Michael Jackson - a lost genius...

[maarten]

ABC, NBC to Air Dueling Michael Jackson Specials

Jan 30, 7:50 PM (ET)

By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A tantalizing choice for television viewers during the February rating "sweeps" -- dangling babies or dwindling noses.

Weeks after NBC announced plans for a special "Dateline" edition on singer Michael Jackson's famously altered face, ABC said on Thursday it will air a Jackson documentary from a British journalist who was with the Gloved One when he held his infant son outside an open hotel window in Berlin.

ABC's documentary, "Living with Michael Jackson," will be telecast Feb. 7 as a two-hour edition of news magazine "20/20," four days after it airs in Britain. Its showing would upstage NBC by 10 days.

NBC has scheduled its "Dateline" special, titled "Michael Jackson Unmasked," for Feb. 17, but network sources said executives at the General Electric Co. -owned broadcaster were thinking about moving up their broadcast.

"This is something we announced a long time ago," one NBC insider said. "To us it seems like a case of playing catch-up on the part of ABC."

A source at ABC, a unit of Walt Disney Co., said the timing of the "20/20" special was more about following the British air date as soon as possible than undermining a rival.

ABC reportedly paid between $4 million and $5 million for U.S. broadcast rights to the "Living with Michael" documentary from British journalist Martin Bashir, outbidding NBC and other competitors in a deal brokered by Granada International.

ABC and NBC, which produced its own special, each stressed the differences between their dueling Jackson events.

GLIMPSES OF NEVERLAND

The ABC documentary consists of exclusive interviews Bashir conducted with Jackson while spending the past eight months in the performer's company. He includes footage of the reclusive star with his children and behind-the-scenes glimpses of life at Jackson's Neverland Ranch in California.

Bashir, who interviewed Princess Diana for the BBC in 1995, was with Jackson in his Berlin hotel room in November when the singer shocked the world by dangling his baby son out of the window for onlookers below to see.

An ABC News spokesman said the interview includes Jackson responding to questions about his plastic surgeries and past allegations of child molestation.

While NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker initially touted the upcoming "Dateline" edition as a one-hour special "on Michael Jackson's face," network officials have said their piece would be broader than that, tracing Jackson's life and career as well as the transformation of his looks.

It includes interviews with several people who have been close to Jackson, including a plastic surgeon who treated him.

The performer ignited worldwide speculation about his face when he was photographed and shown on television during a rare courtroom appearance in November that left many with the impression that he had undergone one "nose-job" too many.

Although Jackson no longer remains the "King of Pop" he once was in the record business, he still makes for good TV.

CBS drew strong ratings with a Jackson concert special in 2001, and his last two American TV interviews, in 1993 and again in 1995 after his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, were highly watched events on ABC.

CBS is owned by Viacom Inc.

[QUINNY]

THIS DOCUMENTARY IS ON BRITISH TV TONIGHT. ITV @ 9pm. Iwill try to watch it.

[maarten]

... give us a full review if you have some time!

[markydefad]

In the clips I've seen, he (Jacko) just denies everything they ask him regarding his numerous plastic surgeries. It is truly amazing to see how the weirdness of his look grew. Supposedly, Daddy Joe teased him by calling him "Big Nose" as a child and he was traumatized. As his solo career takes off, he's hell-bent on changing his looks. Around the time of "Thriller" he's already had a nose job, but it looks fine. But with each LP, the nose gets shaved down til he's left with the pointy Tinman/Morgan Fairchild can-opener probiscus that rumor has, is either removable or flies off at inopportune moments during concerts!!!!

In a related celebrity melt-down story...anyone see the Whiney or is it Witless Houston radio interview on ET or Access Hollywood with a NY DJ (Wendy Williams) wherein Whiney gets all ghetto and swears like Lil Kim at a cock fight while she's on the radio? BLEEEEEEEEPPPPPPP!!!!!

I once heard about all the looping that was required on "The Bodyguard" to get her to sound "less-ghetto". Apparently, it was all true. She be Jersey-ghetto, irregardless of all the charm school and lady training Clive Davis forced on her.
She wants everybody to "FUCK OFF" and LEAVE HER ALONE!!!! But , BUY her damn records, of course!!!! :roll:

[QUINNY]

Sorry, I taped it in the end. Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Leonardo Da Vinci's machines and Frazier seemed a better watch. I peeked at a little bit and Jacko comes across as less weird than one imagines (surprise, surprise?) and a little paranoid/naive. He lives in his own world, which i guess protects him against the wicked world outside (at least he's got one thing right). However, Bashir does appear rather perplexed by his subject and genuinely worried about some of his antics.

[markydefad]

Hmmmm...I've heard the naive, childlike wonderment that Jackson seems to want folks to believe is, quite simply, an act. Liza Minnelli said on Letterman that she heard him on the phone discussing business and the wispy frail child was nowhere to be found. He was tough and demanding. To get to where he was, how could he have behaved like an adolescent in arrested development???

But, at 44, isn't it time to grow up or at least show the public the truth? I have this feeling that he's gonna die an early death....I don't know why. But if anyone coudn't face growing old...it would seem to be Jacko.

Interestingly, gossip maven Liz Smith was on ET last week and they asked her for some brief comments on several celebs. Asked about Diana Ross, she said "A great diva struggling with facing growing older and losing her popularity". Asked about Tom Cruise, she just replied "SECRETIVE"!!!! Yeah, that's the word and that's why everyone suspects he's got something to hide. Supposedly, even Leona Helmsley made a crack that he might be gay, and Bert Fields, Cruise's uber-lawyer said if she made the statement publicly, Tiny Tom may have to SUE!!!!! That's one I wanna see: Tiny Tom vs. The Queen Of Mean!!!!!! :lol:

[QUINNY]

My goodness, what will happen when he hits the male menopause. He'll probably try and buy Disney.

[SandraDee]

MJ is bound to be business-savvy 'cos he's been in the music business all his life & never known anything else. This guy has never really LIVED & that's so incredibly sad. Is he good with business though? I've heard rumours that he's due to go bankrupt to the tune of millions. How can such a successful figure go this way? He wrote many of his tracks so surely he's never gonna starve!
I'm not keen on much of his recent work but 'Off The Wall' is one of, if not THE best LPs ever made IMO & playing it never fails to lift me to highs that no drug could match!

[Nano]

Don't worry Steely, he will never go bankrupt as long as he keeps those Lennon/McCartney publishing rights... :)

I buyed "Off the wall" in CD recently, and have to say I no longer think it's soooo great. For me it's the hits -played to death, sure, but still good- and few else. The title track is my favorite.