Two celebrities passed away today: Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. I want to honor them one at a time:
1. I first heard of Farrah Fawcett on TV Land, although I saw her before in the movie, The Apostle, in which she played Robert Duvall's discontent, cheating wife (though, to be fair, Robert Duvall's character cheated on her, his ministerial credentials notwithstanding).
TV Land had a reality show called Chasing Farrah, and it also featured her as one of the hottest TV women. I think it was Scott Baio who remarked that, even though Farrah Fawcett was only in the first season of Charlie's Angels, she managed to become a cultural phenomenon! She influenced women's hairstyles in the late 1970's. And don't forget all the Farrah Fawcett lunchboxes and posters!
Critics long doubted that she could really act, until she starred in the 1984 movie, The Burning Bed, which earned her an Emmy nomination. She played an abused wife, and the movie had a number at the end that women could call if they were abused.
In her last years, she struggled to stay alive, seeking all sorts of remedies for her anal cancer. Although I never had a Farrah Fawcett poster or lunch box, I still feel a need to honor her memory.
2. When I was a kid, I had a little book that had questions for me to answer. One of them was, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" My answer was "a policeman, or Michael Jackson."
That may puzzle those who see Michael Jackson as a pale-faced weirdo with lip-stick who has a thing for little boys. (Remember the Saturday Night Live cartoon?) But, when I was a little kid, people thought Michael Jackson was awesome!
Growing up in the Armstrong movement, I felt like an oddball because I didn't keep Christmas or Easter, in contrast to all of my peers. But my mom made me feel better when she informed me that Michael Jackson didn't keep them either. And, at the time, he didn't, for he was a devout Jehovah's Witness. He even included a disclaimer at the beginning of his popular album, Thriller, saying he was not promoting the occult!
I recall Michael Jackson as the one who gave us breakdancing and the moonwalk, but my parents also remember him as part of the Jackson 5. He was a celebrity for most of his life!
I vaguely recall someone telling me that Michael Jackson had a lot of emotional pain, and that very well may have been true. He struggled in his relationship with his family, one reason being that he was abused as he was growing up. Yet, his family stood by him in the lowest points of his life.
R.I.P., Farrah and Michael.