The world was already sad enough this morning with the death of Farrah Fawcett piled on top of the recent death of Ed McMahon. I had a conversation at lunch about the Celebrity Death Rule of Threes - you know when a famous person dies, they say celebrity deaths always come in threes. I'm not sure if there's ever been a statistical study, but based on perception, the rule seems real.

Lunch was finished with some casual speculation about who would be the third celebrity to die not really thinking it would happen. I figured if a celebrity died in the next week, that would complete the rule, or maybe David Carradine was the first. Michael Jackson wasn't mentioned at lunch, but with his death this afternoon, he completed the rule of three.

Twitter has been buzzing (and crashing) since TMZ first broke the story of Michael Jackson's death. The first 20 minutes or so of the Twitter session was rampant speculation and TMZ bashing noting the LA Times only had Michael Jackson listed in a coma and CNN, criticised for their Iran coverage, only noted the King of Pop was in the hospital.

Once Michael Jackson death confirmations rolled in, speculation and "Jesus Juice" jokes flushed out giving way to general grief from celebrities and regular folk alike. Wyclef and Diddy's grief tweets seemed genuine while Samantha Ronson bashed the Michael Jackson bashers and Pete Wentz tweeted "I have never felt this before in my life" before getting into a lengthy Twitter debate with Perez Hilton chastising Mario for making fun of Michael Jackson's death and then changed the post (right) to honor him now that he's dead. Perez does have some ads to sell and after the will.i.am controversy, he needs to be kindler and gentler.

I have a user-generated content theory which Twitter keeps proving. Without some editorial curation, the lunatics will run the asylum and instead of getting news and information, you'll get chaos. Suddenly rumors of Jeff Goldblum dying became rampant sending thousands of people to The Drunk Goldblum.

These rumors wouldn't be possible without Twitter, but neither would an Iranian Revolution-in-the-making so overall, Twitter fits in with one of my philosophical pillars borrowed from Van Halen, "You got to roll with the punches to get to what's real."

Kevin Spacey, for the record, set everyone straight about Jeff Goldblum and for the record, I appreciate Michael Jackson's contribution to music and pop culture. My pre-teen years wouldn't have been the same without him. However, I'm not too happy about the dial-to-dial 9/11 style coverage of his death, but even worse, the pending legal shitstorm that's brewing. Between the custody and estate battles that are sure to follow, it's going to be sick and disgusting and I suspect E!, CNN, BNO, TMZ, CBS, ABC News and Nancy Grace will keep us on the front row.

I wish his children and loved ones well and hope that whatever god they subscribe to, he/she/it keeps them safe.

As I tweeted earlier, "Michael Jackson is not Pearl Harbor or JFK, but you'll always remember where you were when he died... on Twitter."

I'm going to start with the man in the mirror...

Related:
- Billy Mays Found Dead
- Michael Jackson Has Left the Stadium
- Ed McMahon RIP
- Farrah Fawcett Story


Fletch is the exectuive editor of Digital City. You can follow Fletch on Twitter or contact him at fletch@when.com