Pepsi - False Rumor AlertFALSE RUMOR ALERT: PATRIOTIC CANS
You've received an erroneous email about a "patriotic can" that Pepsi allegedly produced with an edited version of America's Pledge of Allegiance. The truth is, Pepsi never produced such a can. In fact, this is a hoax that has been circulating on the Internet for more than six years. A patriotic package used in 2001 by Dr Pepper (which is not a part of PepsiCo) was inappropriately linked to Pepsi. Thanks for giving us the chance to clarify the situation and please feel free to share this message with anyone else who may have received the erroneous email. Details of the hoax can be found at http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/undergod.asp.
July 19, 2009
Pepsi - False Rumor Alert
Pepsi on Jackson's Hairfire: Whatevs and 'Refresh Everything' - Michael Jackson - Gawker
Pepsi on Jackson's Hairfire: Whatevs and 'Refresh Everything' - Michael Jackson - Gawker
Pepsi on Jackson's Hairfire: Whatevs and 'Refresh Everything'
If they only had a heart. Upon seeing this week's spine-tingling video of Michael Jackson's '84 Pepsi ad accident, Pepsi and vid director Bob Giraldi don't give a shit. The international moment of dead pop star respect is officially finito.
Honestly, no one's given a shit in the past 25 years. Yet as always, with mondo-stratospheric celeb death comes a whole stadium full of dusty grievances. With the fire vid now shocking the internets, the fire safety inspector at the shoot, Captain Don Donester ("DON DONester" - what clever parents he had!) blames director Giraldi for making Jackson stand under the sparks longer so the popstar would "look more majestic."
C'mon, admit it. The moonwalk with one's hair in flames? Chilling, yes. But it does look pretty Olympian.
TMZ called up Giraldi for a response. He said, "That's not true. Whatever." Click. Dial tone. Wow, what a prick!
In true canned spokespersonspeak, Pepsi's response was also a hair toss and shoulder shrug.
We don't know what that footage is. It's 25 years ago. We don't know who owns it, so we have no recourse as far as I know. I can only tell you what I know. We didn't put it up and we don't know where it came from.
Guess they're bitter their latest slogan, "Refresh Everything," hasn't registered with anyone anywhere nohow.
Michael Jackson's Peter Pan obsession - Times Online - i too believe mj was not a child molestor but truly peter pan...i believe
Michael Jackson's Peter Pan obsession - Times Online
Michael Jackson's Peter Pan obsession
When the theatre director was asked to meet the king of pop, he suspected a hoax. But the singer was seeking help to become the boy he had always wanted to be
(Alan Greth)
Then, dressed in red velvet trousers and a red shirt, his face unexpectedly pale and with a hint of cosmetics on his lips, there he was. The king of pop was shaking my hand, thanking me profoundly for “sparing time” to see him, attentive to my every need, as coffee and delicacies arrived in a whirl of white pyjamas. Something about the way he walked — a high instep, or a slight flat-footedness, something less lithe than I had been expecting — prompted my last vestige of misgiving, a suspicion that I was with a brilliant impersonator of the world’s single most famous man.
He sat a few feet away from me and as our conversation got rather stutteringly under way, I found myself noticing what seemed to be faint discolourations of skin grafting on his face, the brilliance of his eyes, which at reflective moments seemed to well up with sadness, and the soft girlishness of his voice, especially in laughter. I didn’t really know who to “be”, as the unreality of this encounter gave way to the rational conclusion that it was actually happening: I was watching me at the same time as being me. Should I be an awestruck fan, or somebody from the music business who could share a bit of his vocabulary, or a wise elder bringing cool assessment from a different discipline?
I suppose I tried all three, as we talked about the new album, Bad, the rigours of being on tour, the rehearsal regime for his breakthrough choreography and the opportunity for the creation of something completely original.
In response to his questions, I told him things about Cats and Starlight Express, shows I had directed with the intention of finding more environmental, inclusive ways of presenting music theatre. In return, Michael told me how he yearned to be able to do something more spectacular, such as flying over the audience. “Oh, I know just how to do that, no problem,” I said banteringly. “I had people flying over the audience when I did Peter Pan.”
Something seismic had happened. He reacted as if an electric current had just passed through him. He sat up to the edge of his chair, clutching the arms with splayed hands, one of which was gloved. “You did Peter Pan?” he whispered.
“Yeah, in London,” I said.
He leapt up. “You directed Peter Pan?” The high-pitched voice went higher as he walked up and down in front of me, repeating: “Oh my God. Peter Pan! I don’t believe it.”
I described our production, in which all the children’s parts had been played by adult actors. He bounded across the room, his eyes full of tears, he knelt down in front of me, his hands on my knees, and he said: “Could I play Peter, is it too late? Will you let me play Peter? All I ever want to do is to play Peter Pan.”
From that point on I was his new best friend. White-clad figures hovered in doorways, worried that the yells, squawks and squeals of unbridled delight might be the sounds of their lord and master being beaten up by his unknown visitor. He knew every incident in the Peter Pan story, he recited lines from the text and he became immensely vulnerable and childlike as the delight transformed him to some earlier moment in his life.
The unexpectedness of this convulsion, in which I had suddenly become the possible enabler of his greatest yearning, prevented me from reflecting on what it meant or what condition it revealed; but I think I realised something about his life as a child star and his eccentric discomfort with being grown up was being shown and this revelation was very private and very rare.
The meeting finished after two hours, but not before he had made me “promise” to go to his concert the following night. I was scheduled to be in the garage below the hotel at 5.30 in the evening. I arrived through a similar cordon of security and then discovered to my disbelief that I was being ushered into a Dormobile vehicle with black glass windows, containing a driver, two security men and . . . Michael Jackson.
I travelled with him to the stadium and had the unprecedented and unrepeatable experience of being invisible in the dark interior, as totally visible hordes of fans screamed adoration and reached out to touch the glass as we passed. I was taken backstage with him briefly, before following an escort to my place beside the sound operator at a massive desk in the best position in the entire auditorium.
I was under strict instructions. During the journey there, Michael had said in a number of different ways that I was to tell him everything I didn’t like about the staging and what he was doing. When I responded that I was sure there would be nothing I didn’t like, he became urgent and insistent: “No, you must tell me . . . I need somebody to tell me . . . think of how it could be different . . . think of how I could fly.”
He was, of course, astonishing — incomparable as a dancer, with the music seeming to come not just from his mouth but from his entire supercharged body. I allowed myself to note that the show was very unstructured, that there was insufficient contrast and that a hint of a narrative might allow more of his fascination as “a character” to emerge.
After the thunderous finale, I was ushered backstage again and into the vehicle, soon after to be joined by an utterly drained, almost lifeless Michael and a short, sturdy, middle-aged man with a greying ponytail, Mr DiLeo. I tried to tell Michael how miraculous he had just been, but all he would say was: “I want to know what you really think. Not now. Tell me tomorrow.”
Back at the hotel, his manager confirmed there could be no more talk until Michael had slept for 12 hours. I was instructed to show up at the hotel room the following day at noon. By then I had worked out a proposal that would indeed have a hint of narrative, structured round the song Man in the Mirror, allowing him to become two versions of the same person, one a full-on, sexual animal as in Bad, the other a more sensitive, tender, innocent creature of imagination, one who, at the show’s climax, would fly up and away.
When Michael came in again at exactly the appointed hour, he was with Mr DiLeo. This made things twice as difficult, for although Michael remained rapt and enthusiastic, almost too impressionably saying, “Oh, I love that” and “That’s wonderful”, his manager was altogether more businesslike, asking for detail in questions such as, “Exactly how would you do it?”
I had the distinct impression that Michael saw us as two children in the presence of an adult and was urging me to ignore this parental control. He raced on to future plans. He urged me to return to England via Los Angeles, so we could meet and talk more. He insisted he could switch his rehearsal plans to New York to coincide with my next obligation, which was rehearsing a Broadway musical. I was given telephone numbers to make contact in Los Angeles and New York.
Michael agreed to pose for a photograph with my little daughter if I fetched her from my room. That photograph is the only real evidence I have that any of this is true. However many times I called, I never got through to Michael again and I couldn’t entirely rid myself of the idea that people in the organisation were under instruction, very politely, to keep me away.
But here’s the point. I wasn’t the least surprised to hear that Michael Jackson had made a huge children’s playground at a ranch that he had called Neverland, the name of the home of his beloved Peter Pan. When the accusations of sexual molestation of children appeared, I believed then, as I believe now, that they were untrue. Call me naive, but I am convinced he was being Peter Pan.
Peter presides over a group of Lost Boys, children who look to his leadership but who he needs as much as they need him. The Lost Boys live in the same big room as Peter and they all sleep in the same big bed. Inviting boys to Neverland, staying in the same room, all sleeping in the same huge bed . . . these are the activities that were at the centre of the abuse allegations. But Peter is almost androgynous, he is sexless, he is adored by Wendy but has no concept of the love she wants from him.
J M Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, was himself suspected of child abuse. Peter’s desperate yearning for permanent childhood, the fear of growing up and compromising with an adult world was, to a large extent, Barrie’s autobiographical experience, fascinated as he was with other people’s children while living in a seemingly unconsummated marriage
As for Jackson? He was, possibly, the Wacko Jacko of the tabloids, but what I witnessed of his obsession with Peter Pan was different, unfakeable and real. It was not really about a part he wanted to play. It was about the person he wanted to be.
© Trevor Nunn 2009
DownWithTyranny!: Michael Jackson (1958-2009): Thoughts About Peter Pan
INCLUDING THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW MJ'S GROUND-DownWithTyranny!: Michael Jackson (1958-2009): Thoughts About Peter Pan
BREAKING THRILLER FOUND ITS WAY ONTO MTV
by Noah
“An actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine, a money machine.”-- Marilyn Monroe
Every life has its times of misery and its times of joy. With some of us, these peaks and valleys can be more extreme than others. In the case of Michael Jackson, I doubt that we’ll ever know just how much misery he had and what specific demons prodded him along on his path. I do suspect, and I could be wrong, of course, that his highest moments of joy came when he was performing. He seemed driven, if not born, to perform and entertain.
Right now we are being saturated with articles and commentary about Michael Jackson and his tragic death. It’s unavoidable. His life was an important one to so many. I’m only adding to this pile of commentary because, if you choose to read further, I can offer the perspective both of someone who both spends a lot of time shaking his head at what spews forth from the media and of someone who was there at a key moment in Michael Jackson’s career and pop culture in general.
First, though, some comments about the media circus:
(1) In its effort to be “all MJ all the time," the corporate media have set a new low in just throwing stories out there for the sake of boosting sales of papers and magazines and bringing more eyeballs to the tube.
First the cause of death was a daily Demerol shot. Two days later, there was no Demerol. Next we heard that one of the kids saw him die and thought he was just “clowning.” It’s a horrible thought, but now we hear it isn’t, shall we say, based in fact. Then there’s a will. Then there’s two wills. Then there’s no will at all. Now, as I write this, guess what: There's a will!
The media is just intent on filling space. Facts be damned! It goes on and on. It changes daily. What are we supposed to believe? I tell ya what I believe. I believe the media have sunk to a new low in tabloid journalism. What ever happened to fact-checking before you run with a story? It’s a failing that just gets worse and worse, as if everyone in the media looks at the money that sleazy carny hucksters like Rush and Beck and Hannity are raking in from their daily fiction and follows their lead. The same bozos that consistently told us Bush won for eight years now just switch their fantasies daily. Remember when the media was consistent in their lies, for years at a time?
(2) There have also been some really genius quotes in the MJ coverage. My favorites:
* “The concert promoters can’t sue the estate. Once he dies, he doesn’t have any obligation to perform.” That's Bob Rasmussen, dean of the Gould School of Law, USC. Oh well, the football team there is pretty damn good.
* How about this one, from Old Suspenders himself, Larry King: “It was hard to love him, but hard not to.” Yogi Berra he ain’t. But hey, Larry King adores the Bushes, all of them, so let’s not go expecting pearls of wisdom from what’s left of his mind.
* But it’s no surprise that the worst quotes of all in the “all MJ all the time” coverage come from MJ’s own father. “We just lost the biggest star in the world.” True enough, at least, but if I had a son that died, I might first say that I lost my son and what he personally meant to me, etc. Later, at a tribute to his son, Dad struck again, using the occasion not for a eulogy but to announce the formation of his brand-new business enterprise! Smooth! Gee, I wonder why, despite such staggering talent, Michael was so dysfunctional?
(3) What I haven’t heard is anything about the baby-dangling, serving the Jesus Juice to little boys, or even attempting to buy the Elephant Man’s bones.There has been some brief mention of his legal trials, but, he was, after all, acquitted, so it would be awkward for the media to spend much time dredging up the muck -- not that I wouldn’t put it past them. A modicum of decorum, and respect for the old adage that one is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law from the media? Now, that would be news!
I have also been waiting for someone to tell us, what was the source of such physical pain that he needed to take so many painkillers in the first place? What sent him down that road? I seem to remember that there was a stage accident, back in 1984, which resulted in head trauma and serious scalp burns from an effects explosion during a shoot for a Pepsi commercial. Perhaps no one wants to offend Pepsi. In any event, we get nada on this. In hindsight, things were not the same with Michael after that incident., but instead we get sordid stories of stomach-pumping of multiple-pill combos. To me, the oddest mixture is not what was in his stomach but what is and isn’t reported in a media that has gone tabloid across the board. This man, or more aptly man-child, was in tremendous physical and psychic pain, pain so extreme that it directly led to his death.
(4) Then there’s the search for a handle on the meaning of this great pop icon’s life, contribution to the world, and status in some mythical Hall of Pop Culture Icons.
Is Michael Jackson up there with Elvis, James Brown (oddly ignored in the coverage I've seen), The Beatles, and Muhammad Ali (also ignored)? Certainly he is to the '80s generation. So many bought Thrillerthat it became what I call a coffee-table item. It was a "must have" to certain people who bought it, took it home, and, as evidenced by the number of sealed copies of original pressings being offered on eBay, never even opened it. Hell, they probably didn’t even have a record player.
I’m old enough to remember when the Jackson Five first came on my radar screen, with the hit with ABC. I had stopped following Motown at the time, but I thought that song was great and whoever was singing it had broken some barrier of youthful exuberance. I still remember a little kid with his mother dancing joyfully to the song in a park in Boston, where I lived at the time, as it played on their radio. Five years later there was “Who’s Lovin’ You?,” sung by an 11-year-old Michael. At first that gave me pause, but then I put it in the context of a sixth-grader with a crush on a classmate, experiencing the pangs of youthful jealousy. Been there.
I also remember working in a record store and watching kids walk up to the Jackson Five section doing “The Robot.” They tried, often unsuccessfully, to imitate Michael’s every move. They had music made for them by one of their own. The point is that a hell of a lot of people grew up with Michael Jackson, grew up right along with him, and loved him even when he stopped growing up. Like Ali, Michael’s name is known the world over. Everywhere!************
“I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent.”-- Marilyn Monroe
Walter Yetnikoff, head of CBS Records from the late '70s through the '80s, was publicly ridiculed when he signed the Jacksons for what was then thought to be “too much moola” -- right around the same time another bombastic CEO, George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees, signed another Jackson, Reggie, for what was also then thought to be a ridiculous amount of money. Both wild and crazy guys apparently made the right move.
Not only did the musical Jacksons, thought by many to be old news, do fine, but in 1979 one of the group, Michael, had a huge, multi-platinum seller of a solo album called Off the Wall. It was a record that could get play on several styles of radio stations, reaching a multitude of demographics. Michael Jackson was about to knock through barriers of age, gender, nationality, and race to an extent that few if any artists could have ever imagined or hoped for.
The next album was Thriller. There was a problem though. By the time it came out, the game of how you reach the most people was changing. The game changer was called MTV. I was a marketing executive at CBS Records at the time. I worked for the Columbia label; Michael was on our sister label, Epic. Yetnikoff ran both. We all knew that Michael could reach across racial barriers if given the chance, but MTV wasn’t about to give him that chance. Some artists just didn’t “fit the format” in the narrow minds of those running MTV in its early days. There was an unspoken barrier, a restricted entry, just like a golf club that doesn’t let in “the Jews.” Today, as exemplified by the current media coverage, Michael Jackson is credited with being the first artist to break down those barriers on such a large scale. But it almost never happened, and Thriller, the album that changed so much for so many, almost never became what it did.The man that made it happen was Walter Yetnikoff [seen here in his later years, hawking his 2004 tell-all memoir, Howling at the Moon]. I know because I was there. I was in the office of the head of marketing when Yetnikoff conference-called a few of the powers-that-were at CBS Records about the fact that MTV would not play Michael’s videos, no matter how many records he sold. I was allowed to listen in as Yetnikoff announced his simple remedy for this disgusting situation. He pointed out that MTV’s survival at such an early stage of its growth was not assured. He also pointed out that two record companies, CBS and Warners, provided the lion's share of the video clips that MTV relied upon for programming at the time. (Keep in mind that at that point in time all MTV did was play music videos. The ever-popular insipid “reality” shows and the like would come later.) If one of those two record companies were to pull all of their videos from MTV, MTV would die. Yetnikoff then got the lords of MTV on the line and persuaded them to change their minds.
Pop culture changed that day.************
I am reasonably certain at this point that the out-of-control coverage of the death of an out-of-control artist named Michael Jackson has been so confusing and reckless that it will lead to decades of conspiratorial speculation as to what really happened, not unlike the mysterious barbiturate death of Marilyn Monroe. Whatever the specific cause of death (and we may never get the truth), Michael Jackson had a hugely dysfunctional life and a hugely successful artistic career, both creatively and financially.
There have been painters and writers and musicians before who met the definition of severely dysfunctional. Vincent van Gogh went around stalking fellow painter Paul Gauguin with a razor and ended up cutting off one of his own earlobes. It is theorized that he used the color yellow as much as he did because of his overdosing on absinthe, which contains a neurotoxin that causes one to see objects in yellow. He painted some awfully nice sunflowers! In fact, people pay millions for them today, but during his highly unstable and probably bipolar life, he never sold a painting.
The extremes of Michael Jackson’s life might not be equaled for a while.
One last thing I have noticed is that I have been hearing much better music coming out of car radios as I walk around NYC since MJ died. So why not just stop the madness and just let the music speak for itself, and for MJ? That is the legacy that will last the longest.
“A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night.”-- Marilyn Monroe
THE LEGACY LIVES ON . . .
The Death of Michael Jackson and the Peter Pan Syndrome – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks
The Death of Michael Jackson and the Peter Pan Syndrome – The Blogs at HowStuffWorksThe Death of Michael Jackson and the Peter Pan Syndrome
by Josh Clark
June 26, 2009
(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
I just can’t do it. I can’t not write about the death of Michael Jackson. It’s too big of a deal. I don’t even like the guy’s music anymore, at least not the stuff he released from the late ’80s on. I did worship him for several years, during the Thriller stage. I was replete. My mom made me a white sequined glove as a gift for my First Communion. I also had the clearly unlicensed knockoff of the red jacket he wore following his rough transition from ’50s teenager to a werewolf to a zombie to his ’80s self.
As the years passed, Michael Jackson and I parted ways, what with me growing up and him opting to stay back in the formative years. As his behavior and appearance became increasingly bizarre (dating Liz Taylor, bff with his chimp, the attempted purchase of Joseph [changed] Merrick’s skeleton) and menacing (read: the three sex abuse allegations levied against him from the 1990s to 2003), the public sought to explain it. Well, I don’t have to tell you. You know you wanted to know what precisely was going on in the man’s head just as much as anyone else, especially once child molestation charges began to fly. Then we as a public had a duty to know what was going on.
What we came up with was the “Peter Pan Syndrome.” You’ll note the quotes; the syndrome is a pop psychology diagnosis, not recognized in the diagnostic psychology manual, the DSM-IV. Psychologist Dan Riley coined the term in a book in 1983 to describe the state of arrested development (afflicting men more than women) where, under conditions of overprotective parenting, a person comes to look at the world as too threatening and depressing to take head-on as an adult with all of the responsibilities and terrible consequences associated with maturity.
That definitely describes MJ in aces. I don’t think I’m the only one who await the cascade of revelations about his life that will surely come in the days to follow. I think the worst outcome for the public psyche is for us to find he really was just a gentle, misunderstood and fragile person we wouldn’t leave alone.
Sex abuse charges plagued, tarnished Michael Jackson's career
Sex abuse charges plagued, tarnished Michael Jackson's career
Friday, June 26th 2009, 9:00 AM
Djansezian/AP/AP Michael Jackson goes through security as he arrives at Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria, Calif. in 2005
AP A photo from Jackson in 1994 during an investigation that began when a 13-year-old boy accused the pop star of seducing him.
To one generation, Michael Jackson was a charismatic child star.
To another, he was "Wacko Jacko," suspected child molester.
The sex scandals that plagued the increasingly erratic singer dated to the early 1990s, when he was first linked to the repeated abuse of a 13-year-old boy at his lavish Neverland Ranch.
Jackson, eventually accused of molesting three boys, was never convicted of any crimes.
But multimillion-dollar settlements with two victims, along with his bizarre persona, convinced many something odd was happening at his California home/kiddie theme park - and it crippled his career.
Jackson made no secret of his preference for the company of kids over adults, insisting it was all innocent as he welcomed "many children" into his bed.
His high-profile house guests included "Home Alone" star Macaulay Culkin and child star Corey Feldman.
Jackson - even after his 2003 arrest on molestation charges - seemed clueless about the furor caused by his lifestyle.
Asked on "60 Minutes" if he thought it was okay to share his bed with a child, Jackson replied, "Why not?"
"If you're going to be a pedophile, if you're going to be Jack the Ripper, if you're going to be a murderer, it's not a good idea," Jackson said. "That, I am not."
His explosive 2005 trial on sex charges drew international attention. Prosecutors portrayed the fortysomething Jackson as a sexual predator who plied victims with wine and girlie magazines.
Jackson was accused of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor - allegations that put him back in the headlines long after his musical career slowed to a crawl.
During the three-month trial, the teen recounted Jackson giving him wine - the singer called it "Jesus juice" - before fondling him as they lay on a bed inside Neverland.
Jackson reportedly encouraged the boy to masturbate before groping the teen.
Millions in payouts
The jury also heard from another purported victim, who testified Jackson molested him when he was between the ages of 7 and 10.
The young man, the son of a Neverland maid, received a $2.4million settlement from Jackson.
The jury also heard that in 1993, Jackson paid a $20 million settlement to a 13-year-old boy.
The youth's mother testified that Jackson browbeat her into letting the teen share a bed with the pop star - and rewarded her the next day with a gold bracelet from Cartier.
The mom recounted on the stand how the "sobbing, crying, shaking, trembling" singer shouted in anger when she balked at the sleeping arrangements.
"We're a family!" he reportedly yelled. "Why can't [he] sleep in my bed? ... Why don't you trust me?"
The youth then slept with Jackson dozens of times from March to July 1993, she said.
The singer's lawyer insisted the payments were made because Jackson didn't like "courtrooms and lawyers," preferring to focus on his musical career.
"He is idealistic and naive," defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau said.
Mesereau also called Culkin to testify there was nothing sexual about his sleepovers in Jackson's bed.
'Human sexuality'
Jackson's collection of gay pornography was introduced as evidence. One book, prosecutors said, "shows everything one man could possibly do to another man."
Prosecutors charged he provided young guests with unlimited candy and video games by day - and sexual assault by night.
"In the evenings, they entered into the world of the forbidden," prosecutor Ron Zonen told the California jury. "They learned about human sexuality from someone who was only too willing to teach them."
Yet the jury acquitted Jackson, even though some of its members believed the superstar had victimized other children.
"I feel that Michael Jackson has probably molested boys," juror Raymond Hultman said.
"To be in your bedroom for 365 straight days and not do something more than just watch television and eat popcorn, that doesn't make sense to me."
Jury foreman Paul Rodriguez offered the "King of Pop" some unsolicited advice after the verdict: "We would hope he doesn't sleep with children anymore."
Jackson - who never testified at his trial - became a virtual recluse after the verdict. He spent time with his own three kids, but was rarely seen in public with other children.
Sex abuse charges plagued, tarnished Michael Jackson's career
Sex abuse charges plagued, tarnished Michael Jackson's career
Sex abuse charges plagued, tarnished Michael Jackson's career
Friday, June 26th 2009, 9:00 AM
Djansezian/AP/AP Michael Jackson goes through security as he arrives at Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria, Calif. in 2005
AP A photo from Jackson in 1994 during an investigation that began when a 13-year-old boy accused the pop star of seducing him.
To one generation, Michael Jackson was a charismatic child star.
To another, he was "Wacko Jacko," suspected child molester.
The sex scandals that plagued the increasingly erratic singer dated to the early 1990s, when he was first linked to the repeated abuse of a 13-year-old boy at his lavish Neverland Ranch.
Jackson, eventually accused of molesting three boys, was never convicted of any crimes.
But multimillion-dollar settlements with two victims, along with his bizarre persona, convinced many something odd was happening at his California home/kiddie theme park - and it crippled his career.
Jackson made no secret of his preference for the company of kids over adults, insisting it was all innocent as he welcomed "many children" into his bed.
His high-profile house guests included "Home Alone" star Macaulay Culkin and child star Corey Feldman.
Jackson - even after his 2003 arrest on molestation charges - seemed clueless about the furor caused by his lifestyle.
Asked on "60 Minutes" if he thought it was okay to share his bed with a child, Jackson replied, "Why not?"
"If you're going to be a pedophile, if you're going to be Jack the Ripper, if you're going to be a murderer, it's not a good idea," Jackson said. "That, I am not."
His explosive 2005 trial on sex charges drew international attention. Prosecutors portrayed the fortysomething Jackson as a sexual predator who plied victims with wine and girlie magazines.
Jackson was accused of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor - allegations that put him back in the headlines long after his musical career slowed to a crawl.
During the three-month trial, the teen recounted Jackson giving him wine - the singer called it "Jesus juice" - before fondling him as they lay on a bed inside Neverland.
Jackson reportedly encouraged the boy to masturbate before groping the teen.
Millions in payouts
The jury also heard from another purported victim, who testified Jackson molested him when he was between the ages of 7 and 10.
The young man, the son of a Neverland maid, received a $2.4million settlement from Jackson.
The jury also heard that in 1993, Jackson paid a $20 million settlement to a 13-year-old boy.
The youth's mother testified that Jackson browbeat her into letting the teen share a bed with the pop star - and rewarded her the next day with a gold bracelet from Cartier.
The mom recounted on the stand how the "sobbing, crying, shaking, trembling" singer shouted in anger when she balked at the sleeping arrangements.
"We're a family!" he reportedly yelled. "Why can't [he] sleep in my bed? ... Why don't you trust me?"
The youth then slept with Jackson dozens of times from March to July 1993, she said.
The singer's lawyer insisted the payments were made because Jackson didn't like "courtrooms and lawyers," preferring to focus on his musical career.
"He is idealistic and naive," defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau said.
Mesereau also called Culkin to testify there was nothing sexual about his sleepovers in Jackson's bed.
'Human sexuality'
Jackson's collection of gay pornography was introduced as evidence. One book, prosecutors said, "shows everything one man could possibly do to another man."
Prosecutors charged he provided young guests with unlimited candy and video games by day - and sexual assault by night.
"In the evenings, they entered into the world of the forbidden," prosecutor Ron Zonen told the California jury. "They learned about human sexuality from someone who was only too willing to teach them."
Yet the jury acquitted Jackson, even though some of its members believed the superstar had victimized other children.
"I feel that Michael Jackson has probably molested boys," juror Raymond Hultman said.
"To be in your bedroom for 365 straight days and not do something more than just watch television and eat popcorn, that doesn't make sense to me."
Jury foreman Paul Rodriguez offered the "King of Pop" some unsolicited advice after the verdict: "We would hope he doesn't sleep with children anymore."
Jackson - who never testified at his trial - became a virtual recluse after the verdict. He spent time with his own three kids, but was rarely seen in public with other children.
Sex abuse charges plagued, tarnished Michael Jackson's career
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