Just who would be missing out on all the fun?
That`s not the issue, the issue is WHY THE HELL ARE PARENTS LETTING THIER KIDS SLEEP WITH THIS FREAK?
Why would he pay 20 million in hush money if he was innocent, and then put himself in the same situation time and time again?
It may very well BE innocent. That said, it’s still not a good idea.
If a parent sleeps with their own children-that’s one thing. Who hasn’t crawled in with Mommy and Daddy after a nightmare?
However, to crawl in bed with some stranger is wrong. The only person I ever slept with that wasn’t my parent was when I was seven years old, sleeping over at my cousins, and we got scared after a show and crawled in with my aunt-her mom. THAT is different from what Michael is doing.
I am a bit disturbed with myself right now. Prior to watching the documentary, I was solidly against Mr. Jackson, based mostly on what I’ve seen in the media.
Strangely enough, I found myself sympathizing with the guy!
Unless he is a master of deception, I feel that he has truly never grown up. I found his apparent innocence refreshing.
When he climbed the tree and encouraged the reporter to follow with “you don’t know what you are missing”, I had to agree.
I don’t doubt at all that there is some mental illness going on there, but the guy has the money to live his life the way he wants and surround himself with folks who can make it happen.
Until I watched the documentary, I thought the mask thing was really strange. After hearing his reasoning I can understand his desire to protect himself and his children against prying eyes.
I also think that it is a shame that our suspicious society (for good reasons), thinks that it is so strange for an adult to be close to children. I’ve always enjoyed it when my children happened to fall asleep on my bed while watching TV or whatever. I’d hate to think anyone would consider me a pervert for it, even if one of their neighbor friends happened to have done the same.
If those interviewed were any example, it sounds as though the children’s parents are invited along with the children.
I still have creepy feelings about the guy and I would not allow MY children to be alone with him but I can empathize.
Exactly! If you read the smoking-gun document, MJ basically wooed the kid for several months, giving elaborate presents and such. The mother was often around, early on. How the hell would she not say to herself, “Hmm. This is a little odd, and MJ is known for being a weirdo. He’s paying a huge amount of attention to my young son. Perhaps I should try to nip this in the bud.”
Seems pretty straightforward to me.
Most adults with children would have to “admit” to sleeping with children in the same bed. My daughter crawls in with us when scared, sick, etc. More than a few times, she’s conked out while we were all in bed watching TV. No big. Happened last night (she was sick) in fact.
But I also have to agree with Guinastasia. Children shouldn’t be in bed with anyone other than parents, immediate family, or virtual family (e.g. we have a family friend of 20 years “Aunt” Carrie who would be fine for this).
It’s all about context.
However, I can’t think of a context where it is “normal” or “acceptable” for someone to consistely and repeatedly be getting in bed with unrelated children – aka Jacko and Macauley Culkin et al.
One would also think that someone accused of child molestation --EVEN IF WRONGLY – would be doubly careful about getting into awkward situations. Having gone through what he’s gone through, I can’t imagine the man is really stupid enough to EVER be alone with children other than his own.
Michael Jackson crawling into bed with kids is sorta like Robert Downey Jr. getting busted with a packet of coke in his pocket… Even if the cops’ blood test shows “Mr. Downey had not taken cocaine,” the entire world will add “yet” to the statement…
Old Hollywood quote, attributed to various stars being smeared in the papers over various scandals:
“I don’t care what they say about me in the newspapers as long as they spell my name correctly.”
Did anyone else read the document that Mr. Duality linked to? I haven’t seen the documentary yet, but I want to just to see if his mannerisms & presentation of himself match with the descriptions of him starting to cry when the boy rejected his advances.
I need a shower after reading that document.
If I am going to be Jackson’s defender, I want to be compensated!
I had not read Mr. Duality’s cite. I’m sorta surprised it’s really out there. It does ring truth.
In fact it sounds pretty much like my childhood experiences with my peers. Experimentation.
I hate to say it, if you saw the documentary, Jackson relating his first sexual experience with whom? Jodie Foster?
I wonder if the guy has even advanced enough to be a sexual being?
Really, I don’t know what to think. If you read Mr. Duality’s cite, it looks like juvenile experimentation.
My skin is crawling and yet I am sorta fascinated by the whole thing. Maybe the idiot really has never had to grow up.
It strikes me as little more than naive to believe that Michael Jackson is an asexual being. Sure he acts childish, naive, innocent or like a “twelve-year old” but, as Diogenes pointed out in another thread, that hardly makes him asexual. How many twelve year olds aren’t fascinated in some way with experimentation? If you say none then I would contend that it is you who is being naive.
Just look at the “facts”
He keeps a stable of young boys around at all times (notice no little girls)
He has previously been accused of molesting a child… his name was never cleared. In fact he paid off his accuser with a rather large settlement.
We have no way of knowing how many other parents have been paid off before they ever got the chance to go public.
For someone with his reputation, he sure does have alot of kids that aren’t even his having “sleepovers” with him, sharing the same bed.
- Where are the parents? What kind of parent lets their kid go on a sleepover with Michael Jackson unattended?
- How dumb does Michael have to be to realize that no matter how innocent he thinks he is being, it simply doesn’t look good?
We are forced to take the word of innocence from a man who is not afraid to patently deny the obvious ( ie. his flat out denial of a great deal of his plastic surgery ) and who lives in a fantasy world with so much money that he never has to be worried about being told “no.”
Even if he is doing something wrong, this man is so self-deluded that he would probably never admit it, even to himself…
Is this a person you would want with your children, unnattended? A person who admits to luring children into his bed but contends that “there is nothing sexual” about it?
Obviously, these aren’t all “facts” but they are certainly not points to be dismissed out of hand. We all want to believe that he is not a “sexual being” but that would be willful ignorance, it is much more likely that he is in some way a sexual being. And judging from his “children,” it obviously isn’t their mothers he’s been sleeping with.
bare-it was Tatum O’Neal. Who later said that the incident was highly exaggerated by Michael.
(My guess is she just wanted to smooch, and he freaked, and now he exaggerates about it.)
The only thing creepy about the interview was the interviewer. He was so very painfully obvious in his attempts at making M.J. look like a freak.
The man did not have a childhood. He has the emotional stability of a 10 year old. His best friends are children, because…ding ding ding…he is a child.
He loves climbing trees.
And secondly: I don’t know exactly how many times it was stated, but it -was- stated. He lets them use his bed. He said that he gave his bed to them, because the guest in his house must have the best that he can offer.
Good lord. The man has too much money, and not enough sense. What he needs is therapy so that he can come to love the child within, without giving in completely to the insane urges that children have. I think the day he embraces what he is–an adult–is the day he will find some happiness in the world.
And as a note, I haven’t been a fan of his since I was 12 or so, and Thriller came out. I’m still not a fan. But common decency is something that I can offer to just about anyone, and that interviewer was seriously lacking in it.
If you can’t understand WHY Bashir was creeped out with the idea of kids sleeping in bed with a stranger, I can’t help you there.
In light of the accusations, and what goes on in the world, I cannot believe that Michael Jackson would think that people are ignorant to be even the least bit concerned.
After we watched the documentary my husband said to me, “I don’t know what the point of that was, except to remind me that I still need to replace my Thriller album.”
I think that was the point of that.
He appears to have a Peter Pan complex, but I think even Peter slept solo. I’m with all of you that are questioning why any parent would leave their child to spend the night with this guy. I’d be checking out these parents.
I understand that what M.J. was saying, and what Bashir was repeating (something he did constantly to reinforce the idea that he was simply trying to make sure the audience understood that he was ‘listening’ and ‘understanding’ his interview subject) back to him were seemingly two different things.
I’m very sure that what M.J. signed up for and what Bashir wanted to deliver were, at the outset, two completely different things. The interview was nothing short of a vehicle for Bashir to to capitalize on someone else’s fame.
And hey, that it was edited in time for sweeps week? What a marvelous coincidence.
M.J. might really have no recourse, but honestly, if someone butchered my persona, as a person with no small amount of fame, I would haul his butt into court.
Everything about this Jackson situation looks really creepy…but that’s all. It looks creepy, but we don’t really know anything. Even if he isn’t “molestering” kids (Butters and the NAMBLA guy in South Park, so wrong it’s funny like most of the things they do on that show) 
I still think he has some serious issues. “That boy ain’t right”, as Hank Hill might say. And boy he is, despite being 43 years old, that much is clear.
That said, the interviewer was a little exploitative.
Anyways, the word of caution still is, “Jacko is Wacko if you’re a preteen.”
A man who was accused of pedophilia-and who settled out of court, so the charges were never really proven or disproven-and Bashir shouldn’t say something about the fact that he is still sleeping with strange kids?
I wish I had a copy of the message he put on one of his albums after the accusations broke. It was something along the lines of Don’t judge me until you’ve walked in my shoes and you know what I’ve been through.
That statement is markedly not the same as saying “I’m innocent.” It’s saying “I’m this way because of things that happened to me, so don’t judge me.”
So WHAT? He had a shitty childhood, no one is denying that.
What we ARE saying is that a shitty childhood is not a license to do whatever he wants without having to suffer the consequences!
As far as judging, I do believe in judge not, lest you be judged. HOWEVER, if someone is doing something that is potentially damaging, and they are doing so in public, and stating so in public, then they sure as hell better not complain when people comment on it!
I agree with you. I just thought the statement sounded more like someone seeking justification than someone protesting innocence.