[ July 08, 2009, 03:14 PM: Message edited by: Farmgirl ]
Posted by Derrell (Member # 6062) on :
According to the story, he wasn't breathing when paramedics arrived.
Posted by Rakeesh (Member # 2001) on :
So far, CNN isn't picking up the dead part-just the hospital part.
Posted by Tara (Member # 10030) on :
Wow, it's been a bad day for the Really Weird Celebrity population. (Farah Fawcett passed away as well... Today, I think.)
Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
"Los Angeles police have confirmed to KTLA that Pop star Michael Jackson has died at the age of 50."
Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
MTV's showing some of his videos now. Part of me had hoped he'd get over the crazy and come out with one more great album.
He left a strange legacy but some amazing music and videos behind.
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
I was really hoping he'd transition into writing and producing more. As great as his voice was, it was really songwriting/production/performing that was his genius.
Posted by Shanna (Member # 7900) on :
I was just talking to my bosses about Farrah and Ed Macmahon passing and we were wondering who number three would be. I never would have guessed Michael. 50 yo seems so young to me.
Posted by Derrell (Member # 6062) on :
Rest in peace. Posted by Cashew (Member # 6023) on :
I saw him in 1996 in Auckland. My daughter went on the Friday night and came home and woke us up and said "I've got to tell you about the concert!" She said she was going the next night, so I went too and took my 13 year old son. It was an amazing experience, he was a truly remarkable performer. This was before all the scandal came out, whatever the truth of that was. A shame. There's about 750,000 very disappointed ticket holders in Britain right now...
[ June 26, 2009, 06:23 AM: Message edited by: Cashew ]
Posted by dabbler (Member # 6443) on :
The first thing I wondered was whether it was a suicide attempt (before it was confirmed he died). Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tara: Wow, it's been a bad day for the Really Weird Celebrity population. (Farah Fawcett passed away as well... Today, I think.)
Has anyone checked on Crispin Glover?
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tara: Wow, it's been a bad day for the Really Weird Celebrity population. (Farah Fawcett passed away as well... Today, I think.)
Forgive me, but how is Farrah Fawcett "really weird"?
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
You know, for all the crap that he's taken over the years, and he certainly earned some of it, I've ALWAYS loved his music, even if I wasn't the biggest fan of him personally. I rocked out to Michael Jackson cassettes as a kid, and I probably always will.
On a lighter note, with the King of Pop passed on, does the throne get passed on to Prince?
Too soon?
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
quote:Originally posted by scifibum:
quote:Originally posted by Tara: Wow, it's been a bad day for the Really Weird Celebrity population. (Farah Fawcett passed away as well... Today, I think.)
Has anyone checked on Crispin Glover?
It's eerie how once you said that, it made a strange sort of sense to me.
I am surprised Michael's dead to say the least, he was a fantastic performer and songwriter. Though I'll never know in this life if he did the terrible things he was accused of, part of me thinks he is probably happier now than he has been for a long time.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
I predict he's going to be the next Elvis.
People will refuse to accept that he's dead. He'll continue to make appearances in the oddest of places. "I saw Michael Jackson in a Wal-Mart in Tucson!"
It'll be hard for some to accept the fact that he's gone. We're all led to believe that the greatest of celebrities are immortal, and go in to denial when one of them falls.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I'm really shocked. The fellow was a cultural icon after all and has had a lasting influence on pop music...
Posted by Bella Bee (Member # 7027) on :
I have to say, after all the recent rumours that he was trying to find excuses not to do the shows, or hiring multiple duplicates to perform his London tour for him - it's hard to believe that this is true. I keep thinking of the popstar in H2G2 who was spending a year dead for tax reasons.
Anyway, seriously, it's a terrible thing for his kids. Weird as he was, they probably do care very much for him.
Posted by Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (Member # 7476) on :
I'm in shock right now. I remember as kid we would gather around the tv to watch his latest music video premiere. They really were cultural events back then. And only 50.
Posted by Wendybird (Member # 84) on :
He was my first concert when I was 12 - the Victory Tour with his brothers. It was amazing. As weird as he got in the end he was a fantastic performer.
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
So what does it mean that I heard about this and immediately came here for confirmation?
I'll go watch Thriller for a while, I think. This is surprisingly sad for me.
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
quote:Forgive me, but how is Farrah Fawcett "really weird"?
Nighthawk: She did art where she used her body as a paintbrush. There was an appearance on the Letterman show where people thought she was on drugs.
Posted by Tara (Member # 10030) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nighthawk:
quote:Originally posted by Tara: Wow, it's been a bad day for the Really Weird Celebrity population. (Farah Fawcett passed away as well... Today, I think.)
Forgive me, but how is Farrah Fawcett "really weird"?
Did you read A Paper Moon.? Of course the book might not have been 100% realistic, but it did contain some descriptions of Fawcett's and Ryan O'Neil's home life that really bugged me out.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
Holy @$%#.
This is a little like hearing that Peter Pan has died of Alzheimers. "What? Huh? Did I hear you right?"
He was a remarkably talented dancer and musician, however muddied his reputation may have been in recent years. And he seemed to be on the way to making a public comeback. I'm sorry to hear of his passing.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
With all these references to the dude being "weird" -- are we not acknowledging that he was in all likelihood a child molester because it's distasteful to mention it on the day someone dies?
Posted by T:man (Member # 11614) on :
quote:Originally posted by TL: With all these references to the dude being "weird" -- are we not acknowledging that he was in all likelihood a child molester because it's distasteful to mention it on the day someone dies?
No, I believe that we should remember the man for what we know he did, not what he was accused of. He was the King of Pop, so let's celebrate him for that.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
quote:Originally posted by TL: With all these references to the dude being "weird" -- are we not acknowledging that he was in all likelihood a child molester because it's distasteful to mention it on the day someone dies?
Last time I checked people were innocent until proven guilty. He was never found guilty of child molestation, and to be honest I see it as equally likely that parents used his preference for the company of children to get to his pocketbook.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
BlackBlade, I agree.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
I have no idea if he was a child molester or not. Here's what I strongly suspect:
He was never allowed to be a child. He was pressured into a relentless showbiz life and abused with constant performances and rehearsals. I think that once he was in control of his own life - to whatever extent he was - he spent the rest of it trying to have the childhood he didn't get. I think he preferred the company of young boys because that's how he identified himself.
If he did touch children inappropriately, or did abuse children, none of that is any sort of excuse. But that was the impression I had of him.
Brilliant performer, singer, dancer. Tragic nutjob. Possible pedophile.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Well said, Chris. I agree entirely.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
quote:Originally posted by Chris Bridges: I have no idea if he was a child molester or not. Here's what I strongly suspect:
He was never allowed to be a child. He was pressured into a relentless showbiz life and abused with constant performances and rehearsals. I think that once he was in control of his own life - to whatever extent he was - he spent the rest of it trying to have the childhood he didn't get. I think he preferred the company of young boys because that's how he identified himself.
If he did touch children inappropriately, or did abuse children, none of that is any sort of excuse. But that was the impression I had of him.
Brilliant performer, singer, dancer. Tragic nutjob. Possible pedophile.
Your opinion is pretty close to my own. But you can hardly blame him for preferring the company of children, look what the adult world kept doing to him, endless speculation about his personality, love life, and court case after court case.
Posted by Cashew (Member # 6023) on :
Thank you Chris, my thoughts too.
Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
Whoa, MTV is actually showing music videos tonight.
--j_k
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
quote:Originally posted by CaySedai: Nighthawk: She did art where she used her body as a paintbrush. There was an appearance on the Letterman show where people thought she was on drugs.
Yeah, but, I don't want to sound mean but it's kinda of a stretch to put her in the same category as MJ, no?
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sterling: Holy @$%#.
This is a little like hearing that Peter Pan has died of Alzheimers. "What? Huh? Did I hear you right?"
Not to stomp all over that feeling, but I suspect (can't say for sure of course), that Jackson has been struggling with substance abuse for many years. Most of that has stayed out of the press because of his public relations staff, but some information about it has leaked over the years. I frankly would not be surprised at all if he had a substance abuse problem that contributed to his death. You do have to wonder about anyone who dies so suddenly at 50. Again, I'm not saying I know anything more than you do, but I strongly suspect drug abuse- just my instinct.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
Jackson was crazy. Jackson was as nutty as they come. And it sort of has to be acknowledged. But at the same time we have to acknolwedge that this was the product of the abuse and exploitation he suffered as a child. I consider his life a tragedy. But at the same time I will probably remember him more for his damn good music than the fact that the last years of his life were like watching a train wreck.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
quote:Not to stomp all over that feeling, but I suspect (can't say for sure of course), that Jackson has been struggling with substance abuse for many years.
I suspect you're right. Reports are coming out already that he may have been on painkillers when he died.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
quote:Not to stomp all over that feeling, but I suspect (can't say for sure of course), that Jackson has been struggling with substance abuse for many years.
Oh, it's certainly possible. He's been outside of the public eye for long enough that he could have been snorting half of Columbia and chasing it with qualudes and tequila, for all I know. He's also undergone enough surgeries of various kinds that he could have serious health problems I'm simply not aware of. Still, he was starting to perform again, he was relatively young, and if his weird pallor never exactly suggested glowing health, he never seemed to be particularly lethargic or sickly, either. And partly just that his general peculiarity was an obsession with childhood (and that he was an icon of my own childhood) which can't help but make my own mind associate him with youth.
If you had asked me yesterday for a list of ten celebrities I wouldn't expect to reach sixty, Jackson wouldn't have been on the list.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
It"s all a reuse. Michael Jackson was clearly a space alien. He hasn't died, the mother ship has returned and pick to up. I suspect that he will go on trial for violating the prime directive and interfering with the cultural development of earth. He"ll escape in a few years and be back.
Remember you heard it here first.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
Have you people forgotten that Michael Jackson was for a time married to Elvis Presley's daughter. Isn't it obvious what this means?
Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
Nick Cage is the next to go?
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Apparently it's ok to joke about Jackson after 12 hours...
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I also suspect that Jackson had been abusing his own body for years. He was painfully thin and hasn't looked healthy in over a decade. Whatever things he did to his body, that can't be good for the heart. It's a shock to hear of someone dying like that, but I am almost 100% sure that it wasn't his genes that led to his early death.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: Apparently it's ok to joke about Jackson after 12 hours...
It's always been OK to joke about Jackson. Aside from that, my joke was actually aimed at Elvis conspiracy theory wackos and not really at Jackson specifically.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
And my joke was aimed at Pixar. Just saying- a real person died right?
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade:
quote:Originally posted by TL: With all these references to the dude being "weird" -- are we not acknowledging that he was in all likelihood a child molester because it's distasteful to mention it on the day someone dies?
Last time I checked people were innocent until proven guilty. He was never found guilty of child molestation, and to be honest I see it as equally likely that parents used his preference for the company of children to get to his pocketbook.
It is only in the eyes of the law that people are innocent until proven guilty. The court of public opinion can serve out its own justice, however unfairly and however misinformed.
I've been trying to decide what to say about this since I watched the news last night and I'm just not sure. I remember loving his music in the 80's and there is no question that his contributions to the music industry will never be forgotten. Yet if I'm to be perfectly honest, I have not been able to enjoy his music for at least the last ten years.
In any case, these things are all going to come out again in the wake of his death and there will be conjecture. At the very least, he lived a hard life and had some mental problems.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:Just saying- a real person died right?
In all seriousness, Orincoro, I think you'd almost have to have Asperger's or something to not understand the distinction.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
I understand the distinction. I still find the behavior to be hypocritical- that is to say, I'm fine with joking about death in general, and I'm fine with joking about Jackson too.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
If life were only a matter of what you were fine with, Sartre wouldn't've written a whole book about how annoying it was to worry about what other people thought.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: I understand the distinction. I still find the behavior to be hypocritical- that is to say, I'm fine with joking about death in general, and I'm fine with joking about Jackson too.
Whose behavior do you find hypocritical? I have no qualms about joking about the dead or with criticizing the dead, particularly if the dead person in question was extremely famous.
I will agree that it would be rather insensitive to criticize or joke about the dead to the face of his family members and close friends, particularly at a time when they are mourning their loss. But I think a different standard is appropriate among those of us who only knew this person through the media. If I thought Michael Jackson"s children and syblings frequented this site, I would be more circumspect.
Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
Orinoco's talking about the Pixar last wishes thread.
He made a joke, in the context of a dead child. He was criticised for doing so.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
Could we try to keep this thread about Michael Jackson for a little while? If we want to discuss the appropriateness of humor in the wake of death, perhaps we could start another thread?
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
No, you're right, it doesn't matter.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
Oh yeah, I saw that. I thought people over reacted more than a bit to his joke. But then, like I said, a lot of people have accused me of being insufficiently circumspect on such issues as well.
I think the real issue in that thread was that some people at least found the story very touching and were offended that Orincoro interrupted their warm fuzzy discussion with a black joke. I don't think his joke was inappropriate because of its proximity to the little girls death, I think it was inappropriate because of the serious sentiments other people were discussing at the time.
I do think different standards apply to public personalities like Michael Jackson and private persons who make the news only because of tragedy.
Posted by The White Whale (Member # 6594) on :
quote:Online, the traffic was so heavy with people sharing news of his death that the microblogging service Twitter crashed, and even Google believed it might have been under service attack, the BBC reported.
AIM, the instant messaging service operated by AOL, collapsed for about 40 minutes amid all the Jackson attention. The service was “undergoing a previously scheduled software update” at the time, the company said in a statement to PC Magazine.
The company called the day “a seminal moment in Internet history.” It said: “We’ve never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth.
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
I considered a pre-emptive "too soon" when I first saw this thread (would've been post #3, I think), but thought it would be seen as a joke rather than a plea. Though I do see a difference between the two situations, I was a little disappointed that the thread didn't remain an expression of sorrow for Mr. Jackson.
I watched MTV last night for a little while to see if some videos I remembered happened to be on -- lots of videos, but not the ones I was hoping for. But I didn't watch for that long, and I stopped following music videos long before he stopped making them. Had fun talking with Mooselet about all the dance moves, and seeing his reaction to some things that looked seemingly impossible (in an optical illusion type of way).
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
I feel sorrow when I think about Michael Jackson, but it's not for his death, but for the difference between the brilliant young performer and the strange creature he became. His death doesn't make me any sadder. I am probably somewhat callous.
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
quote:Originally posted by TL: With all these references to the dude being "weird" -- are we not acknowledging that he was in all likelihood a child molester because it's distasteful to mention it on the day someone dies?
(1) Yes, it's distasteful and disrepectful to come in with that on the day that someone dies in the thread created for that.
(2) He was not convicted of anything. Whether or not he did it is another conversation for another time, although I'm pretty sure we won't ever know for sure either way.
-------------------------------
Chris, agreed. Although you don't have to do much more than listen to his song 'Childhood' to get a good idea of what MJ was all about.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
quote:Originally posted by scifibum: I feel sorrow when I think about Michael Jackson, but it's not for his death, but for the difference between the brilliant young performer and the strange creature he became.
That's sort of how I feel. In a sense, i feel like we lost Michael Jackson years ago.
Does anyone know what will happen to all the Beatles songs he owns?
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
He was very in debt. I'm guessing there might be little left after the dust settles.
Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
Absurdly in debt, half a billion dollars worth.
"I feel sorrow when I think about Michael Jackson, but it's not for his death, but for the difference between the brilliant young performer and the strange creature he became." "That's sort of how I feel. In a sense, I feel like we lost Michael Jackson years ago.
To those of you who responded to my post: Fair enough. Personally, I will not mourn for him. I didn't know him. Just being honest, it doesn't mean anything to me. People die every day -- great people. I don't think he was one.
It wasn't through the court of public opinion that I became convinced he was a child molester (and I am convinced)... It was through a logical application of thought after careful consideration of a great deal of testimony and evidence. It's an issue that I actually followed closely -- especially when it went to trial, twice. I've read transcripts, interviews, and newspaper articles galore on the topic. None of us can ever know for certain what happens in a room we aren't in. But to me his guilt is as obvious and clear as O.J.'s, and he used his money and influence to get out of it, and to smear any victims who were brave enough to try to come forward.
I had no respect for Michael Jackson. If it sounds like I'm grinding an axe, I guess I am, because few things in this world are as sick and despicable as the acts that I believe this man engaged in.
Now I'll step out of the thread and leave you all, and Michael Jackson, alone.
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
I don't know if the scandals involving Michael Jackson were based on fact. He was acquitted. His accusors appeared to be very poor witnesses on the stand. I think comparing him to O.J. is unfair.
So I do not know if he was really "bad." He did have problems. Obviously, he was a classic example of a man with a "Peter Pan Syndrome." He even called his ranch "Neverland." And by bleaching his skin and getting facelifts, he seemed to have made himself look like some sort of a cartoon character. So he was wierd. That still does not mean he was bad. He would not be the first artist who was not entirely sane. The brilliant science fiction writer, Philip K. Dick, comes to mind.
Many people say he had real talent. I don't know. I never cared for rock music, or his variety of "pop" music. So I never paid any attention to him.
What has really surprised me is all the people who still regard him as some sort of icon, like Elvis. I notice that all the people shown on TV praising him, his life, his career, seemed to be liberal Democrats. I don't know why that is. That is just the impression I got. Did it appear the same way to anyone else?
Honestly, I was more moved by the movie of Farah Fawcett's struggle with cancer, "Death of an Angel," which was shown on some networks. That was poignant.
Ed McMahan had just died the previous day. So here we have three famous people dying within a day or so of each other. We sort of expect things like this to come in threes, don't we?
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:What has really surprised me is all the people who still regard him as some sort of icon, like Elvis.
Ron, here is a wikipedia page showing the best-selling albums of all time.
Note the gulf between Thriller and absolutely anything else.
The reason why people are talking about him as an icon and regard him as an icon is because he is absolutely an icon. You're just surprised by that because you individually didn't care about his music.
quote:I notice that all the people shown on TV praising him, his life, his career, seemed to be liberal Democrats. I don't know why that is. That is just the impression I got. Did it appear the same way to anyone else?
I could think of plenty of reasons why you would imagine that and make a note to point it out to yourself, but honestly why do you care?
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
How can you tell if they are liberal Democrats? Do they have some sort of scarlet LD written in neat fancy writing or what?
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Goodnight - I didn't realize that the soundtrack to Phantom of the Opera sold 40 MILLION COPIES. Posted by Jamio (Member # 12053) on :
Half a billion dollars is a lot of money, but I would be surprised if he wasn't worth that much and more. I'd be interested to know what his net worth is.
Posted by Jamio (Member # 12053) on :
quote:Originally posted by katharina: Goodnight - I didn't realize that the soundtrack to Phantom of the Opera sold 40 MILLION COPIES.
No, the cast recording did.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Duh. Picky, picky. That's what I meant.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
This from the Baltimore Sun:
quote: Oxman (Jackson's former attorney) claimed Jackson had prescription drugs at his disposal to help with pain suffered when he broke his leg after he fell off a stage and for broken vertebrae in his back.
After Jackson was acquitted on child molestation charges in 2005, prosecutors argued against returning to Jackson items including syringes, the drug Demerol and prescriptions for various drugs, mainly antibiotics, in different people's names.
So he was likely slamming Demerol, and who knows what other opiates, but you can bet from the classic back pain syndrome that he was gobbling vicodin, percocete, oxycontin- you name it, I bet dollars to donuts he was doing it all- that and probably laxatives, muscle relaxants, amphetamines, and alcohol. This is the diet that killed Elvis (plus the eating, but I think if anything Jackson was anorexic), so it wouldn't be a big shock if all this becomes public in the coming months.
I realize I shouldn't be saying all this definitively without any solid proof, but when somebody dies in such circumstances, it's better to be realistic about the probably cause being very dangerous prescription medications. Heath Ledger may have died accidentally, but it took a surprisingly small amount of drugs in the wrong combination to do him in. The same happened to Anna Nicole Smith, Mitch Hedburg, Chris Farley, Joaquin Phoenix, etc. These people didn't try to kill themselves, but they all died deaths associated with prescription medication addictions.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
Joaquin Phoenix is alive. You are probably referring to his brother River.
Posted by Rappin' Ronnie Reagan (Member # 5626) on :
Xavier beat me to it. And River Phoenix died because of a heroin/cocaine overdose, not prescription drugs. Pretty sure Chris Farley did, too.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
quote:Originally posted by Xavier: Joaquin Phoenix is alive. You are probably referring to his brother River.
Indeed, slip of the finger.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
quote:Originally posted by Rappin' Ronnie Reagan: Xavier beat me to it. And River Phoenix died because of a heroin/cocaine overdose, not prescription drugs. Pretty sure Chris Farley did, too.
I said prescription medication addiction- Farley and Phoenix both abused prescription medication.
Posted by Jamio (Member # 12053) on :
quote:Originally posted by katharina: Duh. Picky, picky. That's what I meant.
Yeah, I know. But the cast recording featured Sarah Brightman, and the soundtrack just has Emmy Rossum.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
Can we get an update to the thread's title, really? I mean he is still technically a person whom one would say is in ... a state of cardiac arrest, but that's because he's a stiff.
Now.
Read this.
quote:'I'm better off dead. I'm done': How Michael Jackson predicted his death six months ago
By Ian Halperin
Whatever the final autopsy results reveal, it was greed that killed Michael Jackson. Had he not been driven – by a cabal of bankers, agents, doctors and advisers – to commit to the gruelling 50 concerts in London’s O2 Arena, I believe he would still be alive today.
During the last weeks and months of his life, Jackson made desperate attempts to prepare for the concert series scheduled for next month – a series that would have earned millions for the singer and his entourage, but which he could never have completed, not mentally, and not physically.
Michael knew it and his advisers knew it. Anyone who caught even a fleeting glimpse of the frail old man hiding beneath the costumes and cosmetics would have understood that the London tour was madness. For Michael Jackson, it was fatal.
I had more than a glimpse of the real Michael; as an award-winning freelance journalist and film-maker, I spent more than five years inside his ‘camp’.
Many in his entourage spoke frankly to me – and that made it possible for me to write authoritatively last December that Michael had six months to live, a claim that, at the time, his official spokesman, Dr Tohme Tohme, called a ‘complete fabrication’. The singer, he told the world, was in ‘fine health’. Six months and one day later, Jackson was dead.
Some liked to snigger at his public image, and it is true that flamboyant clothes and bizarre make-up made for a comic grotesque; yet without them, his appearance was distressing; with skin blemishes, thinning hair and discoloured fingernails.
I had established beyond doubt, for example, that Jackson relied on an extensive collection of wigs to hide his greying hair. Shorn of their luxuriance, the Peter Pan of Neverland cut a skeletal figure.
It was clear that he was in no condition to do a single concert, let alone 50. He could no longer sing, for a start. On some days he could barely talk. He could no longer dance. Disaster was looming in London and, in the opinion of his closest confidantes, he was feeling suicidal.
To understand why a singer of Jackson’s fragility would even think about travelling to London, we need to go back to June 13, 2005, when my involvement in his story began.
As a breaking news alert flashed on CNN announcing that the jury had reached a verdict in Jackson’s trial for allegedly molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch in California, I knew that history had been made but that Michael Jackson had been broken – irrevocably so, as it proved.
Nor was it the first time that Michael had been accused of impropriety with young boys. Little more than a decade earlier, another 13-year-old, Jordan Chandler, made similar accusations in a case that was eventually settled before trial – but not before the damage had been done to Jackson’s reputation.
Michael had not helped his case. Appearing in a documentary with British broadcaster Martin Bashir, he not only admitted that he liked to share a bed with teenagers, mainly boys, in pyjamas, but showed no sign of understanding why anyone might be legitimately concerned.
I had started my investigation convinced that Jackson was guilty. By the end, I no longer believed that.
I could not find a single shred of evidence suggesting that Jackson had molested a child. But I found significant evidence demonstrating that most, if not all, of his accusers lacked credibility and were motivated primarily by money.
Jackson also deserved much of the blame, of course. Continuing to share a bed with children even after the suspicions surfaced bordered on criminal stupidity.
He was also playing a truly dangerous game. It is clear to me that Michael was homosexual and that his taste was for young men, albeit not as young as Jordan Chandler or Gavin Arvizo.
In the course of my investigations, I spoke to two of his gay lovers, one a Hollywood waiter, the other an aspiring actor. The waiter had remained friends, perhaps more, with the singer until his death last week. He had served Jackson at a restaurant, Jackson made his interest plain and the two slept together the following night. According to the waiter, Jackson fell in love.
The actor, who has been given solid but uninspiring film parts, saw Jackson in the middle of 2007. He told me they had spent nearly every night together during their affair – an easy claim to make, you might think. But this lover produced corroboration in the form of photographs of the two of them together, and a witness.
Other witnesses speak of strings of young men visiting his house at all hours, even in the period of his decline. Some stayed overnight.
When Jackson lived in Las Vegas, one of his closest aides told how he would sneak off to a ‘grungy, rat-infested’ motel – often dressed as a woman to disguise his identity – to meet a male construction worker he had fallen in love with.
Jackson was acquitted in the Arvizo case, dramatically so, but the effect on his mental state was ruinous. Sources close to him suggest he was close to complete nervous breakdown.
The ordeal had left him physically shattered, too. One of my sources suggested that he might already have had a genetic condition I had never previously come across, called Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency – the lack of a protein that can help protect the lungs.
Although up to 100,000 Americans are severely affected by it, it is an under-recognised condition. Michael was receiving regular injections of Alpha-1 antitrypsin derived from human plasma. The treatment is said to be remarkably effective and can enable the sufferer to lead a normal life.
But the disease can cause respiratory problems and, in severe cases, emphysema. Could this be why Jackson had for years been wearing a surgical mask in public, to protect his lungs from the ravages of the disease? Or why, from time to time, he resorted to a wheelchair? When I returned to my source inside the Jackson camp for confirmation, he said: ‘Yeah, that’s what he’s got. He’s in bad shape. They’re worried that he might need a lung transplant but he may be too weak.
‘Some days he can hardly see and he’s having a lot of trouble walking.’
Even Michael Jackson’s legendary wealth was in sharp decline. Just a few days before he announced his 50-concert comeback at the O2 Arena, one of my sources told me Jackson had been offered £1.8million to perform at a party for a Russian billionaire on the Black Sea.
‘Is he up to it?’ I had asked.
‘He has no choice. He needs the money. His people are pushing him hard,’ said the source.
Could he even stand on a stage for an hour concert?
‘He can stand. The treatments have been successful. He can even dance once he gets in better shape. He just can’t sing,’ said the aide, adding that Jackson would have to lip-synch to get through the performance. ‘Nobody will care, as long as he shows up and moonwalks.’
He also revealed Jackson had been offered well over £60million to play Las Vegas for six months. ‘He said no, but his people are trying to force it on him. He’s that close to losing everything,’ said the source.
Indeed, by all accounts Jackson’s finances were in a shambles. The Arvizo trial itself was a relative bargain, costing a little more than £18million in legal bills.
But the damage to his career, already in trouble before the charges, was incalculable. After the Arvizo trial, a Bahraini sheikh allowed Jackson to stay in his palace, underwriting his lavish lifestyle. But a few years later, the prince sued his former guest, demanding repayment for his hospitality. Jackson claimed he thought it had been a gift.
Roger Friedman, a TV journalist, said: ‘For one year, the prince underwrote Jackson’s life in Bahrain – everything including accommodation, guests, security and transportation. And what did Jackson do? He left for Japan and then Ireland. He took the money and moonwalked right out the door. This is the real Michael Jackson. He has never returned a phone call from the prince since he left Bahrain.’
Although Jackson settled with the sheikh on the eve of the trial that would have aired his financial dirty laundry, the settlement only put him that much deeper into the hole. A hole that kept getting bigger, but that was guaranteed by Jackson’s half ownership of the copyrights to The Beatles catalogue. He owned them in a joint venture with record company Sony, which have kept him from bankruptcy.
‘Jackson is in hock to Sony for hundreds of millions,’ a source told me a couple of months ago. ‘No bank will give him any money so Sony have been paying his bills.
‘The trouble is that he hasn’t been meeting his obligations. Sony have been in a position for more than a year where it can repossess Michael’s share of the [Beatles] catalogue. That’s always been Sony’s dream scenario, full ownership.
‘But they don’t want to do it as they’re afraid of a backlash from his fans. Their nightmare is an organised 'boycott Sony' movement worldwide, which could prove hugely costly. It is the only thing standing between Michael and bankruptcy.’
The source aid at the time that the scheduled London concerts wouldn’t clear Jackson’s debts – estimated at almost £242million – but they would allow him to get them under control and get him out of default with Sony.
According to two sources in Jackson’s camp, the singer put in place a contingency plan to ensure his children would be well taken care of in the event of bankruptcy.
‘He has as many as 200 unpublished songs that he is planning to leave behind for his children when he dies. They can’t be touched by the creditors, but they could be worth as much as £60million that will ensure his kids a comfortable existence no matter what happens,’ one of his collaborators revealed.
But for the circle of handlers who surrounded Jackson during his final years, their golden goose could not be allowed to run dry. Bankruptcy was not an option.
These, after all, were not the handlers who had seen him through the aftermath of the Arvizo trial and who had been protecting his fragile emotional health to the best of their ability. They were gone, and a new set of advisers was in place.
The clearout had apparently been engineered by his children’s nanny, Grace Rwaramba, who was gaining considerable influence over Jackson and his affairs and has been described as the ‘queen bee’ by those around Jackson.
Rwaramba had ties to the black militant organisation, the Nation of Islam, and its controversial leader, Louis Farrakhan, whom she enlisted for help in running Jackson’s affairs.
Before long, the Nation was supplying Jackson’s security detail and Farrakhan’s son-in-law, Leonard Muhammad, was appointed as Jackson’s business manager, though his role has lessened significantly in recent years.
In late 2008, a shadowy figure who called himself Dr Tohme Tohme suddenly emerged as Jackson’s ‘official spokesman’.
Tohme has been alternately described as a Saudi Arabian billionaire and an orthopaedic surgeon, but he is actually a Lebanese businessman who does not have a medical licence. At one point, Tohme claimed he was an ambassador at large for Senegal, but the Senegalese embassy said they had never heard of him.
Tohme’s own ties to the Nation of Islam came to light in March 2009, when New York auctioneer Darren Julien was conducting an auction of Michael Jackson memorabilia.
Julien filed an affidavit in Los Angeles Superior Court that month in which he described a meeting he had with Tohme’s business partner, James R. Weller. According to Julien’s account, ‘Weller said if we refused to postpone [the auction], we would be in danger from 'Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam; those people are very protective of Michael'.
He told us that Dr Tohme and Michael Jackson wanted to give the message to us that 'our lives are at stake and there will be bloodshed'.’
A month after these alleged threats, Tohme accompanied Jackson to a meeting at a Las Vegas hotel with Randy Phillips, chief executive of the AEG Group, to finalise plans for Jackson’s return to the concert stage.
Jackson’s handlers had twice before said no to Phillips. This time, with Tohme acting as his confidant, Jackson left the room agreeing to perform ten concerts at the O2.
Before long, however, ten concerts had turned into 50 and the potential revenues had skyrocketed. ‘The vultures who were pulling his strings somehow managed to put this concert extravaganza together behind his back, then presented it to him as a fait accompli,’ said one aide.
‘The money was just unbelievable and all his financial people were telling him he was facing bankruptcy. But Michael still resisted. He didn’t think he could pull it off.’
Eventually, they wore him down, the aide explained, but not with the money argument.
‘They told him that this would be the greatest comeback the world had ever known. That’s what convinced him. He thought if he could emerge triumphantly from the success of these concerts, he could be the King again.’
The financial details of the O2 concerts are still murky, though various sources have revealed that Jackson was paid as much as £10million in advance, most of which went to the middlemen. But Jackson could have received as much as £100million had the concerts gone ahead.
It is worth noting that the O2 Arena has the most sophisticated lip synching technology in the world – a particular attraction for a singer who can no longer sing. Had, by some miracle, the concerts gone ahead, Jackson’s personal contribution could have been limited to just 13 minutes for each performance. The rest was to have been choreography and lights.
‘We knew it was a disaster waiting to happen,’ said one aide. ‘I don’t think anybody predicted it would actually kill him but nobody believed he would end up performing.’
Their doubts were underscored when Jackson collapsed during only his second rehearsal.
‘Collapse might be overstating it,’ said the aide. ‘He needed medical attention and couldn’t go on. I’m not sure what caused it.’
Meanwhile, everybody around him noticed that Jackson had lost an astonishing amount of weight in recent months. His medical team even believed he was anorexic.
‘He goes days at a time hardly eating a thing and at one point his doctor was asking people if he had been throwing up after meals,’ one staff member told me in May.
‘He suspected bulimia but when we said he hardly eats any meals, the doc thought it was probably anorexia. He seemed alarmed and at one point said, 'People die from that all the time. You’ve got to get him to eat.'’
Indeed, one known consequence of anorexia is cardiac arrest.
After spotting him leave one rehearsal, Fox News reported that ‘Michael Jackson’s skeletal physique is so bad that he might not be able to moonwalk any more’.
On May 20 this year, AEG suddenly announced that the first London shows had been delayed for five days while the remainder had been pushed back until March 2010. At the time, they denied that the postponements were health-related, explaining that they needed more time to mount the technically complex production, though scepticism immediately erupted. It was well placed.
Behind the scenes, Jackson was in rapid decline. According to a member of his staff, he was ‘terrified’ at the prospect of the London concerts.
‘He wasn’t eating, he wasn’t sleeping and, when he did sleep, he had nightmares that he was going to be murdered. He was deeply worried that he was going to disappoint his fans. He even said something that made me briefly think he was suicidal. He said he thought he’d die before doing the London concerts.
‘He said he was worried that he was going to end up like Elvis. He was always comparing himself to Elvis, but there was something in his tone that made me think that he wanted to die, he was tired of life. He gave up. His voice and dance moves weren’t there any more. I think maybe he wanted to die rather than embarrass himself on stage.’
The most obvious comparison between the King of Pop and the King of Rock ’n’ Roll was their prescription drug habits, which in Jackson’s case had significantly intensified in his final months.
‘He is surrounded by enablers,’ said one aide. ‘We should be stopping him before he kills himself, but we just sit by and watch him medicate himself into oblivion.’
Jackson could count on an array of doctors to write him prescriptions without asking too many questions if he complained of ‘pain’. He was particularly fond of OxyContin, nicknamed ‘Hillbilly heroin’, which gave an instant high, although he did not take it on a daily basis.
‘He pops Demerol and morphine, sure, apparently going back to the time in 1984 when he burned himself during the Pepsi commercial, but there’s also some kind of psychiatric medication. One of his brothers once told me he was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger, so it may be to treat that.’
His aides weren’t the only ones who recognised that a 50-concert run was foolhardy. In May, Jackson himself reportedly addressed fans as he left his Burbank rehearsal studio.
‘Thank you for your love and support,’ he told them. ‘I want you guys to know I love you very much.
'I don’t know how I’m going to do 50 shows. I’m not a big eater. I need to put some weight on. I’m really angry with them booking me up to do 50 shows. I only wanted to do ten.’
One of his former employees was particularly struck by Jackson’s wording that day. ‘The way he was talking, it’s like he’s not in control over his own life any more,’ she told me earlier this month. ‘It sounds like somebody else is pulling his strings and telling him what to do. Someone wants him dead.
'They keep feeding him pills like candy. They are trying to push him over the edge. He needs serious help. The people around him will kill him.’
As the London concerts approached, something was clearly wrong. Jackson had vowed to travel to England at least eight weeks before his first shows, but he kept putting it off.
‘To be honest, I never thought Michael would set foot on a concert stage ever again,’ said one aide, choking back tears on the evening of his death.
‘This was not only predictable, this was inevitable.’
On June 21, Jackson told my contact that he wanted to die. He said that he didn’t have what it would take to perform any more because he had lost his voice and dance moves.
‘It’s not working out,’ Jackson said. ‘I’m better off dead. I don’t have anywhere left to turn. I’m done.’
Michael’s closest confidante told me just two hours after he died that ‘Michael was tired of living. He was a complete wreck for years and now he can finally be in a better place. People around him fed him drugs to keep him on their side. They should be held accountable.’
Michael Jackson was undoubtedly a deeply troubled and lonely man. Throughout my investigation, I was torn between compassion and anger, sorrow and empathy.
Even his legacy is problematic. As I have already revealed, he has bequeathed up to 200 original songs to his three children, Prince Michael, aged 12, Paris Katherine, 11, and Prince Michael II (also known as Blanket), seven. It is a wonderful gift.
Yet I can reveal that his will, not as yet made public, demands that the three of them remain with Jackson’s 79-year-old mother Katherine in California. It promises an ugly row.
Ex-wife Deborah Rowe, the mother of the eldest two, has already made it clear to her legal team that she wants her children in her custody, immediately.
The mother of the third child has never been identified. I fully expect that it will emerge that the children had a ‘test tube’ conception, a claim already made by Deborah Rowe.
Michael Jackson may very well have been the most talented performer of his generation, but for 15 years that fact has been lost to a generation who may remember him only as a grotesque caricature who liked to share his bed with little boys. Now that he’s gone, maybe it’s time to shelve the suspicions and appreciate the music.
Posted by Cashew (Member # 6023) on :
Fascinating, and really,really chilling, Samprimary, do you have a source?
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Provided any of that is true, is anyone really surprised? We've seen what happens to people who've been hugely famous since they were in their teens. The survival rate-- counting survival as living a healthy life free of an unreasonable amount of scandal-- is very low. Child stars, even the most gifted and intelligent ones, are not a good statistic to be part of.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Samp! Link to your sources and quote just the introduction!
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
quote:Originally posted by Teshi: Provided any of that is true, is anyone really surprised? We've seen what happens to people who've been hugely famous since they were in their teens. The survival rate-- counting survival as living a healthy life free of an unreasonable amount of scandal-- is very low. Child stars, even the most gifted and intelligent ones, are not a good statistic to be part of.
I don't have any stats to back this up, but I have heard that there is a strong correlation bias among the public in relation to child stars. That in fact, if you take all the child starts there ever were, and then find the number that were screwed up later in life, that number would not actually be higher than in any random sampling of the population. Except, of course, that the child stars would have more money, or would have at least at one time had more.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Wikipedia backs you up. From a Lisa Rapport's study:
quote:"the present findings also indicate that the environment of the entertainment industry is not necessarily toxic to normal development. Instead, the results support the well-established theory that good parenting serves as a buffer for life stress."
This implies that these children who self-implode would have self-imploded anyway, only without the world watching. I'm not sure that this is the case. I think the magnification effect of "going off the rails" is still important. I think the more these children remain in the public eye in the same niche, the more problems they have. Good parenting may help, but they're still exposed to extraordinary circumstances far more than normal children.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro:
quote:Originally posted by Teshi: Provided any of that is true, is anyone really surprised? We've seen what happens to people who've been hugely famous since they were in their teens. The survival rate-- counting survival as living a healthy life free of an unreasonable amount of scandal-- is very low. Child stars, even the most gifted and intelligent ones, are not a good statistic to be part of.
I don't have any stats to back this up, but I have heard that there is a strong correlation bias among the public in relation to child stars. That in fact, if you take all the child starts there ever were, and then find the number that were screwed up later in life, that number would not actually be higher than in any random sampling of the population. Except, of course, that the child stars would have more money, or would have at least at one time had more.
Part of that is a matter of visibility, though: if it's an obscure child actor, one wouldn't know about their problems and how bad things are. But nowadays you get these big stars that are in the public eye and in every tabloid on a weekly basis, they blow their nose wrong and it's front page press.
I can think of several child actors that had very tragic lives, including premature deaths, that got nowhere near the level of attention they should have.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
I read a book recently called The Mirror Effect by Drew Pinsky- he posits that the type of behavior perpetuated by child stars is in fact no different from any narcissistic person, except that the exact nature of the expression of their narcissism is through the public reaction to their activities. An average narcissist cannot get the kind of exposure a star can, but that stars uses their public personas in pretty much the same way as any screwed up person would, to create chaos in their lives. Granted, the scale of the spin-out can be ramped up to meet the actual means and abilities of the particular star to get the most exposure possible, but the syndrome remains basically the same. He based his findings on a fairly large study of celebrity personalities and levels of narcissism in comparison with civilian scores, and found that life outcomes generally matched among the different groups according to test scores, not according to actual talent, notoriety, or wealth. Pretty interesting stuff actually.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
There are certainly plenty of child stars who are now living quite normal private lives. They generally beg to be left alone. (Bobby Sherman wasn't precisely a "child" star, but he's the most recent example I've come across.) Every so often they show up in a "where are they now" retrospective.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
But you have to consider just how many of these child stars there have been. Most of them don't even show up in retrospectives because they weren't that notable to begin with, and when they get the calls from whoever does these things, they just don't respond. But then of course we have people, no need to name any names, who were never even "child stars," who simply don't go away in the media. As much as that gets spun into the fault of the media, there's really no way that these people don't ever have the option of avoiding the attention. It might not be fair per se, but if they really wanted to be left alone, they could probably do so quite easily. If some of the biggest names in entertainment can consistently stay out of the media circus when not specifically selling a product, then people with no actual acting or music resume can do it to. There is more than one reason for staying in the spotlight- the money can be good, but it's also often a sign of narcissism.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: Most of them don't even show up in retrospectives because they weren't that notable to begin with
Very true.
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: and when they get the calls from whoever does these things, they just don't respond.
These days, that doesn't mean much. Between Google and the various "find this person for me" services, it is cheap and easy to find out a ridiculous amount of information about almost anyone.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Well of course, but for the purposes of a TV show, you're not going to get a camera walk through of their houses or an interview with their families. I mean really, could you imagine letting a camera crew into your house to waltz around and broadcast your living habits on national television? It's no wonder when those shows come on that it's obvious the owner has had a 12 person cleaning crew, product placement consultants, and an interior decorator working on the place for days. As if on any day of the week, you walk into Michael Jordan's kitchen and find nothing in the refrigerator but 78 cans of red bull.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
I don't understand how 78 cans of Red Bull is supposed to be the positively spun version of Michael Jordan's refrigerator. It sounds like the "getting paid by the Red Bull company" to me.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Well yeah, that's where I was going with that... Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
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Yeah, I know. But the cast recording featured Sarah Brightman, and the soundtrack just has Emmy Rossum.
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