So, who watched the Michael Jackson documentary on ABC tonight? I'm not ashamed to admit that I was riveted by it.
It really did take you through a wringer of emotions. At points I truly felt sorry for him. He really has had a fucked up life and is stuck in some sort of childlike fantasy. At other moments I was angered by him. The way he treats his children like playthings is wrong beyond words. More often, though, I was disgusted by him. He really seems to see no wrong with sharing his life and his bedroom with pre-pubescent boys and tries to guise it as "loving all children." Wacko, indeed.
And the no surgery bit is too absurd to even acknowledge...
Posted by mikewolf at February 06, 2003 10:43 PMI didn't see it, but I'm intrigued by your "no surgery" comment. Did he actually say that he's not plastic?
Posted by: Kirsten on February 7, 2003 12:20 AMI only saw the first hour. The dude has problems. One minute he thinks he's Jesus, the next minute he thinks he's Peter Pan. The local DJs went off on the journalist calling it a vicious attack on MJ. MJ doesn't act like a normal adult. He's socially inept. He sees absolutely nothing wrong with "buying" children. As you pointed out, he then treats those kids like live-action toys. I think the journalist was truly horrified/shocked at the extent of MJ's bizarreness and wanted it to come through to the viewers. For someone who "loves his children and makes sure they come first," he spends an awful lot of time away from them.
Posted by: Meredith on February 7, 2003 07:51 AMWhoa, whoa, whoa. What DJs said that, Missy? How can someone spend eight months with that man and not have something come off as an attack? They didn't stretch the truth. They didn't rely on innuendo. They just rolled tape... If you only saw the first hour then you probably missed the bizarre scenes of him hanging out in Las Vegas with a bunch of mannequins.
Oh, and yes, Kirsten, he claimed that he only had two surgeries. Both on his nose to help him "breathe and hit high notes." When pushed he said the rest of his changes were the result of "getting older" and the infamous vitiligo.
The punchline? After the doc was shown in Britain on Monday many stores are reporting that his CDs are selling out. Any publicity is good publicity, indeed...
Posted by: mrw on February 7, 2003 08:06 AMThe Morning X (except Barnes, who's out of town). Their point was that the journalist pressed for answers to questions that MJ was clearly uncomfortable answering. They also thought that he repeated MJ's bizarre answers to emphasize the ridiculousness of them instead of letting the viewer decide for themself.
I saw the Vegas thing. It was pathetic. Why WOULD he go to Vegas if he's just going to be bored? And that shopping spree was terrible. That crap he bought was just plain ugly.
Posted by: Meredith on February 7, 2003 12:02 PMI could only stand a 1/2 hour of the show. It was just too sad to watch. I saw some of his shopping spree in Vegas where he bought every ugly urn in the place shop, not to mention the painting of the bathing of Apollo (hmmm) I saw the no surgery bit, he didn't explain how he went from having no cleft in his chin to having a Kirk Douglas thing going there. Not to mention his cheek implants which were highly visible. In the past I've seen tabloid photo closeups of his face where you could see the surgery scars, gruesome stuff. His poor (rich) kids will be scarred for life living with that pedophile, it's scary and sad.
Posted by: danno on February 7, 2003 04:49 PMI came away from it with a deep sadness for him more than anything. Either he's the most naive person on the face of the earth, or he's the most screwed-up individual I've encountered. Either way, I still maintain that there's something fundamentally wrong with the fact that you need a license even to *fish*, but *anyone* can just be a parent without any regulation whatsoever.
Posted by: Paige on February 7, 2003 05:18 PMOk, as the resident expert on the difference between rhinoplasty and septoplasty, I have to say a great big *bullshit* to m.j. on the "breathing" and "high notes." But of course, we all knew that already.
I didn't watch it because I was watching the Red Wings on ESPN. And shame on you, Mikey, for not doing the same.
Posted by: Kirsten on February 8, 2003 12:27 AM