Michael Jackson

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  Unrelenting, Diane followed up, ‘But isn’t part of being an adult and loving children keeping them from ambiguous situations? And again, we’re talking about over an intense period of time here. Would you let your son, when he grows up and is twelve years old, do that?’

  Lisa gamely jumped in for more of the impossible. ‘You know what? If I didn’t know Michael, no way,’ she said. ‘But I happen to know who he is and what he is and that makes it, you know…’ Her voice trailed off. ‘I know that he’s not… you know? I know that he’s not like that and I know he has a thing for children…’ Her voice trailed off, again. ‘Sorry…’ she finally said, at a loss.

  ‘I just wonder, is it over?’ Diane asked, turning to Michael. ‘Are you going to make sure it doesn’t happen again? I think this is really the key thing people want to know.’

  ‘Is what over?’ Michael asked.

  ‘Are there not going to be more of these sleepovers in which people have to wonder?’

  ‘Nobody wonders when kids sleep over at my house,’ he said. ‘Nobody wonders.’

  ‘But are they over?’ Diane pushed. ‘Are you going to watch out for it?’

  ‘No,’ he answered. Then, acting as if he didn’t know what she was talking about – or, maybe he really didn’t – he did a double-take and asked, ‘Watch out for what?’

  ‘Just for the sake of the children and because of everything you’ve been through?’

  ‘No, because it’s all moral and it’s all pure,’ Michael said, stubbornly. ‘I don’t even think that way. It’s not what’s in my heart.’

  ‘So you’ll do it again?’ she asked.

  ‘Do what again?’

  ‘Have a child sleeping over?’ Diane clarified, now looking annoyed.

  ‘Of course,’ he answered. ‘If they want. It’s on the level of purity and love and just innocence, complete innocence,’ he concluded. ‘If you’re talking about sex, then that’s a nut. It’s not me. Go to the guy down the street, ’cause it’s not Michael Jackson. It’s not what I’m interested in.’ (A consequence of this interview was that Evan Chandler sued him – again! – claiming that he had breached the terms of the settlement with Jordie. Michael’s lawyers eventually got the suit dismissed.)

  It was a shame that Michael couldn’t have conceded to Diane Sawyer that he may have used poor judgement in the past. She was on his side, trying to work with him, and pushing for him to do the mature thing – or at least the responsible thing – and say that he would exercise more caution in the future where youngsters were concerned. There were many ways he could have approached the matter, but being obstinate and haughty was not the best way. ‘I had off-the-record information that there were some ambiguities about the case in Jackson’s favour,’ Diane Sawyer later explained. ‘Still, I have heard people say, after seeing him during that interview, that a parent would be crazy to let their child be alone with him,’

  Later, in the interview, when asked whether her marriage to Michael was a sham, Lisa said of such rumours, ‘You know it’s crap. I’m sorry. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I’m not going to marry somebody for any reason other than the fact that I fall in love with them, period. And they [the public] can eat it if they want to think anything different.’

  Lisa hoped the couple would be perceived as serious, not silly, during the televised interview. However, Michael’s mugging and clowning – as if he was testing to see how many faces he could get away with before his strict mother would send him to his room – undermined her efforts. She was exasperated, especially when he put his two fingers behind her head as if making devil-horns. However, the interview was emblematic of their relationship: she was the adult, he was the child.

  ‘What a fucking disaster,’ Lisa said the day after the interview. She was mortified, and angry. ‘I am so pissed off at that Diane Sawyer, the way she pushed and pushed and pushed about our sex life. Jesus, that was terrible. Oh my God. I can’t believe it,’ she said, shaking her head miserably. ‘I can’t even fucking believe that was on TV.’

  ‘I don’t know, I thought it was pretty cool,’ Michael said, thoughtfully. ‘I mean, we made some good points about the allegations. We made a good-looking couple, too. People loved it, Lisa.’ He reached over and put his arm around her, lovingly. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘it was all right.’ Lisa rolled her eyes.

  What originally brought Lisa and Michael together was the drama of molestation allegations and subsequent drug abuse. Her desire to work out a crisis for him was a powerful, motivating force in their relationship. However, once the drama was over, they had little more to fall back on but their surprising physical relationship. ‘It was right after the Diane Sawyer show that things started going bad,’ says Monica Pastelle. ‘Lisa started to wonder if she’d made a mistake in choosing him as a life partner. The great sex continued, though. It was the thing that made it difficult for her to see straight where he was concerned. Whatever was going on in the privacy of their bedroom was enough to keep her hooked into the relationship. However, things were getting strained. When they weren’t in bed making love, they were fighting.’

  One adviser recalled, ‘I was in the studio with him as he cut some new music when Lisa walked in. She slumped down next to Michael, looking miserable. They didn’t say one word to each other. He just played with his knobs and dials, ignoring her. Then, after about five minutes of silence, Lisa gave him a long look. She got up. On her way out the door she said, “Nice talkin’ to you, as always.” He ignored her. I said, “Yo! Mike! What’s up? Is everything okay with you two?” He said, “Sure. We’re doing just great. I don’t know why she’s so pissed off at me.” Then, as if hit by a sudden thought, he said, “Wait! Do you think she’s on her… you know… her… you know… her,” and he lowered his voice dramatically, “herperiod?”’

  Lisa Marie Wants to Know Why Michael

  is ‘So Selfish’

  In October 1994, about six months after Michael and Lisa were married, the two of them and some friends were invited to dine with Elizabeth Taylor at her Bel Air home. Sixty-two-year-old Elizabeth took twenty-six-year-old Lisa aside to offer some hints as to how she might keep her husband happy. ‘Always look your best,’ she told Lisa. ‘He’s into glamour, and you must be into it, too. And if you don’t like the jewellery he gives you, fake it; act like you do. And keep separate bedrooms to keep him guessing. Also,’ she said, ‘find the right colours and wear the hell out of them.’

  Later, when Elizabeth was out of ear shot, Lisa asked Michael, ‘What era is she living in? No wonder she’s been divorced seven times!’

  ‘Now, Lisa,’ Michael said, with a wag of his finger. ‘Be nice.’

  Lisa also found it amusing that Michael was, as she put it to one intimate, ‘an absolute cosmetics freak’. He would spend hours in the bathroom, she said, putting on and taking off different kinds of makeups. In fact, she never saw him without his makeup. If they slept together, in the morning Michael would be gone before she awakened – in the bathroom, applying his morning makeup. She’d look at his pillow and find it smeared with makeup. ‘It didn’t bother her,’ said one friend. ‘She thought of it as being sort of rock and roll, freaky, you know? “Lots of rock stars wear makeup,” she said. “Whatever. I don’t care, as long as he’s happy. What do I care?” Lisa would try to surprise him, though, by waking up before him and then tapping him on the shoulder. The sun would be up, and there he would be, with smudged makeup in the light of day. “No, Lisa,” he would shriek, “don’t look. Please, don’t look!” Then, he would jump out of bed and scamper into the bathroom. Lisa would crack up.’

  However, light moments like that one between Michael and Lisa had become rare. A major problem for them in their marriage was that Michael insisted that he still be free to go on vacations with young male friends, even though he was now a married man. Lisa did not believe her husband was a paedophile; she made that much clear. ‘I wouldn’t have let him near my kids if I ever thought tha
t,’ she later said. ‘Never once did I see him do anything inappropriate, ever.’ However, she was dismayed that he would still want to be seen in the company of youngsters, considering all that they had been through with the Jordie Chandler matter. She felt that any public display with youngsters, and especially with boys, would only serve to spark more rumour and innuendo about him and, by extension, her. While many in her husband’s ‘world of wonder’, as she called his insulated environment, put up with Michael’s poor judgement, she wasn’t going to be one of them. However, Michael was not going to compromise; he had no experience with the notion. When the two fought about the ongoing presence of youngsters in his life, he laid down the law: he was going to do what he wanted to do and, if Lisa loved him, she would have to accept his choices.

  ‘Lisa didn’t understand how Michael could disregard her feelings,’ said James Cruse, who knew her well at the time. ‘It was embarrassing for her to constantly defend his actions, always explaining that he was not a paedophile, he was misunderstood, he was a child at heart and, blah, blah, blah… the same stuff you always hear about the guy. He didn’t seem to care that it was hard on her. He just wanted to live his life the way he had always lived it. ‘What I do is none of your business,’ he told her. That really set her off. ‘How can you say that? Of course it’s my business,’ she told him. ‘You’re my husband. You ‘re my business.”

  ‘Why are you so selfish?’ Lisa hollered at Michael one evening in front of staff members at Neverland. They had just finished dinner and settled themselves in front of the fireplace, the blazing logs casting a warm glow over them. As they all talked, Michael slipped into the conversation that he was considering a vacation to France with the Cascio brothers from New Jersey, Eddie II and Frank. Lisa was stunned.

  ‘How did you get to be this way?’ she demanded, her eyes hard and condemning. ‘Do you care how that makes me look, you going on vacation with two kids? Don’t you care about me, at all?’

  ‘Me? Selfish?’ Michael asked, seeming dismayed. ‘But look at the money I give to charities. Why, Lisa! I love all the little children of the world.’

  According to witnesses, Lisa stared at him, her mouth agape. ‘What does that have to do with anything?’ she countered. She was furious and getting more so by the second. ‘I’m talking about you and me, Michael. Not, all the little children of the world. In fact,’ she concluded, ‘you are the most selfish person I have ever known.’

  Michael grimaced, as if struck in the stomach. Quick tears sprung to his eyes. No one had ever talked to him like that before, not since Joseph, anyway.

  ‘Oh, what’s the use?’ Lisa asked, ignoring his hurt. ‘You don’t get it, do you? The little children of the world,’ she repeated, angrily. ‘I can’t even believe you would say that to me.’

  ‘I got into this whole “I’m going to save you” thing,’ Lisa admitted in 2003. ‘I got some romantic idea in my head I could save him and we could save the world. I thought all that stuff he was doing, philanthropy and the children thing and all of that, was awesome. OK. Hello. I was delusionary.’

  Later, when Michael recounted the incident to another associate, he said of his wife, ‘Man, she’s so mean to me. I’m like, why are you being such a bitch to me? What’d I ever do to you?’

  ‘It’s too soon after your rehab, Mike,’ said the adviser. ‘This kind of conflict isn’t good for you. You should be working on staying drug-free.’

  ‘Eddie and Frank and I have been friends for years,’ Michael said, not seeming to hear his friend’s remarks. He shook his head in disbelief. ‘We’ve been all over the world together. It’s all innocent. Now, Lisa hates me because of it.’ He stopped, as if hit by a bolt of lightning. ‘Oh my God, she hates me. It’s Katherine and Joseph all over again, isn’t it?’

  ‘Look, forget about those Cascio kids,’ offered the adviser. ‘Come on, Mike. You can see them, any time. Why mess things up any more with your wife?’

  ‘Because I’m a grown man,’ Michael said as he rose to leave the room. ‘And I don’t need anyone’s permission to go on a vacation with my good friends. That’s why.’

  Michael did have his vacation in Paris with Eddie and Frank Cascio, in July 1995… and without Lisa.

  Michael Goes on the Record

  In September 1995 rumours surfaced that Michael and Lisa Marie were ending their marriage, causing an international firestorm of headlines. I managed to get Michael on the telephone for an interview for the Australian magazine, Woman’s Day, to check it out. ‘Let me just say this,’ he told me, impatiently: ‘No. No. No. No. These stories are damn lies made up by people who hope they’ll get lucky with one of them and hit it big.’

  I asked if he wanted to further respond to reports that Lisa did not know about his vacation to Paris with the Cascio brothers. ‘Like I wouldn’t have told her?’ Michael asked. He sounded tense, stressed out. ‘Like she wouldn’t read about it anyway, or see us photographed by every newspaper photographer in the world? Neither one of us could have a secret from the other, even if we wanted to,’ he said. ‘We’re so happy,’ he added of his marriage. ‘We do it our way. I don’t know if it’s conventional. My parents have been married for forty years. Is their marriage conventional? Were Lisa’s parents in a conventional marriage? I don’t think so. I love being married, knowing that Lisa is there,’ he continued.’ She’s strong. She’s smart. She’s on my side, listens to me, understands me, understands my world.’

  The child molestation allegations came up, once again. There had been a report that the twenty-five-million-dollar settlement would be paid to Jordie Chandler in instalments of $466,000 a year over forty years. It wasn’t accurate. However, the report further indicated that Michael spends more than that amount on toys. ‘That’s not true, either,’ he confirmed. ‘I probably don’t spend more than,’ he paused, as if calculating the figure in his head, ‘about a hundred and fifty thousand a year on toys.’

  Also at this time, Santa Barbara District Attorney, Tom Sneddon, was quoted in a Vanity Fair article as saying that the criminal investigation against Michael was not over. ‘It is in suspension,’ he said, ‘even if the civil case has been settled with cash.’

  ‘What the heck does that mean?’ Michael asked, heatedly. ‘Either there is an investigation, or there isn’t one. It’s over. Let it rest.’

  During the course of our conversation, the subject of the photo session with the police came up. ‘Those photos did not match [Jordie’s description],’ he told me. ‘How many times do I have to say this to you? They did not match. Now, I’m hanging up,’ he told me, ‘because you crossed the line with that question.’

  ‘Wait,’ I said. ‘One more thing: do you know that a writer says he found a videotape of you with some kid. Do you want to respond to that, Michael?’

  ‘It’s not true,’ he said, sounding dismayed. ‘Even if I were the most deviant person in the world, why would I keep a tape like that?’

  In fact, Michael Jackson sued Victor Guitterez (author of a book about Jordie and Michael for private publication, called Michael Jackson Was My Lover) for claiming that such a videotape existed, and challenged him to produce it. Apparently, no such tape existed. Victor lost the suit and ended up owing Michael almost three million dollars. He declared bankruptcy, moved to Chile, and hasn’t been heard from since.

  ‘People will believe anything about me. I don’t care any more. Is that what you want to hear? Then, fine,’ he concluded, lashing out at me. ‘In fact, why not just tell people I’m an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and that I do a voodoo dance at midnight. They’ll believe anything you say, because you’re a reporter,’ he concluded, spitting our the word reporter. ‘But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, “I’m an alien from Mars and eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance every night at midnight,” people would say, “Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He’s cracked up. You can’t believe a damn word that comes out of his mouth.”’

  Finally Michael s
aid in a weary voice, ‘People don’t know what it’s like for me. No one knows, really. No one should judge what I’ve done with my life,’ he concluded, ‘not unless they’ve been in my shoes every horrible day and every sleepless night.’

  Enter: Debbie Rowe

  Michael first met Debbie Rowe in the early 1980s when he went to his dermatologist to complain of a skin condition. Panicked because of the emergence of mysterious blotches, he was certain he had a deadly skin cancer. Ace Johnson, who worked as an assistant for Joseph Jackson at the time, recalls, ‘That was when Mike was told he had Vitiligo. “Oh no,” he said, “I am a freak.” I distinctly remember him telling me that there was a white girl named Debbie in the doctor’s office, a nurse and receptionist, who was helping him through the ordeal, always there for him.’

  Dr Arnold Klein suggested to Michael that if he needed someone to talk to about his medical condition, he should call Debbie any time, day or night. For a short while, Michael did telephone her daily to ask her medical questions, and cry on her shoulder. They were soon good friends. ‘At the time, his brothers thought maybe this would be the beginning of a romance for Michael, since all he talked about was Debbie,’ recalled Ace. ‘Jermaine said, “I want to meet this Debbie chick. Mike’s got it bad for her.” Michael giggled and laughed, like a kid with a crush.’

  Whenever Michael came to the office for treatment, Debbie would fuss over him. In reciprocation, whenever Michael released a new CD he would send her an autographed copy. Debbie would hang his CD picture jackets on the walls of her office until, one day, Arnold Klein asked her to remove them, saying that such a display of affection for a patient could be misconstrued.