Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (88 page)

Had only one such letter arrived, it would have been ignored. But hundreds of letters had to be reckoned with. Some of Michael's aides set out to
discover what the fuss was about and came up with the startling news that a
young Swedish girl, Lisa Johansen, was filing claims that she was the real
daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley.

Not only that, she was detailing her story within an autobiography, I, Lisa
Marie: The True Story of Elvis Presley's Real Daughter. Her so-called memoirs would eventually be published in 1998 in China. Perhaps fearing legal
action from the Presley empire, copies were published underground but surreptitiously sold in the United States and Britain.

In her tome, Lisa Johansen makes it rather clear that the real Lisa Marie
Presley would not have married Michael Jackson.

According to Johansen, after the untimely death of Elvis when she was
nine years old, the aspirant Lisa Marie was "whisked from an idyllic life in
America to the obscurity of a comfortable exile in Scandinavia." She claimed
that family members arranged this exile for her own safety, because there had
been reports of kidnapping attempts. In Sweden, she lived with a kindly family and assumed a new identity as Lisa Johansen. According to instructions,
recited to her at Graceland, she was to live in Sweden until she came of age
and could take her "rightful place as the sole heir of a huge estate."

After reaching maturity, the Lisa living in Sweden attempted to reach
across the Atlantic to Tennessee to claim her legacy as Elvis's daughter. She
naively states in her book that she expected to be received by "a loving mother and friends eagerly awaiting her return to Graceland."

It took no prophet to predict that such would not be the case. Lisa claimed
that at every turn she was blocked by "powerful and sinister forces." Along
the way, the Lisa living in Sweden reported that she had been shocked when
pictures "began to appear of an imposter, a young woman claiming to be Lisa
Marie."

"Her public high jinks and questionable antics, and a circus-like marriage
to controversial entertainment legend and paparazzi favorite, Michael
Jackson, led millions of loyal fans of the late Elvis to question whether this
person could be his real daughter," she said.

It is not known if Lisa Johansen has ever submitted to a DNA test to prove
that she is actually Elvis's biological daughter. The young woman's odyssey
to reclaim what she views as "my estate" has taken her into the courts and even to Graceland. Once there, she charged that representatives at Graceland,
including Priscilla, had tried "to vacuum up every photograph depicting me
with my father."

In one of her more blatant accusations, she charged that as a young girl
she had been forced to submit to plastic surgery, a procedure that left "scars
behind my ears. No one had cut off my fingers; but instead, they surgically
altered and disfigured me, to keep me from being identified."

Reportedly, the Lisa Marie in Sweden continues to fight to this day to
reclaim what she feels is rightfully hers. She concludes, "It is really not important what has gone before, and no matter what else happens in the future, I am
who I am. I am the real Lisa Marie."

Michael Jackson and Elvis's daughter remained hot copy in the tabloids
for months, as former staff members came forward to reveal behind-thescenes insights into the marriage. A former maid, Adrian McManus, even testified that she used a media broker to sell stories to the tabloids, including one
which claimed inside knowledge of the star's sex life, or lack thereof, with
Lisa Marie. Several staff members said Michael and his bride never slept in
the same room, alleging that intercourse was not part of this marriage.
McManus maintained that she never saw Lisa Marie enter her husband's bedroom.

Maids reported that Michael often left out expensive lingerie in his bedroom to make it appear that he was sleeping with Lisa Marie. It was also
alleged that he'd bugged her bedroom and monitored her phone calls, the way
his role model, Howard Hughes, used to do with Ava Gardner.

Another maid at Neverland said, "I have no doubt that Michael was still a
virgin-at least with women-on the day he married Lisa Marie Presley. I am
firmly convinced that he remained a virgin throughout his short marriage to
her. I don't think they ever touched, except for one big kiss at a public event."

The marriage became fodder for late-night comedians. Jay Leno proclaimed that Michael and Lisa Marie stopped off in Austria after a trip to
Budapest. With a smirk, Leno said, "Lisa Marie bought Michael a beautiful,
beautiful wedding gift-the Vienna Boys' Choir."

An army of other sources-named or unnamed-could probably be summoned to claim that Michael never had sex with Lisa Marie during their entire
marriage. The obvious conclusion is that no one really knows for sureexcept Lisa Marie and Michael. But whatever evidence there is suggests that
even though Lisa Marie may have been momentarily infatuated with Michael,
sexual play wasn't part of the equation.

"His new bride inherited the famous Presley lip curl," said journalist Peter
Godsend. "Perhaps when Michael kisses his new bride, if he ever does, he fantasizes that he's kissing a young and handsome Elvis before the bloat."

Unlike most of his extended family, whom he could control financially,
Michael could not dominate Lisa Marie by tightening the purse strings. In
time, she would have far more money than he did.

To make himself appear wealthier in front of his new bride, Michael had
his publicists exaggerate the terms of his contracts. For example, one-million
dollars on paper became fifteen or twenty million dollars when reported in the
press.

If reports are to be believed, Michael might not have wanted Lisa Marie,
but he wanted to adopt her children, Danielle Riley and Benjamin. It is alleged
that he offered their father, Danny Keough, $1 million if he'd allow Michael
to adopt the children, but the offer was rejected.

In fact, Danielle Riley didn't want Michael to adopt her. Shortly after she
met him for the first time, she ran away, screaming. She later told Lisa Marie,
"He's weird, mother. You warned me about men like him. You said they'd
offer me candy to go with them. The first time I met Michael, he offered me
candy. Just like you said."

Michael resented Lisa Marie driving over to Encino without him to introduce herself to her in-laws at the Jackson compound. Lisa Marie became
friends with Rebbie, the older sister, and also bonded with Janet. Michael told
his staff that he didn't want Lisa Marie associating with her in-laws.

She and Michael couldn't agree on much, including food. Like her father,
Lisa Marie preferred such soul food as collard greens in bacon fat, corn bread,
Southern fried chicken, and sweet potato pie. Apparently, Michael preferred
not to be reminded of his own humble origins, preferring a plate of steamed
fresh organic vegetables from his own gardens at the ranch.

In one of their talks, according to a friend of Lisa Marie,
Michael told her that "the ghost
of Elvis haunts me. He's a white
person with a black person's
voice. I want to make films like
he did-only good films, not bad
films like he did. But I won't play
Vegas. I'm offered millions but I
won't perform in his old stamping ground. I'm bigger than Elvis.
That's why I can't perform in
Vegas."

Lisa Johansen: the
real Lisa Marie Presley?

On another occasion, he told
his wife, "Nobody in the music
business understands me because I'm a genius. At least thousands of
my fans understand that. But the
people who control the industry
don't give me my due because I'm
black. So I decided to become white
to get my due."

Lisa Johansen, in a photo
montage, trying to prove her
status as the daughter of Elvis Presley

Their first official appearance as
man and wife came on September 8,
1994 at New York's Radio City
Music Hall on the occasion of the
11th Annual MTV Video Music
Awards. Before the world, Michael
said, "Just think, nobody thought
this would last." Then he grabbed
Lisa Marie and gave her a lingering
kiss in front of 250 million viewers
on television. The next morning,
one headline proclaimed: LIPLOCK PROVES MICHAEL JACKSON STRAIGHT SHOOTER.

An authority on body language, Maxine Fiel, claimed that it was "the performance of a lifetime." However, Fiel felt that Lisa Marie pursed her lips
"like you do when you kiss your uncle, not your husband."

Lisa Marie had her own reaction. Before the applause died down, she
walked off the stage and was seen wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
She later said, "I thought the kiss was stupid. I hated it. I felt used. All of a
sudden, I've become part of a public relations campaign for Michael. What am
I? Just some prop?"

From all reports, she felt that she'd been "callously used" to help her husband's seriously damaged public image. Her belief that she was being used for
promotional purposes was soon reinforced. "It would be `come and meet me
here,' and when I turned up there would be photographers everywhere."

Soon after, Michael asked Lisa Marie to join him in a video, entitled "You
Are Not Alone" in which it would appear that Michael was genuinely attracted to women.

Within it appeared a provocative semi-nude scene of the two of them
within a pink-and-lavender landscape inspired by the 1920s illustrator
Maxfield Parrish. There have been many published reports that Michael
showed his genitals in this video and that, prior to its release, a computer
process blurred his privates.

That report was probably untrue. "There's no way that Michael's going
to show his dick," said an employee of MTV who saw the original video. "He's spent a few million trying to get those nude pictures of himself returned
from the Santa Barbara DA's safe to Neverland. He's never going to show the
full monty to the world. Who do you think he is? Richard Gere?"

Eventually, writers Sean Kelly and Chris Kelly released a satirical parody
of the Jackson/Presley union, entitled HERstory. Referring to them as "The
Oz Couple," and configured as a faux diary that had supposedly been penned
by Lisa Marie, it asked "How could a simple country girl hope to find happiness as the wife of a wealthy and talented extraterrestrial?"

Within the context of this so-called "diary," the Kellys have Lisa Marie
writing:

Dear Diary,

I had an early call and we were on the set all day shooting the video for
a song, You Are Not Alone. 'Here's a Polaroid." (Running immediately adjacent to the "diary entry" is a picture of the Jacksons semi-nude.) The contrived
"diary" entry continues: Its supposed to be real and all so both of us were
actually NAKED for hours rolling around on this bed in front of the cameras
under these lights which made me hot in more ways than one (get it?).
Although he was careful that I never got a real look at his famous Spotted
Thing, I actually thought we might end up doing `it.'
But at six o'clock Michael said cut, and I got up and
put on my clothes and left.

The famous kiss