Michael Jackson's 53rd birthday: the world celebrates (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Michael Jackson would have turned 53 on Monday if not for his untimely death on June 25, 2009.

And though the musical legend has left this world forever, the King of Pop's life is being celebrated throughout the country in a variety of ways.

The big celebration is occurring in Jackson's birthplace in Gary, Ind., where the city is holding a four-day celebration that began over the weekend.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the extended bash -- marked by musical performances and a circus -- drew hundreds of fans over the weekend, and was attended on Saturday by Jackson's family, including his 13-year-old daughter, Paris, as well as his sons Prince, 14, and Blanket, 9, and his father Joe.

Jackson's mother, Katherine, was also on hand for the festivities on Sunday, TMZ reported.

Those who couldn't make it to Indiana still managed to find ways to celebrate.

In San Francisco, the singer's birthday was marked with a flash mob dancing to "Thriller." The semi-organized dance performance wound its way from the city's Ferry Plaza to Union Square, into the Mission District's Dolores Park and finally into the Castro District.

Jackson's influence on musicians is probably inestimable, and quite naturally the artists who've drawn inspiration from him are remembering him on his special day.

Former Tribe Called Quest rapper Q-Tip performed a special tribute to Jackson at his concert in New York City's Irving Plaza on Saturday.

"Michael Jackson was a huge influence on my music and was an inspiration to me and so many others," Q-Tip told the press. "I want to bring people together to celebrate the man, his music and his legacy that will undoubtedly live on forever!"

Meanwhile, Chris Brown weighed in on the milestone Monday, writing on his twitter account, "Happy birthday Michael Jackson!!!! Your the greatest!"

The celebration of Jackson's life and musical contributions won't stop thee. "Michael Forever -- The Tribute Concert" will take place on October 8 at the 74,500-seat Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

Though the production has been beset by problems, artists including Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, the Jackson Brothers, Leona Lewis and Smokey Robinson are scheduled to perform.

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Eric Benet celebrates new marriage, and film (AP)

PHILADELPHIA – Eric Benet has had a few minor acting roles ("Glitter," anyone?), but typically, they didn't require too much heavy lifting on his part.

So when he was offered the lead as a single father of a young girl for the new GMC film "Trinity Goodheart," Benet knew he had to get serious, even though the movie had parallels to his own life. (He raised his 19-year-old daughter as a single dad after her mother passed away.)

"This was the first time when I did more than just memorize my lines. This was the first time that I actually worked with an acting coach. Some of the scenes in `Trinity Goodheart' called for emotional moments," he said during a recent interview. "I really wanted those emotions to ring true."

The movie is about a girl who tries to bring both sides of her family together after years of fighting. In real life, Benet, 40, is experiencing familial bliss: He recently married longtime girlfriend Manuela Testolini, and beams with pride over his daughter India, a budding singer who attends the University of Southern California. He says he's also looking forward to becoming a new father.

In a recent interview, Benet — who wed on July 31 and postponed his honeymoon to promote the movie — talked about the film, which debuts Saturday, and his new marriage.

AP: This movie seems like it's close to your life. Did that attract you to the role?

Benet: This was my first time doing a male lead in a movie. It would ease my burden of trying to carry a movie if I had a script that was so similar to my life and my life experiences. It was one of the aspects of the movie that really attracted me, and the other aspect was how it was so beautifully written. ... It just all resonated really strongly for me.

AP: How do you think you've grown as an actor?

Benet: I don't know what kind of grade to give myself, but I can grade how I feel about the job that I did when I see it. It feels like an honest portrayal and one of the things I feel like, to portray a convincing role in acting, is you have to build layers to a character. So some of the things I did with my acting coach was just that. We had to create a whole back story to this character that isn't necessarily in the script. ... There were some emotional places that I needed to get to, and this is all very new to me.

AP: What's next for you in acting?

Benet: This was such an enjoyable experience, and it's being received very well. (But) ... I got my day gig. I'm going to keep making music. ... I can just take my time and pick the things that really resonate strongly with me, that I would really like to sink my teeth into.

AP: This is your second marriage (he famously wed and divorced Halle Berry). What have you learned?

Benet: Marriage is one of those things, like having a baby. You may think you're ready, but nobody is really completely ready for everything that it's gonna bring to the table, and I just feel like I'm so much wiser and more attentive and more communicative about what's going on with me emotionally than I was 10 years ago, and so far in my relationship with my wife, it's been like night and day.

AP: You both have famous exes (his wife was previously married to Prince). With your new marriage, do you try harder to keep it out of the public eye because of that?

Benet: I think primarily we just want to make it about she and I, and the exes never factor into the equation. It's all about us and as little as we possibly can share, keep our private as private as we possibly can.

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Online:

http://www.ericbenet.net

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Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's music editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

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British princess celebrates graduation with tennis trip (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Britain's Princess Beatrice, whose eccentric hat made headlines at the royal wedding, celebrated her graduation Friday by spending the day at the Wimbledon tennis championships.

Beatrice, fifth in line to the throne, earned a 2:1, the second-highest grade, in her history and history of ideas degree at London's Goldsmiths College.

The 22-year-old, the eldest daughter of Queen Elizabeth II's second son Prince Andrew, was diagnosed with dyslexia in her childhood.

"I have had the most amazing university experience," the princess said in a statement.

"I am so excited about my results."

The redhead's flamboyant hat, which stunned onlookers at the April 29 wedding of her cousin Prince William and Kate Middleton, was likened to a giant pretzel and a toilet seat.

It made ?81,100 ($130,375, 89,700 euros) when it was auctioned for charity.

Beatrice was in the Royal Box on Centre Court on Friday to watch the men's semi-finals.

The princess does not currently carry out royal engagements.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "In terms of her future, like a lot of students she'll be considering her options."

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Alicia Keys celebrates 10th anniversary of debut (AP)

NEW YORK – Music critics are invited to see burgeoning singer-songwriters almost every day. But when a request came across this writer's desk to see a young singer-songwriter at an intimate showcase 10 years ago, it carried with it high expectations.

Backed by music mogul Clive Davis, Alicia Keys was billed as a cross between Lauryn Hill and Whitney Houston — a gritty, cornrow-wearing R&B singer who was a brilliant, classically trained pianist with both a stunning voice and beauty. She was going to be big. Bigger than big. Grammy Awards and multiplatinum sales were more than hoped for, they were expected.

Keys delivered on the all hype when her debut, "Songs in A Minor," was released in 2001. The album established the 20-year-old as one of the most influential artists of her generation. But looking back, Keys says she didn't expect the album would make her a superstar.

"This had been a lot of years of me struggling to put out any music, and there had been multiple times where we were like, `Oh, it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen,' and it didn't. So in a lot of ways in my mind, I think maybe I was protecting myself," she recalled.

Now, the 30-year-old Keys can celebrate. The album is being rereleased this week with special editions that include previously unreleased tracks and video footage. Keys, who married music producer Swizz Beatz and gave birth to a son last year, will also perform songs from the album at a concert at New York's Beacon Theatre on Thursday.

"There are certain things you have to celebrate, like certain birthdays are more special than the others, just because they kind of represent a growth, so for me, that's what this is," she said in a phone interview last week. She talked about that milestone album and how she's evolved over the decade.

The Associated Press: Had you been thinking about the anniversary?

Keys: I didn't even really realize it, somebody else kind of brought it up to me. ... (But) as I started thinking of it, and we started talking about it, I knew there were tons of songs from that time that I didn't put out. I didn't do anything with (them) because it wasn't right for the time, but I thought, `How crazy would it be to go back and listen to them and figure out which were ones that I'd love people to hear.' There are songs that I did when I was 16, 17. It's really, really cool.

AP: In the video that accompanies the rerelease, you talk about how you weren't the refined girl people expected. What were the adjustments that you had to make over the years, and how have you changed?

Keys: I was straight off the streets of Harlem and Hell's Kitchen. ... I'm a real New York girl. So I think that was kind of a bit of a shock for people, especially back then, to see a real New York girl, and here I was doing all of these interviews. ... When I look back at them, I'm like, `Damn, Alicia, you could have been a little gentler.' I just had a certain kind of roughness to me. That was just because that's the way I associated with people at the time, that's the way that I spoke. ... I remember reading a couple of things where they literally kind of criticized the way that I used my hands, or the way that I spoke, or say that I was whatever because I spoke a certain way. There were a lot of judgments, I think, that definitely made me conscious about how to start to maybe be a little bit more aware of how I was coming off ... but I'm still the same me.

AP: How have you musically evolved?

Keys: (What) I really learned about music is that you don't understand it. That's the part about it. There really is no formula ... it's all about a gift, it's like a moment, and you don't know when that moment is going to come. ... (Also) I've been able to be more experimental and just more open and more driven to do things that are new and different from me, because as an artist, you just always want to do things that are like unique and new and fresh. You don't ever want someone to say, `Oh yeah, that's that same thing that she does.' For me, I want it to always be new.

AP: How has marriage and motherhood changed you?

Keys: It's made me so much stronger, it's made me so much more powerful. First of all, I'm having more fun than I've ever had in my whole life. I'm happier than I've ever been in my whole life. And I also realize more the importance of time, and I realize the importance of really, really making sure that you dedicate certain times to the people that you love. Back when I was younger, I was so focused on doing whatever it takes to get noticed, or getting a chance to have my music be heard by people, I didn't recognize how much time was valuable. ... It helps me make more clear and concise choices.

AP: Do you miss your cornrows? That was your signature look.

Keys: I do miss my braids so much. ... Sometimes I'm like, `I'm gonna throw them back in!'

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Online:

http://www.aliciakeys.com/

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Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the music editor for The Associated Press. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

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Prince William celebrates his 29th birthday (AP)

LONDON – Just-married Prince William is celebrating his 29th birthday at work.

The prince, a helicopter search-and-rescue pilot in the Royal Air Force, is on duty at a base on an island off the coast of Wales and is expected to mark his birthday privately.

The prospect of a low-key birthday on Tuesday might appeal to the prince following his blow-out April 29 wedding at Westminster Abbey to Kate Middleton. He is also due to travel to Canada and the United States next month on his first official overseas trip as a married man.

William's grandfather, Prince Philip, recently celebrated his 90th birthday with a full day of official engagements.

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Paloma Herrera celebrates a life of dance (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – "To dance is my life," Argentine ballerina Paloma Herrera said as she celebrated 20 years this month with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre.

Modest and very un-diva like, Herrara is at 35 one of the symbols of the nation's foremost ballet troupes. She has been a principal dancer since 1995.

"At ABT, you learn so much from all the dancers who are there," said Herrera, who joined the company from her native Buenos Aires in 1991.

"We have cultures from all the world, dancers from all the world... To be 20 years with the company, you really have to love it. And I love it because it's always a place of inspiration."

Bestowed with extraordinary talent from a young age, Herrera began her ballet studies at age seven, and at 11, moved to the former Soviet Union to study at the Minsk Ballet School.

She later studied in London and at New York's School of American Ballet, where she was chosen after just six months to dance the lead role in "Raymonda" (1898) created by Marius Petipa, the maitre de ballet of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, with music by Russian composer Alexander Glazunov.

At 17, she was promoted to ABT soloist and two years later, to principal ballerina.

As one of 17 principal ballerinas, Herrera is currently dancing in "The Bright Stream," which is set to music by Dmitri Shostakovich. But she will also perform in "Coppelia", "Swan Lake," "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Don Quixote" before the summer is over.

Argentina's consulate in New York provided a warm tribute this week, including a showing of the documentary "Paloma Herrera, Here and Now" before an audience that cheered her onstage prowess and relished an opportunity to speak with her.

"The truth is I'm not a great fan of competitions," she told the crowd, "but I have to say that they really helped me.

"I can't remember since I was seven years old not dancing," she said with a smile, adding that when she has precious free time, "I'm off to the movies, I go the theater, I go to concerts, I go for dinner with friends."

When dancing, she said "everything else is out. The outside world is just different."

She prefers not to reflect too much on the future. "I live the moment," said Herrera.

"I try to enjoy 100 percent today because you never know what can happen tomorrow."

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Prince Philip celebrates 90th birthday (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Prince Philip, the husband of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, turns 90 on Friday but will keep the celebrations at a minimum in keeping with the no-nonsense style that has defined a life behind the throne.

The gruff patriarch, the longest-serving consort in British history, will spend his birthday at work, hosting a charity reception and chairing a conference for military colonels.

Although still sprightly and remarkably fit, the Duke of Edinburgh is bowing to his age and intends to slow his hectic schedule of engagements.

But he is as quick as ever when making quips -- some of which have famously landed him in trouble -- and after a lifetime of getting on with it, he showed typical impatience when asked to analyse the past 90 years.

He admitted in a BBC interview that he had worked out his role by "trial and error", but when asked if he thought he had been successful, he replied: "I couldn't care less. Who cares what I think about it? I mean it's ridiculous."

However, in a sign of the public affection for him, the palace revealed that almost 2,000 birthday cards had been sent to the duke from across the globe, including New Zealand and Australia, Italy, Poland, France and Germany.

Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark, a nephew of Greek king Constantine I, was born on a kitchen table on Corfu on June 10, 1921.

After a turbulent childhood, Lieutenant Mountbatten, as he became, married in 1947, but his stellar progress in the British Royal Navy was halted when his wife became queen in 1952 and he was forced to abandon his career.

He told ITV it was "disappointing", but "being married to the queen, it seemed to me that my first duty was to serve her in the best way I could."

Since then he has carved out his own role supporting the monarch, accompanying her on visits and jollying people up with his off-the-cuff remarks, which have sometimes been near the knuckle.

"You managed not to get eaten, then?" he told a British student who had trekked in Papua New Guinea, in 1998.

He is patron of some 800 organisations, and has carved a niche for himself in the fields of conservation, design and developing life skills among youngsters. At the grand age of 90, however, he has finally decided to take a step back.

"I reckon I've done my bit. I want to enjoy myself a bit now, with less responsibility, less frantic rushing about, less preparation, less trying to think of something to say," he told the BBC.

"On top of that my memory's going, I can't remember names. I'm just sort of winding down."

Paying tribute to the duke this week, Prime Minister David Cameron said he had been "a constant companion and a source of rock-solid strength" to the queen, and had served the British people "with an unshakeable sense of duty".

He said Britons found the duke's "inimitable" down-to-earth style "endearing" and the country owed him a "deserved debt of gratitude."

Buckingham Palace has released 90 facts about the duke to mark his birthday, including that he drives a liquid petroleum gas taxi around London and designed the Inter-University Tiddlywinks Championship trophy.

The formal marking of his 90th birthday will be a service of thanksgiving at Saint George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, attended by the royal family, with a reception to follow. A special commemorative coin has also been produced.

The no-frills celebrations are very much in keeping with his character.

As a youth, the prince was "very boyish, but great fun, always great fun and very kind," his cousin Lady Myra Butter said.

"He hasn't really changed much as a person at all, I don't think. He just gets on with it. That's his motto. Just get on with it."

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David Arquette Celebrates 100 Days Sober

The party's over for David Arquette -- and he couldn't be happier!

The star, who made a number of embarrassing on-air confessions about his marriage to Courteney Cox following the announcement of their separation in October, entered rehab in early 2011.

A source close to the actor told PEOPLE that Arquette was being treated for "for drinking and depression, not hard drugs." After completing 30 days of treatment, Arquette checked out of the undisclosed facility and is now celebrating 100 days sober.

Today, the actor tweeted, "I have 100 days of Sobriety today!!! Life is beautiful.:D"
Despite his separation from Cox, the actress has remained one of his most vocal supporters.

"I feel like we've been extremely successful at marriage," Cox told Harper's Bazaar of their 11-year-relationship.

Following his rehab stint, Cox fueled reconciliation rumors, saying of Arquette, "Now he looks the best he's ever looked. He's doing great. He's just awesome. He looks really, really cute." http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option

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