by Donald Bogle
Nonetheless, Michael picked out a $200,000 necklace from the jeweler David Orgell in Los Angeles. She agreed to come. “I absolutely love the necklace, Michael. And of course I will come to your show,” she told him. The jeweler also provided Michael with a diamond watch—valued at almost $2 million—to wear on the show. Both Taylor and Brando no doubt also assumed the tab for their “expenses” would be paid by Michael’s record company.
In many respects, the concerts went off without a hitch. Among the performers and presenters were Whitney Houston; Beyoncé with the group Destiny’s Child; Justin Timberlake with the boy band *NSYNC; Liza Minnelli; Britney Spears; James Ingram; Gloria Estefan; Marc Anthony; Chris Tucker; Slash; Usher; and Samuel L. Jackson. Also on the bill were Michael’s brothers. In the audience, so the press release boasted, were “50 Legendary Ladies of the Silver Screen” that included Janet Leigh, Esther Williams, Debbie Reynolds, Margaret O’Brien, and Ann Miller.
But before the first evening of the concert, Michael’s drug problems nearly wrecked the show. Still in pain and heavily medicating himself, he may have fallen victim to a severe case of nerves just before the concert. At his hotel earlier in the day, Michael had locked himself in the bedroom of his suite. Now working as an assistant for Michael since 1990, the adult Frank Cascio broke in. He saw Michael lying in bed. “All at once I knew what had happened,” Cascio recalled, “and just like that, my naïve belief that Michael wouldn’t let his medicine interfere with the show blew up in my face. I can’t begin to describe my feeling of disappointment and panic.”
Cascio asked if one of Michael’s physicians had been there. “In a very slow voice, he said, ‘Yeah, Frank. I was in so much pain. I couldn’t do it.’ ”
Cascio said that never in the past had Michael taken medication before a performance. Was this a sign of future problems, perhaps even an emotional collapse? To revive Michael, Cascio got him to drink Gatorade and to take vitamin C pills. Finally, he was about ready to appear before the public.
Once Michael had his hair and makeup done, he rode with Elizabeth to Madison Square Garden. As the two exited the limousine, once again it was pandemonium with fans screaming and crying while photographers snapped pictures and cameras recorded their arrival. Though she sometimes appeared to have trouble walking, a blond Elizabeth, looking rested and slimmer, exuded the glamour she knew Michael thrived on. Michael cut a splashy figure, decked out in a silver-sequined jacket. Yet at times he looked disoriented.
But other problems arose. Wearing a dark suit and dark wraparound glasses, Brando opened the show, referring to himself as a “fat fuck,” then proceeded with a rambling, windy speech about humanitarianism, which led to boos from the audience. Britney Spears was reportedly in a panic about performing “The Way You Make Me Feel” with Michael, who had to reassure her that she would be fine. Whitney Houston, skeletal and drawn, led many to believe she was on drugs, which indeed she was; already there were murmurs she was headed for a bad end.
Onstage Michael performed as brilliantly as ever, without any sign of his earlier distress and disorientation. Once again, his rendition of “Billie Jean” stole the show. The second concert on September 10 went even better.
But the next day—September 11, when two planes crashed into New York’s World Trade Center—was terrifying. At the hotel, everyone was in a panic. All the bridges and tunnels into and out of the city were closed. Everyone feared America was under an ongoing terrorist attack. A story made the rounds that Michael gathered Elizabeth and Brando and managed to get them temporarily to New Jersey. Then the three took to the road—in a car they themselves drove! Along the way, Brando was said to have wanted to stop at every McDonald’s and Burger King that he saw. Such stops did not sit well with Elizabeth and Michael. It was a funny story—a warm fantasy about three of the greatest pop icons of the twentieth century off on a road trip through America. Of course, it wasn’t true. But in other respects, the fantasy trivialized the fears and sadness Elizabeth and Michael experienced in the aftermath of September 11.
Debbie Reynolds recalled the events before and immediately following the destruction of the World Trade Center. When Michael’s anniversary concert had first been announced, Reynolds, then in Los Angeles, contacted Elizabeth’s assistant Tim Mendelson to request a single ticket for herself. Seeing Elizabeth’s arrival at the concert that night, Reynolds had waved to her. Afterward, having loved the show and as dazzled as ever by Michael’s talents as well as those of the other performers, she returned to her midtown hotel. There Reynolds later learned of the terrorist plane crashes. A call came to her from Mendelson. Aware that Reynolds was in New York by herself, Elizabeth—ensconced in a huge suite at the Hotel Pierre—invited Reynolds to be a guest in her suite, rather than stay alone at her own hotel. Elizabeth’s children, who had also attended the concert, left the city before the tragedy struck. So there was plenty of room for Reynolds. Also staying in the suite were Mendelson and Elizabeth’s hair stylist and friend José Eber as well as Elizabeth’s masseur and his young daughter. Because Elizabeth was experiencing severe back pain, her physician was tending to her in the suite.
Reynolds recalled that Elizabeth was crying, saddened and shocked by the events as well as the mayhem. Everyone sat watching the television for information on exactly what was happening. There were reports of people jumping from the Twin Towers in desperation. They also were aware of the plane crashes at the Pentagon and on a field in Pennsylvania. Debbie was fearful of what the future might hold. It was a gathering of a stunned group. “Her French butler took very good care of us as we watched the TV in disbelief, all of us sitting and crying together. When it became too much, we’d go to our rooms and try to rest,” Reynolds recalled. There was nothing frivolous or fantastical about the time they spent together. Reynolds also informed Elizabeth that she was scheduled soon to appear at a sold-out performance outside San Diego. But there was no way she could get out of New York. To Reynolds’s surprise, Elizabeth told her she would call John—to see what could be done. John? Yes, it was Elizabeth’s former husband Senator John Warner. Arrangements were made for them to go to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey where a private plane carried them all back to the West Coast. It was a solemn journey. “As we flew over the crash site we saw the heartbreaking devastation below us,” Reynolds recalled.
• • •
Michael, his children, and their nanny Grace did indeed go to New Jersey. Through connections with the police department, Frank Cascio was able to secure permission to leave the city by the George Washington Bridge. They headed to his family’s home in New Jersey. As in earlier years, Michael once again found comfort with the Cascios. Later, Michael helped organize a special benefit concert for the victims of the September 11 attacks. Called United We Stand: What More Can I Give was held on October 21, 2001, at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. Michael performed along with such stars as Mariah Carey, Al Green, Destiny’s Child, Jennifer Lopez, *NSYNC, P. Diddy, Train, James Brown, Usher, Bette Midler, and the Backstreet Boys. Several days later, an edited version of the concert aired on ABC. But there was no mention of Jackson’s name. For his thirtieth anniversary show, he had signed a contract with CBS that prohibited him from appearing under his name in any other program at the time. Thus neither his rendition of “Man in the Mirror” nor of “What More Can I Give” (which he had written) was broadcast. Instead, he was only seen singing with other performers.
• • •
Michael had yet worse financial/legal problems, one of which led to a misunderstanding with Elizabeth that he feared might damage their friendship. The $2 million watch that jeweler David Orgell in Los Angeles had lent Michael for the performance at the anniversary concert had not been returned. Nor had Orgell been paid for the necklace that Michael had given Elizabeth. When a lawsuit was threatened, Cascio said that Michael decided to return everything. That included Elizabeth’s necklace. A call was made to Taylor by one of Michael’s lawyers, asking for the necklace. Apparently
, Taylor was enraged, not so much by the request for the return of the necklace, which she had indeed assumed was a gift, but that she was treated in such an impersonal way by one of Michael’s attorneys. Cascio said that “it bothered her that Michael hadn’t made the call himself.” She had the necklace returned, but she wouldn’t speak to Michael for months, said Cascio. This clearly distressed him. Later he wrote her an apology and asked to be forgiven. He blamed his handlers for the mix-up. In time, Elizabeth forgave him.
• • •
On February 9, Elizabeth and Michael drew crowds when they appeared at a joint fund raiser sponsored by the Laguna Art Museum and the AIDS Services Foundation Orange County. The event was “Art for AIDS, a Tribute to Rock Hudson.” Cochair of the event was dermatologist Arnold Klein. The first part of the evening was a $2,500-per-plate sit-down dinner in the art-filled home of Barbara Alexander Stiles and Thomas B. Stiles II. As with such other evenings, guests were fraught with anticipation—at the prospect of seeing Elizabeth and Michael. Everyone patiently waited—and waited—for the two to arrive. Once they finally entered the home and mingled with guests, Taylor’s friend Merv Griffin quipped: “Elizabeth, the party was last night.”
Shortly after the dinner, the crowd headed to the museum for a sold-out auction attended by hundreds. Praising her friend Rock Hudson, Elizabeth vowed: “I, for one, will never stop my personal fight against AIDS, and I ask the same of you.” The event raised $200,000. But otherwise it didn’t look like a good night for either Taylor or Jackson. Both appeared as if it had been an effort to pull themselves together. Dressed in a dark, military-style jacket and wearing a not very becoming hairpiece, Jackson looked wan, glassy-eyed, a bit disoriented. With her blond hair spiked to the max and with an overload of her famous jewels, Taylor looked pale and puffy. As so often was the case, she was putting up a brave front. Her chronic pain had become more intense.
• • •
On February 21, 2002, Michael became a father for the third time with the birth of his son Prince Michael Jackson II, called Blanket because it meant covering someone with great love. Again the question was raised about his child’s biological parents. For most it was a total mystery. The mother’s identity was never revealed. For others, Michael’s friend Miko Brando might be the father. About the only story that appeared certain was that immediately after Blanket’s birth, Michael wrapped the child, held him in his arms, and departed the hospital. Most likely the mother had been paid for her time and effort. Everything had been carried out with a secrecy worthy of Howard Hughes.
A little more than a month later—on March 16—Elizabeth and Michael made one of their last public appearances and one of their most discussed. Liza Minnelli was marrying Michael’s childhood friend, producer David Gest, at the Marble Collegiate Church in downtown New York. Elizabeth agreed to be one of Liza’s matrons of honor, while Michael was to be David’s co-best man along with his brother Tito. The whole star-filled event, extravagantly stage-managed by Gest, looked like an attempt to recapture the glamour of Hollywood past. Among the guests: Lauren Bacall, Mickey Rooney, Kirk Douglas, Joan Collins, Gina Lollobrigida, Mia Farrow, Lee Grant, Martha Stewart, Natalie Cole, Robert Wagner and his wife Jill St. John, Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne, columnists Liz Smith and Cindy Adams, along with about 842 close friends of Liza and David. Also present was Diana Ross. But the actual exchange of vows was over an hour behind schedule, not because of jitters of the bride- and groom-to-be but because of—one can imagine—Elizabeth.
“No surprise there,” recalled Robert Wagner, who had known her for years and once, as he said, had a “fling” with her. “Elizabeth was always—and I do mean always late.” Delayed leaving her hotel to get to the ceremony, she discovered, upon her arrival at the church, that she was wearing slippers, not her shoes. Someone had to rush back to her hotel to pick up the shoes. Meanwhile, guests were getting antsy.
“Unless she really, really liked you, Elizabeth was always late,” Wagner recalled. “And sometimes she was incredibly late even if she did like you.” Once Elizabeth’s assistant returned with the shoes, everyone assumed the proceedings would begin. But still there was no Elizabeth.
Where was she?
Finally, David Gest asked Michael to find her and see what the hold-up was. But then guests were left waiting for Elizabeth and Michael. Recalled Wagner: “Because I knew Elizabeth so well, I was finally deputized to get Michael away from her so the wedding could proceed.”
Walking past the bodyguard stationed outside the room where the two were ensconced, Wagner caught the sight of them during one of their rare moments of real privacy. “Elizabeth was sitting there, gazing at Michael. Michael was on his knees, gazing at Elizabeth. He was holding her hand. Nothing was being said. He was besotted with her; he was drinking her in.”
When Wagner told Michael that the wedding had to start, Michael seemed still too transfixed by Elizabeth to fully comprehend what Wagner said. “I want to be with Elizabeth,” Michael said. “I love Elizabeth.”
Said Wagner: “Talking to Michael when he was in one of his reveries was exactly like talking to a six-year-old waiting up for Santa Claus. You didn’t want to disabuse him of his fantasy, but you had to firmly lead him away from the Christmas tree so that the presents could be put out.”
Finally, the two came out of the room. But there was another delay, though minor, when Elizabeth walked on the wrong side of the church and then had to walk around to the correct side. “Since Elizabeth was fairly immobile and walked with difficulty—part of it was her back, part of it was the medication for her back, which always gave her a buzz—she had to be helped onto the altar,” recalled Wagner.
For many that day, it must have been sad to see her. She was heavy, looked pasty, and wore a small black hat with a rather strange black veil on it, looking like a relic from the 1940s. Michael also appeared waxy and again glassy-eyed. Neither seemed to be in the room. They had the appearance of being far, far away. Both also were in physical pain. Afterward, at the reception, Andy Williams and Gloria Gaynor sang. A toast was proposed by Michael to the couple. But Elizabeth had left.
Liza and David separated about a year and a half later. The real stars of the wedding had been Elizabeth and Michael. No one had been able not to gaze at the two. Recalling the delays, the shoes, the whole bizarre event, Lee Grant remembered looking over at Elizabeth at one point. “She and Michael were whispering to each other. They broke the mold, folks.”
But for Elizabeth and Michael, their fun-filled days at the racetrack, at the big benefits, at the receptions, at the awards shows, had really now come to an end. Trouble lay ahead for both of them.
Chapter 21
* * *
FOR MICHAEL, professional headaches and disappointments consumed him.
He drew criticism and mockery for his public outings with his children, who wore masks to hide their faces, their very identity. What few understood was that he wanted the children to have freedom from the burden of his fame. When not with him, the children and their nanny, Grace, did the typical things kids would do: go to stores, playgrounds, events, without masks. Generally, no one even knew who they were on those occasions. A public outcry—or perhaps more of a media one—shot up when Michael, showing his child Blanket to adoring fans, held the boy over a balcony in his hotel in Berlin. In his public appearances, Michael often looked more disoriented than ever.
His paranoia grew. Apparently, so did his use of drugs. Writer Stacy Brown recalled having been invited to Neverland with his family in 1997. Though they stayed there four days, not once did they see Michael. “But I’m sure he saw us,” said Brown. Guests at Neverland, according to Brown, had to sign waivers. In the end, Michael was free “to eavesdrop on telephone calls, video tape comings and goings, and spy on those on the grounds.” Even Elizabeth was said to have once stayed for three weeks at Neverland without seeing much of him. They had dinner only once.
His family attempted a drug interve
ntion “no less than a half-dozen times.” “Three months after the 2001 concerts, at a hotel in New York, Janet, Randy and others attempted to rid him of dependence,” said writer Brown. “Leave me alone, mind your business,” Jackson reportedly told them. “I’ll be dead in one year anyway.” Said Brown: “Michael had cut them off, one by one. He preferred to stay locked inside his rooms, watching the world through cameras.”
• • •
The disappointing sales of Invincible cemented the general worry that his glory days had ended and were a thing of the past. Those low sales also led to a public clash with Sony executive Tommy Mottola, whom Michael referred to as “the devil.” Michael felt strongly that Mottola had failed to do enough to push his album Invincible, despite the fact that Sony had spent an estimated $25 million in promotion. Michael lambasted Mottola when he spoke in Harlem at Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, a coalition that had been formed by Sharpton and Michael’s former attorney Johnnie Cochran. The coalition sought “to investigate whether artists are being financially exploited by record labels,” Billboard reported. “Michael Jackson, already feuding with his record company, charged Saturday that the recording industry was a racist conspiracy that turns profits at the expense of performers—particularly minority artists. ‘The recording companies really, really do conspire against the artists—they steal, they cheat, they do everything they can,’ Jackson said in a rare public appearance.”
