[Kenton]

How much did that cost MJ?

Nuttin', Wally. The story is a joke, a satire on Michael Jackson's comments in an interview yesterday comparing his current predicament to Nelson Mandela's suffering in prison. He also compared himself to Muhammad Ali.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Hardly suspected it. MJ is in an imaginary world and has said so many absurd things - this one had facial credibility. Oops.

Two instances which are true about MJ that just shock the sensibilities:

1. He was quoted as saying that Elizabeth Taylor was his "rock" of sound advice and guidance. When you rely on someone as physically, emotionally and pharmaceutically f***ed up as Elizabeth Taylor - you're in trouble!
2. Back in the late 80's or early 90's People Magazine published a letter it received from Michael Jackson. They published an image of the handwritten letter n one page and on the facing page they published a transcript for ease or reading - since the handwriting was rather cryptic. The important part of that letter was the fact that it betrayed such a malformed ability to communicate - the sentences were of about 2nd grade complexity and the word choice was bizarre and infantile. My point is that reading this letter you could hardly believe he was capable of writing even the lyrics to his songs. And I have always suspected this was the case. When it all comes down for him, and perhaps soon, we will discover how much ghostwriting and standing in has been done for him and how much of a reduced profile he will have, in the end as an "artist".