Bad

Krikor Daglian
February 07, 2003

I rarely view tv shows or specials as "events", as the networks seem to want us to. One exception is the Super Bowl, of course, but I'm actually usually interested in the game itself and not so much the spectacle. Which means almost every year, I'm pretty disappointed. Last night was a great night for TV though, thanks to a special called "Living with Michael Jackson". You might have heard of it - there's been some media attention on it.

The biggest revelations were leaked before it aired, including the fact that he sleeps in the same bed as the little boys he has over to his sprawling Neverland ranch. And he sees nothing weird about it. But really, is this behavior surprising?. I mean, if he had said he gets some kind of sexual favor for them - I mean, actually admitted it - that'd be something, but didn't people already assume he was sleeping with them? I'm not so sure he'd actually try something sexual with them - his mindset is so childish, I could really believe he sees himself as a kid and not the sexual predator. I think he's so stuck in the idea of being a kid that those are the only being he can get along with, form any kind of "normal" relationship with. Maybe I'm being naive.

The more interesting bits of the show to me were the ones that examined the less tawdry parts of his life. I read that the reason Jackson agreed to the intimacy and access afforded to Martin Bashir was that he promised to help revive Jackson's image, and I think that a slicker, more controlled (by Jackson's team) product would have been worse. It's not that Michael comes out sparkling by any means, but the special was so inside that you could see him as a person instead of as this impenetrable personality that most celebrities in interviews come off as. A messed up person, but a person, as opposed to a guy with a mask and a white glove, or a humungous statue erected in some Eastern European country.

The most amusing part of the program to me was when he went shopping. They went to the mall in Las Vegas that's decorated in the style of Renaissance Italy, with painted scenes on the walls and ceilings, gilt everywhere, essentially Michelangelo gone crazy (and overboard). Jackson enters what might be the mall official theme store, where he buys millions of dollars worth of tacky faux art, including about 20 or so giants urns and vases, as well as paintings and (at another store) a sarcophagus. It was almost surreal, watching him stroll around the store, pointing to seemingly everything and asking if they had bought it already. His taste is undeniably bad (the interviewer was great - at one point asking if MJ thought some of the stuff was tacky, to which Michael, plainly unaware of the question's implication, replied "No, are you kidding? C'mon!"). When Bashir asked if Jackson ever bought paintings, Jackson replied that he did, and as if to prove that he did, he pointed to two on the wall next to him and put them on the list. Besides questions of taste, though, it was amazing to watch him be so reckless in his shopping; in fact, knowing his recent music sales, one has to question whether Jackson can be so reckless.

The whole special (well, all of what I watched - see The Buzz) was entertaining. Seeing him watch himself perform back in '69 as a normal looking kid was almost sad. Wonder what he was thinking? Was it about his dance moves, his childhood, how big his nose looked...? I actually missed the part about whether his face has had surgery done on it, but I think the answer was pretty predictable (i.e. - no, and more ever, that's crazy!) I have to say I was also not too weirded out by his face. I mean, it was definitely messed up, but it wasn't so freakish that I didn't want to look at it. Maybe I'm just too used to it by now, that even seeing it up close isn't much. What's weirder, though, is that his kid has blond hair and light skin - how is that possible? Maybe he suspects something too, like the hospital pulled one on him, which might explain why he snatched his second child minutes after birth and took it home, washing the placenta and birth fluids off himself!

I kinda doubt this will be the kind of image improving show that it was for Bashir's last subject, Princess Di, but I don't think it's terrible. I mean, though the reaction to his personal behavior has been negative, as far as publicity goes, even notoriety is good. Beyond killing someone or being part of a terrorist plot, there are few things I can think of that a celebrity with a down career can do to make it worse. Perhaps sleeping with kids in your bed and almost dropping a baby off a high building. Hmm....if nothing else, there's got to be a reality show that could arise from this - Fear Factor, except you have to make it through sleeping in the same bed as MJ. Or go shopping with him without throwing up from his decorative taste. Or help wash off his next newborn child. From the way he's spending money and not selling records, he might be soon desperate enough to do it.