Bashir vs Jackson; no contest...

February 6th – Michael Jackson. Now there was a ‘ship-meets-iceberg’ of a life. The film documentary, ‘Living with Michael Jackson’, supposedly about a ‘normal’ person going about his daily business…just like any ordinary U.S. citizen (“$12,000? I’ll take three”) aired on ABC’s 20/20 programme on this day in 2003 with Martin Bashir as interviewer… Did anyone else find him creepy? Not Jackson, that was a given, I mean Bashir… I always thought there was a touch of …you know, that snake in the Disney film of Jungle Book…what was its name…the one that sings, ‘Trust in Me’…? The song that Sterling Holloway sang on the soundtrack...? Kaa! That’s it! Kaa. That snake. Well that’s what came to mind when I saw him do the Jackson interview…as well as the Diana interview. There’s something in his eyes, even in the supposedly formal constraints of a TV special which sort of makes me shudder. I’m sure it’s just my over-active imagination and that he’s a charming and felicitous man, just can’t help thinking… Anyway, back-o to Jack-o, as they say.

I doubt there’s a one amongst us that doesn't get itchy feet whenever we hear the opening of either ‘Billie Jean’ or ‘Beat It’ and I’ll bet everyone out there can do the left-right monster thing from ‘Thriller’…go on, take twenty seconds out from reading this rubbish and do it…you know you've wanted to ever since I mentioned it, you played it out in your head as you read it, didn't you? So, up you get and, ‘one-two-three-four, dadoo-dadoo-dadoo-dum…………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. There now, don’t you feel better? 
Right, back to the interview.

Not surprising that Jackson came across as a very strange individual, I mean how many folk who are supposedly adult see nothing at all wrong about living in a permanent Disney film, complete with fairy castle and house name to match all stocked with the trappings of a trapped child.

How can you live at that level, have the world it’s intellectuals and its learning open to you (there was talk of a library of 10,000 books at Neverland – I’m sure he read them all) and yet given what his money could buy, what those around him could teach him and all the information contained in those 10,000 books, how could you have such piss-poor taste in friends, friendship, facelifts…and furniture…? I’ll tell y’.

The world of rock ‘n’ celebrity revolves around narcissism, self delusion, ego massage and money-grubbing-hangers-on.

I've lost count of the number of musicians in the rock world who, when you read about their downfall or ruination, cite the number of drug-dealers, pimps, free-loaders and ‘blow-job-brownies’ who helped them on their way to penury. As we go through life, you and me, we pick things up by default. After a while, if you have a fairly large wallet (that’s not you and me, this is just a scenario you understand) and anything approaching nous, you begin to recognise the faces that keep popping up on the periphery of your free time and you can guarantee, almost without exception, that they've got an angle. The trick is to be able to spot them or have them pointed out to you if your life is so hectic that you can’t do it for yourself (and if the people who are supposed to be doing this for you are hire-ins and not personal friends from BEFORE you got famous, I’d suggest you sack them immediately. They’re obviously keeping you so busy that you can’t oversee the everyday and that usually means they’re on the make; doing the shekel shakedown – you – before they move on to fresh pastures. Cynics don’t come much harder than me). 

Now, I’m not quite so daft as not to know that, with the pop/celeb circuit being so whirlwind and short, one needs to make the money while the candle burns. This naturally means you have to relinquish control at times and rely on the judgement of others; people that you trust. But, in order to have trustworthy people around, you need have built up the requisite personal skills through having lived something akin to a 'normal' life-before-fame in order to find and recognise them, recognise them and recruit them… What we have here is yet another M. J. Catch 22 moment.

In the case of stars that graduate through childhood to mega-stardom, these skills will probably never be learnt because someone else is always detailed to take care of these things for you… Get hold of a copy of ‘A New Leaf’, a Walter Matthau film – directed and written by Elaine May, who hated what the editors did with her movie – another case of someone having what they cherish ‘ruined’ – her phrase – by people who were supposedly looking after her best interests and into whose hands she relinquished her movie…apart from that it’s an excellent film that is just right for a winter fire, a bowl of comfort food and a small glass of something…FM! Where was I!? Oh, yeah, life-lessons. OK, so if these lessons in life are never learnt then it’s hardly surprising that bad decisions are made when it comes to how to respond to questions from such seasoned reporters as Mr. Bashir, like:

“So, Michael, do these young boys come into the house with you and have sleepovers?” 

or 

“So, Michael, you have a number of what can be classed as wild animals living on Neverland with you. Is there one in particular that you like?” The answer of, “Bubbles” was SO wrong in SO many ways, wasn't it?
His vilification has been, is and was, in my opinion, totally wrong. The ‘meeja’ was dealing with what was, in essence, a child, certainly from the life and experience he’d had, but when they smell blood they go for the jugular, they spare no-one in pursuit of the money and the reflected glory…bit like those drug-dealers, pimps, free-loaders and ‘blow-job-brownies’ of earlier, it’s just that, with the ‘meeja’ we (that’s ‘you’ and ‘I’) get to roll in the details…