I’ll also add that I was incorrect, ABC bought the documentary for $5 million from a british tv station who had aired it. I don’t know if MJ was paid or not.
Here’s an update on the complaint issue: … Jackson complains to TV watchdog
I’m no expert on media law, but people have succeded with the “unfairly treated” strategy before now. The “infringement of his privacy” thing seems laughable though, unless he can point to a specific contractual clause that promised his kids wouldn’t be included in the programme. IMHO he’s right that the programme was “a salacious ratings chaser”, but that’s not forbidden.
It seems most likely that he imagined (or was told) that the programme would be a public rehabilitation exercise and was shocked when he saw the reaction in the British tabloid press. Nobody with so much as half a braincell takes the tabs seriously, and MJ is a total fruitcake whether he likes to admit it or not, so it was a forlorn hope from the start. No documentary that even grazed the truth (and I’m not suggesting Bashir’s effort managed anything else) could portray Jackson as a well-adjusted regular guy. He isn’t. But he’s been portrayed negatively through his own actions and lies in the programme, not by lies that Bashir told about him.
You know, even with the scarves, you can still see what the kids look like, so why BOTHER?
Oh, and Michael? At least get rid of the WHITE SOCKS!!!
Anybody else remember the “Jacko on his Backo!” news sketch they did on Saturday Night Live?
In the middle of watching the interview now, and I just wanted to chime in with an observation.
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen a televised interview with Michael Jackson. One thing jumped out at me right away when I first saw Jackson talking to Martin Bashir. I’m deaf, and I lip-read, so it was easy for me to catch this early.
His upper lip doesn’t move.
It seems virtually paralyzed. There does not appear to be a trace of muscular movement across the entire upper lip when he talks.
Odd.
Botox?
Botox isn’t a bad guess, although I’ve never heard of it being injected into the upper lip. I thought it was used primarily in the forehead and cheeks.
My guess is nerve damage from all the futzing around in the nasal area from the various surgeries over the years.
Or maybe it’s just stretched tight? Like Nancy Sinatra’s face; I saw her interviewed shortly after Frank died, and she had clearly had a facelift very recently, and she could barely move her face at all.
I’m watching the interview too; this is seriously creepy. He just made nice use of a straw man: He was asked if he’d ever had cosmetic surgery, which he vehemently denied and then said, “When I had that beard, one guy said I’d had every hair individually implanted in my face. What, I can’t grow a beard now? That’s ridiculous!” Thereby implying that any surgery at all is ridiculous, I suppose.
I hope I don’t lose sleep after watching this.
The Teletext service on ITV is currently claiming this:
US MEDIA RAP 'CALLOUS' BASHIR
The US media has attacked interviewer
Martin Bashir for being "callous" in
his documentary about Michael Jackson.
TV reviewers criticised the treatment
of the pop superstar in an ITV1 show
being broadcast in the US tonight.
The New York Times described Jackson as
a victim not only of an abusive father
and his own psyche, but also "his
interviewer's callous self-interest".
The New York Times website doesn’t cover that yet. I can’t stand Bashir personally and think the programme was incompetent, but I don’t see how Jackson has been unfairly treated by it.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with Bashir-I think he was pretty sickened by Michael. I know I am.
By the way, Guinastasia, I agree with your statement up above: I don’t think he’s a child molester either.
Remember this guy, with the “I’m Peter Pan” Web site? Jacko seems similar (though far less articulate and self-aware), in that for whatever reason, he’s trying to totally eliminate any appearance of sexuality/maturing/aging from his life.
I’ll go ahead and offer my baseless speculation that this may be a result of having every awkward, horrible moment of one’s adolescence immediately broadcast on worldwide TV. That, coupled with billions of dollars at one’s disposal, seems a possible cause of his weirdness. I’m no psychologist, of course.
Am I the only one who found the reporter to be completely abrassive and rude? He totally formed an opinion of Michael beforehand, and used everything that happened to reinforce this to create a much more negative opinion of MJ.
I’m not saying MJ didn’t do a good job of that himself, but this documentary seems to have been developed to make a fool out of him instead of help understand him.
No. Jackson thinks that too. We’ll see what the lawyers think in the coming weeks.
Actually, even Jackson didn’t think that at the time of the interviews.
Michael Jackson scares me.
The freaky things:
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The running-away-with-the-baby thing.
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The Tatum O’Neil story.
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The blondness of Prince’s hair. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe any of those kids are his.
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The pubey look to his facial hair.
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His emphatic denials about his plastic surgery, and his assertation that puberty made his face the way it is.
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When he was bouncing “Blanket” on his knees.
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Blanket.
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When he was buying up the whole china shop.
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When he said he had to see the gorillas.
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When he said that we were ignorant for not sleeping with children.
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When he said he was shy and yet let strange women fawn all over him.
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When he talked about buying jewerly for Elizabeth Taylor and his mother. For a moment, I thought he was saying Elizabeth Taylor WAS his mother.
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All the pictures on the walls showing him surrounded by angels. White, blond-haired angels. Not a black one in sight.
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His obvious fascination with innocence. It’s was almost like he was trying to come across as innocent as possible.
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When he spelled “fuck”, like spelling it somehow makes it all better.
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The maid’s uniform hanging in his hotel room. Had to give the camera man props for that.
Michael Jackson is crazy. I feel sorry for him, as well as repulsed. They need to take those children away from him NOW.
I remember acting the exact same way as Michael does when I was about nine or ten. I do agree with Guin in that I think he’s headed for a meltdown.
The whole situation makes me sad, it’s a pretty good example of how important childhood is.
Yeah, but at least the Peter Pan guy ADMITS he’s weird and seems able to laugh at himself. Jackson doesn’t. He can’t laugh at himself, and he can’t see himself as even a bit strange.
You know, my parents held me as a child. They let me sleep with them when I had bad dreams, and they still hug me. But for God’s SAKES, they let me breathe.
And they never let my friends sleep in their beds.
I don’t see how Bashir was rude, so much as he was a journalist. That’s his job to ask those kinds of questions.
I thought it was interesting when he said, “Why? There’s no Jack the Ripper there.”
Maybe not Jack the Ripper. But how about Chester the Molester?
I believe him when he says he is innocent, but surely he has to realize that this is a BAD idea! That some people are NOT so childlike and naive as he is. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but he needs serious help. Seriously. He’s not getting it.
And that’s what I saw. Neverland looks like the saddest place alive. Because in the end, I would HATE not being able to grow up. Childhood is idealized, yes. BUT, how many of us remember it, and would really want to continue being a child like that? Not I. I LIKE being an adult. I’m much happier.
Oh, and Michael? Barbra Streisand is NOT classical! Tchaikovsky is classical. Debussy is classical. NOT BARBRA STREISAND! (when he said he plays classical music on the carousel, but he said he plays songs like “Childhood”? and Barbra Streisand.)
I really don’t think he does realise it is a bad idea. I think that he thinks only a small minority of people think that what he does is strange - certainly not the majority. I really do hope someone sees this interview whose opinion he listens to and suggests he get some help.
I really did like him as a kid, and to see this interview was a little painful.
His definition of classical music really does need work, that’s for sure.
But he didn’t have every awkward, horrible moment of his adolesence broadcast immediately on worldwide TV. What are you talking about? We saw him on TV only when he was performing with his brothers (which he loved to do then and loves to do now), and in occasional interviews.
His hair is bleached – you could see the roots showing. But neither of the older kids looked as though they could possibly be related to him.
Here’s the NYT review of the show, by the way. It doesn’t seem overly critical of Bashir (or Jackson) as far as I can see.