UNITED KINGDOM: Reality TV star and concert promoter David Gest promises fans a fresh insight into Michael Jackson in his documentary about the late "King of Pop"

Record ID: 220632

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Reality TV star and concert promoter David Gest promises fans a fresh insight into Michael Jackson in his documentary about the late "King of Pop"
  • Date: 3rd November 2011
  • Summary: PRODUCER DAVID GEST ON RED CARPET JACKSON POSTERS GEST SIGNS AUTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) FILM PRODUCER DAVID GEST SAYING: "I think you'll find out who the man behind the music was and you'll see a different side to him. This is a film when people watch it they go 'I didn't know that, I didn't know that, I didn't know that'. It's not a compilation of everything you've seen before put together like some mumbo jumbo film. It's really something different and unique." GEST TALKS TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) FILM PRODUCER DAVID GEST SAYING: "He was my best childhood friend. I remember his laugh where he used to go (makes laugh noise) and I remember how shrewd he was before the Pepsi commercial at designing every campaign and doing everything for his career. He was at the helm of everything -- that incident where the fire burned on his head changed his whole view of things. Anybody who's ever had a head concussion, it's never the same because you're on medication to take away that pain and it never goes away." GEST TALKS TO REPORTERS WIDE OF CINEMA (SOUNDBITE) (English) FILM PRODUCER DAVID GEST, ON JACKSON'S FINAL YEARS, SAYING: "He was so isolated, so isolated from everyone that even his family and his closest friends really couldn't get to him. His number would change, you'd try to call him and you'd have to go through so many people and there was all this security and people that came and went. It was pretty sad the last few years. I don't know how he got through the [child molestation] trial because a lot of people weren't there for him." WIDE OF RED CARPET. (SOUNDBITE) (English) JACKSON'S SISTER REBBIE JACKSON SAYING: "Until a few minutes ago it became very emotional. When I was inside taking pictures I started crying." Reporter: "Bringing memories back?" "Yes. I mean just everything right now - the court situation, the whole thing." Reporter: "There must be a lot of pressure on your family right now?" "There is. It is. But you know it has to be done. That is the situation right now with the court. And I am happy I did what I did with this because I felt it was something that was necessary. I felt that I owed him this much and not only that, I felt I wanted to do it for myself for therapy as well." WIDE OF RED CARPET JACKSON'S BROTHER TITO SIGNS AUTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) JACKSON'S BROTHER TITO JACKSON, ON ATTENDING CONRAD MURRAY TRIAL, SAYING: "Yes it was very hard. I went to the trial for the first week or ten days and I couldn't take it any longer. It was so hard watching the clips, hearing the testimony." TITO JACKSON ON RED CARPET (SOUNDBITE) (English) JACKSON'S BROTHER TITO JACKSON, ON DAVID GEST'S FILM, SAYING: "It would show them what a heart he had and make them understand the molestation charges and why they occurred. He was a person that just wanted to help people -- if you needed something or you were in poverty or whatever he wanted to make a difference in your life because he grew up in poverty and things of these nature, so he wanted to give some of the underprivileged people some of the things that he didn't have as a kid."
  • Embargoed: 18th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVACL82F9M4BPL9AHK9HAHJF8JWN
  • Story Text: Reality TV star and concert promoter David Gest promised his documentary about Michael Jackson will introduce fans to 'the man behind the music' at its European premiere in London on Wednesday (November 2).
    Gest has teamed up with Universal Pictures to make "Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon", released this week on Blu-ray and DVD with the blessing of Jackson's mother Katherine.
    "You'll see a different side to him," Gest told Reuters Television. "This is a film when people watch it they go 'I didn't know that, I didn't know that, I didn't know that'. It's not a compilation of everything you've seen before put together like some mumbo jumbo film. It's really something different and unique."
    Speaking about his memories of the singer, Gest said Jackson never really recovered from an accident in 1984, when his hair caught fire while filming a commercial.
    "I remember his laugh where he used to go (makes laugh noise) and I remember how shrewd he was before the Pepsi commercial at designing every campaign and doing everything for his career. He was at the helm of everything -- that incident where the fire burned on his head changed his whole view of things. Anybody who's ever had a head concussion, it's never the same because you're on medication to take away that pain and it never goes away," Gest said.
    He added that Jackson's final years were lonely and difficult.
    "He was so isolated, so isolated from everyone that even his family and his closest friends really couldn't get to him," he said. "His number would change, you'd try to call him and you'd have to go through so many people and there was all this security and people that came and went. It was pretty sad the last few years. I don't know how he got through the [child molestation] trial because a lot of people weren't there for him."
    The producer, a long-time friend of the "Thriller" singer, is also involved in a singing and spoken-world tribute tour to Jackson which kicks off in Britain next spring.
    His projects are part of a series of Jackson-related events that have been staged, screened or planned since the star died in June 2009.
    The Life of an Icon features interviews with Katherine Jackson and the singer's siblings Tito and Rebbie and friends and colleagues including Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick and Whitney Houston.
    Rebbie, who attended the London premiere, said the documentary and the on-going trial of Jackson's physician Dr Conrad Murray were bringing memories flooding back.
    Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter over the singer's death.
    "Until a few minutes ago it became very emotional. When I was inside taking pictures I started crying," she said. "I mean just everything right now - the court situation, the whole thing. But you know it has to be done. That is the situation right now with the court. And I am happy I did what I did with this because I felt it was something that was necessary. I felt that I owed him this much and not only that, I felt I wanted to do it for myself for therapy as well."
    Jackson's brother Tito was also in London to mark the release of the DVD documentary.
    "I went to the trial for the first week or ten days and I couldn't take it any longer. It was so hard watching the clips, hearing the testimony," he said.
    In the documentary Tito discusses what the family went through during a 2005 child molestation trial where his brother was eventually acquitted on all counts. He said he hoped the documentary would help fans see Michael Jackson in a new light.
    "It would show them what a heart he had and make them understand the molestation charges and why they occurred. He was a person that just wanted to help people -- if you needed something or you were in poverty or whatever he wanted to make a difference in your life because he grew up in poverty and things of these nature, so he wanted to give some of the underprivileged people some of the things that he didn't have as a kid," Tito said.
    "Michael Jackson's This Is It", a 2009 documentary film about rehearsals for his comeback tour which never took place, made more than 260 million U.S. dollars (USD) at the global box office.
    A posthumous album entitled "Immortal" is due out this month, a 60 million USD Cirque du Soleil extravaganza recently launched in Canada and Wales hosted a tribute gig last month attended by Jackson's mother and three children.
    Jackson, who was 50 when he died of an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol which he used as a sleep aid, was one of the most successful recording artists of all time.
    Gest's new film traces Jackson from his breakthrough in the Jackson 5 to his rise to fame as a solo artist through to his sudden death in Los Angeles.
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