The king of pop was also the king of profligacy, spending his final years fending off creditors in spite of prodigious earnings over four decades. Michael Jackson broke multiple entertainment earnings records and greatly supplemented this with an impulsive but extremely profitable 1985 investment in The Beatles' copyrights. But financial pressures likely forced him to agree to a new concert series while in frail health.

流行音樂(lè)之王同時(shí)也是恣意揮霍之王，盡管40年來(lái)收入驚人，但他生命的最后幾年卻是在躲避債主的日子里度過(guò)的。邁克爾?杰克遜(Michael Jackson)打破了娛樂(lè)界的多個(gè)收入紀(jì)錄，更加錦上添花的是，他1985年心血來(lái)潮投資購(gòu)買(mǎi)的披頭士樂(lè)隊(duì)(The Beatles)歌曲版權(quán)最終獲得了極其豐厚的利潤(rùn)。但可能正是由于財(cái)務(wù)上的壓力，才迫使他同意抱病舉行新一輪巡回演唱會(huì)。 ?????
His debts have been estimated at $400m and an accountant testified in 2005 that he spent $20m-$30m more than he made each year. His biggest asset remains the catalogue, since merged with a larger one owned by Sony and valued at $1bn, which served as collateral for his loans.

據(jù)估計(jì)，他的債務(wù)高達(dá)4億美元，一名會(huì)計(jì)師在2005年作證稱，他每年的開(kāi)銷(xiāo)都要比收入多出2000萬(wàn)至3000萬(wàn)美元。版權(quán)目錄依然是他最大的資產(chǎn)，與索尼公司(Sony)規(guī)模更大的目錄合并后估值達(dá)10億美元，這也成為杰克遜貸款的抵押品。

He is hardly unique among celebrities whose money has started to run out, even if the sums are larger than most. One common way to evaporate wealth is divorce, and Jackson had two, both after the apex of his career. But he did not earn the nickname "Wacko Jacko" for nothing. Lavish and bizarre personal spending coupled with multiple lawsuits alleging paedophilia took their toll too.

財(cái)富的逐漸枯竭在名人中并不罕見(jiàn)，即使杰克遜的財(cái)富比大多數(shù)人都多。讓財(cái)富蒸發(fā)的一個(gè)常見(jiàn)方式是離婚--杰克遜離了兩次婚，而且都是在他職業(yè)生涯的鼎盛時(shí)期過(guò)后。但他"怪人杰克"(Wacko Jacko)的昵稱也不是憑空而來(lái)的。鋪張奇異的個(gè)人開(kāi)銷(xiāo)，再加上數(shù)起欒童訴訟案，也讓他付出了巨大代價(jià)。

They say the rich are different, but it is the famous who are really different. The merely wealthy would have gone bankrupt long ago. Even faded stars such as Jackson can stay afloat with the promise of income from comebacks like his now-aborted concert series.

有人說(shuō)富人與眾不同，但真正不同的是那些名人。如果只是有錢(qián)，他們?cè)缇推飘a(chǎn)了。即使是像杰克遜這樣的過(guò)氣明星，憑借著像他如今流產(chǎn)了的巡回演唱會(huì)這類(lèi)復(fù)出可能帶來(lái)的收入，還能維持下去。

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