Michael Jackson (91 page)

‘It looked awkward because I wanted out of my skin,’ Lisa said, years later. ‘I hated it. I felt used, like a prop,’ she said.
‘It was awful.’

‘Afterward, they had a huge fight about it,’ said Monica Pastelle. ‘Her whole thing was, “I told you no, and you just disregarded
it.” But Michael thought it was great, a showstopper. He was all about the show, you know? What could they do that would cause
headlines? That’s where his head was at. “But people will be talking about that kiss for decades,” he said. “Don’t you see?
They’re gonna run that clip over and over.” Lisa was pissed off for days. “Don’t you fucking even come
near
me,” she told him.’

That same week, Michael became annoyed by newspaper reports that suggested that if Elvis Presley were alive, he would not
approve of the marriage. ‘I think we need to find out,’ he said. He suggested that he and Lisa have a seance to contact the
King. He was serious. He told Lisa he had friends who could communicate with the deceased, and that they could make it possible
for him and Lisa to talk to Elvis and ask his opinion of the union. Lisa thought the idea was tasteless. When Michael continued
to push it, she lashed out at him. ‘I said no,’ she told him, angrily, ‘and if you stay on this particular road, they’re gonna
need a medium to contact
you
in the great beyond, because I’m about to put you there, right now,’ Michael never mentioned the idea, again. ‘Jeez, it was
just a suggestion,’ he said, later. ‘Can’t a guy even have a suggestion?’

Nine months later, in June 1995, Michael and Lisa were interviewed on the American television programme
Dateline
by reporter Diane Sawyer.

While it is true that Michael rarely grants television interviews (the last one had been in 1993 with Oprah Winfrey), one
would have been hard-pressed to remember any time Lisa had ever been seen answering questions on television. Prior to this
highly anticipated broadcast, only frozen images of her came to mind – photographs of a fragile blonde child with a droopy glare
and sad, pouting expression reminiscent of her father’s. It was easy to imagine her as a poor little rich girl, victimized
by her privileged, heavily scrutinized circumstances. That wasn’t really true of her as an adult, though. After years of therapy
through Scientology, she had long ago come to terms with her celebrity. ‘My best trait is that I don’t put on a front for
anybody,’ she observed. ‘I’m honest. Scientology has helped me a lot. It teaches you to stay what we call “clean”, to understand
your feelings and not hold things in. Yeah, I’ve had a difficult life, in some ways,’ she allowed. ‘But I’ve gotten through
it, and have done all right for myself.’

On the night of the television interview, Lisa appeared to the world as a sophisticated, twenty-seven-year-old brunette, gorgeous
and, it would seem, anyway, nobody’s victim.

As the Jackson couple sat side by side, they fielded questions from Diane Sawyer about their private life. In talking about
the allegations, Michael said, ‘I could never harm a child or anyone. It’s not in my heart. It’s not who I am and it’s not
what I’m even interested in.’ Diane then asked, ‘What do you think should be done to someone who does that?’ Michael responded,
‘To someone who does that? What do I think should be done? Gee, I think they need help in some kind of way, you know?’

He then explained why he decided to settle the Jordie Chandler case. ‘I talked to my lawyers and I said, “Can you guarantee
me that justice will prevail?”’ Michael recalled, ‘And they said, “Michael, we cannot guarantee you what a judge or a jury
will do.” With that, I was like catatonic. I was outraged, totally outraged. So I said, “I have got to do something to get
out from under this nightmare, all these lies and all these people coming forward to get paid and these tabloid shows, just
lies, lies, lies, lies.” So we got together and my advisers advised me. It was hands down, a unanimous decision to resolve
the case.’

Throughout his explanation, Diane had continually attempted to interrupt him to ask how much money he had spent on the settlement.
Finally, a protective Lisa abruptly cut her off and said, ‘He’s been barred to discuss it.’

Diane asked, ‘The specific terms of the agreement?’

Lisa confirmed, ‘The specific terms,
and
the specific amounts.’

It was going fairly well, until Diane Sawyer asked the loaded question to which no one ever has a good answer: ‘What is a
thirty-six-year-old man doing sleeping with a twelve-year-old boy, or a series of them?’ Michael fumbled for a bit, giving
his usual monologue about the innocence and purity of such behaviour, until Lisa, looking frustrated, decided to put the matter
into perspective.

‘Let me just say,’ she began, ‘that I’ve seen these children. They don’t let him go to the
bathroom
without running in there with him. They won’t let him out of their sight. So when he jumps in the bed, I’m even out [of the
bed], you know?
They
jump in the bed with
him
.’ Lisa – mother of two – was on the spot; her credibility was in question just by virtue of the fact that she was sitting there
with her husband, on TV, trying to explain why it was okay for him to sleep with children who were not his own. She had to
at least give it her best shot.

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, “her
period
?”’

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 that,’ 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.