How The Mighty Shall Fall....

If you were born/grew up in the 80s, you will fully understand and appreciate the magnitude of the force that was Michael Jackson in his heyday.

The Michael Jackson children today know is very different. I say this because I remember having a conversation with my 10 year old cousin and she asked me which Michael Jackson I meant....the white one or the black one?

While by now, most people don't care what happens I still find it all very sad.

But the issue that caught my attention today was Pop superstar Michael Jackson's been pictured in a wheelchair as he popped out to shops in Las Vegas.

Kitted out in pyjamas, baseball cap and shades, the star was accompanied by his three kids.

In May, Jackson managed to avert a foreclosure sale on his Neverland Ranch. He bought it for $17 million and in 2003 the property was valued at $100 million.

He managed to broker a last minute sale of what is believed to be a £12 million loan on the California property to a large real estate investment firm.

His total lifetime earnings from royalties on his solo recordings and music videos, revenue from concerts and endorsements have been estimated at $500 million, some analysts have speculated that his music catalog holdings could potentially be worth billions of dollars.

The Thriller singer turns 50 next month.

He began his solo pop career in 1972 but he really peaked in the 80s with the release of Thriller in 1982 and Bad in 1987. To date Thriller is still the world's best selling album with sales of over 108 million copies, two decades after it was released, Bad still holds the record for generating more number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts than any other album

He's won over 13 grammy's and sold over 750 million records worldwide.


So I think we can all agree that's a damn impressive list of achievements.

As is often the case with people who rise to such meteoric heights of fame, the backlash soon began inspired by his increasingly bizarre behaviour and reports of him sleeping in oxygen tanks and his skin lightening condition vitiligo.

But the proverbial really hit the fan in 1993 with the Jordy Chandler allegations of child abuse. This was the first time that it was brought to the public's attention that young children were allowed to spend the night at Michael jackson's house and that Jordy in particular had shared a bed with Michael on a few occasions. I remember doing a case study on this at school and I'm still not entirely convinced he's a straight forward paedophile. I saw this because he had a traumatic childhood (which is no excuse or justification) compounded by an adult life in which nothing was a true reflection of reality. In my opinion, if it had gone to court, he probably would have been deemed mentally unfit.

BUT the far more pressing issue to my mind is what the hell were Jordy's parents thinking? I don't care if you're the Pope, my kids would NOT be staying in any grown man or woman's house! And anyone who allows otherwise.....needs to be seriously questioned. The fact that the man in the case was Michael Jackson and at the time one of the richest and most successful men in the world at the time....is no coincidence. Forget pimp my ride, they pimped their child. Harsh words yes, but after an undisclosed settlement (rumoured to be around $20 million) that's what I believe.

Shortly after, he married and divorced Lisa Marie Presley within 18 months.

Then in 1996 he married Australian nurse Deborah Rowe who gave birth to his two children Michael Junior (aka Prince) and Paris. They divorced in 1999 and she gave Michael full custody of the kids.

As testament to his rapidly declining popularity, it slipped most people's notice that Jackson's third child, Prince Michael Jackson II (also known as Blanket) was born in 2002 (until the balcony incident). The mother's identity has not been released by Jackson, but he has said it was the result of artificial insemination from a surrogate mother and his own sperm cells. In November of that year, Jackson brought his new born son onto the balcony of his hotel room. Holding him in his right arm, with a cloth loosely draped over the baby's face, Jackson briefly extending the baby over the railing of the balcony. Why? Je ne sais pas.


Then in 1996, there was another charge of child molestation involving Gavin Arvizo. Again, parents...why let your little boy sleep at his house? Why can't he just hang out during the day and then GO HOME?