Did Jacko Cross The Line With Dangling Baby?

Nov. 20 -- Pop star Michael Jackson has certainly been noticed for his eccentricities in recent years, but with Tuesday's child-dangling incident, he may have shuffled across the line from unusual to alarming.

While staying at a hotel in Berlin, The King of Pop emerged onto the fourth floor balcony and dangled his child over the railing, as a crowd of fans and media gathered below. Jackson held the baby under the armpits with one arm as the baby flailed, a sight that would make any parent gasp. The child, whose face was covered by a cloth, was Jackson's own son, a boy who is less than one year old.

Michael Jackson says he "made a terrrible mistake" in a written statement released Tuesday night. The popstar goes on to say he got "caught up in the excitement" when fans below the window asked to see the baby. "I would never intentionally endanger the lives of my children," the statment read.

"If Michael Jackson were just some nobody, we wouldn't care as much. This would be a video for cops and not for all the entertainment shows," said Christopher John Farley, a Time magazine entertainment editor. "But because he's Michael Jackson, and because he is so famous that's why it's so sad. Because of how far he seems to have fallen."

Who Is That Masked Man?

For all the accolades and multi-platinum records that he has received over the years, it is Jackson's increasingly bizarre behavior that has gotten attention. In public, he appears as a masked man, hiding surgery upon surgery under a surgical mask — purportedly to ward off germs. Then there's his bleached-out skin, and the allegations that he had been sexually abusing a minor.

But this year, Jackson may have set a new standard.

In July, he made racial allegations against the head of his long-time record company, Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola, accusing him of being "racist and very, very, very devilish."

"I made millions of dollars for Sony and what they did was really terrible," Jackson said. "He has got to go. He has got to be told."

Then in August, at the MTV Video Music Awards, singer Britney Spears introduced him as the "artist of the millennium" as she called him up to the stage to present an honorary birthday gift. He had turned 44 that day.