"She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket," wrote Raymond Chandler.

***

The death of Farrah Fawcett, after her long and valiant battle against cancer, still has her friends and family reeling. This lovely woman was so strong minded, so determined to cure herself and live, that nobody was really sure she wasn’t going to get up and announce, "No, not yet!"

That wasn’t the case, unfortunately. And two who have been especially stricken by Farrah’s passing are her sister Angels, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith.

When Kate and Jaclyn had their own brushes with cancer, it was – along with their doctors – to Farrah they turned for support and guidance because, according to an insider, "She was always the most level-headed, and they knew she would know what to recommend immediately."

Farrah instantly dropped what she was doing, and went to Kate and Jacyln with healing diets and advice on the best treatments available. Jackson and Smith are cancer free today and they credit at least a part of their recovery to the devotion and intelligent outlook provided by Farrah Fawcett.

***

From the sublime and uplifting to the ludicrous and deliberately misleading.

I ask you, are all the people to whom Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson "preach" 20 years old, with no memory of the lives and deaths of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra?

Sharpton, in particular, continues to cite Presley and Sinatra as controversial celebrities whose lives were "respected" after death – at least "until after the funeral." Really? Really?

Well, sorry Al, but if I remember correctly, and I know I do, in the years leading up to Elvis Presley’s death there were many rumors of drugs, not to mention the jumpsuit-bursting results of his quite obvious gross eating habits. (I recall many a "fat Elvis" joke.)

Within hours of Presley’s death, every sordid speculation was in the newspapers and supermarket tabloids; from everywhere came members of his entourage speaking candidly about his rapacious capacity for drugs, food and young women. But along with all this was the weeping and the crying and the massive gatherings at Graceland and the great tributes to his talent. All before the funeral.


Elvis Presley © AP

As for Frank Sinatra, he had lived a long life and had not been a carousing, reporter-punching hothead for many years. His old questionable associations with Mob figures were antique memories by the time of his death in 1998 at the age of 82. But all his wayward ways – womanizing, bad temper, shady friends – were mentioned within hours of his death, all those aspects of his life were included in his eulogies – before the funeral!

So – the often shocking and weird aspects of Michael Jackson’s life are supposed to be overlooked? Please. He’s been positively deified by the media in the week since his passing and I’ve not read one story or seen one TV tribute that didn’t cite his many artistic accomplishments. Along with all the other, less palatable stuff. (Including Quincy Jones – who was a real friend to Jackson – expressing his regret that Michael "didn’t want to be black." Let’s see Al and Jesse take on Quincy Jones.) I daresay Michael’s pharmaceutical peccadilloes and personal relationships were far quirkier than anything in Presley or Sinatra’s life. But Michael, like Frank (and Elvis), did it His Way, and didn’t seem to care too much how it looked to outsiders. Now we have this sordid circus based on the indisputable facts of Michael’s life.

But never underestimate the power of soulless publicity-seeking rabble-rousers like Sharpton and Jackson. I had to laugh as CNN reported Sharpton’s continued criticism of the media, defending itself self-consciously and more than once over several days: "We here at CNN have been very respectful of Michael Jackson!"

Sad. An entire network held hostage by two men who are just flat-out self-promoting jerks who try to insert themselves into every national story.

P.S. Despite all odds and predictions of rioting and "chaos," Michael’s elaborate memorial service yesterday went off without a hitch and there was some genuine emotion displayed, nothing more moving than the remarks of his beautiful young daughter, Paris. This child kind of wrenched one back into remembering that beneath the sometimes bizarre mask of Michael’s chosen persona, was a real person and, apparently, a loving and loved parent.