Michael Jackson: Cirque du oh why

If there used to be one thing in defence of Cirque Du Soleil, it was that they used to use interesting music as a backdrop to their juggling and trapeze doodling.

Not any more, though, as - with people still dangling over arenas to the sounds of The Beatles - the circus folk are going more and more like a fairground dodgem set up. They're now working on a show based around the money of Michael Jackson.

Music of Michael Jackson. Did I say money?

Jackson, who died at age 50 last June after a drug overdose, was described as a "huge fan" of the French Canadian performance group.

He was always going on about them. Had a t-shirt and everything.

"He said he was an acrobat himself," [Cirque CEO Daniel] Lamarre said in an interview. "As an artist he had this amazing way of bringing some visual element to his performances."

I remember Jackson claiming to be an acrobat. Or a juggler, or something. Or at least, he ran a fairground for a bit, didn't he? That's pretty much the same thing.

As this creep towards absorbing back catalogue to build Las Vegas shows around, it's only a matter of time before we find CDS trying to claim that Mama Cass was, really, something of a trapeze artist herself.