As a messy battle for custody of Michael Jackson's kids is beginning to look inevitable, it seems likely we'll follow the proceedings with even more scrutiny than might have been expected. To most of us, until last week Jackson's children were more of a concept than actual individuals—glimpsed from time to time, but largely unfixed in our collective imagination. Then Paris, Jackson's 11-year-old daughter, brought down the house at her father's memorial service, and everything changed. If there's one image that stands out, it's of Paris, demure in a black dress with white trim, telling an audience of millions how much she loved her father. As pure theater, her tribute rivals the brilliance of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s salute of his father's coffin. The audience may have gathered to mourn the death of a star that day, but by the end of the memorial a new star had been born.
Sure, some cynics said the appearance was stage-managed by the Jackson family, that the whole display reeked of the sort of child exploitation that led Michael to his grave. And reports that the Jackson family patriarch, Joe, is contemplating a "Jackson Three" tour featuring Paris and her brothers, Blanket, 7, and Prince, 12, in 2010 are certainly disturbing, considering that Michael said his own childhood as a performer was filled with sadness. Also troubling are some of the Jacksons' attempts to pimp out Paris's grief, like La Toya's revelations about Paris's reaction to the sight of her father's body—reportedly Paris said, "He is so cold. He is so cold." A&E had already commissioned a reality show starring Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon Jackson before their brother's death; if it goes forward, it seems certain the network will try to orchestrate an appearance by Paris and her brothers.
It's pointless to speculate about the degree to which Paris's testament was rehearsed or coerced. We'll never know, and it doesn't really matter. What matters is what the future holds for her and her brothers in a culture that both fetishizes the children of dead celebrities and treats them with the same ruthlessness as adults.
