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Jacko Goes to Washington
These days it seems that the "beltway" has become an expanding one.
The link between Hollywood and the nation's capital has never been as obvious, or as surreal, as it was when Michael Jackson mixed it up recently in D.C.
M.J. didn't shake a leg atop an SUV, but he did dance with some of Washington's elite.
At the Ethiopian Embassy, Jackson accepted a humanitarian award from African Ambassadors' Spouses Association. When presented with the award, he sighed: "This is beautiful. This is a wonderful time. I've been going to Africa since I was 12. I love it very much."
He promised to help Africa by having a song about HIV on a future CD or tour. He reportedly plans to tour Africa this year to raise AIDS awareness.
Jackson's D.C. entourage included Louis Farrakhan's chief of staff and bodyguard Leonard Muhammad and former mayor Marion Barry's publicist/press secretary Ramone Bain.
As fate would have it, his trip took place at the same time a California grand jury was listening to testimony on the criminal charges pending against him.
In the past, Democrats have generally been happy to appear with Jacko. A few years ago the star performed at a fund-raiser with Bill Clinton.
This time around, though, a number of Dems were seemingly unavailable. One official who did stand at Jacko's side was U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. It was the same Sheila Jackson Lee who has developed a costly taxpayer-supported habit of being transported the one block from her apartment to her office in a chauffeur-driven government car, as the Weekly Standard disclosed back in February 2002.
A while back Jackson Lee offered an explanation for this kind of extravagance. She told an aide: "I'm a queen. And I demand to be treated like a queen."
The Left Coast Report notes that it's not every day the former King of Pop meets the Queen of Hauteur.
These days it seems that the "beltway" has become an expanding one.
The link between Hollywood and the nation's capital has never been as obvious, or as surreal, as it was when Michael Jackson mixed it up recently in D.C.
M.J. didn't shake a leg atop an SUV, but he did dance with some of Washington's elite.
At the Ethiopian Embassy, Jackson accepted a humanitarian award from African Ambassadors' Spouses Association. When presented with the award, he sighed: "This is beautiful. This is a wonderful time. I've been going to Africa since I was 12. I love it very much."
He promised to help Africa by having a song about HIV on a future CD or tour. He reportedly plans to tour Africa this year to raise AIDS awareness.
Jackson's D.C. entourage included Louis Farrakhan's chief of staff and bodyguard Leonard Muhammad and former mayor Marion Barry's publicist/press secretary Ramone Bain.
As fate would have it, his trip took place at the same time a California grand jury was listening to testimony on the criminal charges pending against him.
In the past, Democrats have generally been happy to appear with Jacko. A few years ago the star performed at a fund-raiser with Bill Clinton.
This time around, though, a number of Dems were seemingly unavailable. One official who did stand at Jacko's side was U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. It was the same Sheila Jackson Lee who has developed a costly taxpayer-supported habit of being transported the one block from her apartment to her office in a chauffeur-driven government car, as the Weekly Standard disclosed back in February 2002.
A while back Jackson Lee offered an explanation for this kind of extravagance. She told an aide: "I'm a queen. And I demand to be treated like a queen."
The Left Coast Report notes that it's not every day the former King of Pop meets the Queen of Hauteur.
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