Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (113 page)

Tim Nelson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press greeted Michael's Irish pronouncement with the skepticism that was due. When hearing that Michael was
taking the helm of a $100 million Korea-based venture fund that will invest in
entertainment-oriented Internet companies, Nelson listed nine other Jackson
projects that went belly up. "Coming soon to a vacant lot near you!" he wrote.

Among the failed projects of "Neverland Pictures" was the filming of The
Nightmare of Edgar Allan Poe, with Michael as the
star. That went the way of the giant resort near
Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and the huge "Majestic
Kingdom" theme park in Detroit.

MJ with Guy Holmes

No one got to drink the new soft drink,
Mystery, that was going to wipe out Pepsi, Michael's
old alma mater.

In partnership with Saudi Prince Al-Waleed
bin Talal, Kingdom Entertainment never got
launched as a "family values" global entertainment
empire with a theme park that could be a home for
cattle afflicted with mad cow disease.

That $500 million World of Children
Amusement Park was never built in Poland. A few
projects got off the ground, including a German manufacturer who produced flat stereo speakers with Michael's image on them. They were priced at $620. Only they didn't sell. No
one wanted one.

While Michael and his children lived in luxury at the former home of the
Astor family, Cliveden, in the English countryside, his "comeback" was
announced. His highly anticipated first stage appearance since his trial was
scheduled for November of 2006 at the World Music Awards in London.

Traveling by limousine to London with his trio of kids, Michael
ensconced himself at the pricey Hempel Hotel where his entourage was
charged $100,000 a night.

On the night of the presentations, Michael arrived at the auditorium two
hours late. Emerging from the limousine, he waved and blew kisses at fans
who were angry for having to wait so long for a glimpse of The Gloved One.
The words he mumbled to the press were barely comprehensible.

At the ceremony, Jon Bon Jovi, the New Jersey rocker, snubbed Michael
and didn't want to present him with an award "because of the stigma of his
child molestation trial."

Forever the diva, and much to the disappointment of his still-loyal fans,
Michael came on stage and sang only two verses of "We Are the World"
before the music went dead. He was backed up by an army of apple-cheeked
children. The fans had been told that Michael was going to sing "Thriller"
instead. Chris Brown, wearing the familiar red leather of the original video,
sang "Thriller" onstage, but he failed to placate the angry crowd. Boos were
heard across the auditorium.

"However many times he told us he loved us-and there were too manyand however much we yelled and screamed and pinched ourselves, his performance was a shambles," said a disappointed London fan. Even so, one loyalist held up a banner that read THE KING IS BACK.

The reclusive King of Pop received a Diamond Award given to artists who
sell more than 100 million albums. At the last minute, the host of the show,
Lindsay Lohan, presented the "Diamond" to Michael.

It was later reported that Beyonce even had to go to Michael's dressing
room and persuade him to come onstage. "He didn't want to come out of his
room," Beyonce later told reporters. The delay caused her to miss her transAtlantic flight home.

Her greatest fame would come just months after she stood at the door to
Michael's dressing room with the release of Dreamgirls, the film adaptation
of the hit 1981 Broadway musical about a 1960s singing group loosely based
on Motown's Supremes.

Beyonce was cast as the Diana Ross-based character, Deena Jones. After
her "rescue" of Michael, he later said, "I know the real Diana Ross, not the
mock version."

She had her own comeback to Michael, "Don't
you think it's scary that you rarely meet celebrities
who are normal? I do normal things, walk in the
park. I don't want to be off on my own diva planet. I want to be on earth."

Beyonce

Breaking his vow about never returning to
America, Michael in the closing hours of 2006
flew to Atlanta, Georgia, where he traveled by limousine to Augusta for the funeral of his beloved
mentor, James Brown.

With hugs for the Rev. Al Sharpton and the
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Michael joined 9,000 other
mourners, including the squabbling members of
Brown's family, to pay his respects at the goldplated coffin. Michael bent down and seemed to place a gentle kiss on
Brown's forehead.

Michael later said, "James Brown is my greatest inspiration ever since I
was a small child. When I saw him move, I was mesmerized. I've never seen
a performer perform like James Brown, and right then and there, I knew that
was exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."

Reports leaked out that Michael, ending his self-imposed exile, was settling in Las Vegas-that "forgiving town"-to revitalize a dormant career.

If his appearance at the posh shopping mall at Caesars Palace in
December was any indication, Michael could still cause a mini-riot, which is
just what he did when he appeared here on one of his famous shopping binges.
In a black leather jacket, protected by three hotel security guards, Michael was
surrounded by hundreds of fans or else rubber neckers.

"Yes, he's here, and, yes, we're working on projects," said Jackson pal
and entrepreneur Jack Wishna. "But we're not willing to disclose anything
yet.

Jeff Beacher, a savvy observer of the Nevada scene, said that "Jackson's
best shot at jump-starting a dead career is Vegas. Vegas is about wild, weird,
and crazy. If Michael Jackson is going to come back, this could be the place
to do it."

Wishna hinted that the fallen star is seeking to score a "long-term hotel
showroom deal like Celine Dion."

Reporter Bob Shemeligian quoted an anonymous Vegas producer as saying, "Jackson has no known offers and is here with hat in hand, looking to
generate any buzz he can."

Of course, the Las Vegas comeback, like so many other announcements,
turned to dust.

"There is no way to know what was on Michael Jackson's mind
as he journeyed from boy to man and partway back, from a
brown-skinned man to one so pale he required an umbrella
when he was out in the sun, and from a pop star with a quirky
but defined masculinity to one who seemed most comfortable
in a more nebulous zone. What seems clear is that all of it
was considered. All of it was intentional. "

-Guy Trebay

"Like Elvis, Jackson was once beautiful, outrageous, a revolutionary without politics who shook down the walls between
black and white. He had the hits, the style, the ego, the talent. He was the King of Pop and he needed only to fill in the
life. He married Elvis' daughter. He bought the rights to
some of Elvis'songs. Elvis owned Graceland, its name a symbol for a deliverance the singer prayed for until the end of his
life. Jackson had Neverland, a fantasy for a child-man for
whom money meant the chance to live in a world of his own.
He did, and did not, want to be Elvis. "

-Hillel Italie

"We want to celebrate this black man. He belongs to us, and
we shared him with everybody else."

-Jamie Foxx

"He may not be the King of Kings, but he's the King of Pop.
He was a gift from God. "

-The Rev. Carolyn Herron

"Mr. Jackson was to music what Michael Jordan was to sports
and Barack Obama to politics-a towering figure with
crossover appeal, even if in life some of Mr. Jackson's black
fans wondered if he was as proud of his race as his race was
of him. "

-Marcus Mabry

In the months to come, after the legal dust had settled, Debbie Rowe,
mother of two of Michael's children, was found living in an ugly, rundown
desert town, Palmdale, 60 miles north of Los Angeles. When the press caught
up with her, she allowed them to interview her in her modest, ranch-style
house.

Out here in the fresh air, I feel much better than I did during my marriage
to Michael," she said. "No one knows me here in Palmdale. I don't talk to
anyone. I just get on with my life, breeding horses. I'm up at 6am with the
animals. I experience the most extraordinary sunrises. I have a boyfriend.
He's a murder cop."

Today, her body is bloated almost beyond recognition.

Legally, at least, there seemed no doubt that Debbie Rowe was the mother
of two of Michael Jackson's children. But even-that-was challenged in court.

During the summer of 2007, Michael was still being pilloried as a weirdo,
but so were some of the lawsuits brought against him. None was more bizarre
than that filed by Nona Paris Lola Jackson, a 36-year-old woman in Britain.
Her case was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The Jackson woman (no relation) sought joint physical custody of Prince
Michael I, Paris, and Prince Michael II ("Blanket"), claiming that she was the
mother of all three children. This absurd case was not ruled in her favor. "I feel
the evidence fails to link her to these children," the judge said.

It had long been speculated that Michael was not the actual father of Prince
Michael I and Paris. In the wake of his death, speculation was rampant that
the actual sperm donor was none other than the celebrity dermatologist Arnold
Klein, whose patients include Elizabeth Taylor. Rowe had been the doctor's
assistant at the time she met Michael. An insider told Us Magazine that "Klein
is the dad. He and Debbie signed an agreement saying they would never
reveal the truth."

Michael had packed up and left Neverland after he was acquitted of child
molestation. He put the 2,700-acre estate on the market, hoping to pay off
$200 million in debts. But at first there were no takers for the tacky ranch.

Some developers looked at it, thinking the property could be razed and reconfigured as a housing development.

Soccer star David Beckham once expressed an interest in acquiring
Neverland. One of Michael's hobbies as a recluse was collecting newspaper
and magazine photographs of the British sports star, including within his collection some sexy and revealing candid shots.

A maid reported that Michael's bathroom had a shower curtain emblazoned with three frontal nudes of the soccer player. These nudes are widely
available on the web, and are the source material for illicit posters hanging in
the bedrooms of David Beckham fans worldwide.

But, as tantalizing as they are, these photographs have never been authenticated, and may be fakes. Nonetheless, Michael was so taken with them that
he had them specifically commissioned from a Las Vegas novelty outlet as a
means of embellishing his bathroom.

It should be noted that it was a likeness of a fully mature man, and not a
young boy, that adorned Michaels' shower curtain.

In April of 2007, reporters buzzed with the news that a collection of 2,000
of Michael's personal items-each of them allegedly retrieved from
Neverland-would go onto the auction block at the Hard Rock Hotel and
Casino in Las Vegas. Everything was up for grabs, including Michael's bright
red military jacket with gold buttons and the black and white fedoras he'd
worn during live performances of his hit song, "Billie Jean."

Michael expressed his horror that his treasure trove was being offered to
the public at auction, with the intention of settling a debt to a New Jerseybased delivery company. He immediately threatened legal action. Not only
Michael, but other members of the Jackson family contested the ownership of
a number of lots in the auction. Richard Altomare, the chairman of Universal
Express, claimed to have purchased the memorabilia from Henry Vacaro, the
pop star's former business partner. Vacaro, Altomare claimed, had been
awarded the "artifacts" as part of a bankruptcy case against Michael.

Lawyers representing Universal Express warned Michael that he'd face
embarrassment if he pressed forward with his case.

It was reported that Altomare was holding back a number of items for sale,
including portraits of naked boys and sex toys, each of them allegedly culled
from Neverland. When these objects were appraised and catalogued as part of
the upcoming auction, it was revealed that the subjects of two of the paintings
within the collection were of naked boys.