billie jean

It's weird to look back at the Michael Jackson Pepsi ad from 1984 (the one that actually aired) and think that it caused so many problems in his life. US Weekly got hold of the footage that never aired, of Jackson's scalp catching on fire, causing second and third degree burns to his scalp and face. The magazine claims that this accident is what led to MJ's addiction to both painkillers and plastic surgery.

This is surreal footage, and at first I thought it was footage from the TV movie made about Jackson's life, but it's real. That's Miko Brando in the hat helping Jackson. Brando has been on Larry King Live many times recently. After the jump, the ad that aired. It's worth noting that Jackson went on to do other Pepsi ads after this.

So it looks like Chris Cornell has responded to the "controversy" about David Cook's performance of "Billie Jean" last week on American Idol. While Ryan Seacrest clearly introduced him by indicating he was doing Chris Cornell's version, that introduction doesn't seem to have been enough. The incident is similar to one during Season Five when Chris Daughtry performed Live's arrangement of Johnny Cash's classic "I Walk the Line." Then, as now, the judge's didn't seem to realize that the contestants were singing other artists arrangements of the pieces, instead praising their bravery and originality.

And they weren't the only ones. Even in my review of the episode I clearly stated that it was Chris Cornell's arrangement, and yet I still got comments from people who thought David was trying to pull one over on America by pretending it was his own work. Cornell didn't see the episode as he was returning from abroad, but he was immediately deluged with emails blasting the judges for praising Cook's brave 'arrangement.'