Can you separate the art from the artist?

In the wake of Surviving R. Kelly, the damning series that has finally led to a backlash against the notorious paedophilic sexual abuser, that question has been tossed around again.

As fellow musicians distance themselves from Kelly, and his record label drops him, it seems like much of the general public are willing to turf Kelly’s music out – but will the same ever happen to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson?

Allegations surrounding Jackson’s behaviour with underage boys have swirled for years, with some damning footage and images surfacing in 2016 that were widely shared.

‘That’s just Michael’, many people said, but now a new doccie, Leaving Neverland, is set to make it a little harder to brush those allegations aside.

The Telegraph has reviewed British director Dan Reed’s work, which premiered on Friday at the Sundance Film Festival, saying that the explosive doccie paints a “horrifying picture of child abuse”.

Let’s dive right in:

James Safechuck [in the image up top with Jackson], 41, places a small gold band, inlaid with diamonds, over the top of his ring finger; it won’t even fit past his first joint. The tiny ring, he says, was given to him by Michael Jackson, as part of their secret mock wedding ceremony, in which they made vows to one another when Jackson was 30 years old, and Safechuck just 10.

Hands trembling, he then places the ring back in a box with several others; the late singer would often buy him jewellery, he alleges, as a reward for performing sexual acts upon him.

Yeah, told you it was explosive.

The four-hour, two-part film will be broadcast in the UK towards the end of February, and is an in-depth exploration of the allegations by Safechuck and 37-year-old choreographer, Wade Robson (with Jackson, above).

Jackson’s estate have come out firing against the doccie, calling it “yet another lurid production in an outrageous and pathetic attempt to exploit and cash in on Michael Jackson”.

Well, the crowd present at the Sundance screening felt differently:

Before the curtain went up, the Sundance audience was told that healthcare professionals were on hand should any of the content prove, in the current parlance, “triggering”. Yet few in the audience were truly prepared for the level of graphic detail in the sexual encounters described candidly by both men, which, in Robson’s case allegedly took place from the age of seven, and with Safechuck from 10.

The audience gave Robson and Safechuck [to the left and right of director Reed below] a standing ovation at the end of the film, with many of the critics expressing horror at the revelations.

In one particularly horrifying remembrance, Safechuck also takes the audience on a virtual tour of Jackson’s extensive Neverland ranch, north of Santa Barbara – through the model train station, the movie theatre, the “castle”, the tee pees and the swimming pool; “We would have sex there,” he says, flatly, of each location on the list. “It would happen every day. It sounds sick, but it was like when you are first dating someone – you do a lot of it.” The men also allege regular abuse took place during “sleepovers” at Jackson’s other properties, including the “Hideout” in Century City, Los Angeles.

Their intimate and devastating testimonies are convincingly backed up by albums-worth of archive photographs of them, as boys, with the pop icon off-duty and seemingly relaxed, recordings of messages from Jackson, and, in Robson’s case, hundreds of faxes filled with love and affection for the boy he called “Little One”.

At the time, the boys spoke about being “in love” with Jackson, it was a very different story for their respective families:

…Robson’s mother, brother, sister and grandmother, and both of Safechuck’s parents – whose contributions paint a picture of a structured, sophisticated and well-practiced campaign of grooming by Jackson, not only of his alleged young victims, but of their entire families.

Kind of like how R. Kelly would win over the families of young women, promising to further their music careers, before the sexual assaults began.

Still, the families themselves admit they made mistakes:

Reed’s film is entirely sympathetic to Jackson’s alleged victims, and, to a certain extent, to their families, who were beguiled by the singer’s overwhelming star power (“It was one big seduction,” says Safechuck), but does not wholly absolve them of their complicity. Safechuck’s mother, Steph, admits as much herself: ‘I f—– up, I failed to protect him,” she states.

But there is no ambivalence whatsoever in the film’s decisive and damning verdict on Jackson. Steph Safechuck, again, puts it succinctly: “He was a paedophile’.”

So, can we separate the art from the artist?

Given that Jackson settled cases out of court already – with Jordan Chandler for $23 million, and some lawyers claim the total figure for all settlements was around the £134 million mark – I get the feeling that people will still be enjoying Jackson’s music in years to come.

[source:telegraph]