No Rock And Roll Fun

IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR: We've been consulting our fairground experts as to whether or not the appearance of most of the Family Jackson at Michael's hearing yesterday constitutes an actual "sideshow" or not, and their judgement is that, unless there was the smell of frying onions and a booth telling fortunes, it doesn't quite make it. Having said which, it came damn near close. We can';t help wondering if the idea of turning up in a double decker bus was inspired by the Partridge Family or Summer Holiday, but it suggests that negotiations are already far advanced for selling the rights to the musical. Packing the courtroom with the scarily-similar looking faces of the Plastic Surgery Family Jackson to stare unblinkingly at the judge sounds as if it might have be an idea cooked up by Michael's good friend Uri Gellar ("and if that fails, we can try bending the prosecution's spoons..."). Nothing very much happened in the courtroom itself as the hearing got underway; it looks like its going to take its time. The double decker might wind up appearing on the timetables.