Murray was apparently hired away just a couple of weeks ago from his private practice to keep Jackson healthy during his planned comeback tour. This indicates there was ongoing concern about the singer's heart; a medical finding of a heart attack would of course also point to likely heart disease. As AP puts it:

Heart attacks can indicate a long-term problem, such as heart disease. It would not necessarily rule out another factor, such as drug use, however.

Murray is said to have injected Jackson with his daily Demerol shot within an hour before the singer's death; Jackson family members reportedly believe the dosage was too high and caused his demise, despite the evidence his heart was already weak.

This is why Los Angeles police are eager to have a detailed conversation with the doctor, extending the brief interview he granted Thursday night. As of Friday evening, they still had not reached Murray.

The British tabloids, meanwhile, went into overdrive; the Mirror produced a lengthy report on Jackson's "final 24 hours in agony," which the singer entered in a "permanently medicated state, kept going by an increasingly dangerous mix of seven prescription drugs and vitamin shots."

When he came down from an artificial high, he came down hard and was being treated with various depressants to ease the crash...

Jackson complained of being ill Wednesday, the Mirror said, but later felt well enough to watch re-runs of his old performances in his rented mansion's theatre room and take notes on choreography ideas. The singer, who had trouble sleeping more than two hours straight, woke up the next morning "woozy and disoriented," according to the British tabloid. Then came the demerol shot, cardiac arrest and death.

One of Jackson's former producers has said the singer was surrounded by "charlatan doctors who were billing him thousands and thousands of dollars worth of drugs, vitamins." Murray, who left his Las Vegas practice only this month, is presumably preparing to show police he was not one of those "charlatans." Given Jackson's, err, complex condition prior to his arrival on the scene, that must be quite a task.

As Fox called in the FBI to find out who had leaked the film onto the Internet, Friedman posted a column last Thursday marveling at how easy it was to find a copy of the purloined Hugh Jackman comic book film online. The column was quickly removed and over the weekend, reports emerged that he had been fired. News Corp.'s corporate P.R. even released a statement on Sunday saying that the columnist was toast.

But that was a bit premature, and Ailes gave Friedman the chance to come in and tell him and Fox News executive vice president John Moody why he shouldn't be fired. That meeting was supposed to take place this morning, but got pushed back to the afternoon.

Why go through all the bother? Our guess is that, as ridiculous as it might sound, corporate politics were to blame. Power at News Corp. is in flux now that Ruper Murdoch's deputy Peter Chernin has announced his exit. And some of the big winners in the corporate restructurings so far have been the heads of the Fox movie studio, Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopoulos. No matter how inevitable Friedman's exit may have been, it wouldn't be surprising if Ailes bristled at the idea of movie studio people making hiring-and-firing decisions in his cable news outfit.

So, Friedman got his day in kangaroo court. And lost. Here's the official statement from Fox News:

Fox News representatives and Roger Friedman met today and mutually agreed to part ways immediately. Fox News appreciates Mr. Friedman's ten years of contributions to building foxnews.com and wishes him success in his future endeavors. Mr. Friedman is grateful to his colleagues for their friendship and support over the past decade.

Update: Friedman asks that we clarify one thing: He did not not download Wolverine per se. He explains:

I did not download anything. I found Wolverine on the internet by accident on Wednesday night. I was looking for something else—info on another movie, which had a link to this site. I simply pressed "play" and when I realized it really was Wolverine, I skipped watching Lost and watched this instead. Afterwards I discovered that the Times had written about it earlier that evening. I guess what I did was called streaming. But there was no downloading. I am fervently anti-piracy, have written extensively about this, and spent too much money at amazon's mp3 site. Please let's clear up this misconception.

Okay then.

The New York Times confirmed Richardson is in New York, adding that her mother, the actress Vanessa Redgrave, was spotted walking into Lenox Hill, the NYU-affiliated hospital considered among the top neurology centers in the country.

People said friends and family were gathering for a "vigil in New York to be with Richardson." Gotham tabloids were more dire, with the Daily News joining in the chorus of earlier reports from the Post and Time Out New York that Richardson is brain dead.

Her family, which includes Richardson's husband, actor Liam Neeson, has gathered to "say farewell," the Daily News reported. The tabloid also offered an explanation for all the confusion over Richardson's status today:

Last night, there were tears as Richardson's family prepared to follow the heart-crushing choreography that goes with making the decision to let a loved one go.

"The rule of thumb is: You have two neurological exams 12 hours apart to show that there is no evidence of higher brain activity," said Dr. Philip Stieg, chairman of New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell's department of neurological surgery.

"If that is so, the patient is brain-dead; they are clinically dead."

Even at that point, the patient's heart can be kept beating to give the family "time to say goodbye," the doctor added.

One hopes the family has at least gained some clarity on Richardson's situation, or does so soon, even though the decisions following such knowledge may not be easy ones.

According to Robbins, the polling place he's used for the last decade didn't have his name on the register, and he certainly wasn't about to fill out a provisional ballot like a common plebe! Sadly, Robbins handled the issue not with pleasant, Bob Roberts-style folk songs but with a high-octane argument that brought the NYPD (though they couldn't prevent him from decamping for City Hall to find a judge who could prove his case). Was the actor simply listed on voter rolls under "Tom Ribbons," or is this a Susan Sarandon-aimed revenge from jilted New York senator Hillary Clinton? Developing!

• Tim Robbins Couldn't Vote — Cops Called [TMZ]