Actors - Living with Michael Jackson

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	Actors - Living with Michael Jackson

Living with Michael Jackson is a notorious Granada Television documentary in which Michael Jackson is extensively interviewed by British journalist Martin Bashir over a period of 8 months beginning midway through 2002 up until January 2003. It was shown first in the UK on ITV1 (as a Tonight special) on 3 February, 2003 and then in the U.S. three days later on ABC. 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 Interview

Living With Michael Jackson begins at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. During the Neverland section of the interview, we see Michael Jackson give Martin Bashir a tour of Neverland, including a head to head match up on the go-karts. During the interviews conducted at Neverland, topics discussed included song writing, performing and his personal life, which included an 8 minute discussion on the alleged abuse by Michael's father, Joseph.

After Neverland, we meet Michael Jackson in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, Michael Jackson speaks about his love life, his changing appearance, and his children, whom we get to meet. Michael's children wore face masks on camera. Also in Las Vegas, Michael Jackson visits a shopping center and embarks on a spending spree.

Next up, we arrive in Berlin, Germany. This section of the interview revolved around the "baby dangling" incident. Also in Germany, Michael Jackson visits Berlin Zoo, a charity auction and received a humanitarian award at the Bambi Awards.

The interview finishes up in Miami in January 2003. This segment is said to be the most confronting and most controversial. In this segment, Michael Jackson reveals information about his plastic surgery, he speaks about the 1993 allegations, and defends his love of children.

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 "many children", especially pre-adolescent boys (including Macaulay Culkin when he was younger, his younger brother Kieran and sisters) have slept in the same bed as him, but he denies having had sex with any of them. Conversely, Jackson claims to allow his children to stay with his friends, for example with Barry Gibb. He emphasizes that children need and deserve lots of (non-sexual) love.

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.

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.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Living with Michael Jackson ]

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Actors - Living with Michael Jackson

The Interview

Complaints

Comment by Sneddon

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