R.I.P., Jack Layton/Repose en paix, Jack Layton. "Canadian hearts are breaking".

BREAKING NEWS

"NDP Leader Jack Layton died early Monday morning after a struggle with cancer. He was 61 years old. The news comes mere weeks after Layton announced he had been diagnosed with a second form of cancer.

Layton's death is not only heartbreaking in how quickly it came after he announced his illness, but that it came so soon after what could was Layton's greatest political achievement. 

After an entire life spent in politics -- first as an academic, then as a city councillor, then in federal politics – Layton had been riding a wave of popularity ahead of his death. It was his personal popularity that many credit for the NDP's "orange crush" in the 2011 federal election. Buoyed by his party's success, Layton had even put the prime minister's office in his sights for the next election. 

Now, with his death, those dreams come to an end and put the very future of his party into doubt. 

While not everyone agreed with Layton's socialist views, there were few who didn't respect the man's passion and work ethic. The politician who had once been a scrappy city councillor with a brash, sometimes strident style, matured into a federal party leader renowned for his dedication. 

Layton's colleagues say he was a master politician who knew how to both work a crowd and work out compromise within his team. All the while, he seemed to never abandon the causes he held most dear: poverty, the environment, public transit, workers' rights. 

In the 2011 election, voters who had once seemed a little wary of the camera-loving politician appeared to finally connect with Layton, embracing his energy, his no-nonsense approach and his promises to represent the average Canadian in Parliament. 

Many voters, particularly in Quebec, said it was Layton himself that drew them to vote for his party and push the NDP into official Opposition status. 

Layton had likely dreamed of reaching the higher echelons of power his whole life. He had been steeped in politics from an early age, growing up in Hudson, Que., under a father who was a cabinet minister in Brian Mulroney's government and who became the Progressive Conservatives' caucus chairman. 

Layton's grandfather too was a cabinet minister, under Maurice Duplessis' Union Nationale government in Quebec, and his great-great-uncle was one of the Fathers of Confederation. The Layton political legacy continues today, with his son, Mike, now a Toronto city councillor as well. 

Layton became student council leader in high school and was voted by classmates as most likely to become a politician. He went on to study political science at McGill University and received his PhD in Political Science from York University. 

He briefly aligned himself with the Liberals while at McGill but, impressed by Tommy Douglas's opposition to the War Measures Act, he turned to the NDP in 1971. 

Layton married at 19, wedding his high school sweetheart, Sally Halford. They had two children: Mike, the Toronto city councillor; and Sarah, who works for the Stephen Lewis Foundation. 

But his marriage to Sally dissolved in 1983, shortly after Layton decided to leave behind life as a politics professor at Ryerson University (then called Ryerson Polytechnical Institute) and make a run for Toronto city council. 

A few years later, Layton met Olivia Chow, who was then a school board trustee, and married her in 1988. She ran for Toronto city council in 1991, the same year that Layton decided to make a bid for mayor. Layton lost badly to June Rowlands; but Chow won her council seat. 

Many have credited Chow, an ambitious politician in her own right, as being one of Layton's greatest assets, acting as both his closest adviser and his soulmate. Former Toronto city councillor Howard Moscoe told The Canadian Press he always thought of Layton and Chow as a single political-family unit.

"They were so good at playing the council," he said earlier this year. "They were kind of meant for each other." 

Together, Layton and Chow became Toronto's political power couple, fighting for public transit, the homeless and sustainable urban development. As councillors, they were often accused of grandstanding, once wearing black gags to protest being silenced by other Toronto politicians when they attempted to object to a deal with Shell Oil. 

Layton loved to spend time in the outdoors with Chow and cycled to work every day while in Toronto and worked out in the House of Commons gym every week while in Ottawa. NDP MP Pat Martin once said that Layton and Chow even thought of their work as recreation. 

"I've never met anybody so perfectly matched to a life in politics," Martin said of Layton. 

But Layton did have some brushes with controversy. In 1988, he came under fire when it emerged that he and Chow were living in a housing co-operative subsidized by the federal government, despite a combined income of $120,000. Toronto's solicitor cleared the couple of any wrong-doing, and the couple soon left the co-op and bought a house in Toronto's Chinatown. 

In the 2011 election, three days before voting day, it emerged that Layton had also been caught up in a sting on a Toronto massage parlour. Layton insisted he had entered the salon seeking a legitimate shiatsu massage and didn't know the place was used for "illicit purposes." Police chose not to charge him in the sting. 

Despite the scandals and Layton's failed 1991 mayoralty bid, his ambitions didn't falter; they simply shifted. In 1994, he decided to make a run for federal politics, vying for a seat in the riding of Rosedale. Again, he fared badly, finishing fourth. 

He pressed on with his Toronto city council duties, but in another example of his trademark energy, he also took on work as well as the head of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, where he said he broadened his understanding of the priorities of towns outside Toronto. 

Along the way, Layton also penned three books; "Homelessness: the Making and Unmaking of a Crisis" in 2000; "Speaking Out: Ideas That Work for Canadians" in 2004 and "Speaking Out Louder" in 2006. 

He ran again for MP in 1997, this time in the riding of Toronto-Danforth but lost yet again, to longtime incumbent Liberal, Dennis Mills. Layton was finally able to make his move into federal politics in 2003 by taking over as leader of the NDP from outgoing leader Alexa McDonough. He grabbed a seat in Parliament a year later, in the 2004 election. 

In that first federal election campaign in 2004, Layton insisted to reporters without any irony that his aim was to increase the party's standings from 13 seats to 150. The party earned 19 seats. But the NDP was able to win 15 per cent of the popular vote -- its best result in 16 years. 

Layton's flamboyant leadership style seemed to re-energize the party following the staid leaderships of McDonough and Audrey McLaughlin before her. He was constantly in front of the microphone, moving easily between English and French, always ready with the quick sound bites that had made him famous in Toronto.

But Layton stumbled in that first federal campaign when he accused then-Liberal prime minister Paul Martin of being responsible for the deaths of homeless people because he had failed to provide funding for affordable housing. 

He managed to smooth out his edgy persona during the 2006 election campaign and consistently scored well in leadership polls, with voters giving him high marks in the areas of principle, honesty. 

Queen's University political scientist Jonathan Rose told CTV.ca during the 2006 campaign that voters seemed to respond to Layton because of his tireless campaigning and infectious energy. 

"He has all the hallmarks of what we demand from traditional leaders: a clear persona, someone who has a high trust level, and someone who is able to articulate clearly what they believe," Rose said. 

Layton added 10 more seats for his party in the 2006 election, and then again in 2008, when the party's seat count rose to 37. 

Throughout the 2008 election campaign, Layton opened every speech with the eyebrow-raising declaration that he was running to be prime minister. Longtime friend Peter Tabuns said at the time that Layton was never anything if not an optimist. 

"He is one of the most optimistic and hopeful people that I know, and I think that gives him a lot of strength to get through tough times," he told CP. 

Those tough times were soon to come, when Layton was diagnosed in early 2010 with prostate cancer. Layton chose to push through it, taking to the hustings for the 2011 election campaign with the save fervour as ever. He even suggested the illness gave him further motivation. 

"People that go through serious illness – you can either go one way or the other. You can either become despondent about it all. Or it kind of rejuvenates you, makes you focus on what's important," he said in an interview with Metro news. 

The election began as a traditional two-horse race between the Conservatives and the Liberals, but at some point after the leaders' debate, Layton surged. Layton was suddenly no longer the third-place outsider; he was being embraced as the candidate of hope and change for those opposed to the Conservatives. 

Election Day brought what became known as the "orange crush": 31 per cent of the popular vote for the NDP, 59 seats in Quebec, as well as 44 other seats across the country -- the party's best showing ever. 

Former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney told CTV News afterwards that he believed Quebecers embraced Layton because they thought of him as one of their own. 

"He's always referred to here as, ‘Our boy, Jack, a good guy,'" Mulroney said. 

Ahead of the 2011 campaign, many had said that with four elections already behind him, if the NDP didn't make big strides, this would likely be Layton's final federal election. 

In fact, it was Layton's last campaign. But not for the reason that anyone would have ever predicted." - CTV.ca 

This is very sad day in and for Canada. Rest in peace, Jack. We will miss you. 

NDP Leader Jack Layton was a political Moses who never entered Promised Land.

Share your condolences with everyone here.

See Jack's life in pictures.

See more reactions on Layton's death here.

70% of Canadians say Jack changed their views on politics.

"Jack Layton, le chef du NPD, est mort des suites d'un cancer lundi matin. «Nous avons le regret de vous annoncer que l'Honorable Jack Layton, chef du Nouveau Parti démocratique du Canada, est décédé à 4 h 45 ce matin, le lundi 22 août, a écrit son épouse, Olivia Chow, dans un communiqué. Il est décédé paisiblement chez lui, entouré de ses proches. Les détails en lien avec les funérailles de M. Layton vous seront communiqués prochainement.»

Il est décédé l'âge de 61 ans. Jack Layton, personnage charismatique et très respecté dans les milieux politiques, y compris par ses adversaires, a mené une campagne très efficace pour les législatives canadiennes du 2 mai dernier, faisant de son parti la deuxième formation du parlement fédéral d'Ottawa.

En juillet 2011, le politicien sympathique était apparu amaigri et la voix brisée pour annoncer son retrait «temporaire» de la politique, en raison d'une tumeur dont il n'avait pas dévoilé la nature. Il avait cependant précisé qu'il ne s'agissait pas du cancer de la prostate dont il se savait atteint depuis février 2010.

Son départ inattendu avait suscité la consternation non seulement dans les rangs néo-démocrates, mais dans toute la classe politique et parmi la population, qui a donné un appui sans précédent à sa formation lors du scrutin du 2 mai dernier.

Il meurt alors que le NPD détient 103 sièges au Parlement, dont 59 au Québec.

- Avec AFP, PC" - La Presse

Giant 'phoenix' bird rises again

Two possible body shapes for Samrukia nessovi, with a human and 'normal-sized' Mesozoic bird for scale. Samruk was a mythical Kazakh phoenix. Photograph: John Conway

"Fossil remains of a bird from the Late Cretaceous suggest it was up to three metres tall and weighed more than 50kg.

Two slender shafts of bone unearthed in the remote desert of southern Kazakhstan belong to one of the largest birds ever to stalk the Earth.

The fossilised remains form two sides of the lower jaw of a bird – at least as big as an ostrich – that lived alongside dinosaurs in central Asia 100m years ago.

The size of the bones, more than 27cm-long each, point to a bird that stood two to three metres tall, making it the largest bird known from the Late Cretaceous. Many primitive birds alive at the time were closer in size to chickens.

The lack of other remains from the creature has left palaeontologists unable to confirm whether the bird was capable of flight. If it did fly, its wingspan probably topped 4m – wider than that of a large albatross.

Details of the bird, named Samrukia nessovi, are reported in the latest issue of the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters.

The two lengths of bone were uncovered at a site called Shakh-Shakh about 372 miles (600km) east of the Aral Sea during a Soviet-East German expedition in the 1970s. The fossil was reconstructed using plaster, glue and paint, to make it look like a complete jaw, passed through the hands of a German collector, and later went on display in a Belgian museum.

Gareth Dyke, a palaeontologist at University College Dublin, dissolved the plaster and other materials used to reconstruct the fossil with solvents before analysing the bone fragments. Measurements of the remains suggest they belonged to a bird whose skull was 30cm from front to back. The creature, if flightless, almost certainly weighed more than 50kg.

"This is one of the largest birds that's ever been described of any age. We don't have much of it, but we know the lower jaw is at least as big if not bigger than the ostrich lower jaw. At the age it is, it's pretty exciting," Dyke told the Guardian.

"We have always assumed that giant size in birds was something that evolved relatively late in the history of the group, so to find a specimen so early is remarkable. This is a giant of a bird with no teeth from the Late Cretaceous." 

The bird earned its forename from Samruk, the mythological Kazakh phoenix. The latter part of its name honours Lev Nessov, an eccentric Russian palaeontologist who used to take the bus or train from St Petersburg into Central Asia to embark on long hikes into the desert to hunt for fossils. He killed himself in 1995 at the age of 48 after the breakup of the Soviet Union restricted his travels.

Another large bird, named Gargantuavis, that lived in southern France 70m years ago was discovered in the late 1990s. "Samrukia adds another giant bird to the Cretaceous roster. Arguably, in fact, it increases the significance of Gargantuavis, since it shows that it wasn't a one-off," said co-author Darren Naish at Portsmouth University." - Guardian.co.uk

Woman who fell into falls' body found

"Divers searched the water around Niagara Falls on Monday, searching for a Toronto-area woman who is believed to be dead after toppling over a railing and into the water a day before.

Niagara Parks Police said the incident happened at about 8:30 p.m. when two female international students were taking photos on the Canadian side of the falls.

Trouble arose when one of the women, a 19-year-old from Japan, climbed onto the concrete ledge next to Horseshoe Falls to pose for a picture.

Police said the woman was sitting with her legs straddling the barrier. When she attempted to stand up again, she lost her footing and fell into the water below.

Kari Wilson, a visitor from Vancouver, told reporters, "I wish I could have done something." She wiped tears from her eyes as she spoke.

"She had one leg on either side straddling this post, and just very casual. She was just having a conversation with her friend," said Wilson, standing at the site near the falls where the woman fell.

The victim had been sitting casually on a stone part of the fencing and chatting with her friend, she said. "Her purse was sitting right behind her and I thought, 'Well, that's a stupid place to keep your purse,'" Wilson said.

Minutes later, the woman plunged into the Niagara River, about 24 metres upstream from the top of the falls.

The current quickly swept her over the 54-metre-high falls.

Emergency crews, including a provincial police helicopter, spent most of Monday searching for the woman with no success. Police told CTV Toronto that it could be weeks before a body is found.

The Japanese consulate in Toronto has been asked to contact the victim's family in Japan.

Niagara Parks Police Chief Douglas Kane said the woman's fall is a sober reminder that risking one's life for a photograph isn't worth it.

"If you're a young adult and you choose to climb over a restraining barrier, unfortunately there's consequences…in this case they were tragic," he said.

In his 35 years on the job, however, Kane said this is the first time he recalls someone falling.

Police searching for the woman's body Monday found human remains in the swirling waters below the falls, but they turned out to be remains of an unidentified male.

CTV Toronto's Austin Delany said that security images captured at the scene show that the woman was using an umbrella.

"A gust of wind may have played a role," he said.

The incident comes a day after a 27-year-old man survived a fall into the Niagara Gorge, just north of the Rainbow Bridge.

The man fell into the Gorge after trying to get a better view of Niagara Falls with his friends. He suffered a head injury and a serious leg fracture.

Niagara Parks Police said the incident happened at about 8:30 p.m. when two female international students were taking photos on the Canadian side of the falls.

Trouble arose when one of the women, a 19-year-old from Japan, climbed onto the concrete ledge next to Horseshoe Falls to pose for a picture.

Police said the woman was sitting with her legs straddling the barrier. When she attempted to stand up again, she lost her footing and fell into the water below.

Kari Wilson, a visitor from Vancouver, told reporters, "I wish I could have done something." She wiped tears from her eyes as she spoke.

"She had one leg on either side straddling this post, and just very casual. She was just having a conversation with her friend," said Wilson, standing at the site near the falls where the woman fell.

The victim had been sitting casually on a stone part of the fencing and chatting with her friend, she said. "Her purse was sitting right behind her and I thought, 'Well, that's a stupid place to keep your purse,'" Wilson said.

Minutes later, the woman plunged into the Niagara River, about 24 metres upstream from the top of the falls.

The current quickly swept her over the 54-metre-high falls.

Emergency crews, including a provincial police helicopter, spent most of Monday searching for the woman with no success. Police told CTV Toronto that it could be weeks before a body is found.

The Japanese consulate in Toronto has been asked to contact the victim's family in Japan.

Niagara Parks Police Chief Douglas Kane said the woman's fall is a sober reminder that risking one's life for a photograph isn't worth it.

"If you're a young adult and you choose to climb over a restraining barrier, unfortunately there's consequences…in this case they were tragic," he said.

In his 35 years on the job, however, Kane said this is the first time he recalls someone falling.

Police searching for the woman's body Monday found human remains in the swirling waters below the falls, but they turned out to be remains of an unidentified male.

CTV Toronto's Austin Delany said that security images captured at the scene show that the woman was using an umbrella.

"A gust of wind may have played a role," he said.

The incident comes a day after a 27-year-old man survived a fall into the Niagara Gorge, just north of the Rainbow Bridge.

The man fell into the Gorge after trying to get a better view of Niagara Falls with his friends. He suffered a head injury and a serious leg fracture." - CTVToronto.ca

"OTTAWA — US authorities recovered the body of a young Japanese woman who was swept over Niagara Falls this week from the Canadian side, New York state park police said Friday.

"The body of a woman recovered Thursday morning from lower Niagara River has been identified by the Erie Country Medical Examiner's office," a police spokeswoman told AFP.

"It is confirmed that the woman is the one and the same with respect to an incident where a woman was reported falling into the waters of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of the border on August 14."

Local media identified the woman as Ayano Tokumasu, a 19-year-old Japanese student who had been visiting the falls with a friend. Her body was spotted on Thursday floating near the shore of a popular US tourist attraction by an employee who alerted police.

Tokumasu had lost her footing while climbing onto a railing near the river's edge at about 8:30 pm Sunday (0030 GMT Monday) and was swept over the Horseshoe Falls.

"The subject female was observed climbing over the railing and straddling it while looking out at the falls," Inspector Paul Forcier of the Niagara Parks Police Service said on Monday. "She was holding an umbrella at the time."

"The young woman stood up in what appeared to be an attempt to climb back over when she lost her balance and fell into the waters."

She was presumed drowned.

Canadian and US authorities searched for several hours for her body on Monday, but came up instead with the "unidentified human remains of a male" in the lower Niagara River.

Niagara Parks Police Service said in a statement on Thursday the male has since been identified as a 41-year-old Hamilton, Ontario resident who had previously been reported missing.

His name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

"Foul play is not suspected in this occurrence, which is unrelated to the original incident involving the female victim," police said." - AFP

Harper wants to bring Canada back in time

"Stephen Harper is working to recast the Canadian identity, undoing 40 years of a Liberal narrative and instead creating a new patriotism viewed through a conservative lens.

Restoring the “royal” prefix to the navy and air force this week is just part of the Prime Minister’s attempt at “creating a new frame” for Canada and Canadians.

The Liberals embraced the Charter, the flag, peacekeeping and multiculturalism. Now, the Harper Tories are pursuing symbols and areas ignored by the Grits – the Arctic, the military, national sports and especially the monarchy, according to senior Tories.

For Mr. Harper and his Conservatives, the payoffs could be great: a new pride in the country, an ability to shape the view of new Canadians and, politically, the potential to marginalize the Official Opposition NDP, who could be forced more and more to defend Quebec’s interests against all others. Quebeckers are not as supportive of national symbols and the monarchy as is the rest of Canada.

This, some Tories hope, will be a Harper legacy.

“What we’re seeing is the emergence of a new patriotism or at the very least a small-c conservative alternative to the established Liberal narrative about Canada,” says Patrick Muttart, the former deputy chief of staff to Mr. Harper and key election strategist, who now works for a public strategy firm in Chicago.

Dean Del Mastro, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, says this is about restoring Canada’s national identity which has been “lost.”

Canada is more, he says, than hockey, “saying ‘eh’ a lot” and drinking Tim Hortons coffee.

The Harper strategy was set in motion some time ago.

Before the last election campaign, Pierre Poilievre, an Ottawa MP and Mr. Del Mastro’s predecessor, was asked to write a section for the Conservative’s platform dealing with the theme of “standing on guard for the country” and “renewed patriotism founded in our traditions.”

What he came up with, and what the Tories ran on, was the broader theme of “Here for Canada” that “had as a key part of it the restoration, the renewal of our historic memory,” Mr. Poilievre told The Globe Friday.

For cost-conscious Tories, Mr. Poilievre notes that this is “one area where you can really affect the country without spending much money.”

Restoring the “royal” prefix is part of this, too. And there will be more, he says – the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812; celebrations of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee next year and the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown conference coming up in 2014.

There are little things the Prime Minister does, too. Next week he travels to the Arctic for his annual visit, reinforcing his government’s view of the importance of the North. In October, he is planning to attend the opening hockey game of the returning NHL team, the Winnipeg Jets.

Another piece of the Tory strategy was the release in March of the latest edition of the government’s citizenship guide. Chock full of references to the Queen, Canadian history and the military, it is how new Canadians, who have been aggressively courted by the Harper government, learn about what it means to be a citizen.

No surprise that it was directed, in part, by two men, who share the Prime Minister’s passion for the monarchy, history and national symbols: Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and his senior adviser, Chris Champion, who last year published the book, The Strange Demise of British Canada: The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism 1964 - 1968.

Canadian historian Jack Granatstein, meanwhile, is miffed by the Harper strategy. He thinks restoring the “royal” prefix is a throwback to colonial times and is rewriting history.

“Nobody was pushing for this,” he says. “The idea of rolling back the national symbols to make them more British is just loony. Who does Harper think he’s appealing to? The NDP has attacked this move as has the Bloc [Québécois] so maybe he’s made his enemies come out.

“But I’m not his enemy and I’ve come out.”

The real enemy appears to be the NDP. Former Harper mentor and chief of staff Tom Flanagan says the effect of the “royal” restoration is twofold: It plays to the Harper base but it “also discomfits the NDP, with their big Quebec caucus, since the monarchy is less popular in Quebec than elsewhere.”

Look for more of the same, says the University of Calgary political science professor, pointing also to the government’s plan to add more seats to Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia but not to Quebec.

“If the NDP repeatedly defends Quebec and public-sector unions, against all other considerations, they may solidify their core vote but will cut off their prospects for growth,” he says. “It could turn into a Conservative utopia.” " - The Globe & Mail

Canada, what do you think? Do you think we should regress, or progress?

Leave your thoughts and comments.

Jack Layton puts on brave face despite cancer.

Photo credit: Globe & Mail

Gerard Depardieu gets pissed on a plane.

"Stuck on an Air France flight yesterday, Gerard Depardieu reportedly gave new meaning to the term pissed off.

The French actor was on the runway in Paris, headed for Dublin, when he really had to use the bathroom, a witness tells TMZ. But the flight attendance told the former Green Card star he'd have to wait 15 minutes until the flight was safely in the air.

In response? He unzipped and urinated all over the aisle." - The Hollywood Gossip

The renown french star later apologized to the airline, claiming he has prostate problems, and did not want to wait 15 minutes to go to the bathroom.

Jon Stewart gets enraged over Class Warfare; plus, an interview with Anne Hathaway

Giant "Blob" Is Largest Thing in Universe

Report: Apocalypse Actually Happened 3 Years Ago

"MENLO PARK, CA—Though the event went largely unremarked upon at the time, a report published Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that the apocalypse, or end of the world, occurred three years ago. "According to our data, the total collapse of all human civilization occurred on or around April 3, 2008," said foundation representative Jodie Palmenterri, citing numerous instances of environmental disaster, humanitarian catastrophe, and economic ruin as unambiguous signs that the world had ended. "Those who have worried for years that human culture was headed toward calamity can rest easy, because it already happened. We are living in a postapocalyptic world. This is it." Palmenterri went on to say that because the apocalypse does not resemble the eschatological predictions of any major religion, it's safe to assume the gods have all forsaken us." - The Onion.

Forbe's 10 most powerful female authors. Guess who's first? (Click here).

Daniel Radcliffe Gets Burned in Creepy Horror Flick ‘Woman in Black’

"Move over, Voldemort! Daniel Radcliffe is leaving his Harry Potter roots to star in the upcoming The Woman in Black. The teaser trailer was just released, and it seems D Rads’ latest role is creepy and eery.

In the movie, Radcliffe stars as a young lawyer sent to a dilapidated house to tidy up the estate of a just-passed client, when he discovers the ghost of a scorned woman set on vengeance. The film will be released on February 3, 2012. 

[...].

Meanwhile, Daniel is busy on the Broadway revival of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

News hit this week that Glee actor Darren Criss will in fact replace Daniel next year — and will mark Criss’ Broadway debut. His three-week run will kick off on Jan. 3, according to Deadline.

It was only a week ago that Criss remained coy on the subject. “I don’t know!” he told TV Guide. “People keep asking me about it, and it’s kind of cool that that’s out there in the world, but I cannot confirm anything at all.” " - CeleBuzz

Katy Perry Achieves Michael Jackson Status on Charts

"Katy Perry and Michael Jackson now officially have one thing in common: They share the record for most Number One singles off of a single album.

This week, Perry officially landed once again on the top of the singles chart with her song “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” marking the fifth time that she’s found herself atop the chart with a song from her smash hit albumCalifornia Dreams. She’s the first female artist to hit that milestone, and only the second person in history to do so, tied only with the King of Pop, who scored five chart-toppers with his Bad album.

Aside from “Friday,” Perry scored No. 1 hits with “California Gurls,” “Firework,” “Teenage Dream” and “E.T.”" - CeleBuzz