 BERLIN
(Reuters) - Michael Jackson took his children to a Berlin zoo and other
tourist attractions on Wednesday after the pop star startled his German
fans by dangling a barefoot baby from the railing of his fourth-floor hotel
window.
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- German newspapers castigated Jackson for holding the
small child outside the window of the Adlon Hotel on Tuesday evening. The
five-star hotel said it had received numerous calls from people outraged
by television images of the dangerous stunt.
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- "I was shocked at what I saw," psychic Uri
Geller, a close friend of Jackson, told Reuters in London.
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- "Michael was under tremendous emotional pressure
and he was jet-lagged. It was a mistake. He wasn't thinking. He is a great
father. He is an incredibly loving dad."
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- Jackson had arrived in the German capital just hours
earlier after three days of testimony last week in California in a $21
million lawsuit by a German promoter over canceled concerts.
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- A crowd of screaming fans outside the Adlon greeted the
reclusive entertainer, in town to receive a lifetime achievement award
at a ceremony on Thursday night.
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- When he got up to his room, Jackson opened his window
and held the baby briefly over the metal railing. He held the baby, whose
head was covered by a towel, with one hand before pulling it quickly back
inside.
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- "He suddenly stuck the baby out the window and let
it hang there freely," said Bild newspaper. "The crowd below
gasped. But then it was quickly over."
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- The Hamburger Abendblatt asked "What's Jacko doing?"
next to a photo of the baby hanging precariously in midair outside the
railing with Jackson clutching the infant around its chest with just his
right arm.
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- "He foolishly held his young son over the railing,"
the paper wrote.
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- "It was bizarre," wrote Berliner Zeitung.
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- "It looked as if he nearly let the baby fall and
then he threw the towel covering its head to the fans below," wrote
Der Tagesspiegel newspaper.
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- JACKSON AT WINDOW AGAIN
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- The scene was shown repeatedly on television news programmes
in Germany and around the world.
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- "We've had a number of calls from people concerned
about the incident," an Adlon Hotel spokeswoman said.
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- On Wednesday evening Jackson again brought one of his
older children -- again veiled -- to the window ledge to wave to a crowd
of several hundred fans on the street who had been chanting his name.
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- But this time Jackson stayed inside the railing.
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- Jackson has three children, two by ex-wife Debbie Rowe,
five-year-old son Prince Michael and four-year-old daughter Paris. He also
has a baby who is less than one year old.
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- Jackson had arrived at the hotel wearing a white surgical
mask over his mouth and nose, but later removed it.
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- On Wednesday Jackson wore a dark suit and sunglasses
as he strolled through Berlin's zoo with his children, who wore red veils,
reportedly to protect them from becoming a target of kidnappers.
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- They were escorted throughout the day by a convoy of
a dozen security guards, some of whom held up umbrellas to thwart photographers.
"No pictures today," a guard said repeatedly.
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- Jackson visited the zoo's famous monkey house for about
15 minutes and paused to inspect one of the gorillas. The zoo allowed Jackson's
entourage to drive into the zoo directly to the monkey house.
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- Although journalists were screened by the guards, the
sounds of the children laughing at the apes could be heard.
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- Jackson later went to Potsdam outside Berlin to see the
baroque "Sans Souci" palace.
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- Additional reporting by Jeremy Lovell in London.
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