Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (53 page)

In 1987 Michael hired a Texas-born publicist,
Bob Jones, to take over as his head honcho of
communications for MJJ Productions. Leaving
Motown, Jones signed on with the King of Pop, a
label he bestowed on Michael.

Bob Jones had worked with the Motown
greats, including Diana Ross herself, along with
Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, The Temptations,
Smokey Robinson, and The Supremes. But he'd
never encountered a performer like Michael
Jackson before. In the weeks and months ahead,
he would be forced to handle one bizarre episode after another, some of the best of
which he recorded in a memoir,
Michael Jackson: The Man Behind
the Mask, published in 2005. The
book claimed that "It was Jones who
was forced to put out public relation
fires and give a positive spin to each
successive bizarre story relating to
the superstar."

Jones occupied an eyewitness
seat as he watched entertainment's
biggest star destroy himself "with
self-hatred and self-indulgence."
His was the unenviable role of
explaining and interpreting to the public Michael's "fraudulent marriages and
poisonous family relations," as well as his drug abuse and voodoo ceremonies.
But before things began to unravel, Jones got to jump aboard the bandwagon
promoting Michael during the last great success of his career, the Bad album,
the Bad videos, and the Bad world tour.

Millions tuned in on August 31, 1987 to watch Michael Jackson: The
Magic Returns, a 30-minute TV special that traced his rise as a star. It was the
sixth highest rated show of the week. Forbes Magazine named Michael as the
ninth highest paid entertainer, with a two-year estimated earnings of $43 million.

Along with the success came minor annoyances. A woman calling herself
"Billie Jean Jackson," a resident of Illinois, filed a $100 million lawsuit,
claiming that Michael was the father of her three children. It turned out that
her actual name was Lavon Powlis.

"My God," Yetnikoff proclaimed, "if this so-called `Billie-Jean' proves
her case, Michael's reputation as a straight-shooter is made." But, like all
paternity suits brought against Michael, this one failed. There wasn't the
slightest proof that Michael even knew who the strange woman was, much
less had fathered her children.

For six weeks, Michael worked on the "Bad" video at Brooklyn's Hoyt
Schermerhorn subway station. Rather unconvincingly Michael cast himself as
Daryl, a kid from the ghetto who'd gone away to a private school. Upon his
return, he finds he no longer fits in with his street gang. His old gang members taunt him singing, "You don't down with us no more, you ain't down, you
ain't bad."

When the video switches from black and white to color, Michael appears
wearing fingerless gloves. Along with his backup dancers, he sings and dances, eventually uniting these West Side Story rival gangs. The famous
director, Martin Scorsese himself, was the helmer on the video, Steven
Spielberg having turned down the job.

Michael looked bizarre and outlandishly overdressed in his black leather
motorcycle outfit, a modern interpretation of Marlon Brando's more macho
outfit in the 1953 film, The Wild One.

Dancers who worked in the video with Michael, including Greg Burge
and Jeffrey Daniel, claimed that Michael was trying to rip off West Side Story,
insisting that they watch the film time and time again.

One of the dancers, who didn't want to be named, ridiculed Michael's costume: "He came out like a dominatrix, dressed in black boots with silver heels
and buckles, lots of buckles. The leather jacket made him look like a motorcycle mama, his metal-studded wristband a bondage queen, and there were
enough zippers for every drag costume between San Francisco and New York
City. And chains-yes, girl, chains-enough for any S&M parlor."

In spite of the ridicule the costume generated, Michael took credit for
designing it. It was later revealed that James O'Connor, owner of a punk rock
store on Hollywood Boulevard, not only designed the costume but sold it to
Michael for $291.34. "Even with the black surgical mask he wore into my
store, I knew who was buying the costume from me," O'Connor claimed. The
costume would later be auctioned off for $30,000.

That Kirk Douglas cleft Michael had placed in his chin through surgery
came as a shock to his loyal fans.

At least the Douglas comparison was a macho image. But with the release
of the "Bad" video, Michael suffered through unwanted comparisons to Joan
Crawford, especially in his heavy use of pancake makeup. This was the beginning of the comparisons with Crawford.
They would reach their peak, especially
around the world, when he was photographed just before his infamous trial for
child molestation. One headline at the time
ridiculed him as THE DAUGHTER OF
JOAN CRAWFORD.

Bob Jones

The "Bad" video cost two million dollars, maybe a lot more, and Michael was
largely blamed for the production going
over the budget. One assistant on the film
said, "Jackson spent most of his time
telling the director of Taxi Driver and New
York, New York how to direct." He was
referring, of course, to Martin Scorsese.

The "Bad" video marked the first time Michael was filmed tugging at his
crotch. "Was his underwear too tight?" Quincy Jones asked facetiously.

"Maybe he wanted to see if it were still there, or had atrophied from lack
of use," one of the dancers cattily remarked.

The "Bad" video shoot moved to the 125th street subway stop in Harlem.
A few blocks away, Madonna was shooting her video of "Who's That Girl?"
When a break came for her, she invited herself to Michael's set. It was while
watching him that she first saw him grab his crotch. Madonna was no stranger
to crotch grabbing herself. But she seemed shocked at Michael's doing that.
She was overheard to remark sarcastically, "Maybe he's trying to find some
non-existent balls!"

The release of the "Bad" video sparked a fire sale in Michael Jackson
merchandise. From posters to coat hangers, MJ memorabilia was the rage of
the hour. Michael Jackson was a subject of amusement, often ridicule, on all
the late night talk shows, even making imaginary appearances (never in person) on such TV sitcoms as The Golden Girls.

In night clubs from San Francisco to Miami, Jackson impersonators ruled
the night. One performer, Valentino Johnson, spent $50,000 to have his face
surgically altered to look more like Michael. But, as Yetnikoff pointed out,
"How is he going to keep up with Michael's ever-changing face?"

With a white sash tied around his waist like Astaire, Michael also shot the
video for "The Way You Make Me Feel." In it he appeared with Tatiana
Thumbtzen, a Florida-born dancer.

She auditioned and won the role for "The Way You Make Me Feel" video,
beating out some two-hundred other girls. For her four days of dancing, she
was paid $4,000, playing a mini-skirted seductress.

Tatiana took her very limited and very unromantic experiences with
Michael and fashioned them into a book, The Way He Made Me Feel, which
she dedicated to "My Savior, The Lord Jesus Christ," not Michael.

As a ballet student, she had dreamed of working and dancing with
Michael. In 1987 that dream came true for her, but there would also be a
downside.

In her confessional, she admitted that she had a "big crush" on Michael
the day she met him. During the shoot, when she accidentally fell on her ass,
Michael rubbed her butt. "I could not believe it!" she later said. "Michael was
flirting with me. I thought if anyone had ever questioned his manhood, here
was his or her answer."

In the video's final scene, Michael and Tatiana hug. Many fans were disappointed, as they'd wanted the romantic duo to kiss, but Michael was against
that.

He complimented her walk, finding it "very sexy." In Tatiana's view at the time, that was a "compliment from a heterosexual male." Michael liked working with Tatiana so much he invited her to join him on the Bad tour. At the
time, she was still hoping for some romantic involvement, although up to now
he'd never asked her out. Their most intimate encounter came when he asked
to borrow some of her face powder to touch up his makeup. Magazines began
running articles calling Tatiana MICHAEL'S GIRL.

During the Bad tour, at New York's Madison Square Garden, Tatiana
made a daring move. "I landed a kiss right on his smacker!"

In explaining why she kissed Michael, she said, "I looked into his eyes,
and he did this really sexy thing-he bit his lip-and just looked at me with
this look that was so incredibly sexy. I pulled him close and as I was about to
kiss him I felt the hand on my hip and before I knew it we were locked into
this kiss."

No one had ever seen Michael kissing a girl in public-or in private for
that matter. Backstage, Michael's manager, Frank DiLeo, gave her the evil
eye, but later, mother Katherine seemed to applaud her action, "giving me a
big bear hug."

A different reaction came from Michael's security guard, Miko Brando.
Enraged and shouting at her at the top of his lungs, he yelled, "How dare you
fucking take advantage of him like that! You fucking bitch! Who the fuck do
you think you are? I cannot believe you fucking took advantage of him like
that in front of all those people!" Later, Tatiana was fired from the Bad tour.
She was replaced by Sheryl Crow.

Months later, Tatiana dated Michael's rival, Prince, but claimed, "We
curled up in bed like kittens, and simply fell
asleep."

"Michael was the Peter Pan squeaky-clean
one, and Prince was the sexually overt one,"
Tatiana claimed. But if he was such a sexual
creature, why didn't Prince seduce her?
Seduction was also something she'd never get
from Peter Pan.

Tatiana Thumbtzen

Tonia Ryan, the co-author of Tatiana's autobiography, said, "Every other red-blooded male
in America was going after Tatiana-Eddie
Murphy, Prince, Robert De Niro, Matt LeBlanc,
but Michael didn't even go out on a date with
her. You do the math!"

In the wake of the first child molestation
charges against Michael in 1993, Tatiana was
interviewed by everybodyfrom Howard Stern to Maury Povich. The question
was always the same, "Did you
sleep with him?" Tatiana later
claimed that she felt that if
she'd admit to having had sex
with Michael, it was "going to
validate his manhood" and perhaps make it appear more likely
that he was innocent of those
child molestation charges.
Although not admitting to sex,
she lied and told TV audiences
that she'd dated Michael for a
year. "In my fairytale mind, I
thought that he would come looking for me to thank me. Boy, was I wrong!"

Bubbles and MJ: Friends forever