Ian Halperin's "Michael Jackson: Unmasked" - Complete Trash

In these sad times fans worldwide try to find away to get along with the pain of loosing Michael. They are buying albums, memorabilia and books. While there are some good books out there, there are many more authors who are trying to cash in on the name Michael Jackson. And we should not support them by spending on our money on their crap.

One of the best examples is Ian Halperin's unauthorized biography "Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson". Why not buy this book? The answer is simple. Because it is full of mistakes, fiction and unproven accusations.

The MJFC has done some background checking. Here are some details you should know before even considering spending a penny on “Unmasked.”

Ian Halperin is a Canadian journalist and writer who makes his money writing books on various celebrities, super-models and Hollywood in general. He is the author or coauthor of nine books on stars such as Celine Dion, James Taylor and Kurt Cobain - all of which contain very highly questionable material and often cite "unnamed sources". So you can't really say he is a specialist on Michael Jackson but rather a specialist in using famous people to make money.

As noted in The Link, Concordia's independent newspaper, Halperin's habit of publishing unsubstantiated statements goes back to April 1984 when an athletic director Ed Enos at Montreal’s Concordia University filed a $100,000 suit against him for making allegations of improper conduct within the university's athletic department. Halperin was criminally charged with providing false testimony and lying under oath in the civil case. Three different sources denied providing him with any of the information he claimed they had. Halperin fled to the UK to avoid criminal prosecution and remained there for 2.5 years before returning to face the court. He served jail time for fleeing the country.

On top of everything else, Halperin is not above attempting to pad his own credentials. Like his claim that he was given an award for journalism by Rolling Stone magazine. Rolling Stone had something to say about that.

“Rolling Stone did some digging today and determined that many of Halperin’s other assertions don't hold up. The first line of Halperin’s biography reads “Ian Halperin is also a former winner of the Rolling Stone magazine Award for Investigative Journalism.” This came as news to us, so we looked in our own archives and discovered this claim has been greatly exaggerated: He did win an RS honor, but it was the College Journalism Award in 1985 and it was split among the staff at Concordia University’s student newspaper in Montreal.”

Halperin's unauthorized Michael Jackson biography was release in July 2009, just a few weeks after Michael's death. He used the following strange quote to release it: "I timed it because I knew around this time he was a candidate to die. I'm being totally up-front about that."

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Journalist Roger Friedman dedicated an entire article on all the mistakes included in the biography on July 13, 2009:

"Michael Jackson U.K. Bio Riddled With Mistakes

A coming biography of Michael Jackson, due soon and excerpted in the New York Post over the weekend, is riddled with errors. Ian Halperin’s book will make salacious reading but is full of fiction, sources tell me. I could have told you that myself.

For one thing, Halperin’s new assertion that Jackson didn't know what his contract with AEG Live read is nonsense. <...> As one of my best sources on the AEG matter reiterates: “The contract always called for 31 shows and MJ had agreed to add 19 more when it was obvious how great the demand was. He did not die from doing 50 shows over 9 months since he hadn't done one yet at the time of his death. He never collapsed in rehearsal and worked long days both filming the mini-movies and rehearsing at home with Travis Payne. He wasn't supposed to come to stage rehearsals until the entire company was ready. This is the way he has always worked.” So there.

As well: Halperin repeats nanny Grace Rwaramba’s assertion that somehow Michael was made to rent a house for $100,000 that was only worth $25,000 — and that the Nation of Islam was somehow involved. In fact, the house was found by Jackson’s short-lived manager Tohme Tohme, who has nothing to do with the Nation of Islam. The house is said to be owned by a Tunisian Jew. The irony here is that it was Rwaramba herself who brought the Nation of Islam into Jackson’s life in 2003.

There’s more, including Halperin’s insane claim that Michael had at least two gay lovers in the last years, that he dressed as a woman and slipped out of the house to meet one of them. Unfortunately, Halperin’s timelines are all wrong. Plus, everyone knows that Michael Jackson was a germ freak. The behavior described by Halperin defies all Jack-like logic.

Beware these sudden “tell alls” and “expert biographies” of Michael Jackson. You can write anything about the dead. This party is only getting started."

So if you have some money to spend, rather donate it to one of the many charities that Michael supported rather than filling the pockets of this "author" which will not bring you any further insight on Michael Jackson. It will only support the livelihood of this vulture.


http://www.mjfanclub.net/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2540:buyer-beware-unmaskedq-complete-trash&catid=1:announcements&Itemid=145

he had the book out and published before MJ's death practically. A sheer opportunist trying to capitalize on a dead man. Sick bastard IMO.

:dem:

...and of course the other tabloids and lame$tream media are just repeating it as if he's some sort of authority - Pfft! The dude is a chronic vulture with a record 10 miles long - including criminal.

Tell me why the MJ Fan Club is to be believed.

...before I'd believe Ian Halperin - nevermind MJFC.