As much as it embarrasses me to admit it, when I saw the subheadline "'Thriller,' 'Pretty Woman' among selected" in regards to today's inductees into the National Recording Registry, I initially assumed that the Pretty Woman soundtrack would be preserved with The Best-Selling Album Of All Time in the Library Of Congress. How could I forget that big-voiced guy who liked to wear sunglasses—you know, David Lee Roth? Maybe next time, Roxette! [Variety]
You'd think that a video full of Jacko iconography would seem a little "been there done that," but evidently Fall Out Boy is going to take that route for their video for the band's cover of "Beat It," which entered the Hot 100's top 20 last week. Not that I can remember which Michael Jackson videos feature jump-roping girls and sumo wrestlers.
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The rise of groomed-from-birth-to-be-a-star David Archuleta, the premiere of the Danny Bonaduce-hosted TV show where stage parents compete to be the least crazy ones, and the recent travails of such former child stars as the Spearses and [insert recent TMZ featuree here] have got me thinking a lot lately about the upside to being a child star, for both the parents and the children. Sure, the paydays can be decent in the short run, but the long-term effects can be deadly, from the dreaded, unshakable feeling of having peaked way, way early in life to the current state of celebrity culture, in which any D-lister of yore has the "opportunity" to humiliate themselves on TV and keep their names in the press. Well, yesterday's New York Post story on the current travails of the Jackson family—one is currently bagging groceries at Vons; another is a boomerang child—only served to further my suspicions about the sanity anyone who wants to make their kids a star. Namely, they're crazy.
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Bearings: A Geographer's Blog has some incredibly beautiful images of Neverland's long-out-of-service amusement rides. [Bearings]
So at this moment MJ's scrambling to come up with the $24.5 million he owes in order to keep Neverland Ranch, which is currently in danger of being repossessed for Jackson's slack-assery in keeping up with his monthly payments. But with Jackson's financial solvency currently a question mark, it might be better if he simply defaults, loses a residence he hasn't occupied for several years, and lets whoever decides to bid on Neverland at the planned public auction pick up the tab, right? Wrong, unless he wants to become a smooth
Though he abandoned the property several years back, Michael Jackson held onto his beloved Neverland Ranch on paper while neglecting to continue to pay for it, and like all deadbeat tenants, he's now facing eviction, since negligence and/or a variety of financial faux pas have left one of the one-time biggest -selling pop acts in the world unable or unwilling to come up with his back loan payments. And while it would be another blow to Jackson's already dangerously wonky sense of self esteem to lose his Hearst-meets-state-fair abode, you might soon be able to pick up Neverland for a song. Or some paper clips and dryer lint. Or several million dollars.
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The album chart that came out yesterday was filled with Grammy-feted albums, but there was one notable omission from it: The new, Akon-studded version of Michael Jackson's Thriller, which sold 166,000 copies but was relegated to Billboard's catalog charts. According to the New York Daily News, execs at Sony are calling Billboard's decision "unfathomable... Michael expected it to be on the Top 200 chart." But the mag claims that other reissues with even more deluxe material than Thriller 25 have also been placed on the catalog chart, and that Wal-Mart and Best Buy concurred with its decision.
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With the Grammys only five days away—can you taste the excitement?—more news of who's going to appear on the Sunday night telecast has crossed the transom:
• Michael Jackson will appear onstage at Sunday night's ceremony, but he has apparently "won a stare-down" against the producers, who wanted him to perform a medley of reworked Thriller hits. So instead, he'll just... stand around? Wave his glove in the air? Who knows. The upside: The chance of an Akon appearance just dropped by about 66%. [Rush & Molloy]
• In news that is sure to excite the Oprah crowd, Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban are going to duet on a Celine Dion song. Also, Fergie is performing with John Legend and John Fogerty is going to share a stage with Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. [Centre Daily]
• Amy Winehouse went to the US embassy in London yesterday in order to secure a visa for travel to the States; while her dad doesn't want her to perform because of her fragile state, her label and Grammy organizers are hoping she'll show up. Because they care that much. (NB: I don't think reporting this bit of news breaks our Winehouse embargo; Jess disagrees.) [E!]
[Photo: AP]
Ed. note: Chris "dennisobell" Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week's Billboard charts:
Imagine, for a moment, you're in promotions at Sony/BMG, and you're trying to stoke interest in the 25th-anniversary edition of Michael Jackson's Thriller. This isn't the first time you guys have rereleased the record, and with Michael coming up on his 50th birthday, you've got your work cut out to make him look relevant.
Sure, the obvious move is lining up some current acts to help Jacko remix those classic tracks—like bringing in Akon to rethink "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." While you're at it, try convincing the Grammy people to let Michael perform on the show (what the hell, they need ratings and hey, you can't guarantee that Michael won't have a Britney-in-Vegas-style meltdown...). But then you think:
You know what would really seal it? If we could get a current act...somebody really hot...to sample something from Thriller and have a big, fat hit with it. Like, Justin biting "Billie Jean"...or Jigga rapping over "Thriller"...or something. I mean, Kanye sampling "P.Y.T." was helpful, but that record peaked months ago. We need something hot right now, just as we're dropping the disc...
And then, like a table-dancing angel from above, Rihanna answers your prayers.
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Is Michael Jackson going to show up at the Grammys? Perhaps! Reporter Diane Dimond, who released a book on Jacko's molestation case last year, is still hearing Jacko-related news, and she says that according to some memo traffic leaked her way, Sony-BMG is "pulling out all the stops to help its one time mega-star re-enter the pop music scene." And since the 25th-anniversary version of Thriller comes out on Feb. 12—two days after NARAS' big 50th-anniversary show—what better way to celebrate than with the onetime King Of Pop showing up in some capacity?
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Michael Jackson Meets An Akon, A Kanye, And Two Black Eyed Peas
ARTIST: Michael Jackson feat. will.i.am., Akon, Fergie, and Kanye West
At least, that's what he claimed on his radio show the other night, in typically understated fashion. The hip-hop impresario counts among his holdings the Atlanta club Studio 72, and he's throwing a Jackson 5-themed New Year's Eve party this year. And the theme is so driving the party, Michael, Marlon, Jermaine, Tito, and Jackie—and maybe, just for good measure, Dupri's girlfriend Janet—are all going to be there! (Maybe.)
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.jpg "This Year, \"American Idol\" Will Be Won By A Dude Named David (But You Knew That Already)")
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