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Michael Jackson's 'midnight hour' no thriller
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‘…The Midnite Hour is Close at Hand
Creatures Crawl in search of blood
…And Grizzy Ghouls From Every Tomb
Are Closing In To Seal Your Doom
And Though You Fight To Stay Alive
Your Body Starts To Shiver
For No Mere Mortal Can Resist
The Evil Of The Thriller…’
Were the “Grizzy Ghouls” of Michael Jackson’s Thriller lyrics the the pack journalists that hounded him?
My husband, Howard Bloom, was Michael Jackson’s publicist in the 1980s, particularly for his Victory Tour in 1984. He tells how only extraordinary vigilance and pugnacity can win over the Big Lies.
Did Michael die because he was intensely afraid for the ambitious comeback that was due to premier in just two weeks? (There was much speculation he wasn’t up to it, especially after a panic attack at a previous concert. Just turned 50, Jackson had committed to 50 shows. Fifty-five were exhausting in 1984 – when he was half that age.)
Because the media weren’t going to give him a break no matter what?
Because he was so high on the fame that his heart or mind couldn’t take it?
Probably. Or some combination of that and whatever he ate or drank or took.
Many super celebrities die young. Is it the fame that kills them or the characteristics they already have that resulted in the fame.
In Michael’s case, perhaps his tortured childhood, combined with fame and a obsessive need to change his physical appearance took its final toll…but he, and those in similar positions, never get a break from the media.
While I don’t blame the paparazzi for Princess Diana’s death – come on, the limo could have slowed down and the royals simply pulled down the window shades – or the doctor who prescribed all those pills Elvis took -- he was responsible for his own lifestyle. These rich and famous were culpable in their own demise. So was Michael. But he was also a flawed and vulnerable human being – like everyone. Only with superstardom, fame is a magnifying glass and persistent probing keeps any wounded vulnerable spot open and festering.
But the press isn’t looking for the truth of these celebrity’s lives any more than criminal prosecutors are looking for justice. They’re looking for cases they can win and the press is looking for stories. Endless stories.
My husband often told me how much energy it took to keep the big media establishment from printing lies about an incident involving Michael in the mid 1980s.
Two paparazzi were in pursuit of Jackson, in a van, on a busy LA highway. The photog’s car bumped over a median divider and raced at least 60 mph – against the flow of traffic – to pass Jackson’s entourage proceeding lawfully on the proper side of the road. When they did pass him, all the while endangering lives by going the wrong way on the divided highway, they crossed the divider again, spun 90 degrees in front of his van and blocked the entire highway, nearly causing Jackson’s van to crash and only by the grace of good luck not causing other vehicles coming up from behind to crash into them all.
“The photographers exited their vehicle, cameras in hand, smugly thinking they’d cornered Jackson and would get a highly-prized photo,” my husband said. “They did not show any identification and could easily have been nut jobs attempting to pull what was threatened in a large pile of daily mail Jackson received – an assassination.”
Because of those threats, Jackson’s security guards, who were LAPD officers on leave, exited the van. Not knowing what they might be up against, one of them armed himself with a tire iron.
Seeing this, one of the eager photographers pulled a gun. Then they must have gotten a lick of sense and decided to back off quickly.
“Then the two hightailed it to a telephone and called their editor at the New York Daily News, and reported that they’d been threatened for no reason by Michael Jackson’s bodyguards,” my husband wrote in his article “The Puppets of Pandemonium,” published in the book You Are Being Lied To, in 2001.
For “no reason!”
You see the point. The photographer’s version of the incident was about to be published and would become the accepted truth for all eternity. Its publication was nearly averted and clearly would not have been without the intense efforts of Michael’s PR people.
Such is not always possible. Usually, no one knows about damaging lies in advance of publication. And could not stop it if they did.
On balance, Michael was a billionaire for awhile. He had fame, adoring fans, and ability to indulge his fantasies. He created a Neverland. But Neverland ate him up and fame spit him out dead, as if often does.
Should we mourn people like Michael and Elvis and Princess Di? Of course. But not to excess. The homeless veteran will die young, too. And he never enjoyed a billion dollars. Not even for a day.
More coverage on the death of Michael Jackson
http://www.examiner.com/category-michael_jackson.html
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