Unmasked The Final Years of Michael Jackson [Hardcover]

Ian Halperin (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment (January 1, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1926745124
• ISBN-13: 978-1926745121
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (204 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Ian Halperin is also a former winner of the Rolling Stone magazine Award for Investigative Journalism. He is the author or coauthor of five books, including the bestsellers Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Story, and Celine Dion: Behind the Fairytale, as well as a number of exposes on the modeling industry. He coauthored Who Killed Kurt Cobain? with Max Wallace. Ian is a regular correspondent for Court TV and has contributed to 60 Minutes 2.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

443 of 456 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars High on sensationalism, low on facts, July 18, 2009

By 

Ronald Sehaefer "Ron" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson (Hardcover)

Having followed Ian's other explosive celebrity scoops and books over the past several years I sort of knew what to expect with this one. Ian is the one who exclusively revealed on his blog that Angelina Jolie has sex daily with men, women, dogs, plants, and suggestively even her own children. He claims that Brad Pitt impregnated a mysterious Sudanese model who then traveled to Cannes this year to confront him, but then never said another word about it. He claimed multiple times that David Carradine was murdered, when in fact the forensic experts confirmed that Carradine died of accidental erotic asphyxiation. One of his biggest things is to "out" celebrities and in his mind most all of Hollywood is gay. Unfortunately, none of Ian's exclusives have ever been substantiated by any factual evidence, and most read more like fabricated tales than concrete accounts.

Late last year Ian first alleged (as he does in his book) that Michael Jackson was suffering from a potpourri of deadly diseases including but not limited to Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency, chronic gastrointestinal bleeding, severe emphysema, 95% blind in his left eye, near mute, lung and liver diseases and in dire need of a transplant, serious back and leg pain, virtually bedridden and unable to get out, amongst other outlandish illnesses which seemed to grow each week. After these claims were roundly denied by Michael Jackson, Ian aggressively promised to bring out medical records and evidence to support these claims, he never did so but instead challenged Michael to take a medical exam to prove he didn't have such illnesses. In fact, a mandatory five hour medical exam was conducted several months ago as required by the insurance carriers of the concert series in London (which Ian never mentioned until the day Michael made the announcement himself). The certified doctors responsible for this 50-point exam, including one from New York, confirmed that other than a slight hay fever (cold) he was in great health and the only other illnesses he had was his well known skin condition Vitiligo and Lupus. After Michael Jackson passed away, forensic experts and those conducting the autopsy again made note that he did NOT die due to natural causes or lingering illnesses and that we'd have to wait for a toxicology report. It is suspected that a single anesthetic was administered by an inexperienced doctor which led to his shocking death, not all of the reasons Ian has proclaimed.

This book makes heavy, heavy use of anonymous sources Ian describes as "close friends" of Michael Jackson. Ian also has a reputation of using names of sources that simply do not exist or have no legitimate association with the celebrity he is describing--such as calling "Dean Smith" a close friend of Michael Jackson despite no such person ever existing in his life; not once did any media outlet mention such a name in connection to Michael Jackson over the course of forty years. To substantiate some of Ian's health claims in the past, he cited an old and obsolete gossip column from Fox News while portraying it as a brand new quote for his own story. He also uses other gossipers like Perez Hilton to confirm his stories, most such claims we've long heard in tabloids for years and years.

Ian regurgitates the widespread rumors of Michael's children, plastic surgery, and sexuality. He claims that Michael Jackson is gay (despite much evidence indicating otherwise including all the heterosexual material found at Neverland in 2003). Ian insists that he has seen photographs of Michael dressed all up in drag with gay men at nightclubs but then says that Michael wasn't even recognizable at all... He also does not show any such pictures to us, or to the media. Ian allegedly went undercover as a gay hairdresser to meet Michael Jackson, but does not give a timeline or exact location; for the record Karen Faye had long been Michael Jackson's sole makeup artist and stylist even after he passed away.

Ian claims that Michael Jackson wanted to die and that he couldn't hardly walk let alone dance or sing (on Ian's site he claimed Michael couldn't even wipe his own butt). Pictures and videos of Michael Jackson's final rehearsals at the Staples Center in Los Angeles were released by AEG officials. They recorded more than 100 hours of HD video of Michael singing and dancing night after night, including just hours before he passed away. It is expected that they will be releasing this material on DVD, in theaters, or as a Pay-Per-View event in the future. I want everyone to take a look at those pictures, and at the video of Michael dancing and singing, and then remember that Ian proclaimed he was bedridden and "could no longer sing, for a start. On some days he could barely talk. He could no longer dance." According to concert promoters, Michael sang live much of the time during rehearsals and sounded better than ever even though he was told to preserve his voice for the real concerts, this too will come out when more video gets released.

The bottom line is that none of the salacious speculations in Ian's book, especially about Michael's alleged illnesses or sexuality, are backed up by factual evidence or supporting documents. Ian claims to have seen Michael's medical records, but fails to show them to us and his claims contradict that of forensic experts and doctors. He claims to have seen confidential documents, pictures, and spoken to unknown or anonymous close friends but again none of this can be substantiated. Ultimately we get yet another unauthorized book containing nothing but speculation at a point when Michael Jackson himself can't even defend against such accusations.

For those who believe that Ian set out to create an unbiased book about him, you need to review his blog and the things he previously wrote about Michael until the time that he passed away. Just weeks beforehand he claimed that his book will "shock you as to how sick a human being can actually be. How screwed up, how ****ed up, a man--if you call Michael Jackson a man--can be." He referred to Michael Jackson as "Wacko Jacko" and wrote even more grotesque things on his blog about him. The original title of his book was in fact "Peter Pan or Pervert" and had a much more pessimistic description put out by the original publishers. Would not recommend this, nor would I recommend any subsequent unauthorized products coming out on the heels of Michael's death.

90 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Badly edited trash, pure research fail, July 24, 2009

By 

J. Cooper - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson (Hardcover)

I just got done reading this book, and I have two major complaints:

First off, I would like to say that this is probably the most poorly edited book I have ever had the chance to read. There are sentences that are repeated twice, spelling and grammar errors that could have been easily corrected, the font at some points looks deliberately stretched out, and the dates on some things are messed up. Case in point: Apparently according to this book, Diana, Princess of Wales died in 1999, and an incident involving Janet Arvizo in relation to People vs. Jackson was placed in the year 1993...and this is just what I caught. There are probably more date screwups abounding that I missed. Whoever edited this should be ashamed of themselves.

Secondly, the meat and bones of the book itself. The term "research fail" could be used to sum up the portion of the book not related to the molestation charges. The author presents little to no evidence to back up his many outrageous claims, which include but are not limited to:

1. MJ is gay, and had numerous gay lovers over the years;
2. Lisa Marie married him to get him into the Cult of Scientology and divorced him when he refused;
3. He was high on drugs when he dangled Blanket off the balcony in Berlin;
4. The inclusion of the "nanny pumped MJ's stomach" story as fact;
5. MJ had some rare genetic lung disease, so he brought in Dr. Conrad Murray to kill him in some form of assisted suicide.

Ian Halperin got lucky when he said MJ only had six months to live. A lucky guess does not make one an authority, especially not with the lack of real research that has been done on this book. He claims to have spent 5 years researching this, but all he came up with was 287 (artificially inflated) pages, plus another 55 pages of the 1993 transcript (some of which already appeared in portions earlier in the book)? In fact, the main sources for this book, besides his (possibly made up) anonymous "sources", is (possibly made up) stuff the author had previously written about MJ on his blog and articles that have appeared in the ever-so-reliable British trash mags The Sun, The Daily Mail, and the News of the World that the author has excerpted from.

In closing: poorly written, poorly edited, poorly sourced. Just plain poor.

180 of 200 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Professional Fan Fiction, July 15, 2009

By 

Ivy Gordon (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson (Hardcover)

Celebrity biographers are an interesting breed. It's important to keep questioning their motives as you read along. Some do it for wealth, some do it for fame, some do it to glorify or defame their subject. Very rarely do you find someone committing their life's work to the raw truth in these type of profiles. Not when sensationalism sells.

Halperin's latest work should be considered professional fan fiction. He appears to have taken basic facts about Jackson's life and let his imagination roam. Almost all of his tips come from anonymous sources. There's a reason we are taught from grade school to cite sources, people. There is absolutely no reason to believe these stories are true. The assumptions he makes and conclusions he jumps to are often laughable. Halperin never interviewed Jackson.

The highlight of the book is Halperin's analysis of the child molestation charges. He finds that there is no truth to the accusations, which is plainly apparent with any research into the families and the specifics behind the charges.

I never imagined someone could be so violently robbed of privacy and compassion and condemned by the same people who adored him. Don't waste your money on this book. [...]. That's a summary of the whole book. Please note that this is published on the Daily Mail, a disreputable tabloid. Further, notice that one of Halperin's claims, that Rowe is demanding custody, has already been proven false. As per the claims that Jackson couldn't sing or dance and would only contribute 13 minutes of the performance, I sincerely doubt AEG would allow that. Outrage would spread after the first show and everyone would start demanding refunds. And check out the author's personal blog. It's hilarious narcissism. And he claims to be producing a documentary about Jackson. Exploitation at it's lowest.

The fact of the matter is we will probably never know the truth about Michael Jackson. His life was so bizarre and so private, I don't even imagine his closest of friends would know the whole truth. If you'd like to read anything on him, I recommend his autobiography, Moon Walk. Although it is bloated with sugar-coating and, well, lies- you can learn more about him by reading between the lines of his own words than you could elsewhere. And, of course, you wouldn't be feeding the vulture. So it is deliciously ironic when Halperin points the finger of blame at Jackson's greedy entourage for his death while so desperately trying to grab a piece for himself. Halperin ought to be ashamed.

Rest in Peace, Michael.