As arts heroes fall, where should we draw the line?

In an interview given in support of "Michael Jackson's This is It," the 2009 documentary about the London concert series that was never performed due to Jackson's death weeks before it began, leading Hollywood choreographer Kenny Ortega recounted something he had told his rehearsing dancers: "We are all here because of Michael." In that rehearsal, Ortega was both gently asking for loyalty to the troubled superstar - for whom he clearly had a profound admiration and by whose formidable talents he wanted everyone to do right - and pointing out the obvious. Without Jackson, nobody in the room would have been employed. The project would simply not exist.

This is something that most creative professionals - dancers, singers, actors, choreographers, musicians - intuit at an early point in their careers. The check may be signed by some anonymous corporate entity,