When Princess Diana died I felt as if I’d just arrived from another planet.
Any death of a relatively young person is sad and when it’s a public figure it will obviously get publicity. But I couldn’t understand the wall to wall idolatry and anguish.
I’m feeling a bit the same way now over the deaths of Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.
I recognise her face, name and that of Charlie’s Angels but don’t think I ever watched the programme.
I know who he was. But absorbed such a strong negative impression of him from accidental encounters with increasingly mad, bad and/or sad stories about him that I was put off his music and can’t recall ever listening to it.
A lot of other people had much stronger and more positive connections with one or both of them and that’s reflected in the media. But here on Planet Homepaddock I just acknowledge the deaths as sad in the abstract and with sympathy for their families and friends.
Homepaddock 
I have been appalled at the coverage TV and internet sites have been giving to the M.Jackson death.
Obviously the Afro-American community see him as one of their success stories. That tells you something of the room that community has to go before reaching their potential.
Put bluntly, the man was a misfit in general society. His court case resembled that of OJ Simpson, where public(ethnically divided) made it difficult for a balanced verdict.
Let’s get on with the real business- in the USA with the vast debts built up by President Obama !
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Its a generational thing, but when you had a couple of young girls back in the early 80s, then Charlies Angels was a sort of upmarket “Famous Five” for girls. Farrah was the cheese whilst Kate Jackson got on with solving the case. A good crossover show between girls as sex symbols and victims to sex symbols and detectives.
I remember Fawcett with affection for her vampy role but liked Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith better.
Michael Jackson was in his prime as a kid.. and it was all downhill after that.. but thats mainly just my age showing. In sum, an inconsequential person for me.
JC
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Totally agree, it seems completely over the top to me. Obviously too nothing at all happened in the world yesterday apart from these two deaths.
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My wife, who is a former TV news producer in her mid-40s and grew up with Jackson and Fawcett as idols, pointed out that today’s TV news producers are all in their mid-40s too. Same goes for print. Hence the vast coverage, and also the bafflement of those of us who are a bit older.
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