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Michael Jackson has been dead for more than a year but there was a stir of echoes recently when, to mark the forthcoming release of the first new material since he bowed out, both his children and father spoke up from their different sides of the grave.The children – so light-skinned that they resemble the result of an illicit liaison between Nicole Kidman and Casper The Friendly Ghost – were cool, calm and collected as they paid tribute to their dear old dad who, despite his habits of dangling babies over balconies and having sleepovers with rug-rats, turns out to have been just plain folks at home. "He tried to raise us without [us] knowing who he was, but that didn't go so well... I kind of felt like no one understands what a good father he was," Jackson's daughter Paris told Oprah Winfrey, touchingly. "I'd say he was the best cook ever. He was just a normal dad, except he was the best dad."Meanwhile, Jackson's own dad, the horrifying Joe, popped up like a Demon King, also on Oprah, to recommend the strap as a surefire way of keeping one's kids on the straight and narrow. On hearing that MJ's children are now living with their grandmother, the long-suffering Katherine, I did wonder whether that meant this slap-happy old maniac had access to them and whether the reason MJ might have made them wear masks was to keep them safe from their own grandpa as much as from the prying eyes of Looky-Lous.And despite seeing the darker side of fame played out on their father's poor ruined face, they told Oprah they plan careers in showbiz – Paris, 12, as an actress and Prince Michael (good try, but not as classy as his uncle Jermaine's son's name: Jermajesty), 13, as a director.I've noticed this about showbiz dynasties. The parents always give interviews about how lonely it is in the limelight, and how they were just going about their business helping puppies cross the road when the Fame Fairy came down and thrust herself upon them, and how civilians don't understand the pressure (of being caked in make-up and having their photo taken on a daily basis – sort of like being a brain surgeon crossed with a coal miner, pressure-wise) and how they'd give it all up like that for a little house on the prairie and true love.Then they have a kid – and for all their talk about paparazzi intrusion they thrust that tot into the spotlight as soon as it can scribble its childish scrawl on the dotted line. Look at Madonna – boasting recently about how strict she's been with her 13-year-old daughter Lourdes, never letting her watch television and forbidding such fun teen pastimes as hair-dying and hottie-dating. But she's bragging about her daughter's alleged down-to-earthness at the launch of their junior clothing line, Material Girl, at Macy's.The message is clear; life beyond showbiz is barely worth living and the best start you can give your brats is to make sure they stay firmly within the limits of the plush playpen. All across the trashy/classy scale, from the ghastly Osbournes to the vile Redgraves, this rule holds – no wonder popular culture often seems so exhausted and uninspired, weighed down as it is by so much lucky sperm and afterbirth washing around.In light of this the recent hysteria about the authenticity of TV talent shows seems naive and reactionary to say the least. The X Factor, far from being some sort of imperialist Zionist plot, is one of the few places where the unconnected, non-famous-named performer can actually be heard. It doesn't matter who goes home or who stays; if they have a voice, chances are they'll have a career at the end of it.If he was alive, it's pretty certain that Michael Jackson would be appearing on the season finale; as it is Prince has been tempted out of retirement. To be sung off the stage, no doubt, by Rebecca Ferguson – not Sting's or Adrian Edmondson's or Jools Holland's daughter for a change, but an artiste of amazing skill and promise who, without The X Factor, would probably get no nearer to fame than handing back some dumb WAG's dry cleaning.Ruled by Etonians as we are once more, with social mobility slowed to an all-time low, the sense of entitlement for the few and jam tomorrow for the many hanging over this country like a suffocating smog slips away, for a few hours on a Saturday night, for a handful of people who would otherwise be condemned to spend their lives doing boring jobs that Kelly Osbourne and Jade Jagger would be far more suited to. You'd have to be a real lemon-sucking killjoy – or else the spawn of a useless mob of free-loading no-marks with a famous name – not to get that.
Give her unlimited refills.
As soon as I got to the Casper/Nicole Kidman bit I seriously disliked this woman. If Prince, Paris and Blanket are porcelain white then my kids must be transparent because they are WAY darker than mine. That didn't even make sense. Someone else who thought he bought white children to order. Julie Burchill is well known in my country but this is the first time I've read any of her "work". I haven't been missing anything.
Julie BurchillFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJulie Burchill (born 3 July 1959, Frenchay, Bristol) is an English writer and columnist known for her provocative comments,she has written for newspapers such as The Sunday Times and The Guardian. She is a self-declared "militant feminist".She has several times been involved in legal action resulting from her work.Julie Burchill was born in Bristol, England to working class parents. "Her father was a Communist union activist who worked in a distillery. Her mother had a job in a cardboard box factory.She did not attend university.Burchill was briefly married to Tony Parsons (whom she met at NME), She left three years later, leaving behind a son. Her relationships, particularly with Parsons, have featured regularly in her work. Parsons wrote that "It's like having a stalker. I don't understand her fascination with someone whom she split up with 15 years ago.Burchill married Cosmo Landesman,with whom she also had a son. The sons from her marriages with Parsons and Landesman lived with their fathers after the separations. After splitting from Landesman, she subsequently married again.In 2009 she said that she was only attracted to girls in their 20s, and since she was now nearly 50, "I really don't want to be an old perv. So best leave it.Burchill has spoken repeatedly and frankly of her relationship with drugs, writing that she had "put enough toot up my admittedly sizeable snout to stun the entire Colombian armed forces".[4] She declared that "As one who suffered from chronic shyness and a low boredom threshold ... I simply can't imagine that I could have ever had any kind of social life without cocaine.Burchill is known for her contentious prose – in her own words, "the writing equivalent of screaming and throwing things-For Michael Bywater, Burchill's "insights were, and remain, negligible, on the level of a toddler having a tantrum"(sounds about right).Burchill has made frequent attacks on various celebrity figures, which have attracted criticism for their cruelty.On the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's assassination in 2005 she told the Guardian "I don't remember where I was but I was really pleased he was dead, as he was a wife-beater, gay-basher, anti-Semite and all-round bully-boy
Go Sinders!!! What I took from that bio, "leaving behind a son" implies she didn't want custody but chose to leave her child, then did it again with another relationship. I know there are women who do that and some have understandable reasons, but in this case I think it goes to show she has no right to judge any parent. I pity her sons, I know someone whose mother walked out on her as a young child and it has seriously screwed up her life. Julie Burchill's sons obviously are better off with their fathers. Maybe we should complain en masse to The Independant now too! They are thought of as being high-end especially compared to The Sun but this just goes to show that the hate and ignorance is STILL going on. We need to stand up and fight them. Michael could never sue/denounce every lie that was written about him, that would have been a full-time job. We can make sure they no longer get away with it though if there are enough of us to be heard.