Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (114 page)

One of the appraisers recognized the faces of the boys-one was a likeness
of a very young Macaulay Culkin, the other of a young Sean Lennon, son of
former Beatle John Lennon. The portraits had been painted by Michael himself, but it cannot be ascertained if they'd been composed from live studies,
whether they were figments of Michael's imagination, or perhaps painted
from memory. Sean's naked portrait evoked memories of his father when he
posed nude for an album cover with this wife, Yoko Ono.

Whitening creams and various sex aids were uncovered among the arti facts from Neverland, including some dildos with full erections that appeared
to have been modeled by boys.

Potentially even more embarrassing were sealed court documents associated with Michael's sexual molestation charges. They included photographs,
mandated by the Santa Monica courts, of his genitalia.

"This is stuff we have kept from the auction out of respect to Mr. Jackson,"
Altomare said." The guy has troubles. We all have skeletons in the closet. If
Mr. Jackson hadn't put up a fuss, I might have quietly, discreetly, just given
the personal possessions to him. I'm a gentleman. But if he pisses me off, I
may end up auctioning them."

In May of 2007, lawyers for Michael appeared in a Las Vegas courtroom
and dropped efforts to block the auction of the pop star's memorabilia.
Gregory Cross, a lawyer for Michael, said, "The matter's been resolved." He
refused to describe the terms of the agreement, which settled the April 2007
lawsuit.

That summer, Michael flew to Japan to meet with some of his most loyal
fans. While there, he greeted about 3,000 U.S. troops and their family members at a U.S. Army base south of Tokyo. At Camp Zama, Michael walked
around shaking hands and speaking shyly with the soldiers. "Those of you
here today are some of the most special people in the world," he told the
crowd.

This was Michael's second trip in less than a year to Japan, where he
attended parties, including an extravagant gala in Tokyo. Michael referred to
these events in Tokyo as "fan appreciation events." He was the guest of honor
at one party where 400 people each paid $3,500 for a buffet dinner, an entertainment revue that featured several Japanese M.J. impersonators, and a
chance to take photos with The Gloved One. Each guest got thirty seconds
with the pop star.

Wearing a black-and-gold Roberto Cavalli suit, Michael appeared on stage
at the end of the six-hour party to read a brief thank you note. He did not perform.

Previously, he had appeared in Japan in 2006 to accept an MTV Japan
award.

Back in America, Michael had reason to fear the public. When he was recognized, angry people often screamed "PERVERT" at him, even though he
was accompanied by his children. "That must have been painful to hear for
this father of three out on a shopping trip to a bookstore with his kids in tow,"
said a family security guard.

If not assaulted with verbal attacks, Michael had to endure overzealous
fans. "If you get trapped, it's not fun," he told journalist Mark Ellen. "They
start kissing you and tearing your clothes and tearing the hair out of your head.
In Europe, a girl opened her wallet to reveal a piece of my hair. `Look,' she
told me, `I took this out of your head two years ago!"'

In Las Vegas throughout 2007, Michael weighed proposals for his future,
all of which included performing as the centerpiece of live shows. His spokeswoman, Raymone K. Bain, denied rumors that he had failed to find a
Las Vegas venue for his show. She also denied a rumor that he would soon
appear on American Idol.

"Mr. Jackson did not move to Las Vegas to shop a Vegas show," Bain said.
"He's in Las Vegas because he likes the city and finds it a convenient location
to record with artists, songwriters, and producers."

Perhaps assuming that an appropriate Vegas venue might be forthcoming,
Michael came up with a dramatic proposal for advertising his appearance.
Plans called for a fifty-foot robotic replica of himself, its feet planted upon the
desert sands "Laser beams would shoot out of it so it would be the first thing
people flying in would see," said Mike Luckman, of Luckman Van Pier, consultants to large entertainment conglomerates. "Neon's wonderful, but it's old
school."

In Las Vegas, it now appears, Michael wasn't doing all that work that Bain
kept suggesting. "He spends most of his time in bed, avoiding work in any
recording studio," said an inside source who didn't want to be named for fear
of losing his job.

On June 30, 2007, his one-year lease on a Las Vegas mansion ran out.
He'd agreed to rent the house from Luke Brugnara, a self-made San Francisco
realtor, who seemed eager to regain control of his 20-room, 11-bathroom
manse in Sin City.

Roger Friedman of Fox News claimed that in Las Vegas, "Michael Jackson
may at last be living out his greatest fantasy: Living as Elvis Presley in his
final days."

In the aftermath of Vegas, Michael, the two Princes, and Paris appeared to
be living as nomads, landing wherever they could find an oasis.

In mid-August of 2007, they moved in with the Cascio family in Franklin
Lakes, New Jersey, remaining there until the first week of November.

Later, they stayed with the supermarket billionaire, Ron Burkle, at his
Beverly Hills home, just behind the Beverly Hills Hotel. Michael had already
been booted out of several other residences he'd rented in Las Vegas and
Washington DC.

While still in New Jersey, Michael was seen shopping for Hallowe'en costumes with his children in the Boulder Run Mall. "He wore a black turban
covering his neck and his face," said a clerk. "I knew it was him. His voice
was high-pitched."

One news report said he turned up with his "three sons," Prince, Paris, and
Blanket. Paris, a girl, of course, was so heavily masked that it would have
been impossible to determine what her gender actually was.

And the lawsuits kept coming. In November, the law firm that had handled side work during Michael's 2005 child molestation trial sued Michael for
their (unpaid) fee. A judge in Los Angeles ordered the singer to pay $256,000
in legal fees to Ayscough & Marar to cover the cost of successfully suing him.
With that ruling, Michael's legal bill owed to the firm rose to $430,000.

He had countersued the firm in 2006, claiming that one of its lawyers had threatened to expose confidential information about him to the media. But
Superior Court Judge James Chalfant dismissed Michael's lawsuit, ruling that
it lacked merit.

Although many fans-or former fans-were asking, "who cares?",
Michael's Neverland went into foreclosure the same month. Based on
Michael's owing $23.2 million in back payments, the property was seized by
the mortgage lender.
Implode-O-Meter.

But despite the loss of Neverland, 2008 loomed as a bright spot within
what had been a rather bleak decade. His landmark 1982 album, Thriller, was
being re-released in celebration of its 25th anniversary. Its promoters were
hoping that lightning would strike twice, as they put it.

"It's hard to believe that 25 years ago, Quincy Jones and I embarked on an
album named Thriller " Michael said in a breathless video message released
by his record company, Sony BMG. "It is my hope that Thriller continues to
live on for each new generation to discover."

In the re-configured Thriller album, on the soundtrack of "The Girl Is
Mine," Michael ordered that all traces of Paul McCartney's vocals be obliterated. The revised and re-issued album included a tune composed in 1982, but
not previously released, "For All Time."

Editor Mark Ellen, writing for The New Statesman, summed up the rerelease of Thriller. "Listen to Thriller today and it has dated only very slightly, and principally because the songs have been over-exposed for so long. The
framework of their sound still seems as nervy and energizing: The computerdriven drums, the winding synthesized brass figures, the dry and slightly
claustrophobic ring of studio trickery. It's not a record that belongs outdoors,
it's for a contained space with low ceilings and strip lights. Everything about
it still seems artificial, including the person performing it. There's no real
colour or warmth, and no real feelings. Songs are either set in a fantasy world
of PG-certificate horror, or cast in some social context beyond the singer's
capabilities. Almost every lyric is about girls-dreams, hopes, heartbreak,
loss, proprietorial fights, stand-offs with rivals-yet never, even at the time,
did you imagine that he was singing about his own life."

In May of 2008, the Library of Congress honored Michael's album Thriller
by including it as one of twenty-five selections within the National Recording
Registry, defining their action as the library's attempt to save America's aural
history for recordings deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

The 2008 re-release of Thriller brought the inevitable lawsuits. John
Landis, who co-wrote and directed the original video associated with the
album, filed suit. Asking for unspecified damages in a courtroom in Santa
Monica, Landis charged that Michael had failed to pay him royalties for the
project during the previous four years.

In his suit, Landis claimed that he was owed fifty percent of the profits
from both the original and the revised Thriller projects, charging Michael with
"fraudulent, malicious, and oppressive conduct."

The bad news came with some good. The Broadway producer, James
Nederlander, announced that he had purchased the rights to adapt Thriller for
the stage. Despite the profits generated by the re-release of Thriller, Michael
was still in desperate need of cash-and plenty of it. Millions, in fact.

During the spring of 2008, he went back to work in a recording studio,
recording an album, or at least trying to. At the Palms Recording Studio in Las
Vegas, he temporarily abandoned his children so he could concentrate. His
backers announced, "He has also sworn off women for the time being." That
evoked a laugh in newsrooms throughout America.

In one context, the story was technically accurate. Around that time, a
woman in Michael's orbit, the nanny to his children, Grace Rwaramba, was
actually "dumped." According to an inside source, "One day she was simply
no longer around."

As a means of raising some cash, Michael once again considered following in the footsteps of Celine Dion and other entertainers who had moved, at
least temporarily, to Las Vegas. He weighed offers of a long-term singing
engagement, seriously considering Vegas as an option for the summer of 2008.

Colony Capital, the private equity group that purchased the loan on
Neverland, also owned the Las Vegas Hilton and was a major shareholder in
the Station Casinos chain. As such, they could have provided a venue for
Michael to pay back his debt. While this deal, which eventually fell apart, was
being negotiated, Michael was living briefly in Pahrump, Nevada, about 60
miles west of Las Vegas.

During the spring of 2008, reporters for The New York Post, Stacy Brown
and James Fanelli, began an investigation into what had happened to "The
Jacko clan"--an update on other "whatever happened to..." stories filed previously by other reporters.

Janet Jackson, then aged 41, had emerged as the most successful of the siblings, worth $150 million. When her parents were confronted with the possible loss of the family mansion at Hayvenhurst, she bought a home for her
mother, Katherine, in Las Vegas.

Both parents, Joseph Jackson at 79, and Katherine at 77, were living in
Vegas. Joseph was hustling various all-girl singing groups, and Katherine was
a stay-at-home housewife.

La Toya, at 52, was living with a rich boyfriend in Beverly Hills and occasionally judging beauty and singing contests. Rebbie Jackson, at 57, was married to a prosperous "commercial giant," Nathaniel Brown.

The boys, each a former member of the once-famous Jackson 5, were not
doing as well.

Tito, at 55, was playing minor gigs, some for $500 a night. Randy, at 46,
was taking odd jobs like fixing cars in a garage in Los Angeles. Marlon, at 51,
was stocking grocery shelves at a Vons Supermarket in the wake of having his
home foreclosed by bankers.

Jackie, at 56, was trying to produce records by his sons while trying to
launch an Internet clothing business. Jermaine, at 54, faced millions of dol lars in tax liens from federal and state agencies.

The brothers could have crawled out of their financial holes if Michael had
agreed to tour with them as part of a reunited Jackson 5, but until the end,
Michael refused.

Debts to the Internal Revenue, child support, bad advice, and even worse
investments, divorces, and perhaps pride drove The Jacksons off a cliff.

Even though Michael had previously signed his brothers to his personal
record label, MJJ, he refused to release any of their music. Bob Jones,
Michael's former friend, asserted that "Michael's mission was to make sure
his family was broke, and he accomplished that through the industry, which
mostly kowtowed to him."

The family had filed for Chapter 11 in 1997, citing debts of nearly $50 million, in the wake of of the collapse of Jackson Communications, Inc.

On his 50th birthday, on August 29, 2008, Michael, wearing oversized
"Jackie Kennedy sunglasses" showed up at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas,
wearing mismatched pants and a suit jacket. He told ABC's Good Morning
America that he still could do all his celebrated dance steps--"and more." In
his barely audible voice, he didn't explain what "and more" meant.

Michael went on to say, "I think the best is yet to come in my true humble
opinion. People see some of the things I am doing and they say, `Why don't
you show this to the world? People don't know you do these things.' And
maybe they will."

It was reported that Michael hadn't spoken to his brothers since he'd been
freed of child molestation charges. On his birthday, his brothers tried to contact him to settle a debt of $840,000 Michael owed them in royalties from their
long-ago Jackson 5 hits. But Michael's handlers kept the brothers at bay.