Infamous Scandals

by Anne Williams

  Child molestation charges

  As well as concerns about his appearance, his marriages and children surprised and shocked the public. In 1994, Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, but two years later the couple were divorced. Next, in a very unlikely pairing, he married his dermatologist’s nurse, Debbie Rowe, with whom he had two children, Michael Jr, and a daughter, Paris. Rumours were rife that Jackson was not the father of the children, and many people surmised that the children were not even conceived naturally. His family life grew increasingly odd until, in November 2002, he responded to members of the press clamouring for a picture outside his hotel window by holding his baby out over the balcony, in what many people regarded as a highly dangerous manner. The fact that he covered his children in face veils to prevent them getting airborne diseases also worried the public.

  Jackson’s liking for children, and his belief that he himself was still a child, was well known. He liked to host charity events for children, and often invited children to sleep over at his Neverland ranch. But in 1993, a former Beverly Hills dentist, Evan Chandler, accused Jackson of molesting his child Jordan, who had stayed with Jackson at the ranch on several occasions. The case did not come to court, as Jackson settled the matter out of court for a very large sum.

  High-profile trial

  Many felt, at this stage, that although Jackson’s behaviour was odd, he had actually done nothing wrong. Indeed, many criticised the parents of the children who were allowed to sleep over at the ranch, pointing out that that there were those in Hollywood who were opportunistically taking advantage of Jackson’s wealth and hospitality.

  However, it was in 2003, when journalist Martin Bashir made a documentary about his private life that public anxiety reached a new level. Jackson was shown conducting sleepovers with a number of children, including a cancer victim, Gavin Arvizo, in which he shared the children’s bedroom and sometimes even their beds. After the film was broadcasted, Jackson was charged with child molestation on seven counts, and also accused of administering an intoxicating agent to commit the crimes. Naturally enough, he denied the claims, and was supported by his friend, the actress Liz Taylor, who said she had been present at some of the sleepovers.

  In 2005 the case came to court and the trial of Michael Jackson began. It became one of the most high-profile cases ever to take place, with thousands of journalists fighting for coverage. As well as members of the press, thousands of Jackson’s fans flooded Santa Maria, California, where the trial was held. In the end, the star was acquitted on all counts, and his fans celebrated by cheering as each of the ten not guilty verdicts were read out for all to hear outside the courthouse.

  However, despite the fact that he had been acquitted of all the crimes, Jackson’s reputation had been tarnished, and in later years it was not helped by the fact that, as well as his usual idiosyncracies, he showed increasing signs of delusions of grandeur, seeing himself as some kind of messiah. In 1996 he performed in London at the Brit Awards, adopting Christ-like poses while surrounded by actors portraying starving children and the like. British pop star Jarvis Cocker was so incensed by the tastelessness of this display that he leapt on stage and pretended to show his bottom to the audience. This in itself angered some viewers, and there were claims that in the fracas that followed, some child actors were injured.

  Today, it is certainly true to say that the many scandals surrounding ‘Wacko Jacko’, as the British newspapers dubbed him, particularly the charges of child molestation, have harmed his career; and sadly, there is no doubt that, as well as being one of pop’s greatest ever stars, Michael Jackson is also, in the evident unhappiness of his personal life, one of its greatest casualties. That said, few today can dispute Michael Jackson’s extraordinary talent and his pioneering role as one of the giants of 20th century pop music.

  George Michael

  Singer George Michael has had more than his fair share of scandal in his life. Yet he has weathered each of the many storms that have come his way with surprising honesty, in most cases admitting candidly to the accusations raised against him. In 1998, after being arrested in a public toilet for ‘lewd behaviour’ by an undercover policeman, he came out about his homosexuality. Since then, he has remained unapologetic about the incident, even going so far as to make a video about it. In addition, he has been open about his problems with depression and drug abuse, admitting his weaknesses rather than being ashamed of them. Interestingly, the fact that Michael has been so straightforward about these issues, refusing to lie about them, has meant that the scandals surrounding his behaviour have had little overall effect on his career. He has shown by his example that if the person at the centre of a scandal is honest, much of the shock value of the sordid details are lost. What the tabloids and, increasingly, the quality newspapers seek is to expose the bad behaviour of someone who presents a respectable image to society, and in this way, try to reveal their hypocrisy. However, when the person they are hounding refuses to play this game, and is open about their sexuality and their problems, in many cases the story ceases to be so much of a scandal, and can be tackled in a more serious, thoughtful way that raises issues for everyone about the way we live in modern society.

  International superstar

  George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in East Finchley, North London. His father was the manager of a Greek Cypriot restaurant, and his mother was a dancer. The family was socially diverse; one of his grandmothers was from a wealthy Jewish family, while one of his grandfathers came from a poor, working-class background. Michael grew up in North London and attended Kingsbury High School, along with his sisters. As a teenager he formed his first band The Executive with his friends Paul and Andrew Ridgeley, David Austin and Andrew Leaver. In 1981 he went on to form a duo with Andrew Ridgeley, and it was then that his group, now named Wham!, hit the charts.

  The pair released an album which gave rise to a string of hit singles on the British charts. Their image was one of two best friends, ‘young guns’ as they called themselves, out on the town looking for love, laughter and a good time. They often used female backing singers and dancers to emphasise their masculinity. The upbeat style of music, their 1980s’ fashion sense, their good looks and their energetic dancing made them one of the most popular acts of the day, so much so that their second album became not only a British bestseller, but a worldwide hit.

  As well as touring America, Wham! became the first Western pop group to tour China, and Michael went on to become an international superstar. The following year, however, tensions began to develop between Michael and Ridgeley as a result of the attention being lavished on Michael, and Wham! split up. Their farewell show at Wembley Stadium attracted thousands of fans, and it was clear that Michael had a brilliant career still ahead of him.

  After the break-up of the group, Michael became a huge solo act, and his debut album Faith charted at number one both in the United States and Britain. Hit single after hit single followed, and many of his songs, such as ‘Careless Whisper’, became timeless classics. Still at a young age, Michael seemed to have achieved everything that any singer could possibly want.

  However, trouble lay ahead as he began to argue with his new record company bosses at Sony, who had taken over CBE, the record label that had pioneered his career up to that point. Michael accused the enormous new corporation of mishandling his career, and indeed many pop acts were critical of the way they were treated as commodities by the new Sony management. In particular, Michael was angry about some homophobic remarks made by one of the executives at the company, which he overheard on the phone one day, in which he was referred to as a ‘faggot’.

  Scandal breaks

  Everyone who knew George Michael personally realised that he was gay. However, at this stage Michael had still not come out in public about his sexual orientation for fear of harming his career. As far as most members of the public were concerned, he was a poster boy for heterosexuality; girls swooned over h
im, and he traded on the image of himself as a young man about town who lived for the high life of wine, women and song. To keep this image alive, there were constant rumours in the tabloids about him dating female film stars, dancers and other women in the entertainment world, but his close associates knew that for many years he had been having a stable relationship with a male Brazilian designer, Anselmo Feleppa. Sadly, Feleppa died in 1993 of a brain haemorrhage, prompting a deep emotional crisis for Michael, which was made more severe by the death of his mother from cancer four years later. The death of these two loved ones had a sobering effect on Michael, who later dedicated his album, Older to Feleppa. In his music, he acknowledged the changes that the death of his lover and his mother had made in his life, but he continued to keep his private life a secret, away from the prying eyes of his fans.

  In reality, however, he was in a state of emotional turmoil, and matters reached a head when on 7 April 1998 he was arrested for masturbating in a public toilet in Beverly Hills, California. The man who arrested him was an undercover policeman, who Michael claimed had encouraged him in the act and had also joined in the sexual behavior. However, the courts did not believe him and Michael was fined and sentenced to community service. Afterwards, he was unrepentant and made angry comments to the press. He felt that he had been conned and accordingly made a video for his next single, ‘Outside’, in which two men dressed as policemen were seen kissing. After this, the policeman sued Michael for a huge sum of money. The whole affair blew up into a huge scandal, but Michael continued to maintain that he had done nothing wrong, and for the first time openly declared himself to be a homosexual. He began to be seen in public with his partner Kenny Goss, a former coach and sports clothing executive, and spoke openly about their relationship in interviews.

  A life in turmoil

  From this point, it seemed that Michael might have reached a new period of stability in his life. In 2006, however, scandal broke once again when Michael was arrested for possession of minor drugs. There followed a number of incidents in which Michael was seen driving cars under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and on May 2007 he pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of drugs. The following month his partner Goss checked into a rehabilitation clinic because of his problems with dependence on prescribed drugs. It became blatantly obvious that Michael’s life was still in turmoil, or at least that the pressures of stardom never receded very far away.

  However, despite all the bad publicity and inner turmoil, Michael has continued working and today continues to tour the world, reaching an ever-increasing army of fans worldwide. In the new millennium he is still regarded as one of the major stars of popular music, despite the many scandals that have at times threatened to ruin his career. Today, he is widely respected among the gay community and other groups for his courageous, honest stance about his sexuality, and his refusal to be intimidated by the authorities in the case of the incident at the public toilet. As a result, the affair has now largely been forgotten, and he remains one of the best loved acts in the pop world to this day.

  Gary Glitter

  One of the biggest scandals to hit the British headlines in recent years was that of international entertainer Gary Glitter. After several run-ins with the law regarding allegations of sex with under-age girls, in 1997 Glitter was convicted of possession of child pornography and served several months in prison for the offence. However far worse was yet to come . . .

  Illegitimate child

  Paul Francis Gadd was born on 8 May 1944 in Banbury, Oxfordshire. He was an illegitimate child who never knew his father, and his young mother struggled to raise him, helped by his grandmother. After a difficult early childhood, he was taken into care at the age of ten, along with his brother. However, the experience of being brought up in a home failed to quell his restless spirit, and by 14 he set off to London to see fame and fortune, carving a career for himself as a singer in the city’s night clubs.

  At 14, Gadd cut a record for Decca, which failed to make the chart, but undeterred, he went on to adopt a number of stage names, calling himself Paul Russell, Paul Raven and even Rubber Bucket, in his attempt to attract attention. However, his career stalled and it was not until he jumped on the bandwagon of glam rock in the early 1970s that he finally became successful.

  Gadd chose himself a new name to match the glam era, picking Gary Glitter from a number of options, including Terry Tinsel and Stanley Sparkle. He overhauled his image, wearing ridiculously over-the-top stage clothing, including glitter boots with high heels and an Elvis-style cape. His hair was styled into an enormous quiff, parodying the rock ’n’ roll style of the 1950s’ singers.

  Rise . . . and fall

  With producer-arranger Mike Leander, Glitter released a record called ‘Rock and Roll, Parts One and Two’. The disc was a hit, both in Britain and in the United States. Finally, at the age of 28, Gadd had found success as Gary Glitter and from then on, the hits came thick and fast. In the years that followed, Glitter became one of the top glam rock acts, releasing many more hits such as ‘I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am)’, ‘I Love You Love Me Love’ and’ I Didn’t Know I Loved You Till I saw You Rock and Roll’, and gained a loyal fan base in the process. ‘Rock and Roll (Part Two)’ became a popular anthem in the world of American sport, with fans shouting out the ‘hey’ in the chorus (in some parts of America, the song is now known as the ‘hey’ song.) Glitter was soon able to release serious ballads with far more success than he had in his early career, and these met with chart success, including the ballad ‘Remember Me this Way’, which reached number three in the hit parade. By 1975, he had sold a total of 18 million records, making Gary Glitter one of Britain’s biggest stars.

  Sadly, however, Glitter’s meteoric rise to fame was swiftly followed by failure. By 1976, with the advent of punk, which replaced glam rock as the music of youth culture, Glitter’s records were failing to reach the top ten and he announced his retirement. This was a big mistake – by the end of the decade, his life was in ruins. He began to drink heavily and left his wife and two children. After a sojourn in Australia, he went bankrupt, leaving huge debts, and it was during this period, as he later recounted, that he seriously considered taking his own life.

  High camp

  It was not until the dance music of the 1980s became popular that Glitter was back in the limelight once more, bouncing back with a hit single called ‘Dance Me Up’. The success of the record was enough to turn his career around, encouraging him to improve his lifestyle. He not only gave up drinking, he also became a vegetarian and a Buddhist in an effort to keep on the straight and narrow. However, it was not long before his demons came back to haunt him and in 1986 he overdosed accidentally on sleeping pills and was taken to hospital. The same year, he was convicted of drinking and driving for the third time and was banned from driving.

  During the 1990s, he became something of a figure of fun and found himself supported by college students, who enjoyed his ironical, high camp pose. He toured university campuses and also appeared in advertisements for British Rail, the joke being that he was pretending to look younger than he was.

  When the British band Oasis used some lines from one of his songs on their album, he gained sizeable royalties, which he used to buy a yacht. But by the end of the decade, his star had lost its sparkle once again, and he had become unpopular – this time for something much more serious than releasingbad records.

  Child pornography

  In November 1997 Glitter was arrested for downloading child pornography on his computer. He had taken it in to a Bristol branch of PC World to be repaired and, during the process, the images had been discovered by staff working there. It is not clear whether the discovery was made by accident, or whether members of staff had accessed the contents of the hard drive on purpose, to find out what was on it. Whatever the reason, once the news was out, Glitter’s reputation was severely damaged. His status as a lovable entertainer, somewhat akin to the old British stars of pan
tomime, was completely undermined; instead of being seen as eccentric, his high-camp pose was now seen as creepy and menacing, especially as his music had appealed greatly to children. Glitters bookings declined and soon he was unable to find work. But his troubles were far from over.

  Two years later, Glitter was convicted of possessing child pornography and formally classified as a sex offender. He received a prison sentence of four months, of which he served two. A young woman named Alison Brown accused him of having sex with her when she was under-age, and he was charged accordingly. However, the charge was revoked when it was discovered that Brown was being paid large sums of money to tell her story to a tabloid newspaper. It later evolved that the paper had offered her a further sum if Glitter was convicted of the charges that she had made.

  Child sexual abuse

  After this debacle, Glitter travelled to Spain, but was hounded by the British press there, so decided to make Cuba his home instead. Not surprisingly, the Cuban government was not keen to have him, so he went to Cambodia instead. When news got out that he was a convicted sex offender, the Cambodian government were forced to expel him. His next port of call was Vietnam, where in 2005 he was arrested and charged with raping of under-age girls, a crime that carried with it the death penalty. He attempted to escape to Thailand but he was arrested at the airport before he was able to board his flight.