It seems there's a "right" way to grieve, and then there's the very public "Jackson" way.
Observers tracking the moves of Michael Jackson's immediate family were rankled after an eyebrow-raising appearance by family patriarch Joe Jackson at Sunday night's BET Awards, where the 79-year-old briefly appeared to be hawking products for a business.
To some, the move "reeked" of hucksterism, the sad words of a salesman suddenly deprived of his moonwalking commodity. To the less cynical, it was merely a natural gesture from a man used to conducting his affairs through the media.
"Joe, on the red carpet, was an embarrassment," said Ian Drew, a senior editor at Us magazine. "It could not have looked more self-serving. It's what you've always heard about the family — they'll sell out anything, whenever they can."
There have, in fact, been a few actions by members of the Jackson family that have seemed suspect to followers, with Joe's award show "pitch" just the most notable.
On Saturday, Michael's mom, Katherine, who Monday was granted temporary guardianship of Michael's three children, was photographed leaving a Target store with a cart full of sleeping bags and toys. A touching display of a grandmother's love? Or, as some wondered Monday, a shrewd PR move by a woman looking to present herself in the best possible light for the courts?
The posts on TMZ.com, underneath a picture of Katherine headed to the parking lot, were not kind: "Without the kids, there is no $$$." "I'm sure that this woman has people to go out shopping for her." And, "It is laughable to think that a woman who sold her children should have anything to do with (Michael's)."
There was also the report this weekend in the Times of London, where one of Jackson's nannies, Grace Rwaramba, described a call from Katherine Jackson, days after her superstar son's death. Rwaramba said Katherine had raced to Michael's Holmby Hills rental home in the hours after the death to retrieve the piles of cash her son was notorious for leaving around. Sister LaToya Jackson had reportedly gone on the treasure hunt around the same time.
Others have speculated about the quick appearance of the two white Atlas Van Lines moving trucks that appeared at the home, the day after Michael's death. They wonder why one of the first things the family did, "while their youngest son's body was still warm," was to send moving vans to his home.
In his CNN interview with reporter Don Lemon, Joe Jackson introduced a man who appeared to be a business partner, then began talking shop: "Marshall and I have — we own a record company. Talking about Blu-ray technology. That's the next step," he said.
The complaints flooded blogs, such as Jezebel, where one poster called the words of the acknowledged disciplinarian "ghastly": "A man seems pursued pretty much to the grave by the demons his father planted in him, and even in death the — ghoul is still hustling."
Lost in the outrage, though, is the fact Jackson's comments came more than three minutes into his red carpet appearance, long after his initial words about his son's death: "I'm doing pretty good. . . . It has been really tough. Remember, we just lost the biggest star in the world." Alas, to some, even that lament came across strictly as cool detachment.
Michael Jackson, some say, has always represented to his parents a source of income and fame, a fact that contributed to his depression and untimely self-destruction.
"For them to be out shopping, or promoting themselves, is typical of Michael Jackson's family — but it's an outrage, because they should be home feeling guilty for having caused his demise," said Dr. Carole Lieberman, the Beverly Hills psychiatrist who filed the first complaint against Michael Jackson with child protective services after the 2002 "baby dangling" incident.
"How could a mother be out shopping for anything when her son just died? All the people who had a role in his demise are only thinking now about what the golden goose is worth to them dead. I'm not saying his parents didn't love him, but here Joe takes this opportunity to promote a business and say his son was 'the biggest star.' You can tell, all he's thinking about is how to turn Neverland into Graceland."
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