Michael Jackson

She thinks he has funny hair. He thinks she's fat. She called him a "snake oil salesman." He called her a "loser." They've been badmouthing each other on the airwaves since December with the kind of bullying bluster most of us outgrow in junior high school. We can't make it stop, but we can decide who's more annoying. Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump are going head to head in the current round of March Madness: Celebrity Version, our NCAA-style tournament devised to determine, through your online votes, the celebrity of whom we are most weary.

Ravens strong side linebacker Peter Boulware's statistics may be down, but his performance level is up, according to defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis.Boulware hasn't had the impressive numbers of a year ago when he finished with 66 tackles, including 11.5 sacks, tops among rookies and third in the American Football Conference. But he may be a better all-round linebacker than a year ago when he was named the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year.Boulware is tied for fourth on the team in tackles with 25 and second in sacks with 3.5. Defensive end Michael McCrary leads the team in sacks with 6.5, but at least two of his were a result of pressurefrom Boulware.

Rule No. 127 in the game of life: Radio DJs don't always tell the truth.Did anyone really believe pop superstar Michael Jackson, as in the brother of pop superstar Janet Jackson, was going to come to Baltimore for a radio station?Nope. A blizzard on the Fourth of July was more likely. A trip to the moon in the Popemobile would happen first. President Clinton would leave office to become a monk.However, these things must be checked out, no matter how unlikely. So, when urban music station Majic 95.9 said Michael Jackson would pick the winner of a Janet Jackson look-alike contest, we called DJ personality Sasha.

By going to a two-back offense, the Ravens sent a clear signal that they would become a running team bent on controlling the line of scrimmage and the clock.Although the long ball will not be nearly as much a part of their strategy as in seasons past, don't think the receivers will be ignored.Not with 6-foot-4 Michael Jackson at one wide receiver position and the speedy Jermaine Lewis on the other side. Not with another speedster, rookie Patrick Johnson, lining up in the slot or at wide-out.

Ravens coach Ted Marchibroda said he will decide by tomorrow whether to reinsert Jim Harbaugh over Eric Zeier as his starting quarterback against Green Bay on Sunday. It appears Zeier's health will not be a major factor in Marchibroda's decision.Follow-up X-rays on Zeier's injured right thumb yesterday were negative. As he followed through after passing, Zeier strained a ligament when he hit his thumb on the helmet of offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden, while the Ravens were running their two-minute offense late in the fourth quarter of Sunday's 16-6 loss to Pittsburgh.

The Ravens made their first big splash in the free-agent market by retaining one of their own yesterday, re-signing wide receiver Michael Jackson to a three-year contract.After visiting with Kansas City and Houston, and listening to a multi-year offer from the Oilers earlier this week, Jackson decided to remain with the franchise that drafted him in 1991. And after enjoying by far his best season, Jackson agreed to the most lucrative contract of his six-year career.Jackson reportedly signed a deal that is worth $8.4 million and includes a $3 million signing bonus.

If the Ravens are to have even the slightest chance of making the playoffs, they must win at home, which the team hasn't done often this season.The Ravens are 1-3 at Memorial Stadium but have four of their next six games at home -- the Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Oilers. The Eagles and Cardinals have losing records.The Ravens want to make a statement in their house Sunday against the Eagles."Four of six games at home -- that's good," said defensive tackle Larry Webster.

It figures. Just when we'd finally written him off as a musical irrelevance, banished forever to the nether regions of the gossip columns, Michael Jackson goes and upends our preconceptions by making a good album. Is the guy trying to make life difficult for music critics, or what?Appallingly enough, Jackson pulls it off without even bothering to deliver a full album of new material. "Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix" (Epic 68000, arriving in stores today) is basically a five-song EP, padded out to album length by eight remixes from his 1995 album "HIStory."

Barbara Walters interviews one of the oddest and most hunted men on the planet tonight on "20/20" (10 p.m.-11 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2).In light of the death of Princess Diana, Walters centers on the way Michael Jackson has dealt with intrusive press coverage and his thoughts on growing up in the public eye. Some samples of what he has to say:On selling his baby's pictures to the National Enquirer: "There's helicopters flying above us, flying over my house,...

Has the King of Pop turned into the King of Flop?Michael Jackson may be one of pop music's most eccentric performers, but he's also one of its most dependable hit-makers. In addition to having released the highest-selling album in history, 1982's "Thriller," he has generated a dozen No. 1 pop singles -- a feat only Elvis Presley and the Beatles have been able to better. Add in his career with the Jackson 5, and he has been Top of the Pops for 28 of his 38 years.But that hot streak has come to an abrupt end with his new album, "Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix."

How much of "Michael Jackson's This Is It" can we believe? Was Jackson, 50 at the time of his death on June 25, in rougher shape overall than the concert rehearsal footage assembled here suggests? Most certainly, yes. Produced with the watchful cooperation of the Jackson estate, pulled from 100-plus hours of film and video shot between March and June 2009, "This Is It" has no interest in telling the full story of anything. Rather, director Kenny Ortega - Jackson's partner in staging the London concert that was never to be - is simply trying to suggest in some detail what sort of overstuffed career retrospective Jackson was attempting.

In my blog on Thursday, I called Fox's wretched Octomom special the official low point of summer viewing. Before making that call, I went back through the summer schedules and my posts to make sure I wasn't slighting some equally dreadful TV production. I wasn't. In the process, though, I realized it's been a weird summer of TV. So I started writing down my highs and lows. Here are my seven highs and three lows - for a summertime Top 10 list. Notice the decided lack of dramas and sitcoms on my list of bests.

TV soap opera 'Guiding Light' shoots final scenes The cast and crew of "Guiding Light" - U.S. television's longest-running soap opera - have finished shooting their final scenes in a northern New Jersey town. Afterward, they gathered at Peapack Reformed Church for a service to remember the show. The church has served as the site for weddings and funerals in "Guiding Light's" fictional town of Springfield. The Rev. Kathryn Henry recalled that the show's title referred to a lamp put in a church window by the fictional Rev. Rutledge to welcome parishioners seeking guidance.

FRIDAY BALTIMORE SUMMER RESTAURANT WEEK STARTS: Close to 100 restaurants participate in the latest incarnation of this now oft-repeated tradition. Select Baltimore-area restaurants offer three-course lunches for $20.09 and three-course dinners for $30.09. Scour the list on the Web site to spot the best deals, then make your reservations and enjoy a meal at a restaurant you've never ventured to before. Runs through Aug. 16. Go to baltimorerestaurantweek.com. For reservations, go to opentable.

Report: LaToya Jackson says Michael was murdered Two British Sunday newspapers said LaToya Jackson believes her brother Michael Jackson was murdered by a group of conspirators trying to get hold of his fortune. LaToya Jackson said she knows who is responsible for her brother's death and is determined to see them brought to justice, the News of the World reported. According to the published interviews with The News of the World and The Mail on Sunday, she did not name any of the people she believes were involved and did not offer any evidence to support her claim that foul play was involved in the singer's sudden death on June 25. "I feel it was all about money," she was quoted as saying by the News of the World.

A day after Michael Jackson's memorial service in Los Angeles, Baltimore's Rams Head Live! presented Who's Bad: The Ultimate Michael Jackson Tribute Band. In the audience, Joe Galea paid his own tribute to Jackson. He wore an outfit he had assembled a couple of weeks before Jackson's death, for a Washington nightclub's theme night. "I'm a huge Jackson fan. Not scary; I wouldn't have gone to L.A. for his memorial. But I like his music." In real life, however, Galea's style is more chiller than "Thriller."

LOS ANGELES - Music legends, sports figures and civil rights leaders paid tribute to Michael Jackson as a music pioneer and a barrier-breaking cultural figure during an emotional, song-filled service Tuesday at Staples Center. Audience members danced along to musical performances and stifled tears at some of the many tributes to the singer. There were shouts from the audience of "Power to the people," "Long live the king" and "We miss you Michael!" The most poignant moment came at the end, with Jackson's 11-year-old daughter Paris Michael Katherine Jackson - in tears - telling the audience from the stage, "I just wanted to say, ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you can imagine.

They might not have had the coveted wristbands guaranteeing them seats at Michael Jackson's funeral in Los Angeles. But the singer's fans in Baltimore and across the country found other ways to bid farewell to the King of Pop. In New York's Harlem neighborhood, chants of "Michael! Michael!" rang out as hundreds gathered to watch the memorial service on a giant screen. In Gary, Ind., a steady stream of fans wearing Jackson T-shirts and listening to such hits as "Billie Jean" visited the singer's boyhood home.

Jackson's will leaves estate in trust; memorial is planned Michael Jackson's 7-year-old will, dated July 7, 2002, was filed Wednesday in a Los Angeles court, giving his entire estate to a family trust while making his mother the guardian of his children and cutting out his former wife, Debbie Rowe. Court documents estimated the current value of his estate at more than $500 million. Also Wednesday, a Jackson family spokesman said a public memorial for Michael Jackson is in the works, but it won't be held at the late pop star's Neverland Ranch.

LOS ANGELES - -A lawyer for Michael Jackson's personal physician said Sunday that reports that the doctor injected the pop star with a powerful painkiller before his death were "absolutely false." "There was no Demerol. No OxyContin," said Edward Chernoff, the attorney for Dr. Conrad Murray. The lawyer, who was present Saturday for Murray's three-hour interview with Los Angeles Police Department detectives, said Jackson was already unconscious when the doctor "fortuitously" entered the bedroom of the performer's Holmby Hills mansion.