misery for shock value

hln's "showbiz tonight" (the self-proclaimed "most provocative" show) decided to use some celebrity confessions as a basis for a "shocking" show.

now, some of the celebs truly suffered something terrible. whether it happened 100 percent as they now remember (i am not saying they are lying, but this was sustained and extreme abuse so some details may be mixed up with other abuse they endured) whatever the actual details, many of these things are things NO ONE DESERVES EVER.

however, the lifelong behavior of some of these people (all have been famous for decades) show that somewhere along the line something bad happened. in some cases, we even have indications what happened and who did it.

they led off with tapes of michael jackson talking about the abuuse by his asshole father joe jackson. joe jackson is scum and ought to be in jail. period. I don't know if michael would have ever hurt anyone ever if not for joe. because compared to joe, michael was rather gentle. that's not a defense of michael. it is a condemnation of joe.

but, anyone who doesn't believe that joe jackson abuse all (or at least most of his children, i've heard janet was spared... I doubt it, but her abuse may have been less severe because she had several protectors) has not been paying attention.

there is nothing michael could say on those tapes about joe that would surprise me that joe went there. it makes me sick that michael's children have been given to his mother because she didn't protect her own children from joe... why would she protect michael's?

I am not going to repeat exactly what michael said. i'll just point a few words he said. joe had a particular abusive act that he did to michael. michael said "he made it a ritual." now, this is michael jackson only a few years before he died. so he has been mulling this fucked up stuff over for decades.

anyway joe's sick, cruel, pervert self would start beating michael after preparing him in a certain way. as things became more frenzied, katherine would start screaming, "stop it joe! you're going to kill him!" it sounds like before she started screaming, michael had already started to think this may kill him. katharine's screams did not stop joe. they only frightened michael even more. obviously, joe always eventually stopped because michael lived for 50 years. he didn't say how many times he underwent this particular "ritual" and he certainly didn't say that was the only abuse he suffered at the hands of joe. because, of course, it was not.

michael concludes this particular story saying "I hate him." but, I don't think he always felt that way. it would have been easier for him if he had. in fact, michael tells another story where joe regularly lets him know that joe is done with him if he ever stops making money. now, he was a little boy who certainly should not have been responsible for keeping his worthless parents in money.

so, I keep thinking about the christmas tape michael made with his kids (that joe or whoever whored out to the tv shows) where they sing. the kids sing well. I am sure joe is already plotting their music careers.

next shocker, mackenzie phillips, daughter of "papa" john phillips was in an insectuous relationship with her father. people, this chick has been a heroin addict from an extremely young age. she's got clean and gone back many times.

for people who may not know... john phillips is dead. since I said joe jackson belongs in jail, I wanted to clarify why I didn't say the same about j.p.

mackenzie already told us that she started using drugs with her father from a very young age and no one said anything because, hey, it's just "papa john" giving his little girl some smack (or whatever else). she's already said that she, her dad, and mick jagger were doing drugs. her dad left the room and when he came back, the door was closed and she and mick were having sex. so, her dad starts knocking on the door. but, she told the story in a very weird way that made me think she was saying he wanted back into the room, not that he wanted mick to stop fucking his underage daughter. in any case, he knew what happened at some point close in time to the event and mick jagger is still alive so... I never got the idea jp had a problem with him over it.

mackenzie told this story as though that's when she lost her virginity. but, it didn't exactly ring true. I couldn't figure out exactly why because I don't naturally think about insect... so, I am thinking mp was just talking about the first time that wasn't a dark family secret.

from what she says, she came to (she had been using a lot of drugs) having sex with her father. needless to say, this freaked her the fuck out. afterwards, she said something to him about him raping her. he says "we made love." she was a teenager at the time. this is the first time she REMEMBERS. her father may have told her how many times they'd done this before, but he probably started on her much earlier than he said. at any rate, mp very confused then kind of gets into some sort of "consensual" relationship with her and it's all just a really sad mess.

bijou says mackenzie told her about this once. then said it was not true (i don't know how much later) and so when mp said it this time bijou didn't believe her. well, I can certainly understand why bijou wouldn't WANT to believe her. but, I have a feeling, it's not so much she doesn't believe her sister... maybe she just REALLY wanted to believe the lie.

chynna believes mackenzie or, at least, she sticking by her. I get the impression this has something to do with mackenzie that she didn't want to talk about. she says it's really sad. she tried to be as positive as one could possibly be and didn't say anything negative about anyone.

mackenzie's story was surprising because it has some unusual elements to it. but, it's been clear for a long time something is seriously wrong with her. so, it's not surprising that she eventually came out with a horrible story.

ditto with rosie o'donnell. she's just done some weird things here and there that show she's had something bad happen to her early on (shown mostly by very inconsistent behavior). well, she says that she was consistently molested when she was young. her doctor even asked her when she was six if she was "touching" herself. I don't know what she told the doctor, but now she says "it wasn't me." she was pretty vague about the details (which is fine by me). so she may or may not have more to say later.

another thing she said (that they tried to make a huge deal out of) was she called oprah after the columbine shooting. she didn't really know oprah too well, but called her since they both had talk shows. so, she's sobbing to oprah about the need to "do something". she says oprah was nice about it. not really too shocking. they tried to make it sounded as if rosie told some awful secret on oprah. um, this doesn't sound bad?

kathy griffith says her brother was (is?) a pedophile. well, I guess this is shocking as I didn't know she even HAD a brother. I don't recall if this guy is living or dead. they didn't give too much time to this. they were too busy hyping the non-issue with rosie and oprah.

finally, whitney huston tells us SHE AND BOBBY BROWN DID DRUGS TOGETHER!!! OMG!!! hasn't everyone know that for 20 years? I didn't even watch her section. she also claims bobby spit on (or near) her once. this was apparently going to be part of an "abuse" story. I didn't watch it, so who knows.

in what I did see, whitney confessed to using pot and "rock cocaine." er... i'm not exactly a dea agent over here, but isn't "rock cocaine" what some folks call "crack"? didn't whitney herself say she only used expensive drugs as "crack is whack"?

I don't know why I watched any of this. oh yeah, I only have like 10 channels. but, it was a really sad and insensitive show.