It would appear the "strategy" of having Michael Jackson defend himself on 60 Minutes last Sunday yielded mixed results at best. In addition to re-creeping out the nation by insisting that it's hunky dory to sleep with children, his chief spokesperson has resigned over "strategic differences":
- Michael Jackson's chief spokesman has resigned over what he called "strategic differences" with other members of the singer's entourage.
Stuart Backerman stepped down the day after a television interview with Mr Jackson was broadcast in the US.
Mr Backerman said: "I resigned... over strategic differences with the way things are going."
....Mr Backerman said he had no firm plans for the future and did not know who would replace him as spokesman.
He added: "The one thing I will say is that I love Michael Jackson and his fans." [BBC]
- While Backerman wouldn't specify what the differences were, the New York Times said the rep's clashes were with the Nation of Islam.
The Chicago-based spiritual group, often derided as an extremist organization for the divisive, anti-Semitic rhetoric spewed by leader Louis Farrakhan, is in "full and total charge" of Jackson's business and finances, sources told the paper Tuesday.
This follows reports in mid-December by Us Weekly and the New York Post that said much the same thing. At the time, Backerman downplayed the Nation of Islam's involvement, saying the group's reps were merely among the many individuals who'd offered Jackson help. "There is no truth that we are fired," Backerman told Us Weekly. "It is not true. Nobody has been let go."
On Monday, it was Jackson's A-list attorney, Mark Geragos, who took credit for Backerman's departure. "He was terminated by me personally for talking when I told him not to," Geragos said in the New York Daily News.
....According to an unidentified Jackson "business associate" who spoke to the Times, the 45-year-old entertainer is even more under the thumb of the Nation of Islam than Geragos. "These people are basically brainwashing him...Everyone is scared of them. They pretty much keep Michael semi-captive," the source told the paper.
The Times said Jackson is a not a member of the Nation of Islam. The New York Post earlier asserted he'd converted to the religion. Jackson has long been associated with the Jehovah's Witnesses.
The Nation of Islam issued a statement Monday saying "it has no official business or professional relationship" with Jackson. [E! online]
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
i saw the 60 minutes thing...i think if they want him to appear in public again he should wear a bag over his head like the unknown comic.
his 'look' just adds to the bizarreness of his words.
2 - Eric Olsen
He is well on his way to being considered the biggest mainstream freak of his generation, and most bizarre of all: it's all of his own doing.
3 - Mac Diva
I knew it! People, including his lawyer I suspect, are giving Michael Jackson good advice and he is ignoring it.
Meanwhile, his stock is getting lower and lower. Jay Leno killed him in his monologue last night. Example: "Michael Jackson got a new game boy for Christmas."
4 - Eric Olsen
you were perspicacious indeed, my dear
5 - Andrew Ian Dodge
Michael is heading for disaster methinks. I would not be too surprised if he didn't see out 2004. The quotes purloined from that interview in the press in the UK were pretty damning.
6 - Michelle
the 60 Minutes interview was nothing spectacular. and the reason why he did it was that CBS needed a clarification from him on which he states his innocence, so that they could finally broadcast the Number Ones Special past night, which had been postponed past November.
7 - nick scata
what has happened to this guy he used to be soo awesome then he has become an idiot over these long years. Personally i reckon Jacksons last good thing he ever did was the dangerous after that.....