
Photo: Harrison Funk/ WireImage

As investigators wait for the results of toxicology tests on Michael Jackson to determine the singer's cause of death, older sister LaToya Jackson has come up with her own theories about what felled her 50-year-old brother. In an interview with England's Mail on Sunday, LaToya blames her brother's death on a shadowy cabal of hangers-on who she alleges manipulated Michael into signing up for a 50-date engagement at the O2 Arena in London and cutting him off from his family and friends.

"I believe Michael was murdered, I felt that from the start. Not just one person was involved, rather it was a conspiracy of people," said LaToya, 53, a onetime Playboy model who was estranged from the Jackson clan for a time in the early 1990s, after she claimed that she believed Michael acted inappropriately with children. She later said she was manipulated into the statement by her controlling ex-husband.

Last week, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department said it is still possible that the investigation into Jackson's death could turn into a homicide case, depending on the results of toxicology tests.

"He was surrounded by a bad circle. Michael was a very meek, quiet, loving person. People took advantage of that. People fought to be close to him, people who weren't always on his side," LaToya said, not blaming anyone in particular, but referring to a "shadowy entourage" who supplied her brother with prescription drugs. Since his death, a number of stories have emerged detailing Jackson's alleged addiction to prescription medications, including an intravenously delivered surgical anesthetic not intended for private use that the singer is said to have used as a sleep aid.

LaToya told the paper that less than a month ago, she thought Michael was going to die before his London shows — which were slated to kick off on Monday (July 13) — because "he was surrounded by people who didn't have his best interests at heart."

She said Michael never believed he would live to be an old man and feared he would die in his 50s. She suspected he was worth more dead to the "greedy people" around him than alive. LaToya also allegedly revealed some new information about her brother's death, including her claims that he was not found on a bed, as reported, but inside the nearby bedroom of his personal physician, cardiologist Conrad Murray, who she said "disappeared" when she tried to question him at the hospital. Murray has been interviewed by investigators in the case and police have said he is not a suspect in Jackson's death. LaToya said an IV drip was beside the bed where her brother was found and oxygen canisters lined the walls.

"They got him hooked on drugs," LaToya said, vowing to file a civil lawsuit against anyone the family believes could be responsible for Michael's death. "He was pure and clean, and then drugs came back into his system. I think it shocked his system so much it killed him." She said he had needle marks on his neck and on his arms — which could be signs of intravenous drug delivery — and that he was strong-armed into doing the grueling 50-date string of O2 shows and kept away from his family during the long rehearsals for the gigs.

"It's impossible even for a healthy person to do that many shows," she reportedly told the paper. "Michael was fragile. He always wanted to believe the best of people. But he was meek. In the last few months, he became isolated. I believe the staff were given strict instructions that if any of the family called, not to tell him. And if any of the family came by, not to let them in." The Jackson family has not responded to MTV News' requests for comment on LaToya's interview.

"I am going to get down to the bottom of this," LaToya vowed. "I am not going to stop until I find out who is responsible. Why did they keep the family away? It's not about money. I want justice for Michael. I won't rest until I find out what — and who — killed my brother."

While Jackson's ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, long ago signed away custody of the couple's two children, LaToya said she would also fight what appears to be a renewed effort by Rowe to gain custody of Prince Michael and Paris. "These are not Debbie's kids," she said. "They don't even know she's their mother. Like everyone else in his life, she was motivated by money. She has always said she's not their mother. My understanding is that she will now go after the kids. I know a few things about Debbie, and I will prevent that from happening." A custody hearing on the matter has been pushed back until next Monday (July 20).

For complete coverage of the life, career and passing of the legendary entertainer, visit "Michael Jackson Remembered."

Share your Michael Jackson memories by uploading video and comments to Your.MTV.com or joining the discussion below.

• Remembering Michael Jackson
• Michael Jackson: The Memorial

• The Program From The Michael Jackson Memorial Service
• Fans Outside Michael Jackson's Public Memorial
• Michael Jackson's Public Memorial At Staples Center

• Michael Jackson
• LaToya Jackson

LaToya Jackson (file)
Photo: Ja-Tail Records

LaToya Jackson has something she wants to tell her little brother Michael. Unfortunately, she's not going to let the rest of us in on what she's going to say.

"It's a subject I can't touch on at the moment, and I would love to," she said. "But he knows my heart. I have always been with him in my heart. He knows everything that's happened, and he knows the influence of somebody else who made me do something against my will. Michael knew it was against my will, and my family knew I didn't want to do what I did, but I couldn't say no."

What she "did" was publicly speak out against her brother, back in 1993 when he was first facing accusations of child molestation. She drove a wedge between herself and the entire Jackson clan when she accused Michael of paying hush money to the parents of his accusers, and charged that he would stay in his room for days on end with young boys. Her then-husband and manager, Jack Gordon, drove the wedge even deeper when he claimed that Michael had threatened LaToya for speaking out against him, going so far as to claim that Michael would pay to have LaToya killed if she ever returned to California.

Maybe she's going to offer profuse apologies to Michael, because now LaToya is singing a different tune. She claims that "it's very important for everybody to support [Michael]" and that the entire family is now united in the endeavor.

"We're all behind him 1,000 percent. And he knows the support is there," she said. "The public hears so much that's not true. I don't think you guys really know what goes on in the real realm of the family. No one knows just how close we are."

She also is finally free of Gordon, whom she divorced in 1997. Though she is careful not to mention him by name (referring to the whole matter as "a touchy subject to talk about"), it's clear that she thinks Gordon influenced and controlled much of her life, and that he forced her to make a host of ill-advised career choices, including those claims against her brother.

"I was in a relationship that I chose not to be in, and I didn't know how to get away from it, as far as management and the whole bit," she said. "To get away from something that powerful and negative you have to clean house. You can't just run away from it. I had to get rid of all the negative people that surrounded me. I had to get rid of all the cancer."

In the years following the divorce, LaToya pretty much disappeared. She claims she didn't know what to do with her life, that her self-confidence had been destroyed by years and years of public criticism. She was tired of being the butt of so many jokes, and was afraid to sing again. But slowly, she began writing new songs and going out to clubs, watching people dance and creating an alter-ego for herself.

"I was at a club and I kind of disguised myself. I wore a suit and a moustache and a goatee. Everybody thought I was a guy," she said. "Actually everybody thought I was Michael. They didn't know if I was a girl or a guy."

And the character development didn't end with dress-up. LaToya began answering to the name "Toy," her childhood nickname. And she kept the moniker when she sent her first new song, "Just Wanna Dance," to club DJs.

"As LaToya, I knew people wouldn't give my music a proper listen, because of the stigma that comes with my name," she said. "But under a fictitious name, people would listen to my music and give it a chance. So we marketed my first single as a European artist named 'Toy.' And no one associated it with LaToya Jackson."

And club DJs began playing the song. Jackson was so inspired by the song's success (it reached as high as #13 on the Billboard Hot Dance/ Club Music chart) that she began recording an entire album, much of it based on her divorce, the reuniting of her family and her returning confidence. The album, due later this year, is a document of her past 10 years, and it's called, appropriately, Startin' Over.

"No one has a clue what I went through. No one can possibly imagine," she said. "It was absolutely awful. And for so long there was nothing I could do about it. It went on for a decade. But finally I was able to start over. I'm living a positive life now. I got to start life all over again."

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