Question of the Day - 16 May 2019

MGM Resorts International ran and hid when we came calling with this question.

Cirque du Soleil’s official position is that Michael Jackson One has drawn 3.5 million fans to date. End of story.

Given the American public’s longstanding need not to know about Michael Jackson’s questionable relationships with children (read the Vanity Fair story, "10 Undeniable Facts about the Michael Jackson Sexual-Abuse Allegations") or the fact that the troubled superstar was not only supernaturally talented, but also died tragically, some sort of box office backlash in Las Vegas would surprise us. We've neither seen nor heard about any backlash 

However, this story is not without a Vegas angle.

Michael Jackson was often in financial straits and needed to be bailed out of debt. One of his benefactors was Thomas Barrack, chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm Colony Capital (which owned the Las Vegas Hilton for a while). Barrack and Jackson set up a joint venture in which Jackson avoided foreclosure of Neverland Ranch, the 2,800-acre property in Santa Barbara County that was his  home and private amusement park from 1989 to 2006. Barrack paid off the $22.5 million loan, which was in default. 

Reportedly, Barrack planned to dismantle Neverland and move it to Las Vegas, possibly to one of two sites owned by business associate Station Casinos along I-15. That didn't happen. (Fast forward to today. Thomas Barrack still owns the renamed Sycamore Valley Ranch. It's been for sale for several years. The price has come down from $100 million to $31 million in that time, with no takers.)

Meanwhile, Michael Jackson's residence in Las Vegas, still known as Thriller Villa and located at 2710 Palomino Lane, a little north of Charleston and little east of Rancho, now houses the Liberace Museum Collection (the subject of an upcoming QoD).