h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

He's clearly completely ga-ga. I don't think anyone should laugh at him. I find it all very scarey. He's had a tough time of it - no childhood at all and a horrendous sounding father. Other people learn to deal with this kind of thing and become stable adults but money has always allowed him to cocoon himself against the world and now he is really unhinged. The plastic surgeons should be struck off for what they have done to his face. Money grabbing surgeons who should know better. Shouldn't they have referred him to a pychologist when he suggested each new operation ? Each one has made him look worse. Do they see the ops as a success ? He's in denial about that - only 2 operations and they were on his face ? Uh huh. That's enough to make me disbelieve he has a skin complaint that has turned him white.
Those children should be taken off him for sure. He doesn't believe he is doing anything wrong and doesn't mean them any harm but to not let them out without hiding their faces, dying the little boy's hair, taking them to the zoo and allowing them to be bombarded by the press without appearing to think there was anything wrong (boy got poked in the eye)is really disturbing. Imagine how that would feel, not much fun being at the zoo when you can't see anything through blankets. MJ seemed to be having a ball and didn't notice.
I thing we'll be seeing similar press reports on these three kids in 20 years time - they'll be totally screwed up poor things. He's drawing far too much attention to them compared to other famous kids but just doesn't see it. I can't dislike him but I can't see how he can be allowed to bring them up. Michael - see a doctor now !

OK ,I can`t resist: Gary`s Mom works as a judge`s right-hand man in Santa Maria.MJ was there recently-do-ing a court thing.She said she couldn`t believe how,well,completely odd he looked.It truely does mean that $ & Talent aren`t necessairly all-important when it comes to feeling good about yourself--& that`s the tragedy of the message he`s sub-consciously passing on to his kids! I had always assumed he was trying to look like his sister,Janet--but he went right by her awhile back.His 'nose'looks like a science-project.god-he must feel so utterly removed from'the world'.Alienation doesn`t do anyone anygood(unless one writes about it brillantly);& it`s becoming increasingly common in the 'modern'world.A sad commentary on'life'today` ,peace,love,and understanding indeed~ Neugen 8- )...

Oh come on folks, how shallow can you get? It's certainly not a crime to get plastic surgery, and he might *actually* like the way he looks. Which is none of our damn business, and none of us have the right to comment on *ANYONES* appearance to that extent...I have exactly the same reactions from lesser people re : Marilyn Manson and other alternative culture looks. People have a right to change the way they look, as they see fit. I don't think it will have an adverse effect on the kids.

"Alienation doesn't do anyone any good"

Why the hell do you think that? Do you know how arrogant that sounds?

Most people are abhorred by what he has done to his extremely good looking original features and if not him (as he is not of sound mind)at least the plastic surgeons must see what horrific things they have done to him. If you had plastic surgery and your nose came out like that - you would surely not in a million years think it looked good.
I don't comment on people who were born a certain way but if they do that to themselves then they are up for comment. It hasn't made him look anything like a human being and is an insult to nature.
If someone from a mental institute asked for his skin to be bleached, tatoos for permanent eye makeup, nose chiselled away to nothing, cheeks sculpted, mouth comepletely distorted then I hope he would be dissuaded and advised against it.
If I was going for any plastic or cosmetic surgery, I would check first it wasn't his surgeon. Surely you agree with that ?

As a person in the program last night? He came across as having been very sheltered (not surprising) and completely out of touch with the so called real world. His answers and demeanor throughout all of it was that of a small child. It is as if he hasn't emotionally grown up at all. In some ways I thought there was, somewhere in there, a real person who had been caught up in the whole music / fame / money thing and didn;t know how to get out of it or deal with it so he went with the flow. Not a criticism, not sure how I'd have turned out if I was earning 200 grand + at the age of twelve. Seems he wasn;t treated overly well by his siblings or mother either, but that was just his side of the story.

The impression I got was of a very unhappy individual who was desparate for someone to help him but was so trained in the ways of stardom and the media that he couldn;t ask for it. His shopping trip was a real insight into his mental state I thought.

Wouldn't want to be him even if he has got billions of dollars.

Did anyone notice how he kept contradicting himself? Early on, he said he had a relationship with the woman who is the mother of the baby (Prince Michael II). Then at the interview at the end of the program, he said it was a surrogate mother and he never even knew her!

He doesnt let his two other kids see their mother (who he did have some sort of relationship with), and indeed the boy doesnt think he has a mother. THEN later on MJ says that America has lost the sense of family and families should stick together!

"If they do that to themselves then they are up for comment"

And that is in *NO* way acceptable. No one has the right to comment and attempt to control the way another person looks. If you don't like it, then fine. But in all seriousness...it's not up to you to define what people do with their bodies.

And people have plastic surgery every day. More than likely for psychological reasons. I don't care whether he is mentally unstable or not. It's not a crime to change your looks if you want to. If he wants to look like that, then it's up to him. Just because *YOU* don't like it, it doesn't mean to say he can't or doesn't.

Sorry, but I am just trying to apply the standards I set for myself to all and every situation. People pick on him, and I don't think it's fair. Especially considering that fact that you don't know *exacrty* what surgery he has had, and what is natural. not that it matters either way.

I don't think he means "relationship" as in "sexual relationship"...

It seems as though they were all surrogate pregnancies. Which, I believe, is something that goes on in *normal* life with *normal* people. I don't think he said that he didn't know the mother of the children...did he?

I think he made a pretty good point about families. If concentration was placed on kids, then we probably wouldn't have the problems we are having right now. No one listens.

'reactions from lesser people'

And you wonder why people rise up against you Sat when you use language like that...

MJ's state of health doesn't interest me in the slightest. I couldn't care less, he's rich, he should get whatever (within law) he needs.

The fact that he has been pilloried in the Sun today 'In case you still needed proof.. HE'S MAD' as he has been for decades now, and the fact that people refer to him as 'gaga' and 'looboo' and 'wacko' and such, interests me intently.

It interests me because it puts a nice comfortable label of difference on him which carries over into anyone else unfortunate enough to suffer from any sort of mental health difficulty, whether or not they've dangled anyone over anything.

As someone with An Emotionally Unstable Personality With Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (and today, an axe to grind, it would seem) I find it fascinating that we are still not beyond fitting other ill people, victims of circumstance, under the auspices of a single pejorative word.. kinda like being a n*gg*r, what?

Throw another asylum-seeker on the barbie, Bruce. I'm hungry.

Let me see. This guy makes a living out of being in the public eye. That's what he thrives on. Without publicity and media attention, he'd just be another relic on the scrap-heap of pop.

If he sets out to court that attention, then he can't be surprised when some of it is negative. Thats life as a celebrity. If he doesn't want to be talked about, then he can do want Randolph Hearst and Phil Spector did. He has the money. But he *chooses*, out of some bizarre sense that being interviewed by Martin Bashir will put him on the same plateau as Princess Di, to go on a programme that he knows will be watched by millions, if not billions all over the world.

As for the analogy with Manson, i don't think it's at all accurate. For all that Manson is merely a second-hand-me-down Alice Cooper for his generation, rarely, if ever, has a creative artist exercised so much *rational*, and intelligent, control over his image and the way in which he is perceived in public. The worry is that Jackson's seemingly *completely* *irrational* need to alter his appearance is indicative of deeper problems that may, or may not, render him an unfit parent...

I agree it's terrible to laugh at him as the Sun most definitely appears to be doing. He should be allowed to get on with his life but shouldn't drag poor little kids into it.
He is an extremely loving person but doesn't realise what harm he could be doing to his children by so called shielding them from the press whilst exposing them to such, erm, exposure. Whoever said earlier that it will be traumatic for them to show their faces for the first time was right - they will be snapped so hard by cameras. Unless he thinks they can remain shielded for the rest of their lives ? Surely not.
OK maybe it's opinionated to say he shouldn't have had the surgery and maybe in some really strange way (what' colour's the moon in his world) he thinks he looks good but he shouldn't try and convince us he's had nothing done but 2 ops on his nose, that he has a skin disorder and he shouldn't drag innocent children into his strange world without criticism. He has touched on how his Dad affected his life. They will be having interviews on the same topic in years to come without a doubt.

I've been avidly reading all the posts up to this one on this subject waiting for someone to mention this.

I was in the same frame of mind as you........he sat there and told an absolute bunch of lies.

Yes he said that he knew his youngest sons mother and had a relationship with her and later said he had never met her and she didn't know him.

He also lied about his plastic surgery......how can he sit there and say he only had two operations when it is plain to see even to a blind man that he has had lots.......don't get me wrong I'm not against plastic surgery.....it's not for me but each to their own I'm against the lying. Why agree to an interview, a no holds barred interview and tell lie's...what's the point.

I was also alarmed at his attittude to the question about a grown man having other peoples kids sleeping over....again I'm not saying anything happened I'm saying he never thought anything of it when clearly people do think it odd, if he had said yes I agree it does look a little odd but..... then I wouldn't have been so bothered.

As for his poor kids at the zoo, that was just disgraceful and Martin Bashir was right in saying that it worried him that Micheal seemed oblivious to the fact that the kids shouldn't of been put through that. Even when Bashir suggested that his son had beenpocked in the eye Micheal said "No No he was fine" and when asked why he didn't just let his kids go to the zoo with the Nanny and body guards he said no...whats wrong with that at least the poor kids would have seen the animals. Besides no-one has seen them without their masks so who would recognise them anyway???

It's plain to see that Micheal is just reliving the chilhood he never had and having the sleepovers etc, that kids everywhere take for granted and Micheal never had. I only hope he has lots of tructed employees looking out for his kids as he is just a kid himself and therefore not the best person to be left in charge of 3 small children, I also noticed when he had his youngest son on his knee he was so highly strung that he was shaking his knee so mcuh the poor kid couldn't even drink his bottle properly and that material draped over his face wouldn't of helped either!!!

Sorry didn't realise I'd rambled on for such a long time *lol*

Thats another weird thing... why is he trying to "protect the identity" of his tiny baby by putting a veil over his face?? Babies tend to all look alike at that age, and no one is going to see the nanny pushing that baby along the road in a pram and say
"AH HA! Thats Michael Jackson's baby, I recognise him from that tv interview! Quick, get the press!!"

Also he says he wouldnt feel comfortable letting someone else take his kids to the zoo, but later on he said he would be perfectly happy letting his kids sleep in someone elses bed... I agree with the above comment, makes you wonder how much of what he said during that whole interview you can believe.

That was my whole point, glad to see someone agrees!

I also kind of doubt that any sane doctor would let a father whip a baby home as soon as it was born, placenta and all, as Michael claimed.

Or that a mother just given birth would be 'completely fine' with it happening. She must have been paid millions and signed a contract to allow him to completely own the baby as his property.
He also said that the last mother was black. I also think this is untrue.
I don't really believe any of them are his. It belies statistics that all 3 of them will be so far removed from his original skin colour or features. You can still tell their features through the scarves and I'm sure I saw the first one in a magazine unmasked as a baby.

Hmm, after reading a bit of the backlog...

The guy seems to me to have some serious psychological problems (understatement of the year!). Frankly the interview showed me that he is not living on the same planet as everyone else here... Whilst that in itself is not a problem (everyone has the right to be a little nuts ) the fact he is trying to bring up children, and his methods, are very worrying to a parent!

With reference to Saturnine's comments on plastic surgery.... yes, everyone should be able to choose whether they want plastic surgery (if they can afford it). However, the results of MJs surgery could in no way be considered successful, and any surgeon who took money for that job, without telling the man "No! I'm not doing that coz you'll end up looking like a freak!" should have been struck off the medical register!

Personally, I think that as a performer he is very talented, but as a parent he scares the heck out of me!

And as for the inconsistancies in his views throughout the interview... I'm not honestly sure whether they were concious lies or simply the ramblings of someone who just doesn't see the world in the same way as 99.999% of the population of the planet!

Just to re-iterate. If that is how he wants to look, that's his right to. I don't think anyone has a right to deny him that...I mean, he's 44 (?) years old...

Can't help but agree with quite a lot of you though.

*ponders*

But then I equally worry about the state of mind of Frances Cobain. People are so obsessed with the legend of her father, and are so negative towards her mother (who despite todays amusings of her second conflict with air staff I believe to be an excellent parent)...how the HECK is she going to survive in RL? So much pressure!!

Just a thought. I've provoked conversation enough...