Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (68 page)

Since he also paid the bills on the compound, he had that right. Only the
intervention of the matriarch of the family pleading with Michael kept
Jermaine from getting the boot. "Your brother's got no place to go," Katherine
pleaded. Eventually she won a reprieve for Jermaine. Michael visited
Hayvenhurst only rarely. When he did, Jermaine was ordered to keep out of
his sight.

"Word to the Badd" was released during the same week as "Black or
White," Michael's hit single. The two brothers battled on the public air waves,
with Michael emerging the victor, of course.

Appearing in London on the BBC, Jermaine attempted to explain why he
wrote a song so highly critical of his brother, an almost unprecedented event
in the music industry.

"I tried to put some phone calls to him and I didn't get a reply. It's a number of things but it's nothing that we couldn't have worked out had we spoken. But I wasn't granted an opportunity. The overall message is an older brother telling a younger brother to get back to reality."

Michael was irked at the snide comments made by both Jermaine and
Madonna. But he flew into a rage when he heard reports claiming he had an
"unnatural relationship" with Macaulay Culkin. He decided that a counterattack was needed to fight against press reports, some of which left the clear
suggestion that he was a pedophile, long before such accusations were officially charged.

Michael wanted his publicists to spread stories that he was having a series
of involvements with beautiful young women. Shoshana Hawley, a Las Vegas
showgirl, was singled out as a suitable "date" for Michael.

They were spotted four times attending a pageant at the Excalibur Hotel
in Las Vegas. One newspaper wrote a completely misleading story about
Hawley and Michael, headlining it, SPARKS FLY BETWEEN DANGEROUS DUDE AND CASINO CUTIE. There were even reports that Michael
and Hawley were spending days at a time in his hotel suite in Vegas.

The press got it all wrong. Michael was spending his nights in a sleepover
with Brett Barnes, a ten-year-old, good-looking boy from Australia, where
Wade Robson had originated. Brett, like Macaulay, was destined to become
one of Michael's all-time "special friends."

Only two years behind schedule, "Black or White" was the first single
released from Michael's upcoming album, Dangerous. On its first day of
release, Michael triumphed over Madonna playing on 96% of 237 of the
nation's Top Forty radio stations. With her "Like a Prayer," Madonna had set
a previous record of 94%.

Before Christmas of 1991, "Black or White" was the number one single
in the country on Billboards top Pop Singles Chart, making it the fastest rising single since The Beatles released "Let It Be." Through Christmas and into
the first of the year, 1992, "Black or White" held strong. In music history,
Michael became the first performer to have number one pop hits in the 1970s,
80s, and 90s. Before sales died down, Michael eventually sold one million
copies of "Black or White."

Production costs associated with the "Black or White" video rose to an
astonishing $7 million. Michael brought back John Landis who had done such
a brilliant job in directing the "Thriller" video. This time around, Michael and
Landis often bitterly disagreed on how to film the video. At one point, Michael
shut down production and retreated to his trailer, where he refused to come out
for the rest of the afternoon. Thanks partly to this extravagant diva behavior,
costs soared.

The eleven-minute video, or so the PR hype would have us believe, was
designed to promote racial harmony throughout the world. Michael appeared
in the video with Balinese dancers, American Indians, a tribesman from the Sudan, and Macaulay Culkin. Still enchanted with Macaulay, Michael had
cast the young boy in the video. The Home Alone star was one of a group of
children surrounding Michael.

Many of the fast-escalating costs of the video were associated with having Macaulay on the set. With Michael, he fired squirt guns and tossed waterfilled balloons at the crew. Tiring of that, the child star and Michael set off
stink bombs, testing the patience of Landis. As a further insult to the director,
he had to endure a custard pie in the face, a gift from Michael that was hurled
in imitation of a gag from the silent screen.

"We had to put up with unbelievable shit," said one of the crew members.
"It was disgusting. We could forgive this Home Alone kid. He was just a devilish imp. But Michael Jackson! What the hell! This silly little turd is pushing
forty and acting like an eight-year-old on drugs."

Another crew member claimed that Michael "was completely infatuated
with the boy and would let him do anything. When I got a lemon meringue pie
in my face, I wanted to plow my fist into both of them. But, then, I would
never work another day in Hollywood, and I have a wife and kids to support.
I find both Jackson and Culkin arrogant little pricks. They seemed to think
they own the world, and, I guess, at that point in their lives they did. We had
to take their shit and smile. Incidentally, I hate lemon meringue pie. If it'd
been chocolate fudge, I might have forgiven them."

When the video for "Black or White" was released, it is estimated that
some 550 million fans around the world saw it, watching in fascination as a
panther on screen was transformed, through a skilful use of computer graphics, into Michael.

In no previous video had Michael been so sexually explicit. He not only
caressed and grabbed at his crotch, but was seen zipping up his fly. Thousands
upon thousands of protests came in to the Fox network, which had exclusive
rights to air the video. Fans objected to both the blatant sex and also to the
depictions of crime and violence. Michael is seen smashing the windows of a
parked car and tossing the steering wheel through a shop window.

After meeting with Fox executives, Michael agreed to cut the last four
minutes of the "Black or White" video. He issued a statement to the press:

"It upsets me to think that Black or White' could influence any child or
adult to destructive behavior either sexual or violent. I've always tried to be
a good role model and therefore have made these changes to avoid any possibility of adversely affecting any individual's behavior. I deeply regret any pain
or hurt that the final segment of Black of White' has caused children, their
parents or other viewers. "

Controversy over the video launched a media blitz. One newspaper suggested that "Jackson has really gone insane with this one." The furor only
goaded the public's interest, which was a good omen for the eventual release
of the album, Dangerous.

Michael wasn't the only Jackson sibling generating comment in the press.
Stories were rampant that La Toya was writing a tell-all memoir and shopping
it to New York publishers.

La Toya, born in 1956, never obtained the fame as a singer that Michael
and Janet did. What resentment she has about that is best left to her private
thoughts. She'd had such minor achievements as hitting #17 on the Billboard
Singles Charts in 1980 with her recording of "If You Feel the Funk." The first
Jackson woman to have a solo career, she released her first album in 1980 and
went on to record six albums, four in the 90s. Her biggest hits were "You're
Gonna Get Rocked," "Heart Don't Lie," and "Bet'cha Gonna Need My
Lovin'."

La Toya didn't have the voice, the charisma, or the dancing skills of either
Michael or Janet, and her career eventually fizzled. Even abandoning Polydor
Records for RCA produced only lukewarm results among the record-buying
public.

As he worked on his own Dangerous album, and pursued his own diversions, Michael grew increasingly disturbed about what La Toya might write
about him in her memoirs. He'd already been embarrassed by the publication
of Katherine's book, even though his mother, predictably, was kind to him.
But he feared La Toya's recollections, especially if she printed stories about
his being molested as a child. For some reason, he seemed to dread this type
of revelation more than anything else she might tell a world audience. He
ordered John Branca, who was his attorney at the time, to write La Toya a letter, threatening a lawsuit if such revelations were made.

Dominated by her parents for years, La Toya was demonstrating independence for the first time in her life. Papa Joe himself had picked a shadowy
figure, Jack Gordon, to help manage La Toya's career. For four years, he'd run
a Nevada whorehouse. He'd also spent some time in prison.

Gordon had once tried to bribe Harry Reid during his tenure, in 1978, as
chairman of Nevada's Gaming Control Board. For $12,000, Gordon wanted
Reid to approve two new, carnival-like gaming devices for casino use. Reid
allowed the FBI to videotape the attempted bribe. At one point, as registered
on the videotape, Reid put his hands around Gordon's neck and said, "You son
of a bitch, you tried to bribe me." Gordon was subsequently arrested, convicted in federal court in 1979, and sentenced to six months in prison.

Reid eventually went on to greater glory, becoming the senior United
States Senator from Nevada and the Senate Majority Leader during the admin istration of "the second Bush."

In 1988, La Toya, to the surprise and horror of her family, fled from
Hayvenhurst with Gordon. In September of 1989, La Toya, age thirty-three,
married Gordon, provoking yet another violent reaction from her family. After
her marriage, La Toya telephone Katherine. "I've disowned you," La Toya
shouted into the phone. "All of you."

Hoping to make a fast buck, it was Gordon who was urging La Toya to
write the tell-all. Gordon claimed, accurately or not, that Michael called one
night to offer his sister $12 million if she'd drop plans to publish her memoirs.
La Toya has never confirmed that.

Gordon himself had once confronted Papa Joe and Katherine with a proposal. For $5 million, he claimed that he could get La Toya to stop writing.
Although Gordon may have exaggerated the millions, it is believed that there
were behind-the-scenes offers to get La Toya to dispense with her book.

In 1991 the respected writer, J. Randy Taraborrelli, was set to publish his
unauthorized biography, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness. The
author's literary agent, Bart Andrew, revealed to the media that agents on
Michael's behalf had offered $2 million not to publish the book. Taraborrelli
allegedly refused, claiming that he could not be bought off.

La Toya and Gordon found interest in her memoirs at Putnam. When he
heard this, Michael threatened to purchase the publishing firm for $85 million
and suppress the memoirs. It was the editors at Putnam themselves who turned
down La Toya's memoirs after reading the first draft-"not enough juice."
She eventually found a willing publisher at Dutton, which issued her memoirs
in 1991.

For her book, a gleeful La Toya was paid $500,000, and she could only
note that that was $200,000 more than Jackie Onassis at Doubleday had paid
for Moonwalk.

La Toya's memoirs hit The New York Times bestseller list and remained
there for several weeks, eventually selling more than one million copies.

Michael escaped condemnation in her memoirs, but La Toya didn't spare
either Papa Joe or Katherine. She wrote of her father's brutality not only to her
but to her brothers and sisters. She claimed that Joe once beat her and left her
bleeding on the bathroom floor of their Gary, Indiana, bungalow. She said that
her brothers just stepped over her when they wanted to use the bathroom, as
they feared getting involved.

At the last minute, La Toya pulled the plug on an allegation of sexual
abuse at the hands of her father, although in media interviews, she suggested
that she had been a victim of incest.

La Toya and Katherine had once been "best friends," but in her book, La
Toya turned on her mother, revealing her not as a kindly matriarch, but as a Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde. She went on to
assert that at one point her mother offered
her medication that she knew could kill her
if she took it.

La Toya's autobiography

One startling statement in La Toya's
memoirs, perhaps engineered to cause
maximum embarrassment to Katherine,
claimed that her mother said that "Hitler's
one mistake-he didn't kill all those Jews.
He left too many damn Jews on this earth,
and they multiplied."

The talk-show/tabloid circuit went
for La Toya big-time, as interviewers goaded her to reveal even more shocking allegations about her family than she already had
in print. She did detail the physical and
psychological abuse she and her eight brothers and sisters had endured at the
hands of Papa Joe. She even claimed that Joe and Katherine once tried to kidnap her and bring her back to Hayvenhurst to break her emotional involvement with her manager, Jack Gordon.

Like Michael, La Toya had been raised as a Jehovah's Witness. She asserted that the elders of the church had ordered Michael never to speak to her
again because she had "missed too many meetings." She found him sobbing
on Janet's bed. He couldn't go through with the harsh dictates of his cruel
church, and they maintained their friendship until Michael freed himself from
the dictates of this cult.