IN HIS latest attempt to avoid media attention, Michael Jackson went shopping dressed as an Arab woman in a busy mall in the middle of Manama, the capital of Bahrain, yesterday.
Jackson, who is very popular in the Gulf state, was apparently shopping for shoes — presumably to replace the men’s loafers sticking out from his full-length black abaya and somewhat giving the game away. With him in the Manama shopping centre were three Western-looking children, whose faces were also covered, and an unidentified woman.
Shoppers quickly recognised the hapless star. “Please, no,” Jackson protested, racing to the back door and into a waiting car. An official at the mall confirmed that the cross-dressing visitor was Jackson, who has been hiding out in Bahrain since he was acquitted last year of molesting a boy at his Neverland ranch in California.