11 Feb. in History

Rainlotus

In The News - On This Day... 22 Years Ago --- Warning On Bogus Michael Jackson Show Morning Call February 11, 1984 Hersheypark Arena officials this week warned that counterfeiters are selling tickets for a non-existent Michael Jackson concert at the arena. A spokesman for the arena said no such concert is scheduled at Hersheypark Arena. Tickets for arena events are sold only at authorized ticket agencies, the spokesman said. --- 15 Years Ago --- Spielberg-tinkered Peter Pan Ready To Fly Toronto Star February 11, 1991 About six years ago, as the rights to the James M. Barrie story were about to revert to public domain, Steven Spielberg began talking about a live-action version of Peter Pan,co-starring Michael Jackson as Peter and perhaps veteran meanie Christopher Lee as Captain Hook. It sounded like a union made in Neverland - the classic fairy tale about the boy who refused to grow up by the filmmaker who refused to grow up. For a number of reasons - the unavailability of Jackson and the success of Spielberg's Indiana Jones series among them - Spielberg never got around to his ultimate celluloid fantasy. It was probably for the best. At the time, the director of E.T.and Jaws was being criticized for not tackling grown-up problems on screen. Spielberg's counterpunch: The Color Purple and Empire Of The Sun. Spielberg, now obviously more at peace with himself, has returned to the Peter Panproject. But it won't be the story we all remember from the Disney cartoon feature and the Mary Martin musical. Spielberg's spin, titled simply Hookand taken from a story by Jim V. Hart and Nick (The Boy Who Could Fly) Castle, sounds like the perfect balm for age-obsessed baby boomers. It will feature Robin Williams as an adult Pan, Dustin Hoffman as an Actors Studio version of Captain Hook, Bob Hoskins as first-mate Smee and Maggie Smith as the ninetysomething "Gran" Wendy, who, unlike Peter, has had to deal with the ravages of real time. And Spielberg has nabbed Julia Roberts for that mischievous fairy Tinkerbell. --- 14 Years Ago --- It May Be Hard To Swallow Some Endorsements Los Angeles Times February 11, 1992 You have probably seen Michael Jackson moon walk. You might have seen his hair catch on fire while filming a TV spot. Maybe you even saw him attack a car with a tire iron in a recent music video. But there is one thing you've most certainly never seen Jackson do: Sip a Pepsi. Such details do not bother Pepsi one bit. Last week, the soda giant announced that it was once again turning to Michael Jackson to promote its soft drinks worldwide. Just because Pepsi has paid Jackson an estimated $25 million over the span of three endorsement deals, that doesn't mean he actually has to drink the stuff, does it? "It's not important to us whether he drinks it," Pepsi spokesman Barry Holt said. "He has millions of fans who drink it." What's more, Holt pointed out, Jackson "has a Pepsi vending machine at his home that we supply. We presume he serves it to his guests." Is it wrong for agencies to mislead consumers in this way? Or should the public accept that it is image-and not necessarily reality-that is being sold when they see a slick TV spot starring their favorite celebrity? "When Michael Jackson comes dancing down the stairs singing about Pepsi, people have a right to presume he drinks it," said longtime Los Angeles adman and radio commentator Stan Freberg. The fact that he doesn't, Freberg said, "gives advertising a black eye." Certainly, Jackson-who spurns Pepsi in favor of vitamin-fortified liquids-is not the first celebrity to promote a product he doesn't use. But the pop star's latest link with Pepsi is surely the most visible example of marketing gone haywire... Executives at Pepsi don't even pretend that their highest paid pitchman would actually swallow a mouthful of the soda. But what are they asking consumers to swallow by presenting Jackson as their worldwide wunderkind? "We're not in business with him to have him drink our product," said Bill Katz, who oversees Pepsi advertising internationally for the New York ad agency BBDO Worldwide. "We're in business with him to attach ourselves to his character." For his part, Freberg said, about the only thing that he believes the animal-loving Jackson could convincingly advertise is "food for chimpanzees or llamas." But Jackson's disdain for drinking Pepsi may be "a mere inconvenience" for Pepsi, said Jeffery Goodby, partner at the San Francisco ad agency Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein. "It's still amazingly seductive and fun to watch Michael Jackson do a Pepsi commercial even though you know he doesn't drink the stuff." --- --- Entertainment The Gazette February 11, 1992 Pop music's Michael Jackson announced he will start a new tour in June that will include Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America. The tour will feature material from his latest album, Dangerous. Jackson hopes the tour, which is being backed by Pepsico Inc., will raise $100 million by December 1993. He plans to give the money to Heal the World, a new foundation he is organizing to help children and the environment. Pepsi donated $100,000 to Jackson's new foundation. --- 13 Years Ago --- Jackson on Oprah Buffalo News February 11, 1993 Elusive and mysterious superstar Michael Jackson faced the cameras Wednesday night and told his television audience that he has a skin disorder that destroys the pigment of his skin. "It is something that I cannot help," an emotional Jackson told interviewer Oprah Winfrey. "When people make up stories that I don't want to be what I am, it hurts me. I'm a black American. I'm proud to be a black American. I'm proud of my race." Jackson denied bleaching his skin. "It's a problem for me, OK? I can't control it," the pop megastar said. The disorder, which he didn't identify, runs in the family, he said. In his first solo interview in nearly a decade, the eccentric 34-year-old star said he surrounds himself with children to make up for a friendless, workaholic childhood. He said he was beaten by his father and still doesn't like to look at himself in mirrors (his recent hit "Man in the Mirror" notwithstanding). And he dismissed a question about whether he is a virgin, answering, "You can call me old-fashioned if you want." Jackson spoke animatedly and occasionally giggled during the 90-minute interview at his Neverland ranch near Santa Barbara. He wore a red shirt with epaulets, dark pants and an armband. By confronting rumors about his personal life, Jackson said, he hoped his fans could focus on his art. He quickly dispensed with one of those rumors: that he bleached his skin. "There is no such thing as skin bleaching," he said. "I've never seen it. I don't know what it is." He said his disorder began after the 1982 release of his "Thriller" album, and he uses makeup to cover its effects. "Why is that so important? That's not important to me," he said. "What about the millions of people who sit out in the sun and become darker than they are?" Jackson said he had minor cosmetic surgery, including changes to his nose, but didn't alter most of his face. "Very little. You can count it on two fingers," he said, referring to cosmetic procedures. He referred listeners to his 1988 autobiography, "Moonwalk," in which Jackson wrote that he had two nose jobs and a chin cleft made. He also defended his crotch-grabbing during performances, saying, "It happens subliminally." He added: "It's the music that compels me to do it. You don't think about it, it just happens. I'm a slave to the rhythm." Jackson said he lost his childhood to constant rehearsals, recordings and touring. He often would cry when he saw other children playing, he said. "Slumber parties, hanging out. There was none of that for me. I didn't have any friends when I was little," he said. "People always wonder why I have children around. . . . I find a thing I never had through them." His purpose in life? "I feel I was chosen as an instrument to give music, love and harmony to the world," he said. His friend Elizabeth Taylor appeared on the broadcast to declare that Jackson "is the least weird man I've ever known." "If he has any eccentricities, he's larger than life, and some people just cannot accept that or understand it," she said. Jackson blasted what he called "god-awful stories" about his personal life. A photo billed as showing him sleeping in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber actually shows him testing equipment at a burn center he founded, he said. The broadcast included a tour of his ranch, which resembles a carnival with a Ferris wheel and other rides. A movie theater has beds for the terminally ill children he regularly has as guests. Winfrey said Jackson set no ground rules for the interview, the latest sign he is emerging from his reclusiveness. His recent appearances include President Clinton's inauguration celebration and the Super Bowl halftime extravaganza. In Forbes magazine's ranking of the 1991-92 highest-paid entertainers, Jackson was No. 6, with $51 million. Winfrey was No. 2, with $88 million. In other revelations, he said: He doesn't like going out to date, but a woman friend does come to his "Neverland" ranch. He had a crush on singer Diana Ross. As a teen, he had so many pimples he refused to look in mirrors. "I washed my face in the dark," he said. --- 10 Years Ago --- Grammys 'Webcast' To Go Behind Scenes The Gazette February 11, 1996 Michael Jackson, Pearl Jam and Mariah Carey are coming live to a personal computer near you. Apple Computer will present live, interactive coverage of the Grammy awards ceremony on Feb. 28 - the largest music event ever to be broadcast on the Internet. The broadcast, or "Webcast," underscores the growing influence of technology in the music world... --- --- Michael Jackson Update Washington Times February 11, 1996 Michael Jackson and Spike Lee began work yesterday on Brazilian segments of "They Don't Care About Us," a video with planned slum footage that angered politicians who are trying to sanitize Rio de Janeiro's image. Footage in Rio's now-notorious Dona Marta hillside slum was planned for today, despite attempts to prohibit the Jackson video focusing on poverty. Mr. Lee captured shots of more than 200 members of the Olodum drumming corps in the old downtown area of Salvador, Brazil's former imperial capital. More than 300 Air Force cadets helped city and state police on security lines. Politicians and Brazilian officials including Sports Minister Pele have objected, fearing the video could hurt the city's chances to become host of the 2004 Olympics. Dona Marta, one of many similar slums in Rio, doesn't even exist on official city maps. Raw sewage streams in open ditches. Running water is a luxury. Hepatitis and diarrhea are endemic... --- 8 Years Ago --- 'Decades': Those Were The Days Sarasota Herald Tribune February 11, 1998 Don't be surprised if you feel a bit breathless at the end of "Decades" at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. It's a whirlwind musical tour of the 20th century in America, performed in a nearly non-stop manner by a mostly pleasing cast. Created and directed by Claude McNeal, "Decades" offers a breezy, if somewhat cheesy, look through popular song at how we've changed over the decades. From turn-of-the-century standards like "And the Band Played On" and "Merry Oldsmobile" through disco, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, McNeal uses song to illustrate our constantly changing cultural life. We see it in Rick Criswell's colorful costumes, which clearly depict different eras, and we hear it in melodies and lyrics, which shift over time from a guy trying to steal a kiss on an afternoon drive to a man claiming he's so sexy that it hurts... --- --- New York Choir To Perform In City Sarasota Herald Tribune February 11, 1998 A New York choir that has performed and recorded with Placido Domingo, Michael Jackson and other stars will appear Thursday in Sarasota as part of a four-city Florida tour... The St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys is scheduled to perform at 7:30 p.m. at the Church of the Redeemer, 222 S. Palm Ave. Admission is $15... --- 4 Years Ago --- Underground in Spirit Malay Mail February 11, 2002 Alien Ant Farm are a distraught lot with some serious tunes to dish out. But for a band that claims their angry guitar-bashing is therapy for their bad experiences, they're not as complex as they seem... When they hit the charts with their hard, rowdy, guitar-driven take on Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal, expectations for their album soared. Rave reviews followed, with one impressed critic describing their music as 'rocking stuff for straight A skaters'... In the end, what was supposed to be the album's last track became a fluke hit. "We didn't mean for it to happen but it did and it's a good thing. It takes a good musician or singer to cover a Michael Jackson song." The praise AAF earned for their unique interpretation of the hit song has also got the thumbs-up from Jackson himself... --- --- People In The News St. Louis Post February 11, 2002 Guru to the stars Deepak Chopra has purchased two high-rise Manhattan apartments, both of which promise breathtaking views of the city once they're completed. The big investment is a three-bedroom extravaganza on the 60- somethingth floor of the AOL Time Warner building on Columbus Circle. Chopra, whose friends, as he calls them, include Hugh Hefner, Donna Karan, Demi Moore, Michael Jackson and Madonna, paid about $6.5 million for that one. But it won't be ready for 20 to 24 months. So he's tiding himself over with a place on the 69th floor of the Park Imperial on West 56th Street, which should be ready in less than a year. Cost of tiding over: somewhere in the mid-$2 million range... --- 3 Years Ago --- Your Letters: Quit Picking on Him Evening Mail February 11, 2003 I'm no great fan of Michael Jackson, but it sickens me the way some individuals are persecuted for public pleasure. Instead of dedicating so much time to finding fault with the parenting skills of celebrities who are often the victims of jealousy, I suggest we concentrate on the thousands of children who are starved, burned, beaten and neglected every year. - Barbara Dunn, Moseley --- --- Letter: Unfair To Jackson Liverpool Echo February 11, 2003 I think Martin Bashir and ITV have let down Michael Jackson and his millions of fans. The way the programme was edited was unfair. It was obvious from watching that Jackson is a gentle, sensitive man who cares deeply about children. Jackson maybe odd and eccentric but it will take more than cheap trashy television like this to convince me that he's a danger to children. T. Draper, Manchester --- --- Bashing Jackson Reveals Our Flaws Toronto Star February 11, 2003 ...I am astonished by how people need to repeatedly bash Jackson. And more than astonished, I am tired of it. He's such a big, open, easy target to hit- we've all seen the pictures and heard the stories. How could anybody miss it? It seems to me that people just bash him to make themselves feel better, or more comfortable with their own, less extreme, abnormal behaviours. As I said, I agree, he's a very strange individual. But he has also had a life that none of us could even fathom living and people surrounding him who have guarded him from the realities of normal life. It's society that has the real problems, not him. Jamie Drayton, Toronto