Yesterday we posted quotes from OK! Australia attributed to 23-year-old singer Aaron Carter, who allegedly told the magazine that Michael Jackson plied him with alcohol and cocaine when Carter was just 15 years old.
Now, many MJ loyalists are doubting the veracity of the published interview, insisting the videotaped version of the interview is evidence of some kind of fabrication.
In this video—filmed by tabloid journalist Daphne Barak and posted to her website—Aaron Carter makes no mention of anybody offering him cocaine. In fact, he clarifies that he never witnessed Michael Jackson doing drugs.
Because visiting Ms. Barak’s cutting-edge website might kill your computer, I’ve embedded a meticulously subtitled version of Barak’s taped interview with Carter. (FYI: no part of Barak’s original video has been omitted, although on her website she does note that this is only the “first excerpt of an hours-long interview.”)
Carter describes the party he attended at Neverland Ranch in 2003, saying that Jackson cut loose and drank wine. He speaks favorably of Michael Jackson, although he concedes the man was weird. As for drug use? He maintains that Jackson was “fine.” But then Barak and Carter go on to invent several hypotheses about Michael Jackson, speculating that he may have secretly done coke in the bathroom, or that he’d built up enough of a pill-tolerance so as to always seem “fine,” or, or, or.
The video itself, by the way, is bizarre. By its end, Carter—who has been sitting next to a piano all along—is visibly eager to play Ms. Barak a song he wrote to Michael Jackson in “tribute.” Carter’s ballad is transparently lyrically loaded to imply the Love of Which We Oughtn’t Speak, and it is completely ridiculous. Also, the footage of Carter is intercut with photographs of Ms. Barak and Carter palling around.
Did Daphne Barak simply edit all the incriminating quotes out of her video before posting it? Does it even matter that Aaron Carter On Tape seemingly conflicts with Aaron Carter In OK! Magazine? What exactly is going on here?
Those lyrics were ‘cry for help’ creepy. Maybe his plan is to insinuate things until someone catches on that something wasn’t right.
You’re a much more generous person than I (but totes agreed on the Creep Factor)
I found that really creepy, and Is he on something? I felt that it was a desperate attempt to get back into the media….