Elizabeth and Michael

by Donald Bogle

  Evan Chandler also tried to pitch his new screenplay to Michael. But nothing came of that. During Jordan’s visits to his father’s home, Michael was occasionally a guest. It was then that Evan Chandler—observing his son and the singer together and actually sharing a bed together—grew suspicious and questioned his former wife about the Jordan-Jackson friendship. She dismissed any ideas of inappropriate behavior. At one point, Evan reportedly confronted Jackson, asking if he was having sex with his son, which Michael denied. Rather than going to the police, Evan eventually consulted an attorney. Ultimately, rather than taking the case to criminal court, Evan wanted some kind of settlement worked out. What he reportedly wanted was a screenwriting deal from Jackson. Then his legal team wanted a $20 million settlement. That didn’t happen. An offer was made for $1 million, which Evan refused. Then Evan lowered the settlement to $15 million. Michael’s counteroffer was $350,000. It was then that both Evan and June, as the guardians of Jordan, a minor, decided to go to civil court with a lawsuit.

  Carrie Fisher recalled the night Evan came to her home and let her know that he and his ex-wife were suing Michael—because the pop star was sleeping in the same bed with his son. “I know for a fact that when this first started happening the good doctor saw no problem with this odd bunking!” Fisher never thought Michael’s relationship with kids was sexual. “Never. Granted, it was miles from appropriate, but just because it wasn’t normal doesn’t mean that it had to be perverse.” Fisher also believed that Michael was not sexual at all. She saw him as talented, childlike, and “pathologically kind, absolutely.” How could anyone, she asked, be stupid enough to have sex with kids he was hanging out with? “And Michael was not stupid.” Perhaps naïve. And now the prey for someone out for money.

  On September 14, 1993, a civil lawsuit was filed against Michael in the Superior Court of the State of California. Michael’s attorneys Howard Weitzman and Bert Fields said it was all a case of extortion. But they were faced with defending Michael against Jordan Chandler’s accusations.

  • • •

  By then in Singapore for the Dangerous tour, Michael could neither ignore nor evade the inevitable: that the allegations might lead to criminal charges. Hearing the news, his family defended and tried to rally round him. But the Jacksons were confronted with a wall that was around Michael, created by his staff, his publicists—or his “handlers” as the Jackson family referred to them—that prevented anyone from getting through to the superstar. “Katherine tried in vain to reach her son to tell him what he must have already known: that she supported him completely,” Maldonado recalled. “One person who did penetrate the security net was Elizabeth Taylor. Michael had telephoned her soon after the story broke and asked her to come and stand by his side. It was a familiar role for Elizabeth, who also had stood by her friend Rock Hudson as he told the world he was dying of AIDS. She wanted nothing other than to help a friend in need.”

  Michael asked Elizabeth to come to Singapore. From some accounts, he sounded as if he were at the breaking point. Elizabeth knew she had to make the trip. Certainly, her doctors would have advised her not to go. Having recovered from the near-fatal pneumonia that kept her hospitalized for weeks in 1990, she had been stricken in 1992 with that severe upper respiratory tract infection that had led to hospitalization again. Now she was about to embark on a twenty-hour flight that could cause more medical problems. There was always the issue of her back. But whatever medical advice was given was ignored. Before departing, she became the first of Michael’s friends to publicly support him—and unequivocally. “I totally believe 100% in Michael’s integrity. He’d rather cut his own wrist than harm a child. He worships children.”

  With husband Larry, Taylor endured the long flight, arrived in Singapore, and checked into the Raffles hotel, where Michael was staying. In her hotel suite, Taylor reportedly gave him a belated birthday dinner. They also went to the zoo together. “And we hung out and had our own private tour and had fun,” Michael recalled—without discussing the fact that emotionally he was in terrible shape.

  Word of Elizabeth’s arrival in Singapore would not please some members of the Jackson family. They felt no more comfortable with the presence of Elizabeth Taylor in his life than before.

  Shortly afterward, Taylor and Fortensky traveled with Michael to Taipei, Taiwan, where he performed on September 4–6. Jackson family members—which included Katherine, Joe, Rebbie, Jackie, Jermaine, and Randy—also traveled to Taipei. “When the Jacksons arrived, they stayed in the same hotel as Michael, Elizabeth Taylor, and her husband Larry Fortensky,” recalled Michael’s publicist Bob Jones, who was traveling with him. “Michael didn’t want his mother, Katherine, to come over, but she eventually did, along with Rebbie and Jermaine.”

  “Just what I need,” Michael was reported to have told Elizabeth when he learned of his family’s arrival. “Why do they have to come?”

  “They are your family, Michael. You must put up with them.”

  “My father, I can’t even stand to be in the same room with that man,” he said.

  “Neither can I, dear,” Elizabeth reportedly told him.

  According to Bob Jones, Katherine “was angry, too.” “Why does Elizabeth Taylor get to see him any time she wants, but I have to make an appointment to see him for five minutes,” she reportedly said. According to Bob Jones, she later commented: “I’m his mother, not Elizabeth Taylor.” Of course, her feelings were understandable. He would always be her son, and she wanted to comfort him.

  The fact that Michael had often spent so much time with Elizabeth appeared to gnaw at Katherine. The writer Stacy Brown, who knew the entire family for more than two decades, but who reportedly was never close to Michael, recalled that on visits to Neverland, Katherine “would decide where she’d have lunch or dinner depending upon whether or not Liz had ever used the spot.”

  “I’m not sitting where she sat,” Katherine was reported to have said, according to Brown. “She’s stolen my son away.” Brown said that Joe Jackson had similar feelings about Berry Gordy Jr. “Michael better realize, it’s my blood running through his veins. Mine and nobody else’s. I’m his father. Katie is his mother.”

  At one point, Brown said, Janet Jackson had been concerned about her family’s psychological well-being and paid for the family to undergo therapy. When they repeatedly complained about Michael, the therapist finally told them in essence to forget about Michael, their brother. “Michael is not your family in his mind. Elizabeth Taylor is his mom, and you guys should move on.”

  • • •

  “Michael’s handlers don’t want us to get to him,” Jermaine later said publicly about their time in Taipei. But it wasn’t that simple. By most accounts, Michael gave explicit instructions to his staff regarding his family. Almost always, Katherine was the only person he was willing to see whenever she wanted. But this situation was different.

  Michael still preferred the company of Elizabeth, who mothered him tirelessly, especially during a time of crisis such as the one during the Dangerous tour. Tormented by the child molestation allegations, he had stopped eating while in Taipei. But Elizabeth was insistent. “She took the spoon and opened my mouth and made me eat,” Michael recalled. She also had a sense of humor. When she tried to persuade him to eat a piece of cake, he refused. “Take it away,” he told her. Finally, she reportedly told him, “Michael, if you don’t eat this cake, I swear to God, I will call your family in here and let them have a go at you. And you know I’ll do it, too.” “Give me that goddamn cake,” he said. The two laughed.

  Finally, Michael saw his family.

  • • •

  What Michael may have tried to hide from his mother, which may explain why he didn’t want to see her, he could not hide from Elizabeth, who realized he was in terrible shape. “The Dangerous tour was doomed from the start,” said publicist Jones. “Michael was in no condition to do the shows, and drugs became an issue.” Taylor knew something had to be done to save him
from himself. Tour dates were canceled, and Elizabeth made arrangements for Michael to stay at her chalet in Switzerland. Traveling with him was the Cascio family. A story circulated that he underwent drug treatment while in Switzerland.

  But his stay in Switzerland was not long. On October 7, Jackson resumed the Dangerous tour, now scheduled for South America from late October to early November.

  • • •

  Once back in Los Angeles, Elizabeth took an active role in Michael’s defense. Several times a week, she held strategy meetings at her Bel Air home with Michael’s defense team, which included Michael’s attorneys Weitzman and Fields, his manager Sandy Gallin, and the well-known controversial private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who ultimately refused to attend the meetings with a “movie star.” Little did he realize that Elizabeth Taylor was not a mere movie star. Also involved in the defense strategy was a newcomer to the group: Lisa Marie Presley. For some time now, she and Michael had been quietly seeing each other, and it became apparent that theirs was a significant relationship for the King of Pop. Having first met years earlier in Las Vegas, when she was seven and Michael, still with the Jackson 5, was seventeen, they met again as adults at a dinner party in Los Angeles.

  Born in 1968 and heir to an estimated $150 million estate, Lisa Marie was famous as the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. Everyone agreed that she had her father’s sensual mouth—and sometimes that oddly seductive sullen stare. Known for being outspoken, hip, cool, confident, and sometimes bluntly honest—and described by a writer as being “reclusive and idiosyncratic”—she already had shown her marks as a rebel. She had quit high school. Then in 1988, she had married the rocker Danny Keough, with whom she later had two young children, a daughter and a son. (Their daughter, Riley Keough, would eventually go on to become an actress.) By this time, the marriage was in trouble and would soon end. Like Michael and Elizabeth, she also had ties with a nontraditional, actually controversial, religious organization. Hers was the Church of Scientology, which she joined as a teenager. Her mother was also a member. Lisa Marie had sometimes lived at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood. Through the years, she had also taken her children to the Scientology retreat in Clearwater, Florida. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever been involved in,” she once said.

  Now she was clearly becoming devoted to Michael, “showering him with notes, balloons, and gifts.” Said a Presley friend: “Lisa Marie wanted to help Michael with his life. She fell in love with him.”

  During strategy sessions for Michael’s defense, Elizabeth and Lisa Marie reportedly were at odds with each other. To some, Elizabeth appeared unwilling to share Michael. Perhaps Lisa Marie didn’t want to share him, either. But the women also had entirely different styles. Elizabeth evoked old-school Hollywood: always made-up; always coiffed; often dripping with plenty of bling—rings, bracelets, necklaces, dangling earrings; forever dramatic and aware of an audience. Lisa Marie looked like a rocker: hair that just hung, though casually styled on purpose; makeup, subtly applied to give her the look of not wearing makeup, although it, too, had its dramatic points; clothes that were casual, jeans and tank tops. Both women, however, were earthy and true to themselves. Neither really gave a damn what other people thought of them. Still, both women were convinced of Michael’s innocence and were eager to have the best defense team possible. Yet not enough progress was being made in Michael’s defense. A grand jury had heard testimony from members of Michael’s staff, especially damaging comments made by one of Michael’s maids who said she had seen the singer nude with naked boys. Another maid would later say that she left his employ after he made advances toward her seven-year-old son. The offices of two of Michael’s doctors, Arnold Klein and Steve Hoefflin, had been raided by the Los Angeles police. Medical records and files were taken. Dermatologist Klein had also been forced to testify.

  But something about the defense team itself made Michael look out of touch. Geri Branton, the wife of Leo Branton Jr., one of Los Angeles’s leading African American attorneys, always felt that it was Elizabeth who determined that Michael should have an African American on the team. Already too many stories circulated that Michael was denying his blackness, trying to wipe it out with his nose jobs and his skin lighteners. Surrounded by white lawyers, he looked all the more like someone living in a white bubble. That did neither his image nor his defense much good in the realm of public opinion. A decision was made to bring in the African American attorney Johnnie Cochran. Shrewd, sophisticated, highly intelligent, and blessed with street smarts, Cochran’s presence alone, aside from his astute legal logistics, helped Michael’s case. (Taylor also apparently wanted to bring in her tough-minded attorney Neil Papiano, but that idea was scratched.)

  “Every day seemed to bring new drama, none more unexpected than the surprise incident that occurred on November 8, 1993, while the family was in Phoenix, Arizona, for the funeral of Joseph’s father,” recalled Margaret Maldonado. “Without warning, the gates were opened and sixteen undercover police officers stormed the Hayvenhurst house, armed with a search warrant. They went to work sifting through drawers, closets, and cupboards, but concentrated their search in Michael’s room.” Maldonado added: “The men proceeded to tear through his belongings, which Katherine had carefully preserved exactly as Michael had left the room.” Upon learning of the police search, “Katherine was in a rage.” Boxes of items were now in the possession of the police. On November 11, the New York Post reported that Taylor was in a crisis session talking with Michael on the phone.

  According to writer Maureen Orth, a panicky Jackson called a friend in the States on November 18. “I’m never coming back. All my money is being taken over here. We’re cleaning out all my assets, my accounts. I’m selling all my holdings. . . . My lawyers are going to get me out of it. It’s nothing but scandal. They want my money. . . . I wake up every day and think I’m in hell. I don’t even want to be alive. . . . I can’t come back and face that. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.” According to Maldonado: “Michael heard about the search while he was in Mexico. He reacted with what the media described as a breakdown that sent Elizabeth Taylor back to his side.”

  • • •

  Uppermost in Elizabeth’s mind—and in the minds of others—was Michael’s drug problems. His use of prescription drugs—of antianxiety medication, of high-powered pain mediation—was out of control, which Elizabeth well understood. She herself still relied on painkillers. But Taylor had learned to manage the addiction to painkillers without being overwhelmed by them, although actor Robert Wagner said that when he saw Elizabeth, she often enough had a “buzz,” due to the medication he believed she was on. For Michael, it was quite different. He had not grown up living with constant pain, as Elizabeth had. Having undergone additional surgery on his scalp some months earlier, he was frantic for relief. Complicating Michael’s use of prescription drugs was treatment for a new condition with which he had been diagnosed—lupus—of which the public was not yet aware. By then, he was using medication for his depression.

  The decision was made that Michael needed to go into rehab, and probably the only person who could convince him to do so was Elizabeth. Once again, she took a medically ill-advised flight to be by his side in Mexico City. Also on the flight were her husband Larry Fortensky and Michael’s attorneys. “I thought Michael was fine,” said Frank Cascio, who was traveling with Michael, “until, before one of the concerts in Mexico City, Elizabeth Taylor suddenly showed up.”

  In Mexico, an argument broke out between Bert Fields and Michael’s longstanding security man Bill Bray, who felt the attorneys weren’t handling the case properly and that Michael might end up in jail. Elizabeth sided with Bray.

  “You need to get out there and start deposing these people. They are liars all over the place, and they need to be revealed for who they are . . . all these housekeepers and maids and butlers,” Elizabeth said. Then she told Michael: “I know good help is hard to find, Michael, but where did you fin
d these people? Look at how they turned on you.”

  “What am I going to do?” an obviously distraught Michael asked.

  “We’re fighting, Michael,” she told him, “but it’s because we love you.”

  Elizabeth persuaded Michael—after completing his Mexico concerts—to undergo treatment at the well-known Nightingale Hospital in England. “On November 12, we learned that Michael had canceled the remainder of his Dangerous tour because of an addiction to painkillers,” recalled Maldonado. Later Jackson was sued by a promoter for $20 million. The suit stated that “Jackson fraudulently concealed his drug addiction and that the police were investigating charges he sexually molested a 13-year-old boy.” It also alleged that “the singer only performed 24 dates of a 43-date schedule for which he had already been paid a $900,000 fee.” “Even when he performed,” the promoter stated,” Jackson wasn’t Jackson. The singer was so preoccupied with his problems that he often had long pauses in between songs and disappeared from the stage for long periods of time.”

  Getting Jackson to the Nightingale Hospital was an ordeal. Once the flight touched ground in England, everything had to be done rapidly. The last thing anyone wanted was for the media to learn what was happening. Customs and immigration officials apparently checked documents on board. Two rented mini-buses stood on the tarmac, ready for the passengers, which included Taylor, Fortensky, and Michael’s physician David Forecast. Bodyguard Steve Tarling was assigned to quickly get Jackson off the flight and into a mini-bus. “He was sitting alone and seemed to be asleep. A red tartan blanket was wrapped over his legs and a black hat was titled over his eyes,” recalled Tarling. “Michael, you have to get off now,” Elizabeth said as she shook him awake. But it wasn’t easy.