The Lip Thing

[cryingangel]

I never knew about the "lip thing" but I remember seeing him for the first time in a while on MTV and thinking what the heck is wrong with his face. It was a very sad time indeed. In all honesty I can't watch anything from that time period because it makes me so uncomfortable to look at him. I never understood what he did or why he looked like that but he was a darn mess. He did start looking better though. This video is from late 2002. He doesn't smile big but he looks really good and seems to be comfortable with people in his face again.

He looks beautiful. I love him so much


I agree, "Shout" is such a brilliant song...clearly better than "Privacy", lol. Even if it's impossible to make out the lyrics :lol:

 

[StaceyMJ]

Really people imagine you have a noise job and you wake up and your lip is numb and you cannot smile anymore for many years.

WOOWW. I´m really in shock.!!

Imagine you have to go back to your work to your daily live without been able to smile and be able to have many facial expressions etc. A lot of people would go into depression or to the mental hospital. It is very very serious thing.
And now imagine how MJ must have felt-while the whole world was watching him and on top of that he was a singer...it´s a shocker!!

Wow...umm...so I'm not gonna elaborate but that hit a nerve with me. It's no picnic put it that way.

But does this even matter now?! Did it ever matter? It's somewhat disrespectful to analyse pictures and try to sort out a 'timeframe' or whatever the hell it is you wanna do. Leave the poor man alone!!

 

[Safira]

Really people imagine you have a noise job and you wake up and your lip is numb and you cannot smile anymore for many years.

WOOWW. I´m really in shock.!!

Imagine you have to go back to your work to your daily live without been able to smile and be able to have many facial expressions etc. A lot of people would go into depression or to the mental hospital. It is very very serious thing.
And now imagine how MJ must have felt-while the whole world was watching him and on top of that he was a singer...it´s a shocker!!

Naah I don't think that it would ruin everyones life. Depends on the kind of person you are. Mental Hospital - you needed to be a very unstable person to go that far becuase of something like that. But ofcourse it will make you feel really bad for a while.
But Michael WAS able to smile. Just not "completely" so to say.

And as always - darling Michael did'nt complain.. Such an angel..

 

[indranee]

I never knew about the "lip thing" but I remember seeing him for the first time in a while on MTV and thinking what the heck is wrong with his face. It was a very sad time indeed. In all honesty I can't watch anything from that time period because it makes me so uncomfortable to look at him. I never understood what he did or why he looked like that but he was a darn mess. He did start looking better though. This video is from late 2002. He doesn't smile big but he looks really good and seems to be comfortable with people in his face again.

wow, he looks so beautiful there. :wub:

this is an interesting thread. I remember when I was watching MSG it was so apparent that something had happened to his face/lips. but to this day, I can't explain what happened to his EYES. his body looked great though... I am so glad he got better, whatever it was.

 

[VanX]

He still smiled, he just covered his mouth a lot more when he did.

Yeah, it affected his enunciation of words, especially when he spoke, that was obvious.

And he just looked unhappier in those times because of the lip...because he chose not to smile as much / covered his mouth. He looked much more serious.

He never needed to touch his lips.. he had a gorgeous mouth and a STUNNING smile. But you don't always see yourself the way others see you.

 

[Campari]

OMG I would have fainted right there if I was that girl... The little smile at 0:21, and he smiles with his eyes too.. :wub:

 

[Chris_Divine]

Well, I believed he got botox on his upper lip or something like that. Someone said in here that his lips were naturally plump and big from when he was small but they weren't. His bottom lip was full and his top lip was thinner. Sometimes they both looked the same size, depending on how he moved his lips, but his top lip really was thinner. He must have not liked it and decided to get it done, though I thought his lips looked great! Everyone has lips where one is bigger than the other.

 

[ani_geleia]

Damn, I thought this was a thread about his lips - like "the pout" :lol:

Me too! LOL

But thanks, Arty, for the information. I didn't know anything about that.
I never cared what he looked like (that was his private life) and I managed to watch YRMW as much as I could - at that time I didn't have cable TV nor internet access.

 

[xthunderx2]

I never knew about the "lip thing" but I remember seeing him for the first time in a while on MTV and thinking what the heck is wrong with his face. It was a very sad time indeed. In all honesty I can't watch anything from that time period because it makes me so uncomfortable to look at him. I never understood what he did or why he looked like that but he was a darn mess. He did start looking better though. This video is from late 2002. He doesn't smile big but he looks really good and seems to be comfortable with people in his face again.

Michael is just so totally beautiful in this clip...He certainly is perfect...:blush:....thanks you for the post..

 

[threatened2020]

I had forgotten about the whole 'lip' thing. It was a huge topic on the MJNI forums back in 2001.

I do agree that it must have hugely effected him mentally. Sony to me was a big distraction/justification for him to warrant not completing any further projects for the 'Invincible' album.

This cannot have been a nice time for him.

'Human Nature' in 'This Is It' perfectly shows how his facial expressions really contributed to the magic of his performance. Back in 2001 those were completely missing, this is so sad as in 30th anniversary shows he could not really visually express just how happy he was for all the artists honouring him.

 

[Snek]

Has there ever been clarification on what the problem actually was?

Drugs/medication? He stated he was under the heavy influence of painkillers around this time due to the bridge injury at MJ and Friends in Munich. Did it have something to do with Botox or even a failed reconstructive surgery? His top lip seemed to move more normally around and after 2004/2005.

How did it return to a more normal state and why did it take so long?

 

[Smooth72]

It certainly was a odd time for him with his appearance. Those 30th concerts are hard to watch. He covered his mouth constantly when the camera was on him. The outfits were terrible as well. The shin pads and white clothes just didn’t get it. I kind of block that time out. Some of the music on Invincible is great. Don’t care for the YRMW video either, he hides his face through the entire video. Things we will never know why?

 

[elusive moonwalker]

Maybe his lupus. Maybe arnie K messing up? Pain killers make no difference to you appearence interms of that.

 

[john13th]

It started late 2000/early 2001 time.

Look at MJ from 2000 WMA - his smile is broad and looks great:

Fast forward to Christmas 2000 when MJ made an appearance at a celebrity Christmas charity function:

... and then the pictures from his London visit in 2001 (Oxford Union speech) revealed that there was a definate problem with his upper lip and he didn't appear as if he could smile normally.

I don't know if these pictures from Tommy Mottolas and Thalias wedding were taken before or after the Christmas Charity function. But these were from December 2000 and he looked much more greater there, even better than from the Angel Ball Awards the previous month:

 

[Snek]

Mottola's wedding was on December 2, I believe. KTU’s Miracle on 34th Street was on December 19. I agree, there is definitely something different in his appearance at these two events.

 

[Lacra]

It's one of the reasons I don't really watch most of the material that did come out at that time. MJs whole vibe is like "don't look at me" and I can't enjoy it at all.

 

[mj_frenzy]

Don’t care for the YRMW video either, he hides his face through the entire video. Things we will never know why?

They told him to hide his face as much as he could through the entire ‘You Rock My World’ music video because they believed he looked ugly around that time.

It was actually Paul Hunter and some other people (who worked on that music video) who said that to him.

They also told him to fill in his nose with putty (which is a make-up substance) and also they told him to darken his skin with some other type of substances for that music video.

Upon hearing those suggestions and orders, Michael Jackson became so emotionally upset that he refused to shoot that music video and he was locked in his bathroom and he began to throw things around and to swear like a trooper.

John McClain had to cool Michael Jackson down and he eventually managed to persuade him to shoot that music video in the way that they wanted.

 

[mysterygirl7]

WOUW.... This forum is really going to extremes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Elton-Cetera]

I noticed the issue with the left side of his upper lip being higher than the right side in the up-close shot of him in the billiard room, in the Beat It music video, from 2:45 to 2:50. I don't care.

 

[GrewUpInMetroMotown313]

I disagree with the 2000-2001ish timeline, and the idea that losing his smile was something temporary and it "came back". You can't deny that his smile improved a couple years after that, but not because paralysis was gone, it was likely the same, but he was willing to smile bigger (increased confidence). Even the photos/videos from 1999-2001 that supposedly mention his "old looks/smile", the top half of his upper teeth are still hidden, even in a large smile, which is completely different than the smile he had his entire life, where his top front teeth are completely showing. (The shape of his original smile is more open vertically, whereas the smile after the damage is shaped more like Cheshire cat's smile.) While I haven't looked at every video ever made, I reviewed detail's "year in review" from 1997 to 2001, plus many other videos during that time, and the last time I definitively see MJ's original smile was June 1997, which you can see in this video at 1:50 (

) during "Films 'Blood on the Dancefloor'". I theorize that the problem occurred sometime between June 1997 and July 1998, because by July 1998, you can see he covers his mouth when he smiles in this video at 5:44 (

), but even before and after he covers it, you can see the top lip doesn't move as it used to. There are a number of videos in between then that could be argued either way, because it can be hard to tell if he doesn't smile big. After July 1998, I never saw another photo of him with his original smile ever again. My theory is that it was damaged during a nose surgery (although the botox could have been another possibility, but I think less likely). My heart hurts for all the pain this beautiful man suffered. I am grateful at least he had the benefit of having children in his lifetime, so he could feel the love he always searched for. My qualifications: Huge Michael Jackson fan since I was a young kid. Board-certified psychiatrist. Had my own septoplasty and rhinoplasty (for non-cosmetic reasons), and have had permanent nerve damage in the upper lip/palate since then.

 

[Masonh]

Michael Jackson had NO plastic surgeries on his lips! It was lupus, who destroyed his lip shape! He had 2 skins disorders! He never reduced his lip, he just was a victim of severe case of lupus

I disagree with the 2000-2001ish timeline, and the idea that losing his smile was something temporary and it "came back". You can't deny that his smile improved a couple years after that, but not because paralysis was gone, it was likely the same, but he was willing to smile bigger (increased confidence). Even the photos/videos from 1999-2001 that supposedly mention his "old looks/smile", the top half of his upper teeth are still hidden, even in a large smile, which is completely different than the smile he had his entire life, where his top front teeth are completely showing. (The shape of his original smile is more open vertically, whereas the smile after the damage is shaped more like Cheshire cat's smile.) While I haven't looked at every video ever made, I reviewed detail's "year in review" from 1997 to 2001, plus many other videos during that time, and the last time I definitively see MJ's original smile was June 1997, which you can see in this video at 1:50 (

) during "Films 'Blood on the Dancefloor'". I theorize that the problem occurred sometime between June 1997 and July 1998, because by July 1998, you can see he covers his mouth when he smiles in this video at 5:44 (

), but even before and after he covers it, you can see the top lip doesn't move as it used to. There are a number of videos in between then that could be argued either way, because it can be hard to tell if he doesn't smile big. After July 1998, I never saw another photo of him with his original smile ever again. My theory is that it was damaged during a nose surgery (although the botox could have been another possibility, but I think less likely). My heart hurts for all the pain this beautiful man suffered. I am grateful at least he had the benefit of having children in his lifetime, so he could feel the love he always searched for. My qualifications: Huge Michael Jackson fan since I was a young kid. Board-certified psychiatrist. Had my own septoplasty and rhinoplasty (for non-cosmetic reasons), and have had permanent nerve damage in the upper lip/palate since then.

 

[mj_frenzy]

Michael Jackson had NO plastic surgeries on his lips! It was lupus, who destroyed his lip shape! He had 2 skins disorders! He never reduced his lip, he just was a victim of severe case of lupus

But Michael Jackson's lips were fuller and bigger in his final months.

This was a clear sign of Botox injections (on that area), which were given to him by Arnold Klein who was a pioneer in the field of Botox.

Botox injections fall into the category of plastic, cosmetic surgery.

 

[Bogdan]

Botox is commonly used for cosmetic purposes to reduce wrinkles, but it also has several medical applications, including treating chronic migraines, excessive sweating, overactive bladder, and muscle spasms.

 

[apple🍎]

It was the botox. He couldn't move his whole face. It's pretty clear in the YRMW shoot. He couldn't move his face at all. But it was something mental too because he just wasn't mentally fine in 2000-2002. Ironically he started looking better in 2003. And then it all went to sh*t

 

[someplace_else]

But Michael Jackson's lips were fuller and bigger in his final months.

This was a clear sign of Botox injections (on that area), which were given to him by Arnold Klein who was a pioneer in the field of Botox.

Botox injections fall into the category of plastic, cosmetic surgery.

You don't put botox in your lips, you put fillers in there, hyaluronic acid. Botox in your lips would cause you not being able to move them - this just for clarification, not connected to what Michael did or did not do.

 

[Masonh]

Omg. Guys! He used botox TO LOOK YOUNGER! He didn't fill his lips lol, he made TATTOO on his upper lip, that's why it looked BIGGER! but his lips become really think because of lupus!

 

[Michaels Lover]

Botox is commonly used for cosmetic purposes to reduce wrinkles, but it also has several medical applications, including treating chronic migraines, excessive sweating, overactive bladder, and muscle spasms.

Really? I need to get some botox then, because I have overactive bladder

 

[threatened2020]

A frozen lip as a singer is a disaster, must have been hell for him.