After decades of unflattering media coverage, Jackson is back.
Comeback a vindication for millions of Jacko fans
'Don't come crawling back," say steadfast MJ devotees
Good vs. Bad
As Dannelly says, Jackson has “probably done more on a personal basis
for fans and charities and for people around the world than any other
celebrity.” But can any amount of good will outweigh the scandals that
have plagued the pop star?
The good
He broke down racial barriers as one of the first African-American
singers to enjoy massive cross-over success. He also was one of the
first celebrities to offer money and support to the burgeoning AIDS
epidemic.
The “Guinness Book of World Record's Year 2000 Millennium Edition”
lists him as having the most charities supported by a pop star.
His Heal the World charity has launched 3,000 mentoring relationships,
immunizations for 7,000 children and drug prevention education for more
than 72,000 youth in California, as well as worldwide relief efforts
for children in war-ravaged places.
He’s given over $50,000,000 worldwide to charities in his lifetime.
These include The United Negro College Fund, Childhelp USA, Elizabeth
Taylor Aids Foundation and Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.
The bad
In the 2003 documentary “Living with Michael Jackson,” the star is seen
holding hands and talking about sleeping together with a 14-year-old
boy named Gavin Arvizo, who would then go on the accuse Jackson of
sexual abuse. He would be charged with seven counts of child
molestation and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent. He
was acquitted on all counts.
When he was married to Debbie Rowe in 1996, his best man was an 8 year
old boy. They divorced two years later. She accepted a pay-off worth 5
million over nine years in return for giving up her custodial rights to
their children, Paris and Prince, who were conceived via in vitro
fertilization. Jackson's third child, Prince Michael Jackson II, was
born via a surrogate.
His three children are routinely seen wearing masks and/or blankets
over their faces in public. Jackson himself has battled with terrible
plastic surgery and an overall whitening of his skin (which he
attributes to vitiligo).
Once upon a time, Michael Jackson was just a young, handsome musician posing with his baby tiger on the cover of a record that would go on to be the best-selling album of all time. Of course, it’s been a while since the halcyon days of “Thriller.”
For the past 15 years, the only images the public has seen of the megastar have been truly bizarre — close-up shots of his decaying plastic surgery, the disastrous interview with Martin Bashir on a documentary called “Living with Michael Jackson,” and the infamous child molestation trial in 2004. The list of peculiarities goes on and on.
Yet against all odds, it looks like MJ is back. The response to his announcement of 10 summer shows at London’s O2 Arena last week was so huge, his run was extended to 44 performances. Incredibly, 750,000 tickets have been sold for the “This Is It” tour at the rate of 11 tickets per second.
So the question is: How? Even Tom Cruise has hard a time getting back in the public’s good graces — and all he did was jump on a couch.
Although Michael Jackson, 50, has indeed been overrun with bad press, he’s also been lucky to have a huge, devoted, organized — and majorly skeptical — fan base.
“Usually, when we talk to the press, it ends up being twisted,” says Deborah Dannelly, president of the Michael Jackson Fan Club, warily. “The press likes to think of Michael Jackson fans as fanatics — people who have nothing better to do with their lives than to follow him around.”
Dannelly, who runs the MJFC Web site from her home in Texas, tries to explain the attraction: “I think he would do anything he could for people,” she says. “He’s got a very kind heart — unfortunately, a little too kind at times. There are the fans who love his music, there are fans who are really in awe of his standing in the music industry, but then there are those who just love the person.” Danelly says that for her, “it’s more of a person than the persona. He’s probably done more on a personal basis for fans and charities and for people around the world than any one celebrity could think of doing.”
One fan who asked to remain anonymous went on to say that she prefers not to talk to the press because, “I've heard just about everything there is about us, his fans, always trying to rationalize the way we feel about the man.” But then she goes on to philosophize, “Why can’t it be just because we like him? Why can’t it be because we love the man, the music, his legacy, the way he is? Because it is phenomenal; because they can’t wrap their minds around it. That is why they call us obsessed and crazy.”
But now, with the “This Is It” tour, it’s a new dawn for Michael Jackson fans. They will be able to see their idol perform (the dates are his first major shows in over a decade), as well as finally give it back to the media who has been so unrelenting in their coverage of Jackson’s increasingly unusual lifestyle. As user ManintheMirror on the Michael Jackson Fan Club site lets the world know: “The tickets will speak for themselves, the King will shine. Don’t come crawling back now that he’s hot again.”
