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This story has been published anonymously, but has been verified by PopMusic.com
He was in the production office one day, and told the women who was in charge - "Look, a diversion!", or whatever - anyway, she was looking away for a moment. On the desk was a big - or maybe medium-sized, I never saw it! - box, filled with passes, like back stage passes for rock concerts, that authorised you to be on the set. Normally in films they don't have such things. Everyone is bored, and, to blend in, just seem as bored as everyone else! That's all the pass you need!
However, this was Michael Jackson, and it was the height of his fame. It was like The Beatles. He WAS famous. And, so... When this woman was looking away, my friend grabbed a handful of these passes, to pass out to all his friends. And I was a friend. So I got one. I still have it, in fact. A kind of cool souvenir. Anyway, I was working in that movie studio anyway - I was in a film that was shooting right nearby, so, whenever I had the chance, I'd pop on over and hang out with Michael. Well, he didn't talk much, and I was very young, and, to be honest, was in awe, so I'd just kind of hang about. There are two things that stand out in my mind. One - he would always walk around with his arm around a 13-year old boy. Now, if you really were doing something naughty, would you walk around with your arm around your supposed "victim"? And yet...and yet...all the crew - if you've never been on a film set, the crew are like...they are the sort of people who drive pick-up trucks, who you can imagine listening to country music, who probably drink lots of beer. Kind of like truck drivers, and some are truck drivers, some are teamsters, but whatever their job, they wear blue jeans and baseball caps. And film sets, in spite of the highly edited documentaries about them you may have seen on TV, are, in the real world, utterly boring places to be. So, the crew are highly skilled at...finding fascinating things to do with a tin can and a pebble, that will last half a day. That's not a joke. I've seen them do it. Actors too! I mean, everyone has time to kill on a movie set, except, probably, the director. In fact, I remember hearing there was an exam you could take to become and AD, Assistant Director. One of the questions, supposed to test your intelligence, was: "Think of a bunch of alternate uses for a paper clip." This seems, at first, like a random test of creativity. But in fact, it's the most useful sort of knowledge to have on a film set! Having gone off on this digression, the point is, the crew are crew-like - they watch football - you know! Can you picture them!? In England we call them working class, in America, I think the term is redneck. Not in a bad way. Salt of the earth, and all that. But not exactly your latte drinking leftie weirdos. Men's men. You know (and no, not THAT kind of men's men!) So, these guys, who might drive their Chevy to the levy if the levy was dry...they kept making jokes about Michael. I remember one - a nice enough guy - said that Michael had asked him to go see he Llama. Excited - I was a kid, remember - I asked, "well, are you gonna go?" And he said, "What, are you kidding?!? I think he wants to see my llama!" And pointed at his arse. And I remember thinking, they were projecting their own perversions and corruptions onto him. Another guy I knew, some actor, was talking to Michael's 13-year old friend one day. Now, ya gotta remember - this was a friend of Michael Jackson. This actor, who no one would know, had been in some lame horror film. And this kid was impressed as all hell. This is the point, though: this actor told me later, Michael appeared - to this actor's eyes - jealous of this kid's enthusiasm for the actor. And, this actor implied, there was something perverse going on. Like Michael was romantically jealous of the lame horror film actor, cuz his 13 year-old boy/friend was impressed. This is what he thought. But, you know what? I remember being somewhere an...it doesn't matter, its' too hard to explain, but I distinctly remember people like this - in fact, some of these people! - projecting their own perverted ideas onto things I knew, for an absolute fact, were completely innocent. I believe the word for this attitude is cynicism. Corruption of the pure white spirit of the soul! Inner whiteness. Nothing to do with skin, here. Okay, off the subject! But not everyone in this brave new world is so cynical. I wasn't then, and still don't necessarily feel that way now! I try not to, at least... And so, at the time, I never doubted for one moment that thats what was going on. Michael was just...innocent, and everyone who thought we was guilty of something was just a pervert, who couldn't even understand innocent. That's what I thought at the time, when I was just a kid. And, y'know - I mean, if you were a pervert, would you really go walking around with your arm around your purported victim? That's what I thought at the time... that was my view at the time, although I admit I was, as I said, just a kid. Recently, I was at my friend;s house - she's my age - well, a few years younger, but in University. Her sister is sixteen, and in school. And we started talking about Michael Jackson, and the younger sister was completely convinced that he was misunderstood and innocent, and the older sister, in University - the universally corrupting influence in our society! - was convinced that he was a pervert. The older sister's kindest interpretation was that Michael Jackson was a typical 15 year old - in spite of the fact that he's a lot older than that! - and that, like all 15-year olds, maybe he did something wrong, but didn't' see it as wrong. Or didn't fully understand. But she was convinced he might well be guilty. But the younger sister was adamant: innocent. I dunno, but I'm curious what you think. I 'm even more curious if thoughts of guilt or innocence break down along age lines. So, if you are under 18, please vote one one poll, and over 18, please vote in the other.
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Poll! Michael Jackson: Guilty or Innocent! Click here to learn the results! We are idly curious about whether young people are more likely to think Michael Jackson is innocent. Read the story on the left if you're curious why. Otherwise, please answer the FIRST poll if you're UNDER 18, and the second one if you're OVER 18. Thanks! :-)
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Those
in the Know, Know...No-1!
(c) JW/GMI
July 25th 2008
