Sunday 8 March 2009

Hollywood Babble On & On #245: Michael Jackson, Lawsuits, and Hollywood

The other day I asked why the AEG corporation decided to piss away $400 million to pay for Michael Jackson's comeback tour and movie deal, and then I saw some more evidence that doing business with the self-proclaimed King of Pap Pop is just plain bad business.

Michael Jackson is suing the auction house that's handling the sale of items from his Neverland Ranch, claiming that they do not have his permission to auction the items. Apparently Jackson giving them the items and contracting them to handle the sale does not construe permission in the mind of a man who has this painting done, without any of the irony that may imply sanity.

First I must say that there is a point to this little rant, you see, I only discuss idiotic celeb behaviour when there's a point to it. For decades Michael Jackson has presented himself as the child-like innocent trapped in a world that doesn't understand him.

Only his few remaining fans don't understand him, the rest of the world seems to have a pretty good handle on him, even if they can't put it into words.

You see Jackson isn't child-like, he's childish, there's a difference. He wants what he wants when he wants it, and nothing, not even cold reality, will get in his way. Bills mean nothing to him, contracts mean nothing, because he's the "king" and all should just take his shit and call it ice cream.

His image of innocence is also inaccurate, because he's apparently not above using that image to try to get away with his often bizarre, avaricious, and frequently litigious behaviour. There seems to me a great deal of cynicism in all of his business dealings, a lot of "gimme, gimme" with no care to how he gets it, as long as he gets all he can get.

I mean can anyone name any business relationship Jackson's had that hasn't ended in a lawsuit?

Which finally brings me to the point as to why people are still willing to do business with Jacko.

By Hollywood business standards he's normal.

They expect business people to grab money, spend it wildly, and try to use their legal muscle to get out of their responsibilities. Just look at how many studios do the cold calculations of whether or not it would be cheaper to pay someone what they're owed, or to fight it in court, and sometimes, they do it, even when litigation is more expensive, just because they don't want to pay their bills.

Michael Jackson is the self-fulfilling idiocy of Hollywood in the emaciated, surgically butchered flesh. Decades of isolation from normalcy has made him believe that his life is normal, and Hollywood seems to think that way too.

Ironically, unlike Jackson, Hollywood seems to be losing investor confidence, while Jackson's still able to reel them in for reasons beyond the ken of mortal men.

No comments:

Post a Comment