I’m stuck again. Not on birthdays—I’m stuck to the screen. I’m not terribly sad or shocked or even sentimental, but I did succumb to the thing that happens when a public figure dies and you inhale every word or detail about their lives. JFK. Martin Luther King. John Lennon. (somehow, it didn’t happen to me with Elvis.) Diana. JFK Jr.
Although I’m used to this temporary affliction/addiction, something is different this time. I admired his talent but I had no personal feeling about Michael Jackson other than curiosity. Still I’m a little shocked about how his death muscled everything else out of the way.
I know the public is fickle— but how quickly we forget. I don’t just mean Farrah, forgotten before her body was even cold. I mean Iran. And I mean some other news that was announced today just about the time the world began to narrow down to the size of the UCLA campus. That other news item I just read: 1 million Americans are now officially infected with swine flu.
As I said, how quickly we forget. Just remember you read it here. With all the Michael Jackson news, you might not read it anywhere else.
My feelings also. I really don’t see why this is worthy of non stop coverage. There is a lot going on in the world which is being totally ignored right now as you say.
Darryle: Right with you, as always. My very first reaction to Michael Jackson’s death was that Farrah would be pushed aside. While he was an enormous talent, I feel that he was an unfortunate victim of his own mega-stardom. I really do not feel he could help himself and am totally convinced that his death was a result of a drug overdose. He was so insecure and fragile and was under so much pressure to make his upcoming tour an overwhelming success that he succumbed to that pressure and ended up overdosing on a cocktail of pain killers and psychotropic drugs. His problem, unfortunately very common in our young stars(Britney, Lindsay L., etc.), is that he was never allowed to grow up and mature normally and was seemingly misguided by a combination of overbearing parents, “leechy” managers and hangers-on. Ultimately, that was what killed Michael Jackson and came perilously close to killing Britney Spears.
That being said, I will miss Farrah much more.
Judging by today’s headlines I think we’re just seeing the beginning of this story, nowhere close to the end. The deaths of FF and MJ illustrate how much celebrity is so often a double-edged sword—sad.
As a 1970 born female I for one absolutely positively LOVED Michael Jackson. I had an incredible amount of respect for his talent and introduced my son via You Tube to him at an early age. Around age five or six we simply devoured his videos and sang his lyrics along with him dancing on the screen. Sounds odd but my son is a HUGE rock and roll/pop music fan. I am very happy to have this Michael Jackson love connection with my son. This morning as I drove him to camp he said, “Mom, this is a really really sad day. I can’t believe he’s gone. I loved him.” (my son is 9 now)
And as for all of those nasty charges…… let me just tell you. I have an EXTREMELY good intuition. And my intuition has ALWAYS said, “He’s innocent!” I believe that with all of my heart!
CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN, 20/20, Dateline, Nightline..That’s a whole lotta “news” time to fill. For right now it’s helping them fill time, and sell lot’s of MJ music. They reported MJ music sales have spiked. I remember during one of the last Olympics about how they did these backgrond stories about the athletes and went back to ther elemenatry schools to talk to their first grade teachers! That’s alot of “news” time to fill. I must say though, that I did watch a fair amount the past two days, but now it’s getting repetitive and they are “stretching” for content.1 million swine flu deaths? That news will be back!
Such an enormous talent and such a bizarre twisted life, hard not to be fascinated. Somebody who gave so much joy and excitement to the world and whose own life was clearly such a twisted warped thing. It is sad and tragic. So we watch.