Mom did not approve of Liberace’s habit of bringing home hillbillies. ibid.
In 1953 he came up with a fiancee. ibid.
Low-brow high-octane cocktail of syrupy banter, cutdown classics and tinkling pop. ibid.
Costumes cost up to $300,000. ibid.
The critics detested Liberace. ibid.
He began to dwell on how he would be remembered after his death. ibid.
He decided his teenage lover too could be remade in his image: all it took was vision and a plastic surgeon. ibid.
1986: At that time AIDS was still a new disease. ibid.
‘Our aim is to transform American society. In the next five or ten years we expect between twenty and thirty million Americans will be using LSD regularly in their spiritual development and psychological growth.’ Reputations s8e7: Timothy Leary: The Man Who Turned America On
In the 1960s Timothy Leary brought psychedelic drugs out of the laboratories and on to the campuses of America. ibid.
Leary’s affairs and Marianne’s suicide were two more sorry episodes in the Leary family history. ibid.
Leary won [Harvard] approval for a research project exploring the potential benefits of the active ingredients in magic mushrooms … popular with undergraduate students. ibid.
Leary revelled in his role as psychedelic spokesman. ibid.
‘Why would you have Michael Jackson as your best man?’ Reputations s9e3: Uri Geller, critic
It’s 30 years since Uri Geller captured the attention of the media by bending a fork on British television … He claimed to do it using the power of his mind. ibid.
He walked out of the studio during his first ever television appearance when his supernatural powers failed him. ibid.
By 1971 Geller’s showbiz career in Israel had collapsed. ibid.
James Randi: [He] duplicated everything that Geller had done. ibid.
‘He was so bad that I was embarrassed for him … Everything that he tried failed.’ ibid. witness of Geller’s appearance on Carson’s TV show
‘A simple bent key changed the world.’ ibid. Geller
Mikhail Gorbachev: Soviet leader from 1985 to 1991: to the West a statesman and a star, to Russia a figure of controversy. Mikhail Gorbachev: A Man Who Changed the World, History 1997
Gorbachev didn’t seem to have the Cold War mentality. ibid.
Gorbachev was fighting for the hearts and minds of the Soviet people. ibid.
Goring, Oxfordshire, Christmas Eve 2016: George Michael is holed up in his country mansion. Biopics: George Michael aka The Double Life of George Michael, Channel 5 2018
In the last ten years of his life George Michael became known more for run-ins with the tabloids and the law than he did with his music. It was a period marked by reckless behaviour, personal crises and a downward spiral. ibid.
One man who lived two lives. ibid.
George and Andrew: they were schoolboy buddies. ibid.
By 1984 Wham was unstoppable. ibid.
In 1986 80,000 fans saw Wham perform for the last time. George had called time on the band. ibid.
‘I just wanted to be filthily famous.’ ibid. George
As an older man George Michael was openly gay. Going to a park in north London for sex became a ritual. ibid.
He wanted to find love. ibid.
The battle with Sony was but the start of self-destructive behaviour. ibid.
George increasingly shut himself away … known more for his drug use than his music. ibid.
George disappears from public view to nurse his mother. ibid.
Outside reached number two in the UK charts. ibid.
In 2006 George was involved in a series of driving incidents. ibid.
His first world tour in fifteen years. ibid.
Three months into the tour George collapsed back stage. He went into a coma and spent a month in Intensive Care. ibid.
For a man who cheated death, he seemed invincible. ibid.
His demons hadn’t left him. ibid.
Whitney Houston’s sudden death in February 2012 sparked a frenzy of lurid speculation. 13 Moments that Killed Whitney Houston, Channel 5 2019
A tormented soul in freefall: a mutually destructive marriage, and an entire lifetime of longterm and staggering public meltdowns. At the heart of this tragic soap opera was a drug problem that went down 30 years. ibid.
Allegation: Gary and Whitney were sexually abused as children. ibid.
In 1992 Whitney Houston finally married bad boy Bobby Brown. ibid.
When she did show up, the performances and even her appearance had started to suffer. ibid.
Whitney Houston began the millennium with her life and career falling apart. ibid.
Sam Cooke: everyone knows his songs but hardly anyone knows his story … On December 11th 1964 the inconceivable happens: a tragic fall from the heights of stardom. Sam Cooke, one of the most talented singers and music producers of his generation, was shot in a seedy motel. Lady You Shot Me: Life and Death of Sam Cooke, Sky Arts 2019
Sam Cooke’s family, friends and fans doubt the official crime reports. ibid.
I worked up the courage to come forward and tell my story. Surviving R Kelly I: The Pied Piper of R&B, victim, CI 2019
It’s very painful to talk about it again. ibid.
As a kind I had lots of secrets. Some were terrible, some were beautiful, some were both … One secret was about what was happening to me at home. ibid. R Kelly
Aaliya, singer, met R Kelly at age 12 … within two months the marriage was annulled. R Kelly paid Aaliyah one hundred dollars [sic] for her agreement not to pursue legal action. ibid.
He would break you down … I was mentally drained. Surviving R Kelly s1e2: Hiding in Plain Sight, victim
This is really about an adult man who is using the power of his fame and wealth and whatever to systematically degrade little black girls. ibid. Tarana Burke
Sex with him felt not natural. ibid. victim
I honestly believe that he has a god complex. ibid.
R Kelly is one of those people hiding in plain sight. ibid. Wendy Williams
We were young, we were naive, we were easily influenced. Surviving R Kelly s1e3: Sex Tape Scandal, victim
He never hid the camera … He liked to have control. ibid.
R Kelly was using non-disclosure agreements. ibid. Tarana Burke
R Kelly denied it was him on the tape. The girl and her family did not cooperate, and denied it was her on the tape. ibid. caption
Chicago Police Investigate R Kelly Sex Tape. ibid.
Andrea Kelly is pregnant with their third child. ibid.
This is the one [tape] that makes it almost impossible for people to pretend they did not know this person had a thing for little girls. Surviving R Kelly s1e4: The People vs R Kelly, cultural critic
He ultimately had to face the charges in a Chicago courtroom. ibid. observer
During his initial arrest at his Florida home in 2002, police found photographs of R Kelly allegedly having sex with an underage girl. ibid. caption
6 years, 14 charges, 1 videotape, 12 jurors, 7 hours, 1 verdict: Not Guilty. ibid. Chicago Sun-Times front page
In 2008, R Kelly was acquitted of 14 charges of child pornography. His stardom continued to rise. Surviving R Kelly s1e5: All the Missing Girls, CI 2019, caption
Jerhonda and Dominique began seeing R Kelly in the summer of 2009. ibid.
Tim and Jonjelyn Savage haven’t seen their daughter in almost two years. ibid.
This man is a monster. Surviving R Kelly s1e6: Black Girls Matter, critic