Living with Michael Jackson
Living with Michael Jackson is a documentary, in which British journalist Martin Bashir interviewed Michael Jackson over a span of 8 months, from May 2002 to January 2003. It was shown first in the UK on 3 February 2003 and in the US three days later on ABC, introduced by Barbara Walters. Martin Bashir put the proposal to Jackson as a way to show the world the truth about him and make nothing off limits.
Jacksons decision to make the documentary was made on the suggestion by his close friend Uri Geller. It later emerged that Geller had turned down another bid for the interview by journalist Louis Theroux. The interview was very unusual, 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 has had. Jackson felt betrayed by Bashir and complained that the film gives a distorted picture of his behaviour and conduct as a father. He claims that Bashir, in the final version of his interview, used only that material which supported Bashirs opinion of Jackson, which was not a favorable one. Jackson filed complaints with the UKs Independent Television Commission and the Broadcasting Standards Commission.
Jacksons 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 the proceedings could continue after since Jacksons acquittal. However this is unlikely following his death. Ann Kite, a public relations consultant hired by Jacksons advisers to counter negative publicity, called the documentary a PR-disaster.
I so wish he done the interview with louis he would of been so much nicer to MJ
The bbc guy was soo rude and took the pee out of MJ louis wouldn't of done that he never takes sides and lets the viewers decide.
Yes its very obvious MJ has had plastic surgery his face has completely changed no doubt about that. But the child thing didn't seem like he would do anything bad to them I think MJ didn't grow up and he just wanted sleep overs. Sadly the parents just wanted to be greedy and try get money off of MJ.
Martin Bashir is a total a--hole. I saw that documentary, and he was very rude, and ignorant, and a total disgrace. Michael Jackson was so respectful of him, took him to meet his kids, and treated him like a very special guest, and Bashir threw that right back in his face. He questioned Prince about his father when Michael went inside for a moment, so someone could have said "hey Bashir what were you questioning Prince about, or what were you doing to Prince"? Look at those kids today, they adored their dad, and still do, especially Paris, so MJ must have done something right. Bashir is an i*iot. And Michael Jackson was put through more humiliation, and disrespect, and was so broken, he endured a lot of hurt, and pain, much more than anyone should have to know.
Bashir had to proceed with caution. After all MJ was the accused. We can't just brush accusers aside as if they're nothing. You never know what happens to anyone and that's why a lot of people don't come forward out of fear of being called a liar. A man is innocent until proven guilty, yes, but any reporter should proceed with caution even if many felt mj was innocent. People are entitled to their opinion good or bad.
Bashir is a jackass. I understand the point of asking the difficult questions, but there was zero attempt to understand this obviously very different mind. I believe there was mental illness going on with Jackson, but I also believe he was an innocent - which makes him very much of an oddity in this modern world.
This killed Michael. The child in 2003 used this to build his case since right after this documentary, he said that Michael never touched him to several investigations going on due to this documentary. People called in to complain about Michael because of this documentary. It was one later on in the year that the child said he was molested, yet it doesn't make sense since his date of molestation was prior being interviewed by the police.
Such a beautiful soul.
Notice how he shakes when he's nervous or annoyed, like when he's feeding Blanket? Jeez. Maybe that's why the guy ended up on drugs, amung many other reasons.We'll never know any of the real truths of his complicated life. Again, it's all just sad.
If he could lie about plastic surgery, you have to wonder what else he would lie about. Molesting children? He had major mental issues and that's more than obvious, regardless of Martin's leading questions and interviews. Too bad. He was a fun performer but he turned into some warped version of a human being.
Years on and still fascinating to watch. Jacko stress-weirding out as he feeds his child looking ready to do vertical take off then in some psychotic denial about his cosmetic abuse. Then crucially showing no shadow even of defensiveness at Bashir's rottweiler-News of the World insinuations against his sexuality which spoke everything about a world too sick and stupid to trust itself even with its children and failed to stick any mud at all to the singer. Rest in the peace you deserve Michael. Bashir and your ilk stay rot in your dirty little minded tabloid hell.
Watch
''Living With Michael Jackson The Footage You Were Never Meant to See''.
It proves Martin Bashir and the bitchy mother of that boy set up Michael Jackson.
Even has footage that was cut and info they had shown in the trail. The mother talking about getting a close up of her hand like when MJ held the boys so it looks wrong and about her history of cons/sueing/other sexual abuse claims to other people and stars.
Michael was a kind soul who thought he was helping people and this disgusting family took advantage of him and when he figured them out and wanted to get rid of them, they slap him with false claims trying to get more money.
You can find it on youtube if your to lazy to get a copy.
Actually, I am on the fence on MJ. I have no idea if or if not there is a little NAMBLA love action going on. Have you ever thought he might be gay. Maybe likes them a particular age and look? He could have been set up by the kid. Did you know they changed the laws of California because of Michael Jackson, when he paid the (presumed) victim 24 million dollars for dropping the 27 odd sexual assault / statutory rape charges laid on him by authorities.
By the way... police lie all the time. It could be an act of extortion, easily.
So, no clear opinion. Just wanted you to know that. The Michael jokes are still funny in a Bill Hicks kind of way. Cruel if MJ wasn't banging kids, not cruel enough if he was.
I can take a good joke over things like this. Im catholic and get a lot of priest jokes. But even with that. I believe Michael was a good kind man. Wonderfull father and an angel on earth. People dont trust what they dont understand and is not the same as them. His only crime was being to trusting and naive with strangers who had the power and greed to extort him.
well said!
I believe this airing is what really ended up doing Michael in. I will NEVER forgive Beshir or that kids father. You notice the boys father killed himself after MJ was acquitted.
Q: Have you heard about Michael Jackson's New Book?
A: It's called, "The In's and Out's of Child Rearing
Q: Why was Michael Jackson spotted at K-Mart?
A: He heard boys' pants were half-off !!
Q: What did the man on the beach say to Michael Jackson?
A: Get out of my sun!!
Q: What do you do if Michael Jackson is drowning?
A: Throw him a buoy !!
Q: How can you tell if Michael Jackson has company?
A: There's a big wheel parked outside his house!!
Q: Did you hear that Michael Jackson and Tonya Harding have decided to begin training racehorses together?
A: Yeah, she's gonna do all the handicapping and he's gonna ride all the three-year-olds!
Q:What's Michael's favorite Canadian TV show?
A:The Kids in the Hall.
Just kidding. He is still a great entertainer and will be remembered as such but even as a legend we can not forget his freakish ways of having sex with young underage boys, then paying them of 24 million dollars not to talk about his weird penis that looked like a cow with white and brown spots while erect, while he jerked the kid off in the shower! It's natural, and innocent... whatever.
ur comment comes post mortem so that's interesting. any problem jacko endured seems as nothing to the complexes you appear to feel the need to share here. the turn-on you get talking about j's cock and alleged shower activities is more than clear. one can only hope you're feeling, uh, 'better' perhaps now you got ur cheap 'n dirty little rocks off at a dead man's expense.
who the f*** is this disgusting paki/indian dumb f***?! oh yeah, NOBODY!
and what if it was a women sharing her bedroom with children? like c'mon!
only dirty f***ers would think it's wrong, because they're the ones that would do something disgusting to those children.
there is absolutely nothing wrong with loving and caring for children, especially when your own childhood was hard.
the media make up s*** and blow it out of porportion and all you idiots eat it all up, because you're too stupid to use your own mind and think for yourselves.
and really, if you have to talk bad about someone who's passed away, then you are pathetic scum.
rip michael jackson aka the king of pop aka the legend
Poor guy. He never has the chance to grow up properly. He's stuck in this weird child/adult alternate university. He needed a lot of therapy. All I can say is poor guy...:(
poorer little you dear
Oh well that's one less paedophile in the world & that's a good thing. The man was a freak show.
Bashir is the true fool here. He's out of touch with what really matters in life and in his arrogance he's completely ignorant to the fact that Michael is obviously a loving, compassionate and enlightened human being. He loved nature, animals and had a gentleness and insight about life that is rare.
I hope that karma will find you for this Bashir.
man he is dead miss him so much live in peace i am a girl.
you get lucky?
To be honest growing up I hardly knew who Michael Jackson was. I had never really seen how he looked before his vitiligo spread and he went under that depigmentation process to even out the blotches on his face. The earliest memory I have being exposed to Michael's music was hearing a brief chorus of Billie Jean and watching an asian man impersonate him and do the crotch grab. At that point I only knew him as the guy who grabbed his crotch, lol...
Before I knew he had a skin disease that ate away at the pigment in his skin I thought he was white. Don't laugh -- I'm serious! Probably the earliest time I saw what he looked like was when he danced with Britney Spears on stage. I didn't know he was black -- in fact I thought he was adopted. I did not try to seek out information from the internet about this. Meaning I never saw a real picture of how he looked in his younger days until after his death.
It was a strange thought I harbored thinking Michael Jackson was white and that he was adopted by a black family. Later on when I realized he was black I didn't understand it. Then I thought he was trying to be white and I am sad to say I bought into the lies that he bleached his skin to make his skin darker. The depigmentation thing was a procedure to make him all one color as the vitiligo was causing more and more light blotches on his skin. Hate to bring up the things they found in his home after his passing but they did find some bottles of this type of cream that people with vitiligo use. I've heard it described before as a sort of "bleaching" but that's not really the case. Those creams were used to continue to even out the remaining blotches on the skin so he wouldn't look spotty with two different skin tones.
Since his death I've tried very hard to learn more about MJ. Even so I can't bring myself to watch the Martin bashir documentary except for the rebuttal one Michael did with the footage bashir cut and edited out that Michael's camera crew caught. I was born in 1989 but it seems all these years I've been living under a shell not knowing who Michael Jackson is (and was..). One of the first documentaries I watched of a tribute to him (after his death) I could not stop crying for days -- and I wasn't even a fan of his music at that point or anything! I felt like I was crying for a total stranger and i couldn't understand where that came from.
When it comes down to the child molestation allegations that surrounded and haunted Michael even after he was acquitted ... I have to say when I actually looked deeper into everything; the history and background of the accuser's family; the court transcripts it did appear to be very plausible to me he was innocent. I still believe this. Although at first I was a bit suspicious especially reading the testimony of Gavin Arvizo and wondering how could a child make up something so graphic. What did it for me was the background information of this boy's family; how he had lied to police before to help his mother scam people out of money. I also found it impossible to believe all those witnesses testifying against the Arvizo's family claims were lying. How could that Neverland worker be lying when she said Star Arvizo held a knife over her?? I found the testimony of Malculkey Culken to be like a round of applause for Michael.
Sorry to say, but his death was not a loss. One less whack-job.
Well said, Ack. I completely agree.
You know this isnt the whole thing right
this doc is just one big hit piece on MJ... its a shame when someone lets you in their life so you can see them in a better light and you use the opportunity to paint them worst... smh... shame on that guy he also did the "Biggie and Tupac" doc which was actually better than this bullsh*t!!!
LR-MJ didn't bleach his skin, or maybe technically he did, it wasn't skin bleaching he had vitilogo (sp?), once his skin had more white blotches than brown he went through a process called de-pigmentation. It was on his autopsy report and its been a lot of evidence in his pics of his skin being blotchy at times, and red , it is the reasons why he wore tape on his fingers and wore the one glove because it started on his hand first. Now his son Prince has the same problem with photos sufacing of a blotch of his skin under his arm is white.
MJ had all those mask on for one to disguise himself from the public. His bodyguards said that, also another complication to vitilogo is he cannot have exposure to sun, so instead of always carrying a huge umbrella in which you saw alot, he would wear a hat and mask. (same reason for full body covering)
MJ was a man with money who loved animals. im sure if you are an animal fanatic and you had the ends you might buy an "exotic" animal. Some people are like that, just like people love cars and collect them when they get money.
MJ never thought of himself as God, it was the fans and people around him. He didn't trust alot of people (and i wouldnt either) people always wanted something from him, including family, yes the mannequin thing was wear but if you are faced with that much loneliness you dont know what you might turn to. He was a very lonely man. The main thing he knew kids didn't want things from him like adults did. (and not to say all people were users) but if you are a person of that stature, so much fame and money, wouldn't you be cautious?
MJ was a very smart man contrary what you think, he spoke a lot of truth in his songs and even in this interview, the famous part about "white people get tans all the time, they dont say anything baout that" guess what now they trying to tax tanning. ahead of his time. His, HIStory album was so full of warnings of greed and power hungry people i.e "They dont care about us"
MJ was just seriously misunderstood, somethings he did were strange, I will admit, but you have to look at his circumstances of being the most famous, recognizable man in the world.
VERY WELL SAID }=^.^=}
martin bashir is an embarrassment to himself and to journalism as a whole.
you are an embarrassment
This was a good and bad documentary. Good coz after so many years, Michael finally opens his gates so we can see his life, and he was so awesome about it all. :3
But bad because the jackass interviewer Martin Bashir cut and edited everything and tried so hard to make Michael look like a freak... Thankfully Michael was smart and had hidden cameras to show us the good that Bashir cut out. >:(
I love Micheal just the way he is , anyone who has been through a childhood like his, can understand him, others cannot . He did a lot of good and made us aware of what is really going on in the world through his songs . He was a sensitive human being and the guy interviewing him here seems more like interrogating him than letting him express himself .
I only managed to watch part of this video as i can`t seem to watch the full version. Questions like Don`t you think it`s strange to bring up your kids without their mother? Well Hello!How many children in our world have grown up without parents /parent ?In institutuions or wherever.
Another thought comes to mind . If a child is not allowed to be a child what else can one expect ? It is a normal reaction to want to always be a child , safe and sheltered, especially when you have a monster of a dad as a role model. Micheal is protective towards his kids because he never felt protected himself and what parent does not want to protect their child?
The other stupid question is Don`t you prefer making love to climbing trees? what kind of question is that? insensitive one in my opinion. I am glad I watched this video becuase I truly beleive Micheal was innocent, he loved kids to much to ever hurt them in any way least of all sexually. Rest in Peace Micheal, you will always live forever in our mind xxxx
The other question is not so st*pid when Bashir asks don't you prefer making love to climbing trees. All this climbing trees stuff and bubbles the chimp as a companion and his delight and petting zoo stuff. Makes you want to ask what do you have to say a about a girl, a lady friend. Answering that question won't kill you or your or your record sales. A large Part of his success is his sex appeal and enquiring minds want to know.
I am a huge fan of MJ, and viewing this made me so sad. I thought it showed how really messed up alone and abandoned he really was. I am lucky to have people who care about me when my life feels like its falling apart... you make some great points LR thanks. T
First let me say that Michael was a great singer, songwriter, dancer and very generous when it invloved children. I saw this documentary when it was first released and I've seen many others where Michael Jackson talked a little about his life. In my opinion, he was very talented and smart when it came to being creative through singing and dancing but he lacked every day common knowledge skills. In many of these interviews, he was very honest about a lot of stuff and he also clearly lied about a lot of things as well. He once told Oprah Winfrey that he had only a couple of surgeries done to his face and body. It was obvious to her then, to the audience watching also that he had many surgeries on his chin, nose a few times, skin bleaching and
face a little. Oprah even commented on this subject again when she talked about his death. Michael also kept himself hidden from the world when he wasn't performing (outside of the USA mostly). When he did appear in public in the US, always in germ facial masks, hats, big coats or large jackets. Pet monkey that was like a child years before he had some kids made specially for him. Had odd looking mannequins for years in his home before and after he recieved those three kids. He said in interviews, they replaced the lack of people he in his life. He had family, celebrity friends, etc. He created all the fame and chaos in his life. He would have been a much better person if he would have just allowed himself to be more human but he always thought of himself as a GOD; invincible; intouchable, etc. He hated growing old, hated wrinkles on his face and so much more. All these things are from his own words recorded in interviews. Tormented soul he was, mostly by his lack of common sense and the choices he continuosly made.
i think u dont know he has vitiligo ?
I don't think Martin Bashir did himself any favours with this film. He clearly had a preconcieved notion of what Jackson was like and set out to prove it. Too much screen time was given to Bashir's thoughts on what was going on, rather than trying to understand the subject and allow the viewer to form their own opinion. I found this uncomfortable viewing.
Try doing a little research on the Jacksons and MKUltra. Some of the victims of government mind control such as Brice Taylor and Cathy O'Brien say that Joseph Jackson sold his kids into the MKUltra program. I wouldn't be a bit surprised.
Louis Theroux once said "A good interviewer gives the interviewee just enough rope to hang themselves" - Here we see the opposite happen. Micheal Jackson offers everything he can, but rather than documenting this objectively, the interviewer cannot resist sensationalising for his own benefit. Once you realise that this was a member of the press who was 'friends' with Jackson, his bizarre behavior becomes much more understandable.
im an avid fan of mj! hope this video wiil live forever!
I really like this. I think that Micheal jackson is very humble men. I really the way he expresses himself.
I actually feel better about Michael Jackson after viewing this video. I don't think he was the monster the press made him out to be. I also understand why his childhood would have made him the way he was. I'm glad I watched this.
I think it was his harsh childhood that casused him to want to be a child all his life. I think he feels he was being used by his father to earn money, and his father didn't care if his childhood was neglected. I don't want to judge him.
Vladko rocks! Vladko rocks! It's working now. Thank you so much. I really liked Michael Jackson; I'm sorry to see him go. This video made him seem more "real" to me. I hope he wasn't actually guilty of the things he was accused of after this video was made. Now I can finally see the ending to this documentary as I notice it's 30 minutes longer than the other one I watched and showed to all my classes (great converstation material).
Vladko, I'm getting the message: "We're sorry, no embedded videos are currently selected for this payer." What the heck is that? Is that my computer's fault or a general error? I see others have already given it some good ratings. I really want to see the ending to this video which I've seen before, but not the ending.
These videos have tendency to die out pretty soon. I've replaced this one. I hope now it's watchable.
This ''journalist'' is worst then a paparazzi,manipulative,hypocrite,twisted,unprofessional,dis-honest and biased. His comments during the entire film for the greater part , show a definite purpose, humiliating MJ and bringing him publicly in the mud. Martin Bashir should be very shameful about his dirty work, i wouldn't be one bit surprised he got bribe by someone to do it.It takes no less then 5 minutes to see this pseudo-journalist has absolutely no ethics and no class. Nevertheless, MJ true nature still manage to shine through, a vulnerable,exceptionally talented artist/performer, gentle, loving father and individual.
Maybe Mj should have called it off or limited bashir's access once he saw he was giving negative vibes views and questions.