Maybe it was sarcasm, or perhaps provocation, but at least one paparazzo this week seemed to have completely forgotten Michael Jackson’s contemptuous relationship with the media.
At least that’s how the late singer’s daughter, Paris Jackson, interpreted a confrontation with aggressive shutterbugs.
On Wednesday, the 20-year-old model tweeted that she was leaving a Tom Ford show when a photographer shouted “in a really mean way” to get her to show her face for a picture.
“Michael would never have done that!!” she said the photographer yelled.
She noted her father’s penchant for thwarting paparazzi in a later tweet. The King of Pop, who died in 2009 at age 50, was known for wearing masks, and even disguised his children when he was out in public.
“Does no one remember the hundreds of unique disguises he came up with all the time?” Paris wrote. “The fuck.”
Paris Jackson shed some light on her father’s attempt to avoid publicity during a conversation with Oprah in 2012.
“I was really confused, like I didn’t get why I was wearing a mask,” Paris, then 13, said at the time, per E! News. “But I understand it now, why our dad would want our face to be covered, so we went out without him, we wouldn’t be recognized and we could have a normal childhood.”
If that weren’t enough, Jackson’s song, “Leave Me Alone,” featured on his 1987 album “Bad” delivered a clear message to writers of tabloid stories about his personal life.
“The song is about a relationship between a guy and a girl. But what I’m really saying to people who are bothering me is: ‘Leave me alone,’” Jackson said, according to his official website.
The video for the song also is a clear shot at the media.
So, despite the murky motive behind the clash with Paris Jackson this week, one thing is abundantly clear: The paparazzi were anything but smooth criminals.