The claws were out tonight at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

First, there were the ones Kanye West dug into Taylor Swift’s big moment, then there was whatever caused Lady Gaga to get all bloodied up, there was that thing Beyoncé Knowles wears when she’s trying to be Sasha Fierce, and, of course, there were a few werewolves.

But the night didn’t start out quite so barbed.

Madonna opened the show at Radio City Music Hall with a heartfelt speech about her relationship with Michael Jackson, as well as that of his fans. The highly-anticipated tribute performance followed with well-known dancers (and So You Think You Can Dance choreographers) Mia Michaels, Laurie Anne Gibson, Wade Robson and recent Emmy winner Tyce Diorio doing the King of Pop’s classic moves to a mix of “Thriller,” “Bad” and “Smooth Criminal.”

Then it was Janet Jackson’s turn.

We’ve learned Paul Fuhrman — the senior vice president of Colony Capital – filed paperwork on Wednesday asking the U.S. Patent Office to forget about the Neverland trademark applications his company filed last month. The request was granted that day.

Colony had filed the trademark applications in case Neverland was turned into a Graceland-esque tourist attraction for Jackson fans.

Doesn’t look like that’s going to happen any time soon.

Michael Jackson’s body is already causing a market shift in the cemetery world — the price of graves near his tomb are already sky-rocketing.

TMZ spoke with a sales rep at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale who told us plots surrounding Jackson have already gone up $2,000-$3,000 each since MJ joined the neighborhood.

FLM was selling pre-Jacko units in the mausoleum for $7,000 a pop — now they’re up to $9,900.

The cemetery rep tells us, “When a high-profile person comes in, it can affect the prices of the surrounding plots.”

Some people who own private units near MJ’s crypt are looking for a bigger payday — one person is asking $34,000 for a double unit inside Jackson’s mausoleum.

We spoke with owner of the double unit who told us, “We’ve had a tremendous response … we’re weighing all of our options.”

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Now that Michael Jackson has been laid to rest, it’s time to bury something else: the baby-daddy story.

Michael Jackson was his children’s parent. He was his children’s father. For all intents and purposes, he was the baby daddy.

Time to move along, folks. Nothing to see here.

What about Arnold Klein? What about Mark Lester? What about Macaulay Culkin?

What about them?

Culkin was dragged into the story by a denounced British tabloid report. Time to move along, folks.

And even though Klein and Lester thrust themselves into the story with talk of their generous contributions, so to speak, there is still nothing to see here.

Klein and Lester, sperm donors though they may be, are not dads, daddies or baby daddies. They are, as Stephanie M. Caballero, an attorney specializing in reproductive law, explained it to us, “genetic contributors.”

“If you have no other documentation, or no other action that shows you as the parent…then you’re not a daddy,” Caballero says.

True, anyone can challenge anything—sperm donors (such as the one in this Texas case) have even sued for custody. But when we asked Theresa Errickson, a surrogacy lawyer, whether she could recall any instance in California, Jackson’s home state, in which a sperm donor prevailed, she said, “Not that I’m aware of at all.”

So, to sum up, the law favors the parent. The parent being the one who is parenting. Like Michael Jackson was.

“The public wants to know who quote the ‘dad’ is,” Caballero says, “but legally Michael Jackson is.”

By all accounts and appearances, Michael Jackson’s three children aren’t confused about the arrangement, either. They are his children. He was their father. Those were their tears they shed after his death. If someday they want answers as to the particulars of their DNA, then that’s their right.

But until that day, and maybe even after it, we don’t need the record set straight by anyone other than Prince, Paris or Blanket on something that isn’t crooked. Even Klein and Lester have essentially acknowledged, if not celebrated, Jackson’s fatherhood.

In the end, there is no mystery. There is no scandal. There is no story.

At long last, the King of Pop was laid to rest tonight within the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif.

Macaulay Culkin and Mila Kunis, Elizabeth Taylor, Lisa Marie Presley, Quincy Jones, Berry Gordy, Gladys Knight, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Corey Feldman, Chris Tucker, Kenny Ortega, Marlon Brando’s son Miko and baseball star Barry Bonds were among those who braved the stifling San Fernando Valley heat to bid Michael Jackson a final goodbye, more than two months after his tragic death at the age of 50.

Rows of white chairs were set up for the mourners on the lawn right outside the mausoleum, which is not visible from the cemetery’s main gate.

But Culkin, Presley, the 77-year-old Taylor and close to 200 others had to wait for the arrival of the family motorcade, which didn’t even set out for Forest Lawn until 7:30 p.m., a half-hour after the service’s scheduled start time.

On the eve of Michael Jackson’s long-awaited burial, there are still pieces of his life scattered all over the place.

With his estate presumably looking to consolidate, movers from Beverly Hills Transfer and Storage were spotted Monday carrying boxes and other items out of one of the King of Pop’s former Las Vegas residences.

Chris Fries, a spokesman for the moving company, told E! News that they were under strict orders not to divulge what was being removed from the house.

“We’re under a confidentiality agreement,” Fries said. “You name it, we got it—just got a whole lot of stuff.”

He said he has not been in contact with any Jackson family members, only business managers, and that he wasn’t aware of where the items will eventually end up.

The answer to that may in fact be buried under a whole bunch of paperwork.

The results of Michael Jackson’s autopsy report are in and finally confirm what we’ve suspected for weeks now.

The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office has officially ruled the King of Pop’s June 25 death a homicide brought on by a lethal cocktail of drugs, specifically “acute propofol intoxication” along with benzodiazepine effect as a contributing factor.

Per the report, after an examination of the body and thorough toxicology tests, the L.A. medical examiner found that the primary drugs that killed Jackson were the highly publicized sedative along with lorazepam, which is a benzodiazepine, a class of drugs similar to tranquilizers.

Other medications detected included midazolam, diazepam, lidocaine and ephedrine.

Michael Jackson fans will have to wait a little while longer before their idol can finally rest in peace.

What had been billed as a birthday burial for the late King of Pop on Aug. 29 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park has now been postponed to give the Jackson clan more time to prepare for the funeral.

Joe Jackson told E! News Thursday that he doesn’t know when his son will be laid to rest, that there are still more things needed to get in order. So instead of doing it on what would’ve been his 51st birthday, they’ve opted to push the 10 a.m. burial service at the Holly Terrace in the cemetery’s Great Mausoleum back.

One report placed the burial on Aug. 31. “I don’t know now,” Joe said. “We have to figure it out.”

Meanwhile, per the Glendale Police Department, the Jacksons have agreed to cover all costs associated with the ceremony. That includes paying the city for providing police officers, closing roads and hiring additional security personnel to keep would-be trespassers (and any kooky Thriller reenactors) at bay during the interment so family members can mourn in private.

Call it the ultimate whodunit twist: Michael Jackson did it.

As famed attorney Mark Geragos told E! News, a Jackson homicide trial in which Dr. Conrad Murray is the defendant may well turn into a forum in which Jackson himself is on trial.

“Ultimately, that may be what the defense is,” Geragos said.

Don’t go there, you say? Don’t blame the victim, you cry?

You may be right. But if a lawyer is potentially going to go there, then we’re going to go there first. Just to wrap our minds around the concept: Michael Jackson. Responsible for his own death.

Now, criminally speaking, Jackson, by virtue of being dead, is in the clear. While dead guys are dead, they’re also beyond the reach of the law.

But what if Jackson weren’t dead?

What if the events leading up to this past June 25 occurred exactly as they occurred with one exception: Jackson doesn’t die. Maybe he’s revived in the ambulance. Maybe he’s revived at the hospital. In any case, he’s alive.

And it’s his turn to face the music. For doctor shopping, maybe. For filling prescriptions for Call of the Wild author Jack London, perhaps. For dragging one of his own sons’ names into the pharmaceutical saga, unbelievably.

Can you blame the victim when the victim isn’t blameless?

Ethically, we get it: Doctors are supposed to look out for you. It’s like John Michael O’Brien, assistant professor at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland School of Pharmacy, told us: “If Joe Sixpack took his child to the family physician and said, ‘I want my child to have HGH or steroids,’ a rational physician would say, ‘Are you crazy?’”

Legally, we get it, too. It’s like California criminal defense attorney Michael L. Crowley told us: “Generally speaking, we put the responsibility on the doctors for prescribing.”

And given that Jackson had no prior record, Peter Knecht, another California criminal defense attorney, told us that even if the singer had been charged with criminal wrongdoing, he wouldn’t have been treated like a criminal: “He would have been able to take advantage of the civil addict programs.”

In the end, his record probably would’ve been wiped clean. Which isn’t necessarily the same as saying his slate would’ve been wiped clean.

Jackson, for all his Peter Pan ways, was a grown man. And by account after account, he was begging to be given things, to be prescribed drugs that aren’t good for grown elephants. According to his former nutrionist, he asked for Diprivan. According to some reports, he died from Diprivan.

The coldest devil’s advocate position says Jackson was a wrong-way driver on a one-way street—destined for disaster—and that not any one member of his entourage, not any one doctor on his tab, not any one drug, is to blame for his demise.

There, we said it. Said what a lawyer might one day say in court. (Mind you, no one—not Murray, not anyone—has been charged with wrongdoing in Jackson’s death.)

Do we feel better? No.

“If Michael Jackson was suffering from the mental disorder of addiction,” O’Brien reminded us, “then I would say Michael Jackson was sick.”

And can you blame the sick for being sick?

Fortunately, we’re not the ones who may have to answer, or argue, that in court.

Michael Jackson is still “not buried yet,” but we’re hearing that he may be getting close.

A source close to the Jacksons tells E! News that the family is now looking to purchase a private garden at Forest Lawn Memorial Park so that ultimately, the entire clan can be laid to rest, side by side.

“They are waiting to work out the details on buying plots for the whole family before they lay Michael to rest,” says the source.

Each garden, which runs about $253,000 and is enclosed by a brick wall with flowers surrounding it, can hold up to eight plots.

Wait a minute, the garden only accommodates eight people?

Hmmm, we did the math and in this case, eight definitely isn’t enough.

There are nine Jackson siblings (with their various families), along with parents Joe and Katherine Jackson. No word yet on who won’t make the cut.

Meanwhlie, E! News was also able to locate the hitherto hard-to-find Forest Lawn grave of Michael’s grandmother, Martha Bridges, and contrary to some accounts reporting a hush-hush burial of Jackson’s body beside Bridges, no signs of a fresh grave, or any new grave nearby, were located.

Just in case you weren’t certain, Michael Jackson is “not buried yet.”

Shooting down published reports (and backing up what we reported yesterday), father Joe Jackson tells E! News exclusively that his son has not already been laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

Joe declined to specify any burial plans or confirm whether his son’s body has been placed in Motown maven Berry Gordy’s crypt as some outlets have speculated.

The Jackson patriarch, who resides primarily in Las Vegas, also tells E! News he supports a proposal to move Neverland to Vegas.

“I think Vegas would be great,” says Joe. And while he doesn’t think the family would visit such a shrine to his son, Joe does believe “the fans would come.”

Asked about Michael’s ongoing death investigation, Joe says he prefers not to discuss it, only adding, “I still can’t believe he’s gone.”

Is the King of Pop the reincarnation of King Tut? Not exactly.

But according to reports, there is an ancient Egyptian statue at Chicago’s Field Museum that bears an uncanny resemblance to Michael Jackson, right down to the botched nose job.

To make Jackson’s old-school spittin’ image even weirder, it’s actually the likeness of a woman. (And no, we don’t think it looks like Diana Ross!)

“I have no idea whether Jackson ever visited the museum,” a Field representative said. “But the similarity between the limestone statue of a woman—which is about 3,000 years old—and Jackson is astounding.”

Could there be any more acronyms involved in the Michael Jackson investigation?

E! News has learned that the pop icon’s family has reached out to a longtime friend—who also happens to be a California congresswoman—for help in bringing the FBI into the investigatory mix.

According to a source close to the family, Joe, Randy and La Toya Jackson and their pal Leonard Rowe met Wednesday with Rep. Diane Watson to entreat her to pull some strings.

And Watson was apparently moved enough to contact the FBI, and federal agents have agreed to meet with the Jacksons.

“[Watson] is assisting the Jacksons to get the FBI to help the investigation and make sure the law enforcement people stay on top of it,” the source said. This would be a “separate investigation” to further probe the family’s theory that foul play was involved.

If Michael Jackson’s not going to be buried there, Neverland Ranch may as well relocate to Las Vegas.

Sources tell E! News that the current owner of Neverland has drafted plans to dismantle the King of Pop’s once-adored residence and move it from the outskirts of Santa Barbara, Calif., to Sin City and fashion a Graceland-style tourist attraction.

We hear that Jackson’s estate is “seriously considering” the idea, which is still in its preliminary stages.

Maybe Michael Jackson’s estate can commission Bill Clinton to exercise some diplomacy in South Korea this time.

A Seoul newspaper, claiming it was stiffed by Jackson’s mother, father and brother back in the 1990s, has filed court papers seeking nearly $7.9 million from the King of Pop’s estate.

The Segye Times sued Michael, Katherine, Joe and Jermaine Jackson in 1990, claiming it paid the family $5.5 million to put on a series of concerts in South Korea which ultimately never took place.

Michael settled out of court in 1992, but a $4 million judgment was entered against his codefendants in 1994 after they didn’t show up for trial.

And they never made good, according to the Segye Times‘ filing. Factoring in interest, the paper says it’s now owed a sum closer to $8 million.

And, now that Katherine is a beneficiary of her late son’s sizable, albeit debt-riddled, fortune, why not tap into that goldmine for a little payback?

Katherine Jackson’s attorney, L. Londell McMillan, had no comment on the matter.

Let’s hear it for the Michael Jackson fans with money to burn.

AEG Live, which staged the lavish July 7 memorial for the King of Pop at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, has cut a check for $90,000 to the L.A. Police Foundation—all proceeds from the 18 luxury suites that sold for $5,000 apiece to those who wanted to experience the ceremony in style.

“The check was signed yesterday,” AEG spokesman Michael Roth told E! News. “It was messengered and they have now received it.”

They did, sure enough.

Karen Wagener, president of the Police Foundation, confirmed that her group had received the money and would be putting it toward a brass memorial wall (price tag: $620,000) that’s being constructed at the new LAPD headquarters downtown.

“We made a decision that we didn’t want the suites to be empty, and it was a good cause to make a donation on our behalf to the LAPD foundation, and so we decided to charge $5,000 per suite,” Roth explained.

So, with AEG giving some suite funds to a good cause, that ought to take the edge off that $1.4 million price tag, right?

Well, maybe Michael Jackson will be laid to rest before we find out what killed him.

At this point in time, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office has “no idea” when the final autopsy report is going to be released, according to Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter.

The coroner’s office was once aiming for Friday to announce the cause of death. Then the middle of next week was deemed more likely.

But now, following a meeting between officials from the coroner’s office, the L.A. District Attorney’s Office and the L.A. Police Department, no one is making any guesses as to when they’ll be making their findings public, as authorities continue trying to connect the dots with regard to the King of Pop’s death.

The kids will be growing up Jackson.

Averting a potentially ugy custody battle, Michael Jackson’s mother, Katherine, and his ex-wife Debbie Rowe have reached a deal keeping the King of Pop’s three children in the care of the Jackson clan.

Katherine Jackson’s attorney, L. Londell McMillan, made the announcement this morning on CBS’ Early Show, revealing that after several weeks of negotiations, Rowe (the biological mom of 12-year-old Prince Michael and 11-year-old Paris) agreed to terms that will give the 79-year-old Jackson matriarch full custody, in exchange for visitation rights.

McMillian also insisted that Rowe, 50, would not be receiving any financial windfall as part of her decision to give up her parental rights and not challenge the custody arrangement in court.

“It’s an agreement…for the best interests of the children. This is not a money deal. There’s no situation better for these children then to be raised and reared under the care of Mrs. Jackson,” the lawyer said.

The resolution makes good on Jackson’s final wishes as stipulated in his will that his mother raise the kids, which includes 7-year-old Prince Michael II (aka “Blanket”), who was born via artificial insemination and whose mother’s identity remains unknown. Katherine, with help from eldest daughter Rebbie, has been taking care of the children in the family’s Encino, Calif., compound.

Oh, don’t stop there. You’re forgetting the spooky apparition that apparently moonwalked through a wall at Neverland Ranch before appearing on tape in front of millions of bowing and scraping CNN viewers.

For those of you wondering, yes, M.J.’s ghost can indeed appear in two places at once, Our Lady-style. Has he come to your neighborhood? Maybe…

Law enforcement sources tell us one of the theories they’re exploring in Michael Jackson’s death is that Dr. Conrad Murray administered Propofol to the singer and then left the room, eventually to return to a dead body.

Our sources say when paramedics arrived Michael Jackson was found with an IV in his arm, an IV stand nearby along with an empty IV bag and oxygen tank.

We’re told paramedics who arrived on scene say Dr. Murray’s conduct was “strange” — he was “hard to deal with” and was “getting in the way” of emergency responders.

As we already reported, paramedics wanted to pronounce Jackson dead at the house but Dr. Murray insisted they transport the singer to the hospital.

We’re told at the UCLA Medical Center — after doctors gave up on resuscitation efforts because Jackson was clearly dead — Dr. Murray continued CPR, which some of the UCLA docs found curious.