This is Part 3 of the series Random Thoughts. There is a theme to this entry unlike the previous two. The theme is about protecting, honoring and defending Michael's legacy. In recent weeks, there have been things that has happened that I have not made an blog entry about until now. The recent Vanity Fair article about Michael is another attempt to ruin this man's legacy. Michael is the only major celebrity that passed away in 2009 that the media is still trashing. It is important for a true fan to continue to make sure that Michael's legacy is not a joke but a legacy that should be respected. We have to accept the fact that the executors of Michael's estate do not care about his legacy and uses the paid "fans" that are running message boards and doing blogs about irrelevant topics to repair the damage thanks to the dirty work that Sony BMG and John Branca created for Michael. To expect the estate executors to do something to stop the bashing is like waiting for Popeye's Chicken to bring back their sandwiches - it will never happen.
Vanity Fair Magazine Still Shading Michael
A few weeks back, well actually a couple of weeks back, I was on twitter using my father's laptop and I saw tweets about an article that the magazine Vanity Fair did on Michael. The entertainment show Access Hollywood did a segment on their show about the article and I was fuming with anger. Vanity Fair has a certain issue with Michael that I do not understand. During the trial days, Maureen Oath, a Michael hater and the widow of the late Meet the Press host Tim Russert, wrote horrible, defaming and terrible articles on Michael. You can find those articles on google.com because I am not going to remotely post the links on my blog. When Michael passed away, the magazine did a tribute to him and I have the issue of that magazine. ( It is a weakness so do not judge me. I still do not like the magazine. Look, what made me buy it was that Michael looked so angelic on the cover.) The article was not that bad and I even used some parts of the article for one of my blog posts this year. The article also did a feature story of the Thriller short film which was alright but a few things that were stated that I did not agree. Before their recent nonsense of Michael was published, I usually ignored the magazine. The thing that I learned from being a Michael fan is that you can never trust the media. I was not surprised that these people were up to their tricks once again.
As I stated on this blog, I am not a supporter of all of the Jackson family members. I do not hate them or love them, I am indifferent about a lot of them. I am a supporter of the members who really cared about what Michael went through. I do not make it a secret how much I like certain family members. I look at the recent article on the Jacksons and Michael as an attempt to keep a certain agenda going. To me, trying to imply that Janet did everything in her power to make things difficult in regards to preparation of her brother's funeral/burial is only proof to me that the Estate executors are still angry that their cover was being blown. I did not read the article because I know that the article is full of lies, Vanity Fair has a bad history with Michael and that the executors are using the media as a way to create problems for certain members of the Jackson family who do not want to follow what the executors wanted them to do.
When the article was published, the Michael fan community, most of them, seemed to support the article because it bashed the family. As some of you might not notice, the MJ fan community is divided permanently by people who support the MJ Estate executors, supporters of the Jackson family and fans who are supporters of true justice for Michael. (If any of you guys are curious, I am a supporter of true justice for Michael.) Of course and as usual, there was a Internet war of words in the fan community. I am not going to waste any time focusing on that constant wars in the fan community but I would like to focus on something that I have noticed when this was happening:
Why isn't the executors suing Vanity Fair?
I think that is a fair question to ask. The article is going by information that is not true about Michael and you would think that an Estate that is trying to get the public to focus on the greatness of Michael would do everything in their power to not let articles like the one in Vanity Fair get published. Well, it looks like the article got published anyway. When I read the statement that the executors released, I did not understand why the statement focused on what they are doing for Michael's legacy instead of counter-attacking the article. If you read the statement here:
http://mjstar.co.uk/index.php/2012/10/statement-from-the-estate-of-michaeljackson-2/
it does not even relate to what is being discussed in the article. The statement was probably one of the laziest statements that I ever read. Even though the VF (Vanity Fair) article mostly discusses the Jackson family, the article was defaming to Michael because the Jacksons are his family and those allegations against some of them are not proven to be true. I feel that the executors did not want to focus on what was stated about Janet and LaToya and wanted to get Michael's name out of the situation.
Janet's Statement Was On Point.
When I read Janet's statement from her lawyer regarding the defaming VF article, I thought that it hit every mark. It got right to the point and made it clear that VF needed to correct the intentional mistakes that they made in their article.
http://web.archive.org/web/20130117105349/http://www.janetjackson.com/story/news/letter-from-blair-brown-to-graydon-carter-of-vanity-fair
In the VF article, there was a statement that Janet was holding up the burial because she wanted to make sure that she will be paid back the over $40,000 that she paid for the burial. The article was trying to imply that she was a greedy woman. Now, hold on for a minute, we all remember the nonsense this summer regarding the will/family drama/media siding with the estate/Paris & Prince trippin' on twitter/TJ making misguided decisions/Katherine being "kidnapped"/Trent/Marlon crying on the Insider (that was a mouthful). When Janet and Randy were at the Calabasas estate trying to get the children to see their grandmother, it was around the time the letter that Katherine's lawyer, Perry Sanders leaked to the press was happening. The media and the Estate executors were assuming that some of the Jacksons who signed the letter, including Janet, wanted money from Michael's estate. That same assumption was stated in the VF article but it was done by the author of the new MJ book that will never sell. Something tells me that this VF article was done by the help of the executors and the media. If you have not noticed, when it comes to the media coverage, John Branca has made it possible for the media to become friendly when they discuss Michael. Tmz.com, The View, and Forbes.com to name a few all trashed Michael when he was with us, but since Branca has taken over the MJ Estate, those media entities have not completely bashed Michael. Even with VF magazine, Branca was interviewed for the magazine when the magazine was promoting the book on Michael in regards to his classic Thriller short film. To some people reading this post, they might not see what is the big deal for an executor to talk to the very people that trashed the man but to me it is odd.
Vanity Fair Stands By Their Lies
This does not shock me at all that VF will not retract the lie in regards to Janet and probably LaToya. VF did not retract the articles that they did on Michael done by Orth that were proven lies. I never expect the media to do the right thing because the media is about making money and not about telling the truth.
http://www.vibe.com/node/116848
I read the statement from VF and something just does not seem right to me. Who are the sources that this Mr. Sullivan fellow used? Who gave Mr. Sullivan the information that Janet, if true, wanted to be reimbursed for the money that she lend to pay for her brother's burial? In one of my blog posts, I remember reading and posting that Estate executors are the ones who plan the funerals and pay for the funerals. Something tells me that one of the executors could be one of the sources that Mr. Sullivan has used for his book. I find it odd that the Estate executors have released their statement to state their side of the story but will not threaten legal action against the magazine or do anything to stop Mr. Sullivan's book from being publish and eventually released.
Even Roger Friedman wanted to add his two cents to the whole foolishness. He stated some interesting things about the claims from the VF article are not true. Read what he stated here -
http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/10/04/michael-jackson-estate-paid-100k-for-a-big-family-party-and-the-funeral
Is this damage control from the Estate executors? The one thing that you have to remember about Michael was that he stated that conspiracy was all around him. Roger Friedman was cleaning up the mess that could have happened if the Estate executors did not act quickly to cover their tracks. What I am basically saying is that I believe that Mr. Sullivan's sources are the Estate executors based on the created notion that the Jacksons want money from Michael's estate. When the executors, with the help of the media, continue to keep the sheep known as #MJfam thinking that everyone in the Jackson family are greedy, that Michael could not stand his family, his mother was an enabler, etc., these types of stories from the likes of VF will continue to be believed and continue to spread. Friedman is used to cover the tracks of the estate executors by stating that the things that Mr. Sullivan claimed in the book are not true and that the Estate paid for everything. That was done so that no one would ever suspect that the Estate executors are behind the Jackson family bashing. It might not make sense to some of you reading this post but if you really understood what Michael went through and how the media operates, you will understand where I am coming from. It is all a facade to protect Branca from whoever might attack him for his games.
The Executors are Selling Michael's Belongings - Make it Stop!
I was browsing on twitter when I read that Michael Bush, Michael's long time designer and stylist, was going to, with the help of Julien's Auctions auction off Michael's iconic outfits. The money from this auction will go to charity. Not a charity that Michael founded or supported during his lifetime, but a charity that I do not know about. Here is the link that has more information on this auction -
http://teammichaeljackson.com/archives/6331
Let me take that back, after reading the information, the money that would be made from the auction will go to the Estate and Michael Bush. Now, it is not known if the Estate executors will put the money that they might get from the auction to any of the charities that Michael supported during his lifetime. I am not sure what Mr. Bush would have needed the money for because I would want to believe and I would want to hope that Mr. Bush made a lot of money when he worked for Michael.
I am not going to attack Mr. Bush for two reasons: he took the time to do a Q and A session for my blog, which was a great session and because he seems to have Michael's best interests from what I have seen and read. I can only judge him by those standards but at the same time, I would wonder why he would agree to do this. Mr. Bush does not seem to be greedy but he done this move working with Juliens Auctions, the same idiots that wanted to auction off the very bed that Michael was murdered in. It boggles the mind at times what Mr. Bush was thinking when he agreed to this nonsense.
Michael gave Mr. Bush the items to keep so that when Michael had a chance, he would get the items and use them as a museum that he was going to on himself. The items that are going to be auctioned off are too precious to be sold. As a fan, I am bothered at the thought of the items that Michael created with Bush and Tompkins, the items that Michael wore, put together and invented to be sold to who knows who for money, a stinky piece of paper. To Mr. Bush, it seems, that Michael was not only his "best friend" but like his counterpart Karen Faye and the executors view Michael, an ATM machine. Anytime that they need extra cash, they use Michael's name to get their cash. This is not attacking, but simply stating an honest opinion. I never thought that I would do a Q&A session with Mr. Bush, thinking he was not one of those former employees that views Michael as money but views Michael as a good friend of his.
These items should be in a display in a book (like the book Mr. Bush has done) and should be given to his children for their own safe keeping. It seems like all of the work that Michael put into to created these unique and original creations has become some sort of a joke. It bothers me that so many of Michael's fans care more about the silly things and not realize what is going on here. This is a horror story of a whole man's art being crapped on all for $$$ and some sort of fame. It was as if his hard work on his creations have become some sort of trash and not pure and simple art from a creative mind. Likewise with the whole mess that was the Michael album, three songs that were clearly not his vocals being sold to the public as his vocals which in turn erase the efforts that Michael did in his music which makes his hard work a complete joke. I am not sure if I would get Mr. Bush's book on Michael's designs and I am not going to tell fans what to do with their money. I hope that fans can see that what is happening here is wrong in so many levels and to ignore it would be extremely unfair to Michael.
The Legacy Continues
Nearly two weeks ago, it was revealed that Michael, along with the late greats Whitney Houston, Dick Clark, Gerard Levert, James Brown just to name a few will be inducted in the first ever R & B Hall of Fame. You can read the rest of the news on this link -
http://thatgrapejuice.net/2012/10/whitney-houston-michael-jackson-named-rb-hall-fame-inductees/
This news made me very happy for so many reasons. The first reason is that Michael was not only a international Pop star but he was the original King of R&B music. Michael crossed over to Pop charts so many times, that people forgot that he was an R&B artist. The second reason is that it is about time that R&B music and the talented people who sing it become known for the greatness of this genre. Third, with the genre pushing extinction because of how terrible music today has become, it can make more people aware of this genre and let the public focus on the artists and their work and not the things that do not matter. The induction ceremony will happen on May 5th, 2013 and I will continue to update about it on this blog.
Last week, the ABC show The View showed the trailer of Spike Lee's documentary on Michael's iconic album Bad called BAD 25. Here is the clip to the trailer -
Michael showing his watch in 2007.
Vanity Fair Magazine Still Shading Michael
Michael on the cover of Vanity Fair in 2009.
A few weeks back, well actually a couple of weeks back, I was on twitter using my father's laptop and I saw tweets about an article that the magazine Vanity Fair did on Michael. The entertainment show Access Hollywood did a segment on their show about the article and I was fuming with anger. Vanity Fair has a certain issue with Michael that I do not understand. During the trial days, Maureen Oath, a Michael hater and the widow of the late Meet the Press host Tim Russert, wrote horrible, defaming and terrible articles on Michael. You can find those articles on google.com because I am not going to remotely post the links on my blog. When Michael passed away, the magazine did a tribute to him and I have the issue of that magazine. ( It is a weakness so do not judge me. I still do not like the magazine. Look, what made me buy it was that Michael looked so angelic on the cover.) The article was not that bad and I even used some parts of the article for one of my blog posts this year. The article also did a feature story of the Thriller short film which was alright but a few things that were stated that I did not agree. Before their recent nonsense of Michael was published, I usually ignored the magazine. The thing that I learned from being a Michael fan is that you can never trust the media. I was not surprised that these people were up to their tricks once again.
As I stated on this blog, I am not a supporter of all of the Jackson family members. I do not hate them or love them, I am indifferent about a lot of them. I am a supporter of the members who really cared about what Michael went through. I do not make it a secret how much I like certain family members. I look at the recent article on the Jacksons and Michael as an attempt to keep a certain agenda going. To me, trying to imply that Janet did everything in her power to make things difficult in regards to preparation of her brother's funeral/burial is only proof to me that the Estate executors are still angry that their cover was being blown. I did not read the article because I know that the article is full of lies, Vanity Fair has a bad history with Michael and that the executors are using the media as a way to create problems for certain members of the Jackson family who do not want to follow what the executors wanted them to do.
When the article was published, the Michael fan community, most of them, seemed to support the article because it bashed the family. As some of you might not notice, the MJ fan community is divided permanently by people who support the MJ Estate executors, supporters of the Jackson family and fans who are supporters of true justice for Michael. (If any of you guys are curious, I am a supporter of true justice for Michael.) Of course and as usual, there was a Internet war of words in the fan community. I am not going to waste any time focusing on that constant wars in the fan community but I would like to focus on something that I have noticed when this was happening:
Why isn't the executors suing Vanity Fair?
I think that is a fair question to ask. The article is going by information that is not true about Michael and you would think that an Estate that is trying to get the public to focus on the greatness of Michael would do everything in their power to not let articles like the one in Vanity Fair get published. Well, it looks like the article got published anyway. When I read the statement that the executors released, I did not understand why the statement focused on what they are doing for Michael's legacy instead of counter-attacking the article. If you read the statement here:
http://mjstar.co.uk/index.php/2012/10/statement-from-the-estate-of-michaeljackson-2/
it does not even relate to what is being discussed in the article. The statement was probably one of the laziest statements that I ever read. Even though the VF (Vanity Fair) article mostly discusses the Jackson family, the article was defaming to Michael because the Jacksons are his family and those allegations against some of them are not proven to be true. I feel that the executors did not want to focus on what was stated about Janet and LaToya and wanted to get Michael's name out of the situation.
Janet's Statement Was On Point.
Janet performing in 1990.
When I read Janet's statement from her lawyer regarding the defaming VF article, I thought that it hit every mark. It got right to the point and made it clear that VF needed to correct the intentional mistakes that they made in their article.
http://web.archive.org/web/20130117105349/http://www.janetjackson.com/story/news/letter-from-blair-brown-to-graydon-carter-of-vanity-fair
In the VF article, there was a statement that Janet was holding up the burial because she wanted to make sure that she will be paid back the over $40,000 that she paid for the burial. The article was trying to imply that she was a greedy woman. Now, hold on for a minute, we all remember the nonsense this summer regarding the will/family drama/media siding with the estate/Paris & Prince trippin' on twitter/TJ making misguided decisions/Katherine being "kidnapped"/Trent/Marlon crying on the Insider (that was a mouthful). When Janet and Randy were at the Calabasas estate trying to get the children to see their grandmother, it was around the time the letter that Katherine's lawyer, Perry Sanders leaked to the press was happening. The media and the Estate executors were assuming that some of the Jacksons who signed the letter, including Janet, wanted money from Michael's estate. That same assumption was stated in the VF article but it was done by the author of the new MJ book that will never sell. Something tells me that this VF article was done by the help of the executors and the media. If you have not noticed, when it comes to the media coverage, John Branca has made it possible for the media to become friendly when they discuss Michael. Tmz.com, The View, and Forbes.com to name a few all trashed Michael when he was with us, but since Branca has taken over the MJ Estate, those media entities have not completely bashed Michael. Even with VF magazine, Branca was interviewed for the magazine when the magazine was promoting the book on Michael in regards to his classic Thriller short film. To some people reading this post, they might not see what is the big deal for an executor to talk to the very people that trashed the man but to me it is odd.
Vanity Fair Stands By Their Lies
He has this look like, "really, dude".
This does not shock me at all that VF will not retract the lie in regards to Janet and probably LaToya. VF did not retract the articles that they did on Michael done by Orth that were proven lies. I never expect the media to do the right thing because the media is about making money and not about telling the truth.
http://www.vibe.com/node/116848
I read the statement from VF and something just does not seem right to me. Who are the sources that this Mr. Sullivan fellow used? Who gave Mr. Sullivan the information that Janet, if true, wanted to be reimbursed for the money that she lend to pay for her brother's burial? In one of my blog posts, I remember reading and posting that Estate executors are the ones who plan the funerals and pay for the funerals. Something tells me that one of the executors could be one of the sources that Mr. Sullivan has used for his book. I find it odd that the Estate executors have released their statement to state their side of the story but will not threaten legal action against the magazine or do anything to stop Mr. Sullivan's book from being publish and eventually released.
Even Roger Friedman wanted to add his two cents to the whole foolishness. He stated some interesting things about the claims from the VF article are not true. Read what he stated here -
http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/10/04/michael-jackson-estate-paid-100k-for-a-big-family-party-and-the-funeral
Is this damage control from the Estate executors? The one thing that you have to remember about Michael was that he stated that conspiracy was all around him. Roger Friedman was cleaning up the mess that could have happened if the Estate executors did not act quickly to cover their tracks. What I am basically saying is that I believe that Mr. Sullivan's sources are the Estate executors based on the created notion that the Jacksons want money from Michael's estate. When the executors, with the help of the media, continue to keep the sheep known as #MJfam thinking that everyone in the Jackson family are greedy, that Michael could not stand his family, his mother was an enabler, etc., these types of stories from the likes of VF will continue to be believed and continue to spread. Friedman is used to cover the tracks of the estate executors by stating that the things that Mr. Sullivan claimed in the book are not true and that the Estate paid for everything. That was done so that no one would ever suspect that the Estate executors are behind the Jackson family bashing. It might not make sense to some of you reading this post but if you really understood what Michael went through and how the media operates, you will understand where I am coming from. It is all a facade to protect Branca from whoever might attack him for his games.
The Executors are Selling Michael's Belongings - Make it Stop!
The famous sequined/rhinestone glove.
I was browsing on twitter when I read that Michael Bush, Michael's long time designer and stylist, was going to, with the help of Julien's Auctions auction off Michael's iconic outfits. The money from this auction will go to charity. Not a charity that Michael founded or supported during his lifetime, but a charity that I do not know about. Here is the link that has more information on this auction -
http://teammichaeljackson.com/archives/6331
Let me take that back, after reading the information, the money that would be made from the auction will go to the Estate and Michael Bush. Now, it is not known if the Estate executors will put the money that they might get from the auction to any of the charities that Michael supported during his lifetime. I am not sure what Mr. Bush would have needed the money for because I would want to believe and I would want to hope that Mr. Bush made a lot of money when he worked for Michael.
I am not going to attack Mr. Bush for two reasons: he took the time to do a Q and A session for my blog, which was a great session and because he seems to have Michael's best interests from what I have seen and read. I can only judge him by those standards but at the same time, I would wonder why he would agree to do this. Mr. Bush does not seem to be greedy but he done this move working with Juliens Auctions, the same idiots that wanted to auction off the very bed that Michael was murdered in. It boggles the mind at times what Mr. Bush was thinking when he agreed to this nonsense.
Michael gave Mr. Bush the items to keep so that when Michael had a chance, he would get the items and use them as a museum that he was going to on himself. The items that are going to be auctioned off are too precious to be sold. As a fan, I am bothered at the thought of the items that Michael created with Bush and Tompkins, the items that Michael wore, put together and invented to be sold to who knows who for money, a stinky piece of paper. To Mr. Bush, it seems, that Michael was not only his "best friend" but like his counterpart Karen Faye and the executors view Michael, an ATM machine. Anytime that they need extra cash, they use Michael's name to get their cash. This is not attacking, but simply stating an honest opinion. I never thought that I would do a Q&A session with Mr. Bush, thinking he was not one of those former employees that views Michael as money but views Michael as a good friend of his.
These items should be in a display in a book (like the book Mr. Bush has done) and should be given to his children for their own safe keeping. It seems like all of the work that Michael put into to created these unique and original creations has become some sort of a joke. It bothers me that so many of Michael's fans care more about the silly things and not realize what is going on here. This is a horror story of a whole man's art being crapped on all for $$$ and some sort of fame. It was as if his hard work on his creations have become some sort of trash and not pure and simple art from a creative mind. Likewise with the whole mess that was the Michael album, three songs that were clearly not his vocals being sold to the public as his vocals which in turn erase the efforts that Michael did in his music which makes his hard work a complete joke. I am not sure if I would get Mr. Bush's book on Michael's designs and I am not going to tell fans what to do with their money. I hope that fans can see that what is happening here is wrong in so many levels and to ignore it would be extremely unfair to Michael.
The Legacy Continues
Michael and Whitney in 1988.
Nearly two weeks ago, it was revealed that Michael, along with the late greats Whitney Houston, Dick Clark, Gerard Levert, James Brown just to name a few will be inducted in the first ever R & B Hall of Fame. You can read the rest of the news on this link -
http://thatgrapejuice.net/2012/10/whitney-houston-michael-jackson-named-rb-hall-fame-inductees/
This news made me very happy for so many reasons. The first reason is that Michael was not only a international Pop star but he was the original King of R&B music. Michael crossed over to Pop charts so many times, that people forgot that he was an R&B artist. The second reason is that it is about time that R&B music and the talented people who sing it become known for the greatness of this genre. Third, with the genre pushing extinction because of how terrible music today has become, it can make more people aware of this genre and let the public focus on the artists and their work and not the things that do not matter. The induction ceremony will happen on May 5th, 2013 and I will continue to update about it on this blog.
Last week, the ABC show The View showed the trailer of Spike Lee's documentary on Michael's iconic album Bad called BAD 25. Here is the clip to the trailer -
The Bad 25 trailer.
When I saw the trailer, "wow" is all I can say. I am going to state this - Thanksgiving will be great for these things: Family, Food and Film. Now, I have read and it has been proven that John Branca was in the film crying when he talked about hearing that Michael passed. I wanted to vomit when I read this but I will not let that mess stop me from watching the special. I will do a review of the special and yes, I will buy the DVD because I will do a review of the DVD as well. I might have a little surprise in regards to the documentary soon. Stay tuned.
If you are like me, a true blue fan/activist of the great Michael, please love him for what he did for people and not his handlers, friends or even, sadly, his family. At times, some people claim to have Michael's best interest but we have to remember that Michael saw the good in people until it was too late. We see the bad in some of these people but many want to ignore that because they are caught up in what is "positive". At times, that could be the boulder that stops one from really seeing things as what they truly are.
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References:
Video -
Spike Lee's trailer of Michael's Bad album, Bad25 from youtube.com
Pictures -
Some pictures came from my personal harrdrive and some came from a google.com search.
Articles/Blog Post -
The Estate Executors statement regarding the Vanity Fair article -
Janet's statement regarding the Vanity Fair article -
Vanity Fair not retracting their defaming comments -
Roger Friedman has a comment -
The Executors selling Michael's belongings -
Michael, Whitney, James and Dick Clark to be Inducted in the R & B Hall of Fame -
