"[Michael Jackson] nurtured relationships, including with the boys’ mothers. He spent hours on the phone with James and Wade, he would also call their moms, just to talk to them."

"Jackson also spent time at the Safechucks’ modest home in Simi Valley, Calif. He could have been anywhere in the world, Stephanie Safechuck said, but he chose to be with them. 'He was a son I started to take care for,' Stephanie Safechuck said. 'He would spend the night, I’d wash his clothes.' She said that she once told Jackson that she had prayed for her son’s success in getting into commercials, and that he went on to find success right away. In response, she said, Jackson told her that he had prayed, too. He had prayed for a friend, and then he found James."

From "'Leaving Neverland': Viewers React With Shock at Disturbing Accounts of Life With Michael Jackson" (NYT).

I've watched about half an hour of this 4-hour documentary. I don't know if I will keep going, but if you've watched some or all of this, talk to me about your reaction to the mothers. They are still, after all these years, lit up and glowing.

I'm experiencing them as I'm absorbing the college admissions scandal, which challenges me to understand parents who experience their own emotions through their child and re-envision bad as good when it is — in some twisted way — seen as for the good of the child.

I've often entertained the thought that parenthood elevates a person into altruism — a mundane and relatively easy form of altruism, but altruism nonetheless. You must and so you probably will subordinate your own desires and pleasures for the sake of another person.

But in the college admissions scandal — and, perhaps, in "Leaving Neverland" — parenthood drives you further away from ethical behavior. You prioritize getting things for your child, and you feel urgent and justified, and you lose sight of right and wrong.

I've been thinking about this problem in light of that question from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: "Is it OK to still have children?" If I were a young woman today — looking at Lori Loughlin and Stephanie Safechuck — I might think what a terrible risk it is to become a mother.

"Why did I pay all this money for your education?"

Tweeting out this gem because...well, you know. pic.twitter.com/4fgfpAnVXX

— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) March 14, 2019

ADDED: I realize some of you don't know who these people are. Please read the post from 3 days ago, "Olivia Jade Giannulli, 'Daughter of Lori Loughlin, Is Caught Up in College Admissions Scandal/Ms. Giannulli, an influencer with big audiences on YouTube and Instagram, posted sponsored content about being a student.'" I'll make tags for both names.

"Olivia Jade Giannulli... is the daughter of the actress Lori Loughlin and the designer Mossimo Giannulli.... a social media influencer with close to two million YouTube subscribers and over a million Instagram followers."

"In September, she posted two paid advertisements on Instagram that highlighted her identity as a student. The legitimacy of her college acceptance has been called into question as a result of a Justice Department indictment, along with that of a number of others.... The fall semester at her school began on Aug. 20; a day later, Ms. Jade announced on Twitter that she had just arrived in Fiji.... Ms. Giannulli’s parents were described in the investigation as having paid multiple bribes amounting to $500,000 in order to have Olivia and her sister, Isabella, listed as recruits for the university’s crew team. (Neither participated in crew; both are influencers.)... She was criticized in August after posting a video with the title 'basically all the tea you need to know about me (boys, college, youtubers)' in which she said that she was only going to college for 'gamedays, partying.' 'I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know,' she said."

Olivia Jade Giannulli, "Daughter of Lori Loughlin, Is Caught Up in College Admissions Scandal/Ms. Giannulli, an influencer with big audiences on YouTube and Instagram, posted sponsored content about being a student" (NYT).

More about the case here, at "College Admissions Scandal: Actresses, Business Leaders and Other Wealthy Parents Charged" (NYT):

Federal prosecutors charged dozens of people on Tuesday in a major college admission scandal that involved wealthy parents, including Hollywood celebrities and prominent business leaders, paying bribes to get their children into elite American universities.

Thirty-three parents were charged in the case and prosecutors said there could be additional indictments to come. Also implicated were top college coaches, who were accused of accepting millions of dollars to help admit students to Wake Forest, Yale, Stanford, the University of Southern California and other schools, regardless of their academic or sports ability, officials said....

The authorities say the parents of some of the nation’s wealthiest and most privileged students sought to buy spots for their children at top universities, not only cheating the system, but potentially cheating other hard-working students out of a chance at a college education....

So despicable.

The top-rated comment at the NYT is: "So how do you think the low level Bushes and even lower level Trumps and Kushners got into 'top' schools?"

By the way, I'd never heard of Lori Loughlin before I read about this indictment.

AND: Here's that "I don’t really care about school" "influencer" video.



I don't know about you but this style of speech, mugging, and behavior is like fingernails on the blackboard to me. It actually makes me feel bad to think about young women teaching each other this phony, irritating cutesiness.