As a rule I try to avoid writing about all things Hollywood for several reasons. One, I find that as an industry it is incredibly overrated and two, I find the players involved to be wholly shallow, self-centered and not the least bit interesting.
But I make an exception to this when the topic comes to Michael Jackson. Yes, like most Americans, Jacko has become a bit of a tragic figure to me. The trial that he is currently mired in is for charges that, if true, are incredibly heinous and unacceptable. However that trial is not why I am writing today.
I'm writing because I am wondering aloud how one man can be in such a dire financial situation after making so much money. Jackson was THE ultimate talent of the early 80's racking up impressive sales and expanding his own personal brand into an international sensation.
But the success clearly was not a tonic for Jackson's main issue: his feeling of self loathing. Despite fame, fortune and adulation, Jackson went from a talented legendary talent into a walking freakshow. Along the way he made a vast fortune and now appears to have lost it all.
In yesterday's Wall Street Journal it was reported that Jacko is on the hook for $270M in loans. His situation is so dire that he will probably have to sell some or all of his 50% share in Sony/ATV music (a music catalog that includes most of The Beatles recordings).
How a man could fall this far, spend so much money is beyond the thought process of rational humans. However that is the point in all of this. Jackson is not rational. He's not because he was forced into Showbiz at a young age by an overbearing father and became the family breadwinner. Once he finally broke free of the family in the late 70's and found success, his issues with his childhood rose to the surface and he started his sad pathetic journey to the life he has today.
Now he's broke and owes more money than a third world government. His immense talent wasted, his life a shambles. If convicted Jackson will lose everything (and still might even if acquitted).
Hawk's View: The sad case of Jackson is yet another of celebrity gone bad. It is a reminder of how superficialness in life tends to lead to a life that is unfulfilling. I don't feel sorry for Jackson for what he has become. However, I do feel that his fall from grace is a lesson to all of us.
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