Michael Jackson was a weird guy. Mariah
Carey is a plump self-loving has-been and Kelly Osborne is a no-talent piglet
with a phony English accent.
There I said it. I’ve spoken the truth; words you will never hear said by one
celebrity about another.
I didn’t watch it - the Jackson memorial; I figured if I wanted to throw up I
could just drink a gallon of milk and spin in circles for 30 seconds. I did hear
reports however and couldn’t miss the crap slathered on Yahoo.
By (smartly) not turning on the television I missed watching a section of
society that comprises of the not-so-bright who memorialized a delusional,
drug-addicted pedophile (reportedly) as though he was a first cousin of Jesus
Christ.
Further, I find it hard to believe that the performers did their acts with any
sincerity and at the same time lay claim to any degree of intelligence. For a
mother (Brooke Shields) to look upset over Jackson’s casket was as incredible as
watching Natanyahu getting teary eyed over the demise of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Show business, that lactating sow from which all celebrities derive their
livelihood has an unwritten rule. Never – ever - talk badly about anyone in the
business. No matter what they’ve done. Why? It’s bad for a business that relies
on happy thoughts and glamorous images. You'll rarely hear anyone criticize
another.
As stars jostled to line up for the promotion memorial in LA,
you’ll have noticed some were there for no apparent reason and many were
conspicuously absent. ‘What the hell was John Mayer doing there?’ a journalist
pal of mine asked a few days ago Mayer was there; I would hazard to guess,
because his record company wrangled a spot for him, perhaps bumping Madonna out
of a gig because she had pissed someone off once too often.
The event was a record company’s dream – world wide exposure to an audience of
millions - that happens way too infrequently for their liking. All those
has-beens lamenting the dead gloved one – they didn’t look too happy on stage.
Many needed the exposure to remind the public that they were still upright. None
of the media outlets speculated that the real reason that the washed-up Liz Taylor
was not at the funeral was because it was she who led Jackson up the path of
addiction in the first place.
Of concern too is that no sooner had Jackson’s (still absent) brain been pried
from his voluntarily-disfigured skull than the rewriting of history of his life
began. Absent (or a least not-too-subtly underplayed), were the reminisces of
the children sleepovers, the many accusations of child molestation, the payoffs,
the reputation of not paying his bills, the mountains of debt, the miming at
concerts, the IV drugs use.
I did see a quick tour of his former Neverland ranch on the news. I noted the
multiple locks on the inside of Jackson’s bedroom door. Also, the hidden room in
his closet with three (count ‘em, three) keyed locks. This ‘safe room’ as one
presenter referred to it, was most probably his holy of holies where he kept his
stash of…well, we’ll never know for sure.
I was disturbed to see droves of children interviewed on television and radio
singing his praises. Did they or their parents miss out on the news of the past
20 years? What the heck was up with the media providing coverage not seen since
Princess Diana’s demise? I can’t help but feel that many of the attendees left
the memorial feeling a tad soiled, used perhaps, at having been involved in such
a blatantly commercial stunt.
Jackson should have been quietly buried in a corner of a grave yard, out of the
way somewhere; like Dubai. His family should have walked away in quiet
humiliation at the shame that he brought on them and on his children.
He deserved nothing more.
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