Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (50 page)

All meals were prepared for Michael and the toy boy of the moment and
delivered on a tray which rested outside his door. Michael would issue orders
that he not be disturbed for days at a time.

According to La Toya, Michael would often keep seeing the same boy on
and off for more than a year at a time. After they got "too old," the boys were dropped. Some were not willing to get the
boot, and often had to be bought off or
coerced out of the house with expensive
gifts.

In a disturbing revelation, La Toya
reported that Katherine, in a search of
Michael's room when he was out of town,
discovered a stash of checks. To La Toya,
Katherine called her son "a fucking faggot." As a devout Jehovah's Witness, she
was homophobic, as were many other
members of her cult.

Sophia Loren

Checks in varying amounts-
$100,000, $200,000, $300,000, even $1
million-had been written to parents of
boys Michael had entertained for prolonged sleepovers. Even checks for the
purchases of Rolls-Royces were found.
Apparently, Michael gave away these
expensive vehicles the way Elvis gave
away Cadillacs.

La Toya warned Michael that he was
courting a potential public scandal and might also be setting himself up for
future blackmail. "Some of these parents might come back in the future and
demand more money when whatever you gave them is spent."

He turned a deaf ear to her. "I love kids," he said. "We're just playing
games-that's all there is to it. Case closed."

When not entertaining young boys, Michael entertained lucrative proposals for various endorsement deals. He was offered nearly $30 million by entrepreneurs to sponsor a line of Michael Jackson clothing. Copies of the clothes
he wore in such videos as "Thriller" or "Beat It" were approved by Michael,
but there were so many delays and indecisions on his part that the clothing did
not make an impact on the market. Rip-offs of Michael Jackson clothing,
especially garments made in China and Japan, saturated the market, such a
vast exploitation that it virtually destroyed the authentic MJ label.

Likewise, an attempt to launch a line of toys called "Michael's Pets" also
failed. There would have been a talking Muscles and a talking Bubbles. At one
point it was reported that Michael became so jealous of all the media attention
focusing on his chimp-and not on himself-that he nixed the deal.

He sent word to the toy manufacturers, "Let us not forget that it is Michael
Jackson-not Bubbles-who is the star of this show." The line of toys never took off either, although Michael was said to have kept nearly $25 million in
various marketing advances, including a line of Michael Jackson sunglasses.

"Michael Jackson ended up screwing everybody," said entrepreneur Bob
Michaelson, who called his would-be partner "a sleaze."

Rip-off Michael Jackson clothing-some of the garments bearing a label
MADE IN TAIWAN-flooded America. Kids attending schools from Oregon
to Florida were wearing Michael Jackson sneakers, Michael Jackson T-shirts,
and even carrying Michael Jackson lunchboxes. All of this merchandise was
unauthorized, and the legitimate promoters who had originally contracted
with Michael to use his image "went belly-up," in the words of one failed
clothing manufacturer.

Among entrepreneurs in the business world, Michael became known as a
"ruthless son-of-a-bitch." One irate manufacturer said, "Behind that whispery
little Marilyn Monroe voice, that face of supposed naivete, there beats a heart
of gold. Hold onto your shirts should you ever have the misfortune to cross his
path. He'll take it off your back. Not only that, he'll take your pants, your
shoes, your socks, and, as a final fuck-you, your jockey shorts."

The business community wasn't the only sector furious at Michael
Jackson. Jehovah's Witnesses were still upset about Thriller. They were as yet
unaware of the future accusations that would link Michael with molestation of
young boys. By February of 1987, Michael and the Jehovah's Witnesses had
had it with each other. Michael was deliberately promoting a self-styled
"bizarre" lifestyle, which the ultra-conservative church leaders found "repulsive," in the words of one of their elders. "In our church, men do not wear lipstick and enough makeup to look like a Saturday night whore," a spokesman
said. "Unlike his mother, Mr. Jackson is not a true Jehovah's Witness. His
lifestyle is not compatible with the teachings of our church."

William Van De Wall, speaking for the Watchtower Bible Society, said it
was Michael's wish to separate himself from the church. "For one violation
alone, he could have been disfellowshipped," Van De Wall claimed. "He
attended a birthday party for Elizabeth Taylor. Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays. This has been made perfectly clear to Mr. Jackson from the
beginning. He deliberately mocked our beliefs by attending the party for this
much-married and scandalous movie star."

According to the terms of the church, Katherine would go against church
policy if she ever spoke to her son once he was "disfellowshipped." Even so
devout a Jehovah's Witness as Katherine had no intention of obeying this rule.
She was riding around Los Angeles in a maroon-colored Rolls-Royce, a birthday gift from Michael, with whom she'd maintain a loving relationship long
after he withdrew from the church.

Freed from the heavy rules of his cult religion, one of the world's most intolerant and severe, Michael would increasingly pursue that self-proclaimed
"bizarre" lifestyle that he wanted. But he didn't spend all his time with cute
little boys locked away in darkened bedrooms. He actively added to his list of
friends a growing number of the most famous names in Hollywood, deciding
that Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor, and Katharine Hepburn, although good
for openers, weren't enough.

Even Robert De Niro showed up at Michael's for dinner. "Except for
Frank Sinatra, whom Michael detested, he loved all Italians, because of his
continuing fascination with the Mafia," Brando said. "Even though I'm not
Italian, I had made that movie-so I qualified. But Michael seemed to think
every Italian had a link to the mob, and this utterly thrilled him. He once told
me he loved his manager, Frank DiLeo, because of his Italian name. He even
entertained Martin Scorsese. Believe you me, Scorsese has no links to the
mob. The one entertainer who did have a link to the mob, that piece of wop
shit, Sinatra himself, turned Michael off and was never invited to one of his
Italian nights like I was. Of course, I'm sure Sinatra wouldn't have gone to
Michael's had he been invited. Oh, didn't I tell you? Ava Gardner once said I
was a much better lay than Sinatra. Apparently, at times he was impotent. My
noble tool has never failed me and never disappointed any woman. Or man,
for that matter."

As the 80s deepened, and work continued on his latest album, Bad, which
was delayed for months, Michael befriended the rich and famous. All of these
elite members of the "Old Guard" in Hollywood wanted to meet the most
famous entertainer in the world. In fact, Ronald Reagan one time called
Michael-not to give him another award-but to chat with him for about fifteen minutes.

When Brando heard that, he laughed. "Perhaps Reagan needed Michael's
advice on how to run the planet," Brando said facetiously. Brando could not
tolerate Reagan. "God knows someone sane should give Reagan some advice.
Bad actor. Bad president."

To Michael's doorstep came a host of stars, all odd couplings for Michael.
Gregory Peck. Charlton Heston. Sophia Loren. Cary Grant. "I think most of
them were driven by curiosity," Brando said. "Let's face it: all of us are in
show business. It's only natural for stars to want to meet fellow stars. Peck and
Heston didn't show up for the stimulating conversation. I love Michael dearly, although I never got around to fucking him. But, let's face it, at the table
he doesn't have much to say. But it's fun to watch him get through a dinner
giggling into his white-starched napkin. His maids must have a hard time getting rid of the lipstick smears."

When macho Charlton Heston came to dinner, Michael wanted to impress
"Moses" with his straight credentials. He told the preposterous story that at least once a week he retreated to Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion "where I
enjoy my own private harem."

Whether Heston fell for this is not known.

Heston may have been the most conservative A-list actor that Michael
would ever meet. His name had never been linked to any woman other than
his wife, Lydia Clarke, a former drama student.

Heston's advocacy of "two guns in every home" and his right-wing political conservatism did not open many doors to him in Hollywood. Michael may
not have been aware of Heston's political positions, although he was familiar
with some of Heston's films.

Michael had seen his 1968 Planet of the Apes five times. Heston once
said, "Nudity is never erotic, except in the bedroom." Yet he became the first
major American male film star to show his ass in a movie.

Heston himself admitted that he was "too dull, too square, and too
Protestant." As such, he fitted in with the public image that Michael promoted of himself. He still used the excuse that he was a virgin because his church
dictated no sex before marriage. Heston seemed to live by that rule too. "I'm
not a drunk," Heston told Michael, "and I've had only one wife. I don't cheat
on her, and my kids aren't runaways."

He seemed to like Michael, or at least the image that Michael was projecting of himself. Later, when Heston learned that Michael might be a molester
of young boys, he retreated in horror from his former friend. "I have never
been an advocate of the homosexual lifestyle," Heston said.

"No one ever accused me of being a champion of gay rights. Child
molestation is perhaps the most evil form of sex known on the planet. If
Jackson has been guilty of such crimes, he should be sentenced to prison for
life. Once in prison, he may learn the evils of molestation first hand."

Heston even lectured Michael on the "necessity" of keeping firearms in
the house. "It seems to me ethically questionable to expect a policeman earning $35,000 annually to risk his life to protect a citizen. We've got to protect
ourselves, turn our homes into armed camps if necessary. Even women should
be trained to use weapons." He offered to teach Michael how to shoot, and he
also invited Michael to his own home to see his gun collection. Michael never
accepted either offer.

Witty, urbane, and sophisticated, Gregory Peck was the very opposite of
Charlton Heston. Michael had little to say to Peck, but was seemingly fascinated by his long career and stories of the personalities he'd encountered.
With his deep, modulated voice, Peck could hold a listener Spellbound, the
name, of course, of one of his first movies, released in 1945. During the making of that film, he'd enjoyed a torrid affair with Ingrid Bergman.

He told Michael stories about his life that he'd never told an interviewer. "People talk about you wearing lipstick," Peck
said. "I did you one better. Once I was a tour guide
at Radio City in New York. As a gag, the manager
had me dress up in drag one night and come out as
one of the Rockettes."

Charlton Heston

Michael told him that he'd cried while
watching his 1962 performance in To Kill a
Mockingbird.

Peck thanked him for the compliment but
preferred to speak of movies that were never
made. "Two years before Mockingbird, I was cast
opposite Marilyn Monroe in Lets Make Love," he
said. "Believe it or not, I was cast in a singing and dancing role. Now don't
get fired up. My singing and dancing-have no fear-would not have offered
you any competition at all. I dropped out when Marilyn's hubby at the time,
Arthur Miller, downgraded my part and built up Marilyn's. Even so, Marilyn
and I really bonded. I saw she was self-destructing. I tried to save her. But
making love to a woman every day isn't necessarily the way to save her. She
told me that if I married her, we'd be the happiest couple on the planet.
Dreams, my friend, are sometimes better left as such and never translated into
reality."