Leaving Neverland?

What happened

Michael Jackson has been told that his Neverland Ranch will be sold at auction in March unless he can pay off the $24.5 million he owes on the sprawling California property. All personal property and fixtures inside the house will be sold too, along with “all merry go round type devices” and other rides at his personal amusement park. (FOX News) Jackson hasn’t lived at the house since 2003 -- when police raided Neverland before child molestation charges were filed against him. He was acquitted and left the country for two years, but now lives mainly in Las Vegas. (E! Online in Yahoo! News)

What the commentators said

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Jackson’s musical empire is already “leveraged into the next millenium,” said X17online, so Jackson might be planning to just let the property go. He hasn’t been there since the summer of 2005, anyway. So, “if you're in the market for a 2800 acre property with a zoo and amusement park, then you might just be in luck!”

Yes, this is a wonderful day if you ever dreamed of living at Neverland as a child, said Stuart Heritage in Hecklerspray. Unless, of course, you grew up to be an adult unable to shake the “legally-disproved sensation” in your gut telling you some creepy things happened in that house. But think of the bargain you’ll get. With the housing market crashing, “lying stock-still at night wide-awake because of the constant involuntary shuddering you get from living in Michael Jackson's old house has never been so affordable.”

With Jackson’s famous money troubles, said the gossip blog PerezHilton, there’s little hope he can come up with the money to keep Neverland. “Shamon! It’s gone!”