Michael Jackson Asked Katie Couric Out On A Date, Using His Rabbi

@ligaya2: Thanks for sharing that, sorry to hear what you went through of course. I do not take pedophilia lightly either, as I hope nobody does. It is a terrible thing to put any child through.

And no, I am most certainly not saying acquittal is any indication of guilt or innocence. But we as a country supposedly live by the code of innocent until proven guilty. It just seems more and more these days that we no longer practice that, and in fact now it's guilty until proven innocent in both the eyes of the law and the general public. Of course being that MJ was such an odd character I think people are more willing to accept it because they can't explain his behavior.

Anyways, I suppose we may never truly know the facts. I am willing to give MJ the benefit of the doubt as I would to anybody in his position.

@Steverino Begins: The issue I take with Halperin is that he promotes, in fact centers his book around, a complete untruth: That Michael Jackson was gay. And according to every single person whose ever known him, he was NOT.

Halperin was only able to publish this book because Michael Jackson died suddenly and his family was too stricken to deal with blocking the publication. The book has been in the works for YEARS but no publishing house would touch it because they KNEW Jackson would sue. And he would have a right to: Halperin talks with people only vaguely associated with Jackson, and only from afar. He relies on a cadre of anonymous "sources" that essentially spread the same rumor and tell the same story all over again. The idea -- the very IDEA -- that Michael Jackson COULD go sneak into a hotel to meet a gay lover is insane. Jackson was followed by mobs and mobs of people and press everywhere he went, and no disguise ever stopped that, especially not any disguises as half-assed as the ones Halperin "describes."

It's an insult to the women he's loved in his life, the women who he married (ESPECIALLY to Lisa Marie, who I'm not necessarily a fan of, but once you read Taraborelli you'll get it: She fell HARD for him and he gave every indication that he fell as hard for her. From what I know from my gay friends, none of them were able to fake that much enthusiasm, even when they still thought they were straight).

The only friend of Jackson's that Haleperin manages to talk to (in disguise himself, as she would not grant him an interview) is Liza Minelli and she doesn't discuss Jackson beyond a reiteration of her love for him. Re-fucking-diculous.

I've said it before: There are enough weird things going on in Jackson's psyche and his life to write about without resorting to making shit up. I think, by the end of his life, Jackson had gotten just enough therapy to stop caring about the gay rumors, to finally realize that it doesn't matter what people say and that he knows himself enough to stop defending that. He had children to raise, after all.

I'm glad Halperin was able to conclude that Jackson wasn't a pedophile or a molestor, but I think his book is BULLSHIT and I think if I need an author to exonorate Michael for me, it won't be that worthless piece of shit.

So I went away for two weeks. I don't have a gold star, but my comments always went through. Now I can only comment in response to someone else. WTF

Tarawanna

tarawanna

@nicepony: "Dead on!"

DoctorEcks

Oy Vey! Enough with the "Rabbi Shmuli"! already. Some vun shood maybe be making dis shiksa stop talking for a minute?! Letterman!!!!! Embrace your roots you closet case!!!

DoctorEcks

No way this is true. Even Michael Jackson had standards.

doctorzizmor

@lobstr: Can't libel the dead, my friend.

jorel845

@ligaya2: (sorry, should have posted this here)

I didn’t know Michael Jackson had a rabbi, that’s how closely I followed news about him. I’m an incest survivor so I don’t take pedophilia lightly. I’m also pro-fairness, accuracy, balance & context. Stream Of Consciousness, Stoprobbers & TruthBeTold make excellent points – as survivors, and people who’ve worked in and studied this issue will tell you. Contrast the accusations and record of the Roman Catholic priests with that of Michael Jackson. MJ lived at Neverland for 17 years & hosted thousands of children from hospitals – surely he had ample opportunity to prey on more than 2. He could also have gone to Thailand as many men have done to have sex with underage boys and girls.

I’m assuming we’re not saying every/anyone who’s been acquitted was guilty & just got off; that means nobody was innocent – which is totally nonsensical. Conversely, we know that not everybody who’s been convicted are guilty. Project Innocence has worked with Death Row inmates – most poor Black/Latino. A number of them have been proven innocent with more sophisticated DNA techniques. But beliefs and media prejudice can be hard to budge – when given clear scientific proof that the man she identified as her rapist didn’t match the DNA evidence, a woman insisted on her original story – she had believed it for decades, she couldn’t be wrong.

ligaya2

@LolpantsofArabia: It's been awhile, but I read from a number of sources that the great Ghandi regularly slept with pubescent Indian girls to sleep better - nothing sexual. I thought it a little odd, but he was Ghandi so I gave him a pass.

ligaya2

@LolpantsofArabia: Clearly, he shouldn't have. But whether he had the mindset/intentions/actions of a pedophile, or something else entirely is different. He clearly needed therapy for some many things very early on. I don't understand why no one like Quincy or Diana or Oprah or Elizabeth tried to persuade him, or if they did and he refused. Emotionally/psychologically he had arrested development. He was childisly naive in some ways. Let's look at the children's story Peter Pan from an cynical adult's eyes through a glass darkly and can't we see the same distorted picture?

ligaya2

@onebadclam: Or Galapagos tortoises. Maybe he's a Galapagos tortoise in disguise, and does Homeland Security know about this?

I didn’t know Michael Jackson had a rabbi, that’s how closely I followed news about him. I’m an incest survivor so I don’t take pedophilia lightly. I’m also pro-fairness, accuracy, balance & context. Stream Of Consciousness, Stoprobbers & TruthBeTold make excellent points – as survivors, and people who’ve worked in and studied this issue will tell you. Contrast the accusations and record of the Roman Catholic priests with that of Michael Jackson. MJ lived at Neverland for 17 years & hosted thousands of children from hospitals – surely he had ample opportunity to prey on more than 2. He could also have gone to Thailand as many men have done to have sex with underage boys and girls.

I’m assuming we’re not saying every/anyone who’s been acquitted was guilty & just got off; that means nobody was innocent – which is totally nonsensical. Conversely, we know that not everybody who’s been convicted are guilty. Project Innocence has worked with Death Row inmates – most poor Black/Latino. A number of them have been proven innocent with more sophisticated DNA techniques. But beliefs and media prejudice can be hard to budge – when given clear scientific proof that the man she identified as her rapist didn’t match the DNA evidence, a woman insisted on her original story – she had believed it for decades, she couldn’t be wrong.

ligaya2

@Bellyboop: Is it her now striking resemblance to Kate Gosselin?

irishflyesq

@Stream Of Consciousness: Who cares? Whatever he did or didn't do with them, he shared his bed with pubescent boys.

My guess: that is not near the top of most women's lists of desirable date traits.

LolpantsofArabia

@aLostLady: What about King's grandmother? If she were still alive she would be well over 100 years old, which is not unusual for some reptilian species.

onebadclam

@stoprobbers: Haven't read Taraborelli yet. It's next on my list.

Hmm, so what's your story, and why are you so pissed at the Halperin book? Is there a specific claim that you find repulsive? It's not on the level of Maureen Orth or Diane Dimond at all; he generally dismisses them. How can you say Halperin is the "worst" kind of trash if he's at least making an attempt to sift through the rubbish?

@Hydroceph: These accusations are ridiculous, because I've said, many times, that Larry King is not a giant lizard... in my opinion. CNN's producers are also of the opinion that Larry King is not a giant lizard. Although the arguments that Larry King is a giant lizard are compelling, and all this could be solved if he would just provide some proof, like a $12 Certificate of Official Human Species, which he won't, not ever, I have no reason, in my opinion, to believe that Larry King is a giant lizard.

oh barf. barf and barf and barf until I can pull my sphincter out my mouf.

I would believe it if he had used his rabbit.

SanjivaniChrysippus

@RussianTaco:
It's weird. I hated her when her hair was longer. Now that it's short, I like her. Who knew?

@aLostLady: So you're saying he's basically a giant lizard? I'm fine with that, i just want to be sure.

@Steverino Begins: While I appreciate the recommendation, I think the Halperin book is the worst kind of libelous trash, and an insult to writers and reporters everywhere. If you want to read an excellent book that reaches these conclusions about his molestation accusations, what you should REALLY read is J. Randy Taraborelli's "The Magic & The Madness." Taraborelli has been a reporter covering Michael and his family, and a friend of the family, since the early 1970's. While his biography skews tabloid in certain places, it is meticulously researched and incredibly thorough. The insight it gives into his psyche through his relationship with his family, his very, very few friends, his famous friends (he decribes Taylor and Jackson as "fascinated with each other" and I think that's about as fine a point as you can put on it), and with the women he loved ESPECIALLY the (very real and very sexual) relationship and marriage with Lisa Marie Presley.

The edition I have, which I bought before his death, went through the Bashir documentary, but an edition through the end of his life has just been released. I'm very serious: Read it. It only puts Halperin's ridiculous, STUPID joke of a book into a harsher light.

@stoprobbers: As I wrote in another thread, I think you'll like the Halperin book. He comes to the same conclusion.

@aLostLady: Maybe deep down he really wants to be LL Cool J.

Maybe it's just me but Larry King has this strange gift of saying some of the weirdest, sleaziest things without appearing crass and crude.

Paul.B.Dodd

Oh gross. I never noticed how often Larry King licks his lips, except I can't tell that he has lips, so it's more like he's licking the lining of the cavern that is his mouth.

Note: My sincerest apologies for putting that particular image into the world.

@Macloserboy: Right...so settling out of court is an admission of guilt?? Since when? Perhaps it was easier and cheaper to settle out of court rather than drag it out for years in the system.

How about you PROVE he did it (which you cannot) or get off it already?

@Macloserboy: But proving racketeering in court and proving child molestation, or proving MURDER vs. proving child molestation is totally different. I mean, no pedophile molests only ONE boy. Or 2, if you're willing to believe the 1993 allegations. The molest dozens. They molest HUNDREDS.

And yet, no matter how hard they looked, no one at the DA's office could find ANYONE ELSE who had been molested. No children, no families were forthcoming. All the DA's office ever got -- and all ANY REPORTER has ever gotten -- is a number of EX-employees, or EX-managers, who would say they saw things that were "weird." None of them even claimed they saw him molest anyway.

Michael Jackson was a weird man, and he was definitely out of touch with reality, but I don't think he was a child molester, and I think that its DISGUSTING that people still sling it around like it's an obvious truth.

@lobstr: Also, Letterman is totally ruling this MJ-loves-the-ladies genre of Jackson stories.

@Macloserboy: Al Capone was also not a major pop star with an image to protect. Do any of you people that are constantly sure Jackson was bangin lil boys, have any idea what pedophiles are and how they operate? This man was odd and clearly had a skewed sense of reality. However for the vast numbers of children around him. There is a major chord that is off the mark. Not one, but two major incidents calling him a pedo. Splashed around the globe. Yet only two boys ever got the ole MJ schlong? Yep, makes perfect sense.

TruthBeTold

An episode of Shalom in the Home at Neverland Ranch would have been a hell of a score for Rabbi Shmuley.

He probably thought she was Bob Costas.

He used a rabbi? That's silly. He shoulda just sent an owl, like everyone else.

Katie's mild case of Paltrow Legs is a little distracting...

Mymoustache

@goetz: D'oh!

TubOfTaft

@nicepony: I totally agree. She was the somewhat attractive JV cheerleader who always ended up at the bottom of the spirit pile.

@Stream Of Consciousness: It's the same difference. It was never proven in a court of law. You can't play the "but he was acquitted" card then insist it doesn't apply to everyone. Al Capone never coughed up $23M dollars for a crime he didn't commit.

@TubOfTaft: And ONLY ONE armed robbery.

goetz

@lobstr: The only crime OJ was guilty of was not making another Naked Gun sequel.

TubOfTaft

I'm just going to pass notes through my rabbi from now on:

Do you like me? Check ken or lo.

As a great consolation prize to MJ's passing, all these awesome stories are coming out of the woodwork (seemingly via late night talk show interviews), but I'm wondering if these people felt the need to bottle this shit up while he was alive in fear of some crazy ass lawsuit? Why else haven't these great stories ever surface sooner?

@Macloserboy: Well I don't claim to know whether or not Jackson did in fact molest any children....but he was in fact acquitted. And being acquitted is not proof of guilt.

And Capone is a totally different story. The world KNOWS what crimes he did committ....regardless of how they took him down.

So MJ asked Suze Orman out on a date?

RoyJagabat

@Macloserboy: OJ, anyone?

@Stream Of Consciousness: Al Capone was never convicted of racketerring, murder or extortion either. I guess we've just been slandering that poor man's name for 70 years.

Well, from certain angles she does kind of look like Corey Haim.

TubOfTaft

I’m always so conflicted when it comes to Katie Couric. I've decided she's just that girl in 10th grade who took really meticulous notes, but would never lend them to you. Some days you like her, some days you don't.

nicepony

And I thought my patented rabbi pick-up was totally original. I guess I need a new twist.

goetz

Weird...I could have sworn MJ was acquitted. I must be out of the loop.