Celebrity Apprentice 2011!

Who is La Toya Jackson and why is she famous?

[Mar. 29]

La Toya Jackson, sister of Michael Jackson and the first of the Jackson girls to have a solo music career, is most famous for her Playboy centerfold issue of April 1989, which became the magazine’s best selling issue to date with over 8 million copies sold.  Her dance hit Free the World in 2005 was inspired by the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in New York City and became a national icon for the green celebrity. As a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice, La Toya is playing for AIDS Project Los Angeles, one of the largest nonprofit AIDS service organizations in the United States.

Sister of King of Pop Michael Jackson and sister of Janet Jackson of Superbowl infamy (and winner of two American Music Awards), La Toya Jackson has plenty of spark of her own. La Toya is no stranger to green celebrity status and charity. She perfromed on the single We Are the World, to help with the starving citizens of Ethiopia. All three of the Jackson children are remarkably talented artists who have dedicated significant effort toward green celebrity activities.

The green celebrity also starred in a lesser-known video for Stop the Madness, with an anti-drug message. She had a track, Just Say No, which she wrote for Ronald Reagan’s anti-drug campaign, in 1988, on her self-titled album. But it was around this time that she began to show a less conservative side, under the management of her husband, Jack Gordon, who La Toya says her father forced her to marry, according to IMDb.

From Biography.Com:

La Toya Jackson released her second album, My Special Love, in 1981, which had contributions by her siblings Janet, Tito, Jackie and Marlon Jackson. In 1983, La Toya released her third, and most successful, album Heart Don’t Lie. The first single off this album, “Heart Don’t Lie,” was her best selling song, reaching No. 56 on the Billboard R&B charts. She released a fourth album, Imagination, in 1986.

And La Toya’s sister Janet Jackson, from Biography.Com:

Jackson scored her first major success in 1986 with Control, released on the A&M label. Control, produced with the writing-producing team of Jimmy Jam (James Harris III) and Terry Lewis, sold eight million copies worldwide and featured two No. 1 singles, “What Have You Done For Me Lately” and the title track. Nominated for three Grammy Awards and nine American Music Awards, it won two of the latter.

La Toya also famously wrote La Toya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family in 1991, highlighting an abusive relationship with her father, though she has amended the story since its release. La Toya has reported to Access Hollywood recently that Michael Jackson’s kids are “adjusting so well,” noting that eldest son Prince Michael Jackson is considering getting into acting. Janet Jackson had offered to raise the children following Michael Jackson’s death.

La Toya Jackson is looking to return to her previous level of success, having released Startin’ Over following her divorce from Jack Gordon. Since Jack Gordon’s death in 2005, La Toya Jackson speaks more freely now about women who have been in abusive relationships and has begun to return to her civic roots. The green celebrity is looking to win a hefty sum on Celebrity Apprentice to benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles. She openly supports Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered unions and has become somewhat of an icon for the LGBT community.

The fourth episode of Celebrity Apprentice 4 will air Sunday, March 27, 2011, at 9 p.m. Eastern, on NBC.

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Green Celebrity Network