Bling Bling in the ATL

We've got two Neverlands in the media right now. Wacko Jacko's real life paradise for pedophiles, and Johnny Depp's venture into Victorian child worship. The movie is the sicker of the two.

First off, this isn't about the people. WaPo today has a headline pitting Condi vs. Hillary, and in a celebrity deathmatch, I'd root for Condi. I would expect she'd wear her black boots and the pointy ends of her flip hairdo would turn out to be razor sharp cutting implements. Maybe her piano would fall from the sky and crush Hillary and then Condi''d play a minuet and flash a smile to the crowd.

In a real election I'd be down in Florida every weekend again, with Hilary Victory 2008 stickers all over my car.

Jackson and Depp? I'm sad about Jackson's path, and I'm sad for his family. Theres something really... wholesome about the Jackson family's music - Janet Jacksons smile has something beautific about it. The Jackson 5 is just damn good music. I don't know what happened to the man, but he's definitely out of touch. Not just with fashion, but with his day to day reality.

Speaking of fashion, Johnny Depp - well, he dated Kate Moss. And anyone who dates Kate Moss is more than alright with me.

I saw Neverland when it came out - on my birthday, actually. Me and the boy had a fight on the way in, and then we met up with Umbrella and Allycat. The movie was trash. Basically Depp is out of touch with reality, lives in a fantasy world. He finds some kids who have suffered the death of their father, and their mother is dying too. Their mother refuses to admit she is ill, so she won't see a doctor or take medicine or even prepare her kids for her death, even though they are canny enough to see that she is dying. Depp and the mother avoid their troubles for an thoroughly adult fantasy of a child's innocent oblivion. Depp even writes a fantasy play vindicating the mothers' dementia, about a world where medicine is poison, and no one ever dies.

Depp and the mother abdicate their responsibility as adults to face death and help the children cope with impending tragedy. Instead, the mother remains in denial, and Depp plays melancholy voyeur while the oldest son grows up to soon and demands his mother see a doctor and come clean to the family about her condition.

While Depp is tearfully observing this drama unfold, his real life is falling apart. The one person in the film who insists that Depp and the mother stop mooning about and play adult is demonzied.

So, basically the film sucks. Depps an emotionally twisted person who prefers his fantasy life to emotional honesty with his wife and play-lover. The mother is an impossibly saintly, tuberculosis ridden waif who is unable to care for her children until they are old and mature enough to manage the responsibilities of adults.

Yeah. Its a insidiously shitty film with a deeply disturbing message. Don't believe the hype.

The other Neverland story seems more inspiring. Jackson is correctly recognized by the public as inappropriately childlike, and as putting children in inappropriate, adult situations. I wish he were less of a spectacle, because I feel bad for him and his family, but really. A grown adult man shouldn't, wouldn't show up at court to answer charges of pedophilia in his pajamas, complaining that he was late because his back hurt.

Speaking of grown adult men, I should get to work.

- Ms. Bling