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The minute Michael Jackson was acquitted on all charges related to child molestation this week, the Peter Pan of Pop beat it to a secret location, where he is now reportedly surrounded by sympathetic family members and slowly regaining his strength on the crumbs of sandwiches. As the tarnished star fiddles with his hurt feelings, a big question mark still burns in the trial's aftermath: What will Wacko Jacko do next?

Speculation is running rampant. Will the Gloved One make a surprise appearance at Bob Geldof's Live 8 charity concert? Show up on ABC-TV with a Jackson Family reality show? Or maybe move to Africa and open a theme park for children, as his good friend, Rev. Jesse Jackson is claiming?

With an estimated debt of $285-million (U.S.) and creditors banging down the door, Michael Jackson can't remain in hiding for long. He has to make a move, and quick. The two most likely possibilities, says Irish bookmaker Paddy Power, is that Jackson will either sell his Neverland ranch in Southern California or his 50-per-cent share in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the company that controls the rights to the entire Beatles and Elvis catalogues. Together, the assets are valued at more than $600-million. And Paddy is giving each option even 1-to-1 odds. Mind you, the bookmaker hasn't ruled out the possibility that Jackson might re-release the single Smooth Criminal (the odds are 33:1) or make a live appearance alongside Paul McCartney singing Free as a Bird (100:1).

Even if Jackson does cash in right away and sell off one or both of his major holdings, he will still have some steep bills to pay and a lavish lifestyle to maintain. During the trial, it was estimated that Jackson was spending about $20-million a year more than he was bringing in. So let's say he does stop cruising malls for Rolexes and becomes a thrifty recluse. He's still not about to starting lining up for frequent-flier points on commercial airlines.

His only real options -- other than the African theme park, which doesn't sound so bad, so long as nobody hits him with a restraining order to stay away from children -- is to stage a major comeback tour, then retire into a posh permanent residency on the Las Vegas strip. Both ideas have been floated this week. And both are plausible.

First, the comeback tour. Yes, there are many factors working against it. He may have been acquitted, but he's still guilty of being a weirdo in the minds of almost everyone except for his most die-hard fans. He hasn't toured since 1997.

And even then, he had a bad track record of cancelling concerts. His last album release, a compilation of number-one hits, was a flop. Well, two million in sales would hardly be considered a flop for most artists, but it is a far cry from 43-million copies of Thriller sold worldwide. Now, Jackson has a bad back, a mere sliver of a nose, no recording contract and zero respect within the music industry.

Despite all that, Terry McBride, the CEO of the Nettwerk Music Group and Sarah McLachlan's personal manager, says a comeback tour could be "extremely successful." And if McBride says so, there's good reason to believe him. McBride is the number-crunching computer nerd who almost single-handedly revolutionized the way music tours work.

Forget putting out a new album right away or coming up with a hot top-10 single, says McBride. Jackson needs to get out on the road. "If I were driving his career right now, I'd launch a big worldwide tour, starting with America."

If Jackson doesn't go overboard on the production values -- no flying across the stage on jetpacks, as he's done on past tours -- and sticks to hockey arenas instead of stadiums, McBride figures he could rack up some very substantial profits. "I'd estimate $750,000 to million-dollar grosses each night. And Jackson could walk away with at least half."

What about the idea of writing a memoir or some new soul-baring confessional songs, as others have suggested? "That's the last thing he wants to do," says McBride. "He'd have to concentrate 100-per-cent on the show and not even talk to the press. Remember, this is all about his fans. Forget public opinion. That's a whole different thing."

And if Jackson builds it, says McBride, his fans will come -- his old fans, in particular, now comfortably ensconced in the 25- to 40-year-old, higher-income demographic. "I'd go see it," says McBride. "He's always delivered live. He's got great songs. And you just know it's going to be a mind-blowing show. Sure, people will look at what has happened and say he's really messed up. But they're still going to come away from the concert with a big wow factor."

If the idea still sounds incredible, consider the comebacks of other seriously scandalized stars. Jerry Lee Lewis continued to crank out the hits after marrying his 13-year-old cousin back in 1957. More recently, in 2002, hip-hop performer R. Kelly was indicted on child-pornography charges after a videotape surfaced of him having sex and urinating on an underage girl. A year later, he released an album called Chocolate Factory that debuted at the top of the charts. Since then, he has released two platinum CDs and continued to work, hassle-free, with Britney Spears, Jay-Z and other top acts.

Remember, also, that Michael Jackson is no mere R. Kelly. He's the King of Pop. Whatever you might think about his taste in young friends or fashion, he has 18 Grammy Awards to his name and has sold over 300-million records worldwide. Four of his songs are on the Rolling Stone list of the 100 greatest pop songs and Thriller is still the best-selling album of all time.

So let's say he does come back from the dead with a successful tour and maybe a new album at the end of it. What then? His best bet is Las Vegas.

In two years, Jackson will be 50 years old. And in two years, Donald Trump's New Frontier Hotel and Casino will be ready to open. Trump has already said on the record that if Jackson chooses to take up permanent residence in his hotel -- Celine Dion-style -- he'll make him a rich man. Trump wouldn't confirm that offer this week, but didn't rescind it either. "I think Michael can pretty much write his own ticket now," he told a TV reporter from Access Hollywood the day after the jury delivered its not-guilty verdict.

Las Vegas would be a natural fit for Jackson, and not just because it's a cartoon city, where glass pyramids sit next to medieval castles and everyone seems to have happily enhanced their bodies with plastic surgery -- no matter how outlandish the results. It's no coincidence that Las Vegas was the first place Jackson went when he was released on bail in 2003. The association goes back to his childhood when he and the Jackson Five played the Apollo.

In the late eighties, Jackson lived in a private bungalow at Steve Wynn's then newly opened Mirage Hotel, hanging out with Siegfried & Roy and their tigers. He is still good friends with the now-retired illusionists. And according to Mike Weatherford, an entertainment columnist at The Las Vegas Review-Journal, there's been a real vacuum of family-friendly shows on the strip since Roy was mauled and the cheesy duo called it quits.

"I could certainly see Michael Jackson filling that void with a high-tech spectacle that featured him fighting dragons or zipping around in a spaceship," says Weatherford.

Las Vegas might not necessarily be a good place for Jackson to keep his finances in order. Recall the $6-million, single-afternoon shopping spree that Martin Bashir caught on camera in his now-infamous BBC documentary. And it might not be great for him psychologically if hotel owners keep indulging his strange habit of cruising the halls all night in a mini go-kart (another classic moment in Bashir's documentary).

Still, and perhaps most important, Las Vegas might very well be the only place in the world where Jackson can actually get his groove back with Middle America. Only in Las Vegas could Cirque du Soleil have turned its surrealist theatre into mainstream entertainment. In some of the newer shows -- Cirque's Zumanity and Franco Dragone's Le Rêve, for example -- the tone has taken a very dark turn. Much of the imagery is sexual, androgynous and borderline fetishistic. Yet these shows sell out every night.

Even Jackson might look as wholesome as apple pie by comparison.

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