It happened again.
Amidst the joy and games of a Grand Slam, tragedy struck.
After all, just 25 days ago, during the French Open, Air France endured the worst crash in its history when 228 perished in the Atlantic. In ’99, John F. Kennedy, Jr. died during the Davis Cup final in Boston. During the ’97 U.S. Open, Princess Di succumbed. Hurricane Katrina hit during the U.S. Open in ’05, and a Swiss Air flight went down in ’98. And, of course, 9/11 occurred about 37 hours after the ’01 Open ended.
The one-two punch deaths of icon Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett struck many around the globe, and Wimbledon, too, was stunned by the staccato losses. Many were quick to comment. Serena Williams said she was honored to meet Jackson several times and when she was in his presence she “was really in awe. I could barely speak. [He was] a great person, really nice, very funny…He was a great guy, a complete icon. Words can’t express my shock and horror…[My] thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family…He had such a great heart and wonderful kids…It’s just terrible, [a] terrible, terrible thing…He’s just [was] the greatest entertainer for me of all time…[I was] into all his music, even the Jackson Five. Everyone listened to his music. It’s like you think of the Beatles, you think of Elvis Presley, you think of Michael Jackson. The things that he did were beyond iconic.”
Serena added that Jackson “was a big tennis fan. He had a big tennis video game he played a lot. [So] I said ‘Wow, you know who we are.’ He was really into pop culture and he followed everyone and everything.”
Serena, of course, is quite the star in her own right, so I asked her about Jackson dealing with his over-the-top celebrity. She said that Jackson was “the ultimate celebrity…He couldn’t walk the streets…Any celebrity who met him was completely in awe. I was. I kept thinking, ‘Oh, my God! Oh, my God! It’s him. It’s him!’ He was the celebrity of all celebrities. To be in that position, I can’t imagine. Since he was a child, he has always been Michael Jackson…He’s never had a different life.”
Serena went on, saying that innovation was the key to his success. “He did things that no one else did. “Thriller” is the best video ever made. The videos that he did, no one had ever went that far. He started whole new trends – dances, singing, beats, everything.” Serena added that Jackson went “way beyond the black community. Everyone of every color, every nation, every race are fans.”
A couple of such fans are still in the Wimby draw. Novak Djokovic did a hilarious (single glove in place) take off on Thriller at a Monte Carlo player party a couple of years ago. (See YouTube.) And some Swiss guy named Federer confessed he loved Jackson’s music, and was saddened by his death. Roger recalled that back “in ’88 or ’89, Jackson came to Basel. I was outside of the stadium, because there was such excitement…I was still very young. I went there with my sister, and we just listened from outside.”
Others reflected on the loss. John McEnroe noted how celebs, including himself, make stupid decisions. To Mac, Jackson marketed himself as the “King of Pop.” So the media went after him and said, ‘Prove it.’ Of course, Jackson did. And McEnroe said that progression was similar to Serena and Venus going out and telling everyone that they were the best and then backing it up on-court.
Speaking of the Williamses, family patriarch Richard Williams told IT that Jackson was “the greatest guy in the world. My whole family couldn’t measure up to him. No one on this earth could measure up. He started new ideals, new hopes, new dreams. To see a guy do as much as he did, it’s just totally unreal. I don’t think you can take a human being and put him in with Michael Jackson. What Michael Jackson did, no human being will do again.”
Richard claimed he had “face time” with Jackson. “I met him a long time ago down by the Coliseum by a bunch of old raggedy apartments. Then I saw him at that shop, Paramount Sports. He wanted to buy some balls and the guy who ran the store kept looking at him until they finally asked him ‘Can I help you?’ They didn’t recognize him. But he and I talked a lot. We had just an average talk.”
Williams added a stinging critique, saying, “Too many people in the world tried to ruin Michael Jackson. That’s why I think he’s dead now. If it wasn’t one person, it was another. All the s— that went on with Michael Jackson was enough to drive any man crazy.”
Speaking of driving men crazy, there was one lady in the ’70s who was amply endowed with talent: former Charlie’s Angel Farrah Fawcett, who succumbed yesterday at just 62. While the tabloids blared predictable headlines – “Fallen Angel” and “She’s With The Angels Now” – insiders recalled the Texan’s life-long love of tennis and her many, more-than-curious connections within the sport she played even after being diagnosed with cancer two years ago.
‘Pop-culturalists’ recall that Fawcett was a bouncy mainstay of the L.A.-centric tennis celeb circuit during the sport’s boom days in the ’70s and how she once beat Bill Cosby 5-4 in a “Challenge of the Network Stars” match in ’77. Her longtime companion Ryan O’Neal is the father of Tatum O’Neal, who was not only married to John McEnroe, but also dated Jackson, as did Andre Agassi’s former wife Brooke Shields. (Talk about six degrees of tennis ‘sep’). Fawcett, who was far more than just a beauty, also dated numerous tennis pros, including Vijay Amritraj, Vincent Van Patten and San Diego’s Martin Barba, who she said was “everything I ever wanted in a man.” The two nearly married despite a 20-year age difference. But that was long ago. Today – between tense break points and brilliant returns – tennisdom seemed to share a certain sagging universal despair felt around a globe that long ago deliriously embraced American pop culture, a sentiment – appropriately enough expressed by none other than Tatum O’Neal who said: “The world lost two unbelievable talents in one day. There are no words that can express the sadness I feel in my heart. My condolences go out to his family.”
