Harassing The King Of Pop

For years I worked part-time at a tiny East Side restaurant – answering the phones and taking orders for delivery. The restaurant is now closed, but I made some good friends who I still keep in touch with today.

One of these friends is Shanta – who I became roommates with for a time. Shanta and I did the same job at the restaurant so we rarely worked on the same nights. But we always shared our nightly dramas after we returned to the apartment for the evening

One night Shanta was working at the restaurant and I was home. When she got back to the apartment, she casually mentioned that she saw a “Michael Jackson Lookalike” hanging out in the hallway of the restaurant building. This intrigued me, so I made her sit down and tell me the whole story.

The building that housed the restaurant had two entrances – one for the restaurant, and another for the tenants who lived upstairs (similar to the picture above). The employees also used the tenant's entrance – which led to a small hallway with a back door to the restaurant, and the staircase that led up to the apartments above. During her shift that night, the Spanish-speaking delivery guys kept laughingly telling Shanta that “Miguel Yacksun” was in the hallway. She was busy and didn’t pay too much attention – especially since the guys were known to play practical jokes. But eventually her curiosity got the best of her, and Shanta went out into the hallway to take a look.

When she opened the back door, she saw a tall, thin figure peeking through the door window which looked out onto the street – like he was waiting for something/someone. Shanta took note that this man’s outfit was FIERCE, and she thought to herself: “Damn, this Queen spent a lot of money to look like the King of Pop!”.

The man payed her no mind, so after a few seconds, Shanta (who has never been shy) finally said “Excuse me!” to try and get his attention. She had to repeat herself a few times, practically yelling (“Excuse Me!! … EXCUSE ME!!!!!) before the man took his eyes from the window, and slowly turned around to look at her.

When he turned around, Shanta was immediately frozen by his “scary” (her words) eyes. She impatiently asked him “Are you a look-alike?!?” – to which he responded only with a nod “yes”. He never spoke. After he nodded, he turned back around and continued looking out the window, and Shanta went back in to work.

By the time she got back to the apartment, Shanta had convinced herself that she had NOT seen Michael Jackson and that the man was indeed a look-alike. After all, what in the HELL would MJ be doing in a dingy hallway on East End Avenue?!? She was freaked out by how this man looked (especially his eyes), but logic dictated that the King of Pop wouldn’t ever be by himself in non-elevator, non-doorman apartment building.

Shanta relayed this whole story to me – and it took me a while to process all this information. When she finished, I replied to her:

“Shanta, do you realized you harassed the King of Pop this evening?!?”

It WAS INDEED Michael Jackson in that dingy hallway – and I knew so for two reasons. First of all, I was always a reader of the NYC tabloids and all the celebrity gossip, and I knew Jackson was in town for a (relatively) rare NYC appearance that week. But that alone was no reason to just assume that this man was Michael.

They way that I KNEW this was Michael Jackson was because I remembered that gossip/journalist Flo Anthony lived upstairs in the building we worked in. Miss Anthony (who is a total sweetheart, btw), always maintained a friendship with Michael and the Jackson family. Michael was in the building visiting Flo that evening, and went downstairs to wait briefly for his driver after the visit was over. Remember, this was in the days before everyone had cell phones.

Years later, Flo confirmed to me that Michael had indeed visited her in her apartment. Which means that Shanta did INDEED harass the King of Pop that night.