Will the tragedy of Michael Jackson’s death never end? 50 concert dates down the drain, the entire entertainment industry (Nay! The entire world!) in mourning – and now this…news that Jackson considered leveraging his popularity to secure the release of imprisoned American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. At least according to Gotham Chopra, son of scam artist / celebrity parasite Deepak Chopra.

According to Gotham Chopra, Ling and Lee have lost one supporter — Michael Jackson, who heard about their plight and was especially upset to learn that Euna Lee was separated from her four-year-old daughter. Chopra says Jackson asked him, “Do you think that the leader of North Korea could be a fan of mine?” He hoped that, if Kim Jong Il enjoyed his music, he might be able to have some influence over the situation. The notion isn’t totally far-fetched — Kim Jong Il is a noted pop culture junkie who even kidnapped celebrities to make movies for him. However, Chopra was unable to determine if the North Korean leader was a Jackson fan, and Jackson died before he could do anything. If Kim Jong Il in fact did like Jackson’s music, Chopra asks him to release Ling and Lee “as a commemoration of possibly the greatest icon of our times.” “Wouldn’t it be staggering if one Kim Jong Il were to honor him,” Chopra asks, “as a truly great humanitarian?”

Yeah, I could see that. Kim Jong-Il is notoriously flaky, and who knows – maybe the King of Pop could have done something about it. If one believes Al Sharpton’s view of things, Michael Jackson single-handedly saved Africa from starvation. Surely he could have sprung two imprisoned journalists, no?