Just Beat it....to Death

Gaius Petronius.

Posted to Music on Tue Sep 04, 2012 at 02:48:21 PM EST (promoted from Diaries by port1080). RSS.

A recently leaked set of emails is suggesting popstar Michael Jackson's promoters were far more aware of his imminent collapse than claimed earlier.

The musical production compay Anschutz Entertainment Group is being sued from two directions. Their insurers say that AEG witheld information about what terrible shape MJ was in, and want to avoid paying a $17.5 million policy. AEG is also being sued by the Jackson family, who claim they pushed him over the edge while rehearsing for his big London comeback concert. It is thought that the leaked e-mails were part of the legal discovery process.

Whatever the outcome of the lawsuits, what I find fascinating about the matter is how MJ was treated like a delicate hothouse flower. In one e-mail AEG execs were advised to dress casually, since MJ distrusted men in suits. I'm sorry, but Jackson was not a hysterical teenager; he was a 51 year-old father of 2 who had made (and gone through) millions of dollars. It doesn't seem to have occured to anybody to tell him to grow up and act like an adult who is being payed $132 million for a job. AEG did send a doctor to see him, but he was an ENT only interested in the condition of his vocal instrument; this guy didn't seem to notice that MJ's personal physician was loading him up on surgical anesthetics.

Although I think he's mostly a jerk, Hollywood medico Dr. Drew has pointed out that lots of celebrities receive dreadful healthcare, since nobody seems empowered to say no to these people. For all of the love expressed for MJ's talent, nobody grabbed him by the collar, tossed him into a car, and took him to a hospital. The same thing happened to John Belushi. And, I suppose, will happen to the next entertainment sensation.