Here’s an equation for you. Take one aging celebrity, mix in a hefty scoop of childhood abuse, add a few dozen helpings of bad publicity for pedophilia charges and just plain bizarre behavior, mix in a lethal cocktail of dangerous prescription drugs, plus the loss of billions of dollars due to years of mismanagement and an over the top lifestyle most of us could never even dream of. There’s really only one way out of that mess, and it happened two weeks ago to 50 year old Michael Joseph Jackson: Death.

For most of his short, anguished time on earth he was larger than life, but in death MJ has eclipsed all other dead celebs (okay, except for, um, Jesus of Nazareth) for sheer marketability and money-making prowess. And talk about a TV ratings bonanza; holy mamasay-mamasah, the whole world stopped to make room for the breaking news of Jackson’s death on June 25th. Iran? Forgotten. Mark Sanford? Luckiest guy in the world, apparently. Recession? Snore. New Iphone? Whatever. And the memorial service? Viewership numbers through the roof, all over the world. We’ll get to that.

Perhaps you remember that for a few minutes, right before MJ was rushed to the hospital that Thursday, the world had been stunned and transfixed by the cellphone video of 26 year old Neda Soltani, killed in living color during a protest in Tehran. The video of her death made the situation in Iran immediate and present to us; it made it real. Such is the power of the internet, which transcends all media, making it immediate in every sense.