So much was made last week of Michael Jackson not sleeping for the last 60 days of his life. First of all, it was an overstatement. He may not have been sleeping at night, but he slept during the day. You may recall an interview I did with a long time friend of Michael’s who ran into him at Dr. Arnold Klein’s office one afternoon in May 2009. It was clear he was sleeping there. He also looked and felt great, very refreshed. http://www.showbiz411.com/2009/07/01/20090701jacko-michael-jackson-joanne-horowitz-studio-54-arnold-klein

More to the point: one look at Frank Cascio’s excellent and revealing book, “My Friend Michael,” describes Jackson’s sleep problems, his use of Demerol and Propofol early on. Cascio was with him for a good part of the 90s into the early 2000s. I think, frankly, it undermines the testimony from last week. Cascio traveled with Jackson extensively, and knew all of his peccadilloes. His book lays out Jackson’s life in minute detail. I wonder if all the lawyers in the current case have read it.

Cascio wrote: “Now, on tour, and again in deep physical pain, Michael turned back to those drugs. Maybe he was simply following doctors’ orders: his adrenaline was so high after each show that it was the only way he could sleep. For all I really know, the treatments may have been his idea. However it came about, over time Michael began to rely on Demerol to wind down after the shows, and most likely to escape from the overwhelming stress, pressure, and responsibilities of his extraordinary life…How impossible it must have been to dial down from the hyper mode of the show to the complete calm of sleep….him. The doctor came, and then Michael went right to bed. I understood that he was taking medicine to help him go to sleep. I knew nothing about prescription pain medicine….

“…an anesthesiologist started showing up two or three times a week, some weeks, to help Michael sleep. I paid the man in cash, because all of Michael’s medical issues had to be kept from the public and their cost off the books. The doctor was perfectly straightforward with me. “What I do,” he said, “is put Michael to sleep for a couple of hours. Then I ease him out of sleep.” It was the same treatment I had witnessed after Michael’s accident in Munich. The doctor would set up equipment and an IV in Michael’s room, and would stay with him, the door closed, for about four hours. He said that the treatment was risky, but he assured me that he knew what he was doing…”

“On those nights, he couldn’t sleep unless this dangerous drug— the drug that would eventually kill him— was administered. For a long time I thought it was okay and normal. I didn’t think he had a drug problem. Over the years, I had grown accustomed to seeing doctors coming and going, particularly during tours, when Michael was under great stress and needed help falling asleep. I thought he was simply someone who had serious medical problems and used drugs to treat them.”

And this is just a little bit of it. The idea that AEG’s concert rehearsals caused Michael to lose sleep– and thereby be vulnerable to dying– doesn’t ring true. Not when you hear that Jackson was living like this for two decades.

Lady Cora Grantham is getting a brother. The mistress of Downton Abbey already has an American mother, played by Shirley MacLaine. Now Paul Giamatti has been added as Harold, Cora’s playboy brother. We can presume his name is Harold Levinson, since that’s Martha’s last name and that of her late husband Isidore. The Levinsons bailed the Granthams out financially when Cora married Robert, and there was a proposal afoot for Martha to do that again when Robert made bad investments.

And this raises once again the pressing question of whether or not Lady Cora is actually Jewish. It sure sounds like it. And now casting Giamatti– who, let’s face it, doesn’t look patrician in any way–brings the question forward. For if the Levinsons are really Rothschilds in disguise, this makes the Grantham children Jewish by default. And that puts a definite twist on “Downtown Abbey.” Good lord, what will the Dowager Countess say about this? Giamatti will appear in the season finale, a double episode.

Matthew Weiner pulled out all the stops tonight for a season finale, didn’t he? No cliches, none of the stuff we all wondered about. Except maybe whether Ted would leave his wife for Peggy. But really, it was all about coming clean. And Jon Hamm, I think, scored his Emmy nomination and win in that speech to the Hershey’s people.

The final scene: heartbreaking. What a whirlwind this episode was. But Weiner may be suggesting that Don has a future after all. This is a lot different than what water cooler talk has indicated. Amazing. And for “Mad Men” incredibly uplifting.

And what are left with: Peggy in Don’s chair. Don removed from the agency. The show resuming in early 1969 for Season 7. Will Megan leave Don? (I don’t think so.) Ted is gone– goodbye to Kevin Rahm, who deserves an Emmy nomination. Bob Benson is the Devil incarnate. Frightening. But Roger and Joan have a future– and everyone wants that.

Emmy voters: “Mad Men” is the best show on TV. Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Elizabeth Moss and Christina Hendricks all deserve Emmys. This last episode capped a magnificent season.

Keep refreshing…

Paramount just called “World War Z” their third biggest franchise opener for the studio– meaning “WWZ” is a franchise, and a sequel is assured. The Brad Pitt starrer, with Marc Forster directing, took in $66 million this weekend. The smart, funny, tense film surprised everyone. But not Brad Pitt, who worked like a dog promoting “WWZ” all over the world. It’s his own biggest opening weekend ever personally, by $16 million. “WWZ” was dissected in advance of its release by everyone. The last third of the movie was reshot entirely, a whole sequence shot in Russia was canned, Matthew Fox’s role was sliced to almost nothing. For a while, things looked bad. But perseverance paid off. And now “WWZ” is a big hit. And no zombies were hurt in the making of this movie.

James Gandolfini will be laid to rest in a place appropriate for his age and influence– a relatively young man (51) whom everyone loved. Services have been set for Thursday morning at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, the world’s largest cathedral and third largest church. St. John the Divine has been host to Christmas concerts by the likes of Sting and Judy Collins, as well as indoor aerial stunts by favorite parishioner Philip Petit. It’s an Episcopal church but extremely liberal and open to people of all denominations.

Jazz great Duke Ellington and writer James Baldwin are among the celebrities who’ve had their funerals at St John. The cathedral is big enough to hold what will likely be a huge, huge crowd of family, close friends, business associates, and fans of “The Sopranos” star. Capacity is 6,000 but can range up to 10,000. Expect everyone from “The Sopranos” with the possible exception of Steve van Zandt, who’s on tour in Europe with the Bruce Springsteen band. Lorraine Bracco will likely come in from Los Angeles, where she’s filming “Rizzoli and Isles.”

Another strong possibility might be Julia Roberts, who co-starred with Gandolfini in “The Mexican.” John Travolta, who already announced on TV that he “would be there” for the Gandolfini family– whether they like it or not — will undoubtedly turn up.

Jon Stewart appeared last night on Bassem Youseff’s TV show in Cairo, Egypt. This may actually bring peace to the middle East. An American Jewish TV host on an Arab show. The audience, which clearly knows Stewart from cable and the internet, was ecstatic. The two discussed many political subjects and were also extremely funny. Bassem explained that Cairo’s extreme traffic is “our first line of defense.” It’s worth watching the whole show to the end because there’s a cute capper. Stewart is on his 12 week break from The Daily Show so can he direct his movie, “Rosewater” starring Gael Garcia Bernal as Maziar Bahari.