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American Morning

Life of Mike

Aired February 07, 2003 - 09:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk Michael Jackson. He says that he's upset with the way he's been portrayed in a unique and controversial British documentary on his life. Now, his ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, the mother of two of his children, is coming to his defense. Rowe says Jackson is a loving, caring parent who is not shown as he really is. Jackson has actually filed complaints about the documentary with two television watchdog groups in Britain. The program aired here in the U.S. last night on ABC.
Joining us is Lori Majewski from "US Weekly" and Anthony DeCurtis from "Rolling Stone."

Good morning to both of you.

Hard to know where to start, and yet I have picked a place, believe it or not.

I think it's where it wraps up, where they come back to the point about Michael Jackson not being concerned about the fact that children might sleep in his bed. I want to put up a quote from what he said in the documentary to share with our viewers, if perhaps they have not seen it.

And he says, "We go to sleep with the fire one. I give them hot milk and cookies. It's very charming. It's very sweet. It's what the whole world should do."

Anthony, let me start with you. He's very clear he says this isn't a sexual thing, yet it's completely beyond Michael Jackson's perception why this is inappropriate.

ANTHONY DECURTIS, "ROLLING STONE": I think what of the remarks that the filmmaker made, Martin Bashir said, is what's extraordinary is that Michael just doesn't see why anyone else would have a problem with this. And it's that loss of perspective that runs through really the whole show and has caused so much of Michael Jackson's problems, I think, in recent years.

KAGAN: Perspective, Lori, also a problem looking at how he treats his own children. You see in the documentary the children are not allowed in public unless they are wearing some kind of mask, or burka or something covering their face. But also, what really concerned me with was the scene in the Berlin Zoo. It's a crowd seen that gets totally out of control with paparazzi. And during it and after it, Michael Jackson has no perspective that he's actually put his children in danger. LORI MAJEWSKI, "US WEEKLY": I totally think so. I think you see him get most manic when his fans are around, and it's like he forget his children were there and he got so excited that his fans were totally into him.

KAGAN: And he also talked about the incident also in Berlin, where he has the little baby and hangs it over, you can see it right there, hanging it over the balcony. He said nothing was wrong with doing this. I mean, it was incredible to see his reaction afterwards. He was almost incensed that anybody would have a problem. He said his fans wanted to see the baby, so he showed the baby.

MAJEWKSI: This is a guy that really -- I think he said he's like Peter Pan. I think that he has not grown up. And he has enablers around him that aren't even saying to him, Michael, what are you doing? These are your children. He loves his children, clearly he loves his children, but somebody needs to say to him, this isn't the way you raise your kids.

KAGAN: Anthony, in a strange twist here, in a way, this might help actually his career, reports from Britain saying that sales of his albums, which have not been that good, are actually up with this kind of publicity. Where does Michael Jackson's career go from here?

DECURTIS: It's very interesting, you know, there's -- around the world, Michael Jackson still sells records, you know, even as his career has fallen off from anything like the heights he once had, and there's still a tremendous amount of interest in him, and every time something like this happens, it is another sort of jolt of energy for him. But it's hard to know where he goes, you know, as a recording artist. In many ways, he's been fighting with his record company. Every time one of these things comes out that he thinks is going to calm the waters, it only stirs the pot more, and it's hard to know, what is his next move. I mean, I really have no idea.

KAGAN: We will be watching. Lori Majewski, thank you, and Anthony Curtis, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 7, 2003 - 09:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk Michael Jackson. He says that he's upset with the way he's been portrayed in a unique and controversial British documentary on his life. Now, his ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, the mother of two of his children, is coming to his defense. Rowe says Jackson is a loving, caring parent who is not shown as he really is. Jackson has actually filed complaints about the documentary with two television watchdog groups in Britain. The program aired here in the U.S. last night on ABC.
Joining us is Lori Majewski from "US Weekly" and Anthony DeCurtis from "Rolling Stone."

Good morning to both of you.

Hard to know where to start, and yet I have picked a place, believe it or not.

I think it's where it wraps up, where they come back to the point about Michael Jackson not being concerned about the fact that children might sleep in his bed. I want to put up a quote from what he said in the documentary to share with our viewers, if perhaps they have not seen it.

And he says, "We go to sleep with the fire one. I give them hot milk and cookies. It's very charming. It's very sweet. It's what the whole world should do."

Anthony, let me start with you. He's very clear he says this isn't a sexual thing, yet it's completely beyond Michael Jackson's perception why this is inappropriate.

ANTHONY DECURTIS, "ROLLING STONE": I think what of the remarks that the filmmaker made, Martin Bashir said, is what's extraordinary is that Michael just doesn't see why anyone else would have a problem with this. And it's that loss of perspective that runs through really the whole show and has caused so much of Michael Jackson's problems, I think, in recent years.

KAGAN: Perspective, Lori, also a problem looking at how he treats his own children. You see in the documentary the children are not allowed in public unless they are wearing some kind of mask, or burka or something covering their face. But also, what really concerned me with was the scene in the Berlin Zoo. It's a crowd seen that gets totally out of control with paparazzi. And during it and after it, Michael Jackson has no perspective that he's actually put his children in danger. LORI MAJEWSKI, "US WEEKLY": I totally think so. I think you see him get most manic when his fans are around, and it's like he forget his children were there and he got so excited that his fans were totally into him.

KAGAN: And he also talked about the incident also in Berlin, where he has the little baby and hangs it over, you can see it right there, hanging it over the balcony. He said nothing was wrong with doing this. I mean, it was incredible to see his reaction afterwards. He was almost incensed that anybody would have a problem. He said his fans wanted to see the baby, so he showed the baby.

MAJEWKSI: This is a guy that really -- I think he said he's like Peter Pan. I think that he has not grown up. And he has enablers around him that aren't even saying to him, Michael, what are you doing? These are your children. He loves his children, clearly he loves his children, but somebody needs to say to him, this isn't the way you raise your kids.

KAGAN: Anthony, in a strange twist here, in a way, this might help actually his career, reports from Britain saying that sales of his albums, which have not been that good, are actually up with this kind of publicity. Where does Michael Jackson's career go from here?

DECURTIS: It's very interesting, you know, there's -- around the world, Michael Jackson still sells records, you know, even as his career has fallen off from anything like the heights he once had, and there's still a tremendous amount of interest in him, and every time something like this happens, it is another sort of jolt of energy for him. But it's hard to know where he goes, you know, as a recording artist. In many ways, he's been fighting with his record company. Every time one of these things comes out that he thinks is going to calm the waters, it only stirs the pot more, and it's hard to know, what is his next move. I mean, I really have no idea.

KAGAN: We will be watching. Lori Majewski, thank you, and Anthony Curtis, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com