Jackson's real pain: losing the spotlight, He's a pro at playing the injured celebrity, exploiting the media, but what a sorry act - evading reality again NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition

• Published in: Newsday
• Main Author: MAUREEN ORTH. Maureen Orth is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair. This article is from the Los Angeles Times, where it first appeared
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Long Island, N.Y Newsday LLC 10.06.2005
• Edition: Combined editions
• Subjects: Jackson, Michael

In lieu of having him take the stand at his child-molestation trial in Santa Maria, Calif., his attorneys played nearly three hours of outtakes from the infamous Martin Bashir TV documentary in which a tipsy [Michael Jackson] revealed that the way he really loves to sleep is onstage under seven spotlights, all on him. Presumably, when the spotlights dim, what's next best is getting an endless string of little boys to share his bed. Michael Jackson needs adulation. In fact, his need for it is such that he will dangle his baby over a balcony or dance on the hood of a car right after being arraigned on charges of child molestation - anything for a fix of blind adoration that can then be rebroadcast endlessly. There is even a clinical name for his grotesque self- love and attendant meltdown. It is called acquired situational narcissism. He has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to put voodoo curses on his enemies, and recently he even sought the advice of a conspiracy investigator - he wants us to believe that the jury deliberations on 10 felony counts are somehow related to his enemies' trying to get hold of his catalog of Beatles songs.