TAKING THE MICHAEL

Dear Readers,

This weekend marks the release of Michael Jackson's This Is It movie, and already, film industry number-crunchers are worried that it may not live up to box-office expectations. The film, culled from Jackson's rehearsal videos made in preparation for a 50-show engagement in London, was expected to have a $50 million opening weekend, but may fall short, based on the first-in overseas numbers. Michael, you just can't win, even from the grave.

While I appreciated the enormous talent Jackson possessed, I can't say I was actually a fan. But one thing I did feel was sorry for the man. I know, I know, he seemed to have gotten up to some weird things at Neverland (a paedophile's dream house if ever there was one), but I never thought he was actually guilty of any wrongdoing - bad judgement, maybe - but I don't think he did anything illegal. Any sane adult would not have left their children alone with a non-relative stranger, and the ones who did leave them in the charge of Jackson must have had sinister designs of one kind or another, and using their kids in an attempt to make themselves some money or fame was the only illegality going on at Jackson's fantasy camp, IMHO. The parts of the story I do believe are the ones that make the erstwhile King Of Pop seem a very unhappy person indeed.

Real and pseudo psychologists must be knocking themselves out trying to peddle books on what made Jackson behave as he did, but the truth will never really be known, even with all the stories and rumors that accumulated over the years about the singer's lifestyle. But let's face it, nobody will ever really know for sure, because nobody has ever been as famous - or as scrutinized - as Michael Jackson was. A little bit of fame is probably OK, but that much fame is usually lethal.

So now the undertakers of Jackson's legacy are in charge, and this film of his last performances is only the beginning - even if it doesn't live up to the industry's financial expectations. For as we've learned over the last 13 months or so, money is everything to an awful lot of people, and, one might add, fame is for suckers. 'Cash is King' and maybe this quote from Mark Twain completes that nostrum - "Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident. The only earthly certainty is oblivion". So rest in peace, Michael, while those still earthbound continue to flog your corpse.