People magazine posted a story earlier this week where they spoke with the costume designers who created the outfits for Michael Jackson’s planned This Is It Tour which was scheduled to kick off at the O2 Arena in London, England for a 50-date stint starting on July 13. The designers offered personal insights and secrets about the tour as well as a first look at sketches of some of the costumes … really fascinating stuff, I think:

As Michael Jackson prepared for his final This Is It tour, friends on set say the pop star was never better. “He’s still a terrific dancer,” says costume designer Dennis Tompkins, who worked with Michael Bush to create an “over the top” wardrobe for the tour. On his final night of rehearsal, Jackson “was doing the moonwalk. Everything!” says Bush. “He did the whole show full out at performance level. He was like, ‘When are we going to London? Let’s go. I’m ready.’” He was also on a creative high. “Working with Michael for 25 years we had never seen his creativity at this level,” says Bush. “It was like where is this coming from? I get goose bumps thinking about what this visual was going to look like.” Though the show won’t go on, Bush and Tompkins gave PEOPLE an exclusive look at just that. Here’s an inside look at what you might have seen.

MAJOR DANCE MOVES: Jackson’s new Billie Jean suit held 7.5 lbs. of Swarovski crystals and 60 lights, so the star made sure he could do a spin before signing off. “The dance came first; costumes were secondary,” says Bush. “And his moves were sharper than ever.”

Man … it is so sad to hear just how much of the classic Michael Jackson was going to be on display if he had lived long enough to successfully pull off his This Is It Tour. David and I had been talking off and on about what sort of show we might’ve seen on September 10 (the date that we were planning on seeing the show) and now, to hear about what could’ve been … it just adds to the tragic feeling of loss. Additionally, new audition and rehearsal footage of MJ’s dancers has been made available. After the jump, check out a 9 minute video that shows some of the audition and rehearsal footage that also shows what could’ve been …

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On Thursday we learned the somewhat surprising news that eldest Jonas brother Kevin got engaged to his girlfriend Danielle Deleasa and today we learn that the happy couple celebrated their engagement with Kevin’s brothers and bandmates at a special dinner in NYC last night. Here are a few pics of Kevin & Danielle along with Joe and Nick Jonas making their way out of their fave pizza place together:

I mean, what better way to celebrate ones upcoming nuptials than with a pizza party! I mean … it’s not like they chose to celebrate at Chuck E. Cheese or anything … it was, like, a serious grown-up place and everything. I understand that Danielle and the JoBros partied with 30 of their closest friends. Sounds like fun, don’t it?

[Photo credit: INFdaily]

Yesterday afternoon, David and I made our way out to the ArcLight Theater in Hollywood, CA to see the new Johnny Deep/Christian Bale period gangster movie Public Enemies … a movie I have been looking forward to seeing for months now. In short, I loved it thoroughly … while David was pretty lukewarm about it:

But, around these here parts, it’s my review that matters ;) In all honesty, I hate period piece movies. I rarely find that they are believable enough to keep my attention and interesting enough to entertain. Neither was the case for Public Enemies. The careful recreation of Depression-era Chicago was well done and the story was wholly fascinating. I admit, I did not know much about the life of John Dillinger other than he was a “rock star” bank robber who garnered fame from his slick ways and his good looks. Johnny Depp really brought the man to life for me and gave a great performance. I was also very impressed by his fellow gangsters played by Stephen Dorf (as Homer Van Meter), David Wenham (as Harry Pete Pierpont) and Jason Clarke (as John Red Hamilton). They were Dillinger’s boys … and they did a great job. It seems that Christian Bale is incapable of playing a character where he doesn’t do funny things with his voice but he was pretty good in this movie. His performance in Public Enemies is much better than the one he turned in for Terminator: Salvation. Marion Cotillard (as Dillinger’s girlfriend Billie Frechette) and Billy Crudup (as J. Edgar Hoover) also gave very strong performances. I was bummed that Channing Tatum’s appearance in the film as Pretty Boy Floyd was nothing more than a cameo. He still looked hot tho :) I loved this film a lot … I found it wholly interesting and entertaining. If it had one flaw, I’d say it feels like a long movie. Even still, I give it two thumbs up.

The rest of the night was spent at home, together. David and I had a great, quiet night at home. We’ve been invited to a couple of parties this weekend but, honestly, I dunno that we’re gonna make it out. It’s just too fun being lazy, I’m afraid. Happy 4th of July, y’all! Enjoy y’all’s independence.

• New parents Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer announce that they have named their son Otis Tobias Maguire.
• Taylor Swift reveals that at a young age she wasn’t swift enough to know which end of a burning sparkler to pick up.
• The Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, LA paid tribute to the late Michael Jackson with a New Orleans funeral procession.
• James Frey now writes books for teens as opposed to writing fake memoirs.
• ABBA deny that they are reuniting.
• Will Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince score Oscar gold?
• Britney Spears saved THIS girl’s life.
• Becki Newton (Ugly Betty) is 31, John Waite is 54, Geraldo Rivera is 66, Neil Simon is 82 and the United States of America is 233 years old today. Click HERE to see who else is celebrating a birthday today.
• It’s official! Neil Patrick Harris WILL host the Emmy Awards this year.

Here is this week’s batch of photos sent in by Pink is the new Blog readers — Katie sends in a pic of her cute daughter Lucy rockin’ her adorable fluffy pink coat with her little sister Zoe — Heather from New Jersey sends in a pic of her cute little 4-year ballerina Charlotte after she completed her first recital — Geminita sends in a pic of her Etsy team’s first event Haute Pink Bazaar which was held on National Pink Day and raised over $100 for the Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation (which aids under-insured women to obtain breast cancer screenings) — Jackie sends in a pic from a recent 100 Monkeys concert in NYC … she got a pic with bandmember/Twilight star Jackson Rathbone — Chelle, who is rockin’ the official Pink is the new Blog t-shirt, sends in a pinkified version of the Trent River sign in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia … Chelle snapped the photo on June 26th, the day she graduated from the Professional Photography Program at North Island Collage:

Much love and thanks goes out to YOU ALL for continuing to send in your amazingly fun photos. Love goes out to Geminita and her friends for their hard work raising funds for breast cancer patients and BIG CONGRATS goes out to Chelle on her graduation (love the shirt, btw!). I love all of the photos that get sent in to me … please, KEEP ‘EM COMING :) Much, much love to you al!! xoxo

Earlier today Madonna and her newest children Chifundo Mercy James and David Banda made their way, en mass, to the Kabbalah Centre in London, England for a little religiousity to get the day started out right. As you may recall, Madonna kicks off a new leg of her Sticky & Sweet Tour at the O2 Arena in London tonight so it appears that she wanted to get in a bit of churchin’ beforehand … here are a few photos:

As you can see, little Mercy and David got all dolled up for the occasion … Madonna just wore whatever work-out clothes (hopefully clean) that she had handy. Nonetheless, despite Maddy’s dressed-downness they all look super-adorable together … I’m so happy for Maddy’s newly expanded family.

Oh and remember that you can watch Sky1’s broadcast of Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour performance from Buenos Aires, Argentina last December online HERE live TODAY at 1PM PT, 4PM ET. Don’t miss it!!

[Photo credit: INFdaily]

Ryan Phillippe was spotted making his way out of the gym here in LA earlier this week and homie was lookin’ pretty damn good, if I say so myself. Some guys just have the ability to make a plain white tank top t-shirt look really, really good … behold:

Le Sigh. It’s nice that we can usually rely on Ryan Phillippe to give us that extra little pick-me-up that says, Today is going to be an amazing day! And even if that’s not the message that can be gleaned from photos like this, who cares … the boy is hot! Enjoy :)

[Photo credit: INFdaily]