Re: Randall Sullivan's new book "Untouchable" Tabloid Mess
Seriously, sullivan is cancelling booksignings over 'security concerns' and is reeling from the ferocity of fan attacks. What a big girl's blouse - it's only some fan reviews on amazon. He's implying mj fans are a bunch of dangerous nutcases capable of physical violence - i'm sure some of us are nutcases but ddimond, sneddon, gavin and jordan etc all seem to be walking around with no black eyes. I really hope he has taken the time to read some of the reviews - katerina's review gives chapter and verse of all the problems, and morinen (i'm assuming it's the same morinen as here)'s review is fabulous in showing how disappointing it was.
He's terrified for his own safety, except in Portland where our MJ terror camps have yet to take hold.
My guess is he can't ride this book around book shops because there's nobody buying it, so why would they want him there? When have MJ fans ever attacked anyone at a book shop signing?
He keeps focusing on this "shadow of doubt" blah blah, and how fans haven't read the book and are organizing campaigns against it. He seems to hope that by dismissing us all as being crazy and irrational it'll help mean that those long reviews which break down the problems with the book can also be dismissed.
It's funny considering, he wants those types of things dismissed, and yet he was so believing of every story someone like Schaffel shared with him. Some people have their blinders about MJ turned up so far they really can't understand why it's them who are deluded in the face of evidence, and not the fans.
It's a problem with the publishers. It's sad, riding high in the charts is a biog of bruce springstein. It's written by an unabashed fan, who has had access to all family and friends. He's meant to have taken a good hard look at springstien but all the reviews say this is a must for any bruce fan and they all love it. If anything like that was published about mj, it wd be dismissed as hagiography, like i've seen bad25 dismissed as.
It's interesting because that book does raise some things about Springsteen, like the fact that he apparently was physically abusive with one girlfriend in the 80s. I saw someone really upset about that book after reading it - upset because they understood it was a credible biography and that it was almost likely something that Springsteen did. They weren't upset with the bio, they were upset with Springsteen.
The problem with Michael is that people believe he was a monster. Springsteen doesn't have that problem. Nobody's ever sold him out or taken him to court repeatedly throughout the years, as far as I know. There isn't this huge stigma forced onto Springsteen. So when people share stories about him, though I'm sure some will exaggerate or lie or be self serving, there's not this whole other agenda at play.
I was thinking that if Bad25 had been released when he was alive, it would've been ripped to shreds as being MJ hyping up his own self, as not addressing the real problems with his life, as hoping people would forget about them - same old same old. It would've been impossible for him to have had a documentary made like that about him, even if he wasn't directly involved himself.
It's funny that he's been gone three years and in his absence people can create these documentaries, like This Is It, or Bad25, or even the Gary Indiana video, videos that if he'd released himself would've been slated, so without him people perhaps can be forced to accept that they may actually just be showing who he was. Though obviously they get dismissed too...
I'm wondering if we can finally progress beyond books like this one though. I'd honestly thought we'd never have to talk about fake noses again after the autopsy report, and that we'd never have to hear about bleaching his blackness out of him from Stacy Brown or Blanca Francia again.
I disagree. People are often influenced by these amazon reviews. I buy a lot there, and i do take the time to heck the reviews.
I always take note of the Amazon reviews.
If I read a review which says the book is full of errors and has easily disproven facts, I won't touch it. Why waste my time? But I'd only want to read reviews from people who had read the book and could list the problems.
If Mes took the 2005 trial for money and fame, why didn't he try and sell stories during the trial when journalists were trying to get him to? He's supported many other projects before, flew out to be there for David Gest's documentary, gave many interviews to William Wagner. I'm not suspicious of Mes having an ulterior motive at all, I believe the reasons he's supporting the book are for the reasons he has given.
I'm only suspicious of Sullivan.
