Where are the enablers?

Their best friend was gone, laying in a casket at a star-studded funeral, but Liz Taylor and Diana Ross were nowhere to be found.

Funny. When Michael Jackson was deep in the throes of drug addiction, these two members of the Hollywood elite were always close behind, suffering from their own personal woes of pill-dependency and drinking.

They hung onto him like bugs at a picnic table, supposedly providing him comfort and care while Jackson mired himself in plastic surgery disasters, and began to display increasingly erratic behavior.

Face it: Michael Jackson had mental illness, and displayed symptoms of anorexia and obsessive compulsive disorder. In his interviews, he displayed the symptoms of a dope addict, talking as though he had just undergone a lobotomy and failing repeatedly to utter full, coherent sentences.

But he did little to help himself, falling victim to self-medication. Like a typical drug addict, he hung around with a rough crowd. Judging by their own well-documented behavior, these are the kind of people who do more to feed a habit than to end one.

And when the moment to pay a public tribute came - just as the police were searching for clues as to why Jackson died so suddenly - Liz and Diana failed to show at the memorial service and hid behind their public statements.

Liz's problems with drug addiction are legendary. Diana Ross has been accused of drunk driving.

Throw in Macaulay Culkin, who has had his own problems, and you have what they call in hockey a "hat trick" of people who didn't provide the kind of role modeling that could have inspired Jackson to live a healthy life.

Culkin, Ross and Taylor have said little to nothing since Jackson's death, even though Jackson did what he could to provide comfort and care to these people when they suffered through their own person traumas.

Its too bad that Janet Jackson took such an image hit with her "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl a few years ago. Save for that episode, she's led a relatively stable life for someone in show business.

By all accounts, she did as much as she could to steer her brother the right way, and even helped lead an intervention - something that probably didn't sit well with Jackson if he, indeed, was as much of drug addict as reports indicate.

What happened? Janet was written out of the will. Diana Ross is second in line to get the kids.

In the end, Jackson stuck with the people who may have enabled him, not the people who wanted to help him. But, in the very end, Liz and Diana did what enablers do when the heat is on: They were no-shows.

"Dirty Diana" lyrics, by Michael Jackson

You'll never make me stay
So take your weight off of me
I know your every move
So won't you just let me be
I've been here times before
But I was to blind to see
That you seduce every man
This time you won't seduce me

She's saying that's ok
Hey baby do what you please
I have the stuff the you want
I am the thing that you need
She looked me deep in the eyes
She's touchin' me so to start
She says there's no turnin' back
She trapped me in her heart

Dirty Diana, nah
Dirty Diana, nah
Dirty Diana, no
Dirty Diana
Let me be!

Oh no...
Oh no...
Oh no...

She likes the boys in the band
She knows when they come to town
Every musician's fan after the
curtain comes down
She waits at backstage doors
For those who have prestige
Who promise fortune and fame
A life that's so carefree

She's says that's ok
Hey baby do what you want
I'll be your night lovin' thing
I'll be the freak you can taunt
And I don't care what you say
I want to go too far
I'll be your everything
If you make me a star

Dirty Diana, nah
Dirty Diana, nah
Dirty Diana, no
Dirty Diana...
Dirty Diana, nah
Dirty Diana, nah
Dirty Diana, nah
Dirty Diana, no
Dirty Diana...
Diana!
Diana!
Dirty Diana!
It's Dia...aa...aa...ana!

She said I have to go home
'Cause I'me real tired you see
But I hate sleppin' alone
Why don't you come with me
I said my baby's at home
She's problably worried tonight
I didn't call on the phone to
Say that I'm alright

Diana walked up to me,
She said I'm all yours tonight
At that I ran to the phone
Sayin' baby I'm alright
I said but unlock the door.
Because I forgot the key.
She said he's not coming back
Because he's slepping with me

Dirty Diana, nah
Dirty Diana, nah
Dirty Diana, nah
Dirty Diana, no