Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (45 page)

"I can arrange that," she promised. She confessed that she'd been less successful in pursuing other celebrities. "I even went to your rival, Prince, and
tried to get him to write a memoir. He turned me down. There have been other
rejections. Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Ted Turner, Brigitte
Bardot, Barbra Streisand, Barbara Walters, Rudolf Nureyev."

"I've heard of some of these people, but some of those celebs are too
obscure," he said. "Their biographies won't sell."

She concealed her astonishment.

Jackie amused friends with her description of Hayvenhurst. "It's La La
Land," she claimed, "with a damn chimpanzee running amuck. Jack would
have hated it, and Ari would have called in moving vans to cart off every
tasteless stick. I haven't seen such kitsch since I saw photographs of Mrs.
Khrushchev's home. Animals in cages. Tacky awards and trophies. Jackson
family pictures. Furniture that only a demented queen could have purchased.
It wasn't even nouveau riche, not even `Jewish Renaissance,' but artifacts
from the Land of Oz. Let me put it this way: Michael decorates like he selects
his wardrobe."

In the months ahead, Jackie, from her publishing base in New York, listened to Michael's endless demands and insecurities about the project. She
also read one disappointing chapter after another. Finally, in despair, she told
her staff, "Dealing with the mercurial Mr. Jackson is like being in a train wreck-worse, an airplane crash."

Prince may have turned down Jackie's
offer to write his memoirs, but he accepted
an invitation to visit Hayvenhurst. Perhaps
curiosity propelled him to Encino, not the
prospect of any friendship with his rival,
Michael. Privately, he'd ridiculed Michael
and was flabbergasted at his phenomenal
success. Michael was equally jealous of
Prince.

Prince

Michael poured out his frustrations
over Prince to his attorney, John Branca.
"Prince is darkly sexual, a man of mystery,"
Michael said. "Sinister even. In spite of that
`Thriller' video, I'm still known as Goody
Two-Shoes. Squeaky clean. Why don't
fans regard me as sexually dangerous?"

Branca reportedly did not have an answer for that.

Michael became upset when he learned that Branca's firm was also representing Prince. "There can be only one King of Pop," he warned. "I don't
believe in sharing the throne."

The press constantly linked the two bizarre young megastars, and many
music fans gravitated into either pro-Michael or pro-Prince cults. But whereas Prince was by reputation known as a sexy womanizer, Michael had to keep
on fighting gay rumors.

"I don't understand it," Michael said. "He's very effeminate. He wears
lots of makeup. His dress isn't macho. Far more girlie than my own clothing.
But he's called a stud. How could he be? He's only a midget."

During the summer of 1984, Purple Rain, recorded by Prince and topping
the charts, was even more successful than the Victory album. Reportedly
Michael was so jealous of Prince that he'd go into a rage at the mention of his
name. Dozens of people heard him making uncharitable remarks about the
performer. "He's a copycat," was only one of Michael's charges. "He's ripping
me off!"

Purple Rain made Prince a megastar, selling more than ten million copies
in the U.S. alone and resting comfortably for 24 weeks as number one on
Billboard's charts. Critic Gabe Fowlkes said, "Catapulting off the Purple Rain
soundtrack, Prince combined dance beats with powerful guitar riffs to create
music that even Nancy Reagan could bust a move to. And unlike Michael
Jackson, Prince does not sing as if he's been castrated."

Later, Michael was heard telling people "how weird" Prince was, little realizing that he would one day be known as WACKO JACKO. "I don't like
anything about him. He can't sing, and there's an awful aura about him-a bit
creepy."

The one thing that Michael especially resented was the film, Purple Rain.
Prince had succeeded in the movies where Michael had failed with The Wiz.

Michael was seen slipping into a private screening of Purple Rain at
Warner Brothers. Before the lights went on, he'd left the screening room and
headed for his waiting limousine. He could only bite his lip in frustration as
he watched Purple Rain with Prince become the "sleeper" of the summer.
Prince had a hit movie, an achievement denied Michael. His jealousy was
aggravated when the film won an Oscar for best score.

Later, when Michael was quizzed about the movie, he said, "I've already
told you. Prince can't sing. Now I know he can't act. I acted in the role of the
Scarecrow in The Wiz. That was real acting, not something you are likely to
see in Purple Rain."

Michael told Quincy Jones that he found Prince's music offensive, "vulgar in the extreme. Imagine writing a song about mutual masturbation." He
was referring to "Jack U Off' in Prince's Controversy album, released in
1981.

Down the road, Michael would not concern himself with Prince as much
as with two new rivals who had emerged on the scene-notably Janet, his sister, and the outspoken Madonna.

At the door to Hayvenhurst, the five-foot-tall Prince presented himself to
the Jacksons-in this case Michael was joined not only by La Toya but young
Janet. Prince had not come to admire Michael, which he didn't do at all, but
to try to learn "what makes the dude tick." Prince would not learn anything,
as Michael remained almost silent for the entire evening, observing Prince
with great skepticism. In lieu of confronting such a rude host, Prince turned
his attentions almost entirely to La Toya, hoping-but failing-to seduce her.

Prince promised La Toya "a trip to Paradise!" She wasn't interested.
Later, she asked her brother, "What did the little creep think? That I was some
Saturday night whore hot to trot?"

Michael finally managed to speak when he showed Prince to the door
after a disastrous evening. "Good night," he said in his whispery voice.

One of Prince's bodyguards came inside and presented him with a package, which he then gave to Michael. It was some twigs and leaves from a
sycamore tree along with some metal charms and the tail feathers of a peacock. There was also a tape. Prince told Michael to play the tape backwards.

As the door closed on Prince, Janet came up to stand beside her brother.
In her best Mae West impersonation, she said, "I chew little sausages like that
for breakfast."

Upstairs in his bedroom, Michael played the tape. "It sounded satanic," he
told Frank DiLeo in a late-night phone call. "I think it's voodoo. Prince has
put a hex on me. I'm sure he's a warlock."

"Now, now, Michael, it'll be okay," DiLeo assured him. He also reminded Michael that thousands of people had accused him of being a warlock after
Thriller was released.

"That's different," Michael said, dismissing such charges. "I think
Prince's gift came directly from the Devil himself. I want you to round up
someone to break the spell tonight-perhaps somebody from Haiti. Prince's
hex on me has got to be lifted. Otherwise, my career will be destroyed."

DiLeo said he would, then turned off the light and went back to sleep. The
next morning Michael had completely forgotten about his instructions to his
manager.

A year later, Prince and Michael were set to record a duet for the We Are
the World album. But Prince didn't show up. Michael was furious until he was
reminded that he once stood up a person far bigger than Prince, Jackie Onassis
herself. Michael didn't have an immediate response for that.

When asked why he didn't show up, Prince told his associates, "The guy
is silly, a wimp."

Does Michael deserve credit for converting Prince to the Jehovah's
Witness far-right cult? Prince himself claimed that it wasn't Michael, but his
mother's dying wish that he convert to the controversial religion that rejects
everything from blood transfusions to the occult.

Following in the footsteps of the former "King of Pop," Michael himself,
Prince now proselytizes door to door trying to convert unsuspecting innocents
to the draconian world of Jehovah's Witnesses.

"Michael Jackson got the boot from us," said one of the Jehovah's
Witnesses-and Prince may be next." She noted a report about Prince in the
London Mirror that the "androgynous performer promotes Jehovah's
Witnesses in Minneapolis, wearing his trademark mascara and dressed in a
tailor-made suit with stack heels. He arrives at doorsteps in a limousine surrounded by four bodyguards."

The last known comment Michael made about Prince was, "He's a cherry moon with too much mascara." Michael was no doubt referring to Prince's
1986 film, Under the Cherry Moon.

During their visits to Hayvenhurst, neither Jackie nor Prince had been
impressed with the chimp, "Bubbles."

"But he had become the love of Michael's life," according to a former
staff member at Encino who didn't want to be named. She didn't like the
chimp either, especially when she had to round up his dirty diapers. Michael
always insisted on changing Bubbles' diapers himself.

"I was fired for no apparent reason," she said. "Maybe I saw too much."
She didn't reveal what "too much" meant.

Michael rescued the chimp, "Bubbles," from a cancer laboratory where he
was about to be used for medical experiments-or he didn't, depending on
which story or which sources you want to believe. Whether he faced certain
death or not, Bubbles was brought to Hayvenhurst, where he became the most
pampered chimp in history.

The Star introduced Michael and Bubbles to the world under the headline:
MICHAEL JACKSON GOES APE. NOW HE'S TALKING WITH HIS PET
CHIMP-IN MONKEY LANGUAGE. Other supermarket tabloids filed even
more bizarre stories. The National Enquirer claimed that Prince was using
ESP and mental telepathy to drive Bubbles insane.

Michael obsessed over the baby chimp, even dining with him at table or
throwing occasional "Alice in Wonderland" tea parties for him. "He came to
regard the chimp as a human being," said Bob Michaelson, who visited
Hayvenhurst on several occasions. The chimp knew benefits no other monkey
had ever known: Limousine rides, his own hotel suite during road trips with
Michael, even a personal bodyguard. Two dozen sets of Michael/Bubbles
matching outfits were designed. Bubbles was perhaps the only chimp in the
world associated with a custom-made tuxedo.

As the years went by, and as Bubbles matured, Michael grew bored with
the chimp, the same way he did with young boys as they aged. Bubbles had
also gotten hard to manage, once jumping up on the bed and landing in
Michael's face after he'd had another nose job.

Eventually, Michael would adopt two additional, and younger, baby
chimps, Max and Alex. Bubbles had designer clothes named after him, even a
line of toys. But eventually, he was sent away in disgrace from Hayvenhurst,
and ended up sharing a cage with two dozen other chimps, his days of glory
behind him.

On March 3, 2005, columnists for The New York Daily News startled readers with a gossipy item, JACKO AND CHIMP TALE: IT GETS HAIRY.
Uncovered was a 1993 interview that James DeBarge, former husband of
Janet, gave to a police informant in Britain back in 1993. Revelations were
subsequently published in Britain's Daily Star.

"The sex charges against Michael Jackson grow more bestial by the day,"
a columnist wrote. "Just when you thought the King of Pop's reputation couldn't sink any lower, it turns out Jackson's former brother-in-law, James
DeBarge, has claimed the singer was up to some inappropriate monkey business with his chimp, Bubbles."

"He was changing Bubbles' diapers and just got carried away," DeBarge
claimed in the 1993 interview. When Bubbles dropped out of sight, rumors were spread at the time that Papa Joe shot the
chimp after he caught him in bed with his son, but
this gossip was not true.

Miko Brando

The allegations brought an avalanche of letters to the newspaper and postings on the web.
One reader facetiously wrote, "Parents of young
boys who live near Michael's Neverland Ranch
thank Bubbles for the sacrifices he made so that
their sons could have a night or two off." Another
reader jokingly asked, "Is anyone old enough to
remember the old song, "I'm Forever Blowing
Bubbles?" Many readers wrote in with outrage:
"It's blatantly obvious that he is mentally ill. Padded cell, straitjacket, throw
away the key."