Given the mess he's in, Michael Jackson wasted no time on Thursday. He quickly flew from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara, Calif., surrendered to authorities on multiple child-molestation charges, then posted his $3 million bond and returned to Vegas -- where he is back to filming his new music video.

Jackson entered the Santa Barbara inmates' reception center in handcuffs but left with his hands free to blow a kiss to the crowd (though that crowd appeared to be hordes of reporters and extra sheriff's deputies). In Vegas, Jackson exited his Gulfstream jet and got into an SUV with dark-tinted windows.

While Jackson, 45, was seeking privacy, his mug shot was posted on the sheriff's Web site and widely circulated on the Internet. It appears on Friday morning's front page of The New York Times, and shows the musician looking tense -- like a startled clown, wide-eyed in lipstick and eyeliner, his cheeks sunken, his bangs hanging over his forehead.

An arraignment has been set for Jan. 9, 2004, and is expected to be a media circus.

"Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons," Jackson said, according to a written statement released by his publicist. "The truth will win this marathon in court."

Speaking outside the sheriff's office, Jackson attorney Mark Geragos told reporters: "Michael is here. He came back to confront these charges head-on. He is outraged. He considers this to be a big lie."

The attorney added that Jackson "categorically denies" the charges. Geragos's other clients have included Winona Ryder during her shoplifting trial (she was found guilty), Robert Downey Jr. for drug charges (he was sentenced to rehab) and, currently, Scott Peterson, who is being tried for two counts of murder.

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas Sneddon said Jackson will be charged under a California law that defines molestation as "arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions or sexual desires of" the offender or a child under age 14.

The charge carries a penalty of three to eight years in prison and stems from accusations made by a single young boy who stayed at Jackson's Neverland Ranch in the hills above Santa Barbara.

Jackson's usual supporters, such as Elizabeth Taylor (who has long insisted that Jackson, like herself, had his childhood robbed from him by show business) and his ex-wife, Lisa Marie Presley, who were there for him when similar child-molestation charges were made against Jackson in 1993, have both declined comment on this latest charge.

The New York Times quotes Taylor's publicist as saying, "She doesn't feel like talking. She has no comment." A rep for Presley, who was married to Jackson in 1994 and stayed wed to him for 20 months, said: "She is not making any comment at this time, and it does not appear she will talk at all."

Jermaine Jackson, however, spoke on CNN shortly after his brother Michael was booked, and likened the charges to "a modern-day lynching."