Just A Man (Chapter 10)

[Rickyrocks]

Hi

This section is for your questions and thoughts about CHAPTER 10 of the JAM online feature.

Each chapter will be divided into its own chapter so as to make it easier to post & talk about each chapter seperately.

thank You
Rickyrocks

[Shari]

No, Thank You Rickyrocks

[Cathy]

Well, I know there are deeper matters within this chapter, but I just couldn't help comment about both Tina and Patricia's comments on Paula's sense of decor. I've seen pictures of her homes in magazines, and they are interestingly outrageuos! ( Didn't approve approve of the dead animal rugs where Tiger was posing! ) Colorful, fire hazard is what I thought! Oh dear about the villa! I remember reading somewhere Michael saying something like ...I've been Paulaed. What a shame to let that happen.

[sharon]

Wow! I said before that Paula seemed like such an attentive mother and was always holding Tiger. Maybe that was not such a good thing afterall. I don't know how to explain that. Control freak? Paranoid? Maybe she felt she didn't have to be nice anymore because she trapped Michael exactly where she wanted him to be and she knew he would never be out of her life now that she had his child. What a strange, sad situaltion.

Sharon

[Tina Hutchence]

Sharon, to be fair, Paula was diagnosed as a 'borderline personality' - it is a very devastating disorder for those close to a person in this state. Everything they do is so contrary to what we know as a healthy, loving, caring person.
It is very dangerous because in order to feel good about themselves, they do things that are so counteractive to those around them. It was compounded byt the fact that Paula was very intelligent, and had access to the press.
Tina

[Trixiiy]

Obviously intelligence combined with madness can be a very dangerous mixture.

Trix

[Shannon]

It doesn't seem like Michael had "one type" of woman. I understand Paula had problems, but I still have a hard time feeling bad for her. It seems like Tiger was just days old and she was already being selfish with something that brought such joy to Michaels family. She was just so bizarre!

This weekend I was at Barnes and Noble looking through a photography book and saw a picture of Michael and Helena at the villa. They looked playful. She was squirting him w/a water gun. Then toward the back of the book as I was flipping through there was a picture of Paula. It was very dark and dreary. I found it rather ironic.

I notice in this chapter also that neither Tina or Patricia would every confront Michael and say "Hey, what is going on...or why is Paula being like that..." I totally understand that. I have someone in my family who had some issues w/drugs and depression and we were so afraid to question things because we just wanted him to be happy.

Hope I am making sense...

[Tina Hutchence]

Total sence Shannon. Added to this was the distance factor. We all lived on seperate continents and when we would meet up it would take a day or two before you could get into serious 'Hey seriously, what is going on in your life?' conversation. Even then, we all wanted to enjoy our time together and Michael often put on a brave face and told us to lighten up because he was just happy to be away from his problems.

I think we were trying to make the best out of a bad situation and to be honest, it was very hard to gauge the true situation when we were getting phone calls and faxes, but were not there to see the day to day frustrations. Michael was telling us that he was being driven crazy by the false press reports and nastiness, but we were not even reading it because none of us were in London. He had never been harrassed by the press before and it was hard for us to imagine the price he was paying.
As for Paula, she was a very complicated, strange person - actually she was several people and you never knew which one you were going to speak to. Only she knew which one she would be that day. He was so used to defending her to the press, that we did not want to make it harder for him.

Tina

[sharon]

Tina,

I don't remember if you answered this already. Did Michael know that Paula was diagnosed with this illness? Was he trying to protect her or did he love her so much that he was trying to help her with all of this and in the end it might have been too much for him? What a horrible situation for him to be in.

Sharon

[blueorchid]

Paulaed. definately.
In this chapter I was glad that you wrote about Michaels appearance when you met him. stressed and worn down from the sounds of it.
'Unimaginable hell with the press, police,fire and litigations'. thats enough for anyone. When people go through a divorce, if you're not the people involved you become an 'onlooker' or support those who are, here it seemed as though he thought he was more involved.
I did note that he let Bob stay in his house in Chelsea for 6months, which makes me wonder where the later feud came from?
I'm not surprised Michael needed the prozac. Antidepressants can take a few weeks to work and opiates with their high dependancy rate, after a short time its effect isnt felt. I wondered if the doctor that prescribed the prozac knew of his use of opiates.
Its a shame that the reason(s) for the prozac/drugs wasnt dealt with instead of being given even more drugs.
Its nice to know that he picked up at the villa, with people he knew well and could be comfortable with.
Tina, you werent to know he hadnt been truthful about his involvement with drugs, he probably knew how you would feel. It didnt seem the time for meaningful discussions.
I dont understand why Paula didnt let anyone see Tiger lily before 6pm. This didnt sound like the HUtchence family to me. You can watch a baby when they are sleeping. just dont wake them up.
This chapter for me just about sums up MIchaels relationship with Paula.

[Tina Hutchence]

Michael was not aware that Paula had been diagonosed with borderline personality disorder - none of us were. Bob however did. He later told Mother and me we we met him in 1999 that he had taken her to several doctors although he never told us the outcome, he just said that she made up stories and that she had once told him something that made him cut off all contact for 6 years; to the sister who had raised him. He described her as a chameleon(nice way of putting it really).

Michael gave his home to Bob for 6 months because he(Bob) complained to the family court in london that he could not afford to move if Paula kept the apartment they had shared!!! HE COULD NOT AFFORD TO MOVE. And the judge believed him - so Michael offered his house to keep the peace.
Tina

[charlesex]

not to get off track here, but what was going on with those kids? who was supposed to be looking after them, while they were trashing michael's house? one of them could have fallen into the pool and drowned or something!

it's a shame that paula didn't get help for her problem. if she had, alot of things could have turned out differently.

btw, does anybody have a vhs or dvd copy of the funeral i could buy? i missed it in 1997, and have been beating myself up ever since. i can't download it, because my speakers are broken.

if anybody can help, please send me a pm or email me. thanx. [e-mail]

[missingmichael]

In reading this chapter, I couldn't help but think it sounded like poor little Tiger was feeling the effects of some type of substance her mother was using. It is not natural for a baby to sleep that much.

[goggles]

This is the article from Paris Match mentioned in this chapter: