Living with Michael Jackson is a notorious Granada Television documentary [1] in which Michael Jackson is extensively interviewed by British journalist Martin Bashir. It was shown first in the UK on 3 February, 2003 and then in the U.S. three days later. The controversy surrounding the programme was one of the factors that led to Jackson being put on trial for child molestation.
The documentary was made following a suggestion by Jackson's friend Uri Geller. It later emerged that Geller had turned down another 'bid' for the interview by 'faux-naif' journalist and presenter, Louis Theroux. An interview with Jackson was very special, for it had been extremely rare for Jackson to allow such access to his personal life, or indeed to talk so freely about his traumatised childhood. However he showed some reserve when asked to discuss other personal issues, such as the plastic surgery he had on his face. In one of his favorite shops and in the renting of rooms in hotels he demonstrated extravagant spending.
The documentary also shows a boy who was Jackson's friend at the time, and later became his accuser, born December 1989, at the time of the filming 12 years old. The boy is seen holding hands with Jackson and resting his head on Jackson's shoulder. The boy stated in the trial that the first was Jackson's initiative, the latter his own, because he was really close to Jackson, and Jackson was his best friend. He and Jackson tell about the two sleeping in the same room, though not in the same bed (they told about an occasion where each was happy to sleep on the floor and let the other have the bed). The boy has later told that he had not realized that the footage would be broadcast all over the world. After the airing he was teased by his friends. His mother claims that she has not given Bashir permission to film her son, and was not even aware of that until the airing.
Jackson admitted that several young children, especially pre-adolescent boys (including Macaulay Culkin when he was younger, his younger brother Kieran and sisters[2]) have slept in the same bed as him, but he denies having had sex with any of them. Conversely, Jackson lets his children stay with his friends, for example with Barry Gibb. He emphasizes that children need and deserve lots of love — not sexual, but like having hot milk and cookies, tucking them in, telling a bed-time story, etc.
Complaints
A school official from the Los Angeles Unified School District lodged a complaint out of concern for the boy who would later be Jackson's accuser, and his younger brother, of general neglect by their mother and sexual abuse by Jackson. See DCFS interview.
"Media psychiatrist" Carole Lieberman complained out of concern for Jackson's own children, see links below.
Also feminist attorney Gloria Allred has called for California authorities to investigate. [3]
Comment by Sneddon
Responding to concern after the airing, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas W. Sneddon Jr. said that, under California law, merely sleeping with a child, without "affirmative, offensive conduct," isn't criminal. [4]
Dissatisfaction of Jackson
Jackson felt betrayed by Bashir and complained that the film gives a distorted picture of his behaviour and conduct as a father [5]. He claims that Bashir, in the final version of his interview, used only that material which supported Bashir's opinion of Jackson, which was not a favorable one.
Jackson has filed complaints with the UK's Independent Television Commission and the Broadcasting Standards Commission.
Ann Kite, a public relations consultant hired by Jackson's advisers to counter negative publicity, called the documentary a PR-disaster.
Rebuttal video
Following the airing of the Bashir interview, Jackson released a second interview, called 'Take Two', also referred as "the rebuttal video", presented by Maury Povich, which contains material which Bashir omitted, and also features new interviews with people close to Jackson, such as his former wife Debbie Rowe, who says that it is on her request that the children wear masks in public.
She also pointed out that the concept of "sharing a bed" can be misunderstood: for example, she herself likes watching TV in bed; when she has a visitor, often both watch TV together in bed.
The video has been shown in a Fox Network special [6] [7].
Part of the footage was not aired because the videographer Hamid Moslehi refused to hand it over, because of a financial dispute with Jackson [8] [9]. It was found by police in a search of Moslehi's home in November 2003, and showed the accuser's family praising Jackson. Allegedly the family was put under pressure by Jackson's aides to participate and say positive things. This part was filmed in the night of 19 February 2003 in Moslehi's home.
External links
