Living with Michael Jackson
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Living with Michael Jackson is a notorious Granada Television documentary, in which British journalist Martin Bashir interviewed Michael Jackson over a period of 8 months, from the middle of 2002 to January 2003. It was shown first in the UK on ITV1 (as a Tonight special) on 3 February 2003 and in the US three days later on ABC. The controversy surrounding the programme was one of the factors that led to Jackson's trial for child molestation.
The documentary was made on the suggestion by Jackson's friend Uri Geller. It later emerged that Geller had turned down another 'bid' for the interview by 'faux-naif' journalist Louis Theroux.
The interview was very special, as it had been extremely rare for Jackson to allow such access to his personal life, or to talk so freely about his traumatic childhood. Nevertheless, he did show some reserve when asked to discuss other personal issues, such as the plastic surgery he had had.
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[edit] The Interview
Living With Michael Jackson began at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. During the Neverland section of the interview, Jackson gave Bashir a tour of Neverland. During the interview at Neverland, Jackson discussed topics including his song writing, performing and personal life, and alleged abuse by Michael's father Joseph.
After Neverland, Bashir followed Michael Jackson in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, Jackson spoke about his love life, his changing appearance, and his children. Jackson's children wore face masks while being filmed. Jackson also visited a shopping center and embarked on a spending spree.
Jackson then went to Berlin, Germany. This is where the the "baby dangling" incident occurred. Jackson also visited Berlin Zoo and a charity auction, and received a humanitarian award at the Bambi Awards.
The interview process ended in Miami in January 2003. This section of the documentary is the most controversial, as Jackson revealed information about his plastic surgery, spoke about the 1993 allegations, and defended his love of children.
The documentary also shows a twelve year old boy who was Jackson's favourite friend at the time, and who later became his accuser in charges of sexual abuse. Although on later repeats the documentary censors the child's name, the captions originally stated his name was Gavin. The boy is seen holding hands with Jackson and resting his head on Jackson's shoulder. The boy later stated in the trial that the first encounter was by Jackson's initiative, the latter his own because he was really close to Jackson, and Jackson was his best friend. He and Jackson told about the two sleeping in the same room, though not in the same bed (an occasion was mentioned where Jackson was happy to sleep on the floor and let the boy have the bed). The boy later said that he had not realised the footage would be broadcast globally, and after it aired he was teased by his friends. His mother claims that she did not give Bashir permission to film her son, and was not even aware of the documentary until it aired.
Jackson admitted that "many children", especially pre-adolescent boys (including several member of the Culkin family: Macaulay Culkin, Kieran and their sisters) have slept in the same bed as him, but he denies having had sexual contact with any of them. Jackson claims to allow his children to stay with his friends, for example with Barry Gibb. He believes that children need and deserve lots of non-sexual love.
[edit] Complaints
A school official from the Los Angeles Unified School District lodged a complaint out of concern for Gavin and his younger brother, of general neglect by their mother and sexual abuse by Jackson. See DCFS interview.
[edit] Comment by Sneddon
Responding to concern after the airing, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas W. Sneddon Jr. said that, under California law, merely sleeping with a child, without "affirmative, offensive conduct," isn't criminal. [1]
[edit] Dissatisfaction of Jackson
Jackson felt betrayed by Bashir and complained that the film gives a distorted picture of his behaviour and conduct as a father [2], [3]. He claims that Bashir, in the final version of his interview, used only that material which supported Bashir's opinion of Jackson, which was not a favorable one.
Jackson has filed complaints with the UK's Independent Television Commission and the Broadcasting Standards Commission.
Jackson's lawyers claimed in a British High Court case against Martin Bashir and Granada TV that the documentary was a breach of contract and breach of confidence. The proceedings were put on hold when Jackson was charged with 10 felony counts in late 2003, but since Jackson's acquittal the proceedings could now continue.
Ann Kite, a public relations consultant hired by Jackson's advisers to counter negative publicity, called the documentary a PR-disaster.
[edit] Rebuttal video
In an attempt to repair his image following the Bashir interview, Jackson released a second interview, called 'Take Two' (also referred to as "the rebuttal video"). This was presented by Maury Povich, and contains material which Bashir omitted. It also features new interviews with people close to Jackson, such as his former wife Debbie Rowe. In this interview, she claimed it was on her request that the children wore masks in public.
She also pointed out that the concept of "sharing a bed" can be misunderstood: for example, she herself likes watching TV in bed; when she has a visitor, often both watch TV together in bed.
The video has been shown in a Fox Network special [4], [5].
Part of the footage was not aired because the videographer Hamid Moslehi refused to hand it over because of a financial dispute with Jackson [6], [7]. It was found by police in a search of Moslehi's home in November 2003, and showed the accuser's family praising Jackson.
