Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (66 page)

After writer John Hughes recommended that director Chris Columbus
cast Macaulay in his script, Home Alone, released in 1990, the rest is movie
history. The movie went on to earn $285 million in the U.S. alone, making it
one of the highest grossing movies in the history of the cinema.
Internationally, Home Alone would gross $550 million.

His next film, My Girl (1991), was another hit for Macaulay and featured
his very first screen kiss. In 1992 he filmed Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,
and it was another hit. In 1993 Macaulay earned $5 million for appearing in
The Good Son playing a murderous little demon. In contrast, his salary for the
first version of Home Alone was $100,000.

The child star's luck changed in 1994 when he turned 14 and appeared in
a series of duds, including The Pagemaster, Getting Even with Dad, and
Richie Rich. For the last two films, he was paid $8 million, the highest fee ever
for a child star. When the most famous child star of all time, Shirley Temple
Black, heard this, she said, "I worked for peanuts-perhaps a banana or twoin the 1930s."

After his early success, it was a long road downhill, although Macaulay
was considered for the male lead in Titanic in 1997. He lost the role, of course,
to Leonardo DiCaprio.

Macaulay and Michael, after they first met, bonded on the issue of show
business fathers. "Michael and I had an understanding about my difficulties
with my father. He knew what that was all about. He'd lived some of my shit
with his own father. It's not like I can just bump into people on the street and say, `Oh, you too!' It doesn't happen that often.
Michael's still a kid. I'm still a kid. We're both
going to be about eight years old forever in some
place because we never had a chance to be eight
when we actually were. That's the beautiful and
the cursed part of our lives."

A former stage and child actor, Christopher
(Kit) Culkin was his son's manager for a while.
There were many disagreements. At one point
Macaulay claimed that his father "was overbearing-very controlling."

Macaulay Culkin and MJ

When the cheeky ingenue with the impish
grin arrived at Neverland, Michael was captivated.

Macaulay found Neverland "a child's
dream-every kind of soda in the world there,
every kind of candy. A two-floor arcade, a carnival, and a movie theater. Neverland is still the
only place on earth where I feel absolutely, onehundred percent comfortable."

When not playing video games at Neverland, Macaulay and Michael were
often spotted at various California malls, shopping for toys. Their shopping
carts would overflow with talking robots, water blasters, and battery-powered
laser guns. On one occasion, Michael bought Macaulay a twelve-inch doll
bearing the likes of Kevin McCallister, the suburban imp the child star portrayed in Home Alone.

One salesclerk told the press that "the two giggled their way up the aisleokay for Culkin since he was only a kid, but a bit suspicious for a thirty-fouryear-old man."

At one of the shopping malls, both Michael and Macaulay were recognized. "I think Jackson became really jealous of the Culkin kid," said the
owner of a local store. "These girls were so young that Jackson seemed old
enough to be their father. They were screaming for Culkin like he was all four
Beatles in one little boy. Jackson stood by and watched the adulation of these
pre-teen fans. It must have brought back memories of when he was a child
star."

Michael's younger brother, Kieran Culkin, born in 1982, was also invited
for sleepovers at Neverland. Like Macaulay, Kieran was an actor, appearing
in the remake of Father of the Bride in 1991 and Nowhere to Run in 1993.
Kieran had made his debut playing Macaulay's cousin in the 1990 Home
Alone. He would later go on to bigger movies such as the The Cider House Rules, released in 1999.

"Kit" Culkin, Macaulay's father, maintained that no abuse of his children
ever took place during their visits to Neverland. He did, however, discover
Rory, Macaulay's two-year-old brother, sitting on the floor with Michael, both
drinking from baby bottles.

In June of 1991 Michael invited Macaulay and his parents for a vacation
in Bermuda, and they accepted. The most cynical members of the press hinted that the King of Pop and the beautiful blond-haired child actor were actually "on a honeymoon."

Macaulay and Michael stayed at the Hamilton Princess in the penthouse
suite, with the Culkin parents located in less spectacular digs on the sixth
floor. On the island, Michael and Macaulay played games, shopped, and went
swimming or diving. When devilish, they dropped water-filled balloons on
passing tourists seven floors below.

In Bermuda, Michael did not endear himself to the local populace. When
a taxi driver told him there were fewer than 60,000 people who lived on the
island, Michael shot back: "I draw more fans than that at one of my concerts."

At one point in their Bermuda vacation, Michael and Macaulay were seen
riding the waves in a speedboat. Their captain was H. Ross Perot, who maintained a lavish summer home on island. He'd failed in his bid for the presidency, losing to Bill Clinton.

In Bermuda, Macaulay told a journalist, "Michael is fantastic, he's not
weird."

Bored with the entertainment possibilities on Bermuda, Michael, on June
21, 1991, paid for the private performance of a musical to be presented at his
hotel for Macaulay and his parents.

After Bermuda, Macaulay and Michael flew to Disney World in Florida,
enjoying the amusements there for a few days before winging their way back
to Los Angeles in a private jet. The rest of
Michael's staff returned to California aboard conventional commercial flights..

Kieran Culkin

The intense bonding between the child star
and Michael continued. On August 26, Macaulay
arrived at Neverland to celebrate his 11th birthday.

So enchanted was Michael with Macaulay
that he couldn't wait for him to finish his location
shoot on the set of Home Alone 2. Michael flew to
Winnetka, Illinois, to visit with his special friend.

Reportedly, Michael was disappointed when
Macaulay told him he was marrying Rachel Miner
in June of 1998. Both the bride and groom were only seventeen, Michael predicted the marriage wouldn't last. And it didn't.
Rachel and Macaulay were divorced in August of 2000.

When Michael, by whatever means, became the father of "Prince Michael
I," he asked Macaulay to be the godfather of his infant son, and the former
child star eagerly accepted.

Once a picture materialized of Michael's first child, a baby with blond
hair and a cherubic face, bloggers went to work, claiming that Macaulay was
not only the godfather of Prince Michael I but had supplied the semen for the
artificial insemination. This report cannot be confirmed.

Michael reportedly urged Macaulay not to sign on for the role of a gay
club kid who kills a drug dealer in the edgy drama, Party Monster, released in
2003. The co-director of Party Monster, Fenton Bailey, said, "It doesn't matter how good Macaulay is in the film. The question is, Will people allow him
to re-invent himself after a time in the wilderness?" He was referring to
Macaulay's "retirement" from the screen. Apparently, the answer was no.
Millions of Home Alone fans stayed away from Party Monster.

Most of Michael's special friends ended their relationship with the superstar when one of them turned fourteen. Not so with Macaulay. The friendship
endured the turn of the millennium. "I love him," Macaulay once said. "He's
a good friend of mine. He's affectionate but he never touched me or interfered
with me."

Michael stood by Macaulay's side as the child actor suffered through
intense agoraphobia and panic attacks, which sometimes made it impossible
for him to leave his bedroom. From the first, Michael was sympathetic to
Macaulay's plights, as he too had suffered these same panic attacks. He
noticed that Macaulay fidgeted constantly. He'd run his hands through his
beautiful blond hair, and he was also in the habit of playing with the rubber
bands he frequently wore like bracelets on his wrists.

Like Michael, Macaulay had a horror of being recognized by fans who
still remembered him from his Home Alone days. To disguise his blond looks,
he sometimes dyed his hair a rainbow of shades. He
admitted to Michael that he frequently spent eight
hours a day in his bathroom, regarding it as a "sanctuary." He even installed a TV and DVD system
there to keep him amused. "It's a rather tortured
existence," he admitted.

Macaulay, all grown up.

To calm his nerves, Macaulay was taking the
anti-anxiety drug, Xanax, along with Clonazepam,
an addictive sedative used to treat chronic nervousness and seizures. These drugs, along with marijuana, were discovered in his car during his arrest in Oklahoma on September 17, 2005, on a
charge of speeding. When police discovered the pot and the medication
without prescriptions, he was arrested,
later pleading guilty to misdemeanor
drug charges.

At the time of Michael's child sex
trial in 2005, Macaulay had turned
twenty-four. Consistently, he admitted
having shared Michael's bed at
Neverland, but staunchly denied that
"anything untoward happened."

Staff members at Neverland contradicted Macaulay's defense of Michael.
Philippe LeMarque who served as majordomo at Neverland for about ten
months after the departure of Mark Quindoy, testified in court about Macaulay
and Michael.

On the stand, LeMarque claimed that Michael called him at two o'clock
one morning, demanding French fries for Macaulay and himself. When he
called security and asked the whereabouts of "Silver Fox" (Michael's code
name), a guard claimed he was in the video arcade. Entering from the more
obscure second door, LeMarque claimed that as he came in, "I saw Michael
groping the kid," meaning Macaulay. "He did not see me, so I stopped and
quietly tiptoed back and re-entered through the other door."

Adrian Marie McManus, a former maid at Neverland, also took the stand,
claiming that Michael groped Macaulay in a "smooch session" in the library
at Neverland. She told jurors that she spied Michael planting "his razor-thin
lips all over the young Home Alone star's face-and rubbing his hands on his
body. I was coming out of the bathroom by his bedroom where I was cleaning
up the area. I could see Mr. Jackson in the library. He was kissing him on his
cheek. His hand was by his leg at his rear end." She also testified that the child
star lived up to his reputation as a trouble maker.