Michael Jackson fans sure know how to party. As each "not guilty" rang out through the loudspeakers outside the Santa Maria courtroom yesterday, all kinds of crazy incidents occurred.
As Jackson was being aquitted, the crowd of fans shouted with joy. They carried various props, including the obligatory giant banners of Michael Jackson’s face and signs reading ‘innocent’. And the sign reading ‘Are You A FOOL? Then REPENT!’ was sublime in it’s pointlessness – it’s a fair bet that nobody saw the sign on TV and sat up rubbing their eyes, finally realising they were a fool after all these years.
But the winner of the non-existent award for Crazy Things Brought To The Verdict Of The Michael Jackson Trial goes to the lady with the giant basket of doves, who let one out for every "not guilty" heard. God knows what she’s have done if the verdict went the other way – trampled them underfoot, probably.
It wasn’t just the fans who amazed. The media did their best to
out-crazy everyone. There was a long wait, you see, from Michael
Jackson (CDs) leaving Neverland to the reading of the verdicts. And that
meant that the assembled journalists from around the world had to fill
wildly.
The sight of the media trying to build a story around basically a
few cars driving slowly down a road was a pleasurable one. If it wasn’t
the American reporter shrieking "Woah! Wait a MINUTE! It’s countdown to JUSTICE!", it was the ITN man describing the journey as "surreal"
– it wasn’t. Some black people carriers moving along a road isn’t
surreal. A million lobsters burrowing out of a cloud to sing the
soundtrack to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II – The Secret Of The Ooze:
now that’s surreal.
But now, Michael Jackson is a free man. His financial situation is
in tatters, as is his reputation. He hasn’t been creatively relevant
for years now, so how will he go about rebuilding his image?
There are three paths Jackson could choose to go down. Firstly, he could back away from the spotlight.
But this won’t help his money problems, and the trial has shown he
still has some very devoted fans. And Michael Jackson is a man with an
ego so vast that he has a picture of the last supper above his bed,
with himself as Jesus with Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein as his disciples, so backing away from attention is unlikely.
The next option is to attempt to rebrand himself as a culturally relevant force.
This could be let down by the fact that he hasn’t had a big hit record
for years, and he might be too frail to stage such a comeback. However,
he’s out with a point to prove now – it might not be too long before
he’s got an album out called Justice or Resurrection or something.
Lastly, Michael Jackson could become a touring nostalgia machine.
He’s got plenty of fans in Asia and mainland Europe, and touring there
would take some of the domestic heat off him. And touring is such a
lucrative pursuit, he could regain a lot of his money. Remember, Thriller stands as the biggest-selling album of all time. There are 51 million fans that would love to hear him sing the old hits.
This is all just idle speculation, though. But whatever Jackson decides to do next, the world will be watching.
Related stories:
Michael Jackson Cleared Of All Charges
Michael Jackson To Become Vegas Attraction?
[story by Stuart Heritage]