Part 36 (1/2)

'It looked awkward because I wanted out of my skin,' Lisa said, years later. 'I hated it. I felt used, like a prop,' she said. 'It was awful.'

'Afterward, they had a huge fight about it,' said Monica Pastelle. 'Her whole thing was, ”I told you no, and you just disregarded it.” But Michael thought it was great, a showstopper. He was all about the show, you know? What could they do that would cause headlines? That's where his head was at. ”But people will be talking about that kiss for decades,” he said. ”Don't you see? They're gonna run that clip over and over.” Lisa was p.i.s.sed off for days. ”Don't you f.u.c.king even come near near me,” she told him.' me,” she told him.'

That same week, Michael became annoyed by newspaper reports that suggested that if Elvis Presley were alive, he would not approve of the marriage. 'I think we need to find out,' he said. He suggested that he and Lisa have a seance to contact the King. He was serious. He told Lisa he had friends who could communicate with the deceased, and that they could make it possible for him and Lisa to talk to Elvis and ask his opinion of the union. Lisa thought the idea was tasteless. When Michael continued to push it, she lashed out at him. 'I said no,' she told him, angrily, 'and if you stay on this particular road, they're gonna need a medium to contact you you in the great beyond, because I'm about to put you there, right now,' Michael never mentioned the idea, again. 'Jeez, it was just a suggestion,' he said, later. 'Can't a guy even have a suggestion?' in the great beyond, because I'm about to put you there, right now,' Michael never mentioned the idea, again. 'Jeez, it was just a suggestion,' he said, later. 'Can't a guy even have a suggestion?'

Nine months later, in June 1995, Michael and Lisa were interviewed on the American television programme Dateline Dateline by reporter Diane Sawyer. by reporter Diane Sawyer.

While it is true that Michael rarely grants television interviews (the last one had been in 1993 with Oprah Winfrey), one would have been hard-pressed to remember any time Lisa had ever been seen answering questions on television. Prior to this highly antic.i.p.ated broadcast, only frozen images of her came to mind photographs of a fragile blonde child with a droopy glare and sad, pouting expression reminiscent of her father's. It was easy to imagine her as a poor little rich girl, victimized by her privileged, heavily scrutinized circ.u.mstances. That wasn't really true of her as an adult, though. After years of therapy through Scientology, she had long ago come to terms with her celebrity. 'My best trait is that I don't put on a front for anybody,' she observed. 'I'm honest. Scientology has helped me a lot. It teaches you to stay what we call ”clean”, to understand your feelings and not hold things in. Yeah, I've had a difficult life, in some ways,' she allowed. 'But I've gotten through it, and have done all right for myself.'

On the night of the television interview, Lisa appeared to the world as a sophisticated, twenty-seven-year-old brunette, gorgeous and, it would seem, anyway, n.o.body's victim.

As the Jackson couple sat side by side, they fielded questions from Diane Sawyer about their private life. In talking about the allegations, Michael said, 'I could never harm a child or anyone. It's not in my heart. It's not who I am and it's not what I'm even interested in.' Diane then asked, 'What do you think should be done to someone who does that?' Michael responded, 'To someone who does that? What do I think should be done? Gee, I think they need help in some kind of way, you know?'

He then explained why he decided to settle the Jordie Chandler case. 'I talked to my lawyers and I said, ”Can you guarantee me that justice will prevail?”' Michael recalled, 'And they said, ”Michael, we cannot guarantee you what a judge or a jury will do.” With that, I was like catatonic. I was outraged, totally outraged. So I said, ”I have got to do something to get out from under this nightmare, all these lies and all these people coming forward to get paid and these tabloid shows, just lies, lies, lies, lies.” So we got together and my advisers advised me. It was hands down, a unanimous decision to resolve the case.'

Throughout his explanation, Diane had continually attempted to interrupt him to ask how much money he had spent on the settlement. Finally, a protective Lisa abruptly cut her off and said, 'He's been barred to discuss it.'

Diane asked, 'The specific terms of the agreement?'

Lisa confirmed, 'The specific terms, and and the specific amounts.' the specific amounts.'

It was going fairly well, until Diane Sawyer asked the loaded question to which no one ever has a good answer: 'What is a thirty-six-year-old man doing sleeping with a twelve-year-old boy, or a series of them?' Michael fumbled for a bit, giving his usual monologue about the innocence and purity of such behaviour, until Lisa, looking frustrated, decided to put the matter into perspective.

'Let me just say,' she began, 'that I've seen these children. They don't let him go to the bathroom bathroom without running in there with him. They won't let him out of their sight. So when he jumps in the bed, I'm even out [of the bed], you know? without running in there with him. They won't let him out of their sight. So when he jumps in the bed, I'm even out [of the bed], you know? They They jump in the bed with jump in the bed with him him.' Lisa mother of two was on the spot; her credibility was in question just by virtue of the fact that she was sitting there with her husband, on TV, trying to explain why it was okay for him to sleep with children who were not his own. She had to at least give it her best shot.

Unrelenting, Diane followed up, 'But isn't part of being an adult and loving children keeping them from ambiguous situations? And again, we're talking about over an intense period of time here. Would you let your son, when he grows up and is twelve years old, do that?'

Lisa gamely jumped in for more of the impossible. 'You know what? If I didn't know Michael, no way,' she said. 'But I happen to know who he is and what he is and that makes it, you know...' Her voice trailed off. 'I know that he's not... you know? I know that he's not like that and I know he has a thing for children...' Her voice trailed off, again. 'Sorry...' she finally said, at a loss.

'I just wonder, is it over?' Diane asked, turning to Michael. 'Are you going to make sure it doesn't happen again? I think this is really the key thing people want to know.'

'Is what over?' Michael asked.

'Are there not going to be more of these sleepovers in which people have to wonder?'

'n.o.body wonders when kids sleep over at my house,' he said. 'n.o.body wonders.'

'But are they over?' Diane pushed. 'Are you going to watch out for it?' Diane pushed. 'Are you going to watch out for it?'

'No,' he answered. Then, acting as if he didn't know what she was talking about or, maybe he really didn't he did a double-take and asked, 'Watch out for what?'

'Just for the sake of the children and because of everything you've been through?'

'No, because it's all moral and it's all pure,' Michael said, stubbornly. 'I don't even think that way. It's not what's in my heart.'

'So you'll do it again?' she asked.

'Do what again?'

'Have a child sleeping over?' Diane clarified, now looking annoyed.

'Of course,' he answered. 'If they want. It's on the level of purity and love and just innocence, complete innocence,' he concluded. 'If you're talking about s.e.x, then that's a nut. It's not me. Go to the guy down the street, 'cause it's not Michael Jackson. It's not what I'm interested in.' (A consequence of this interview was that Evan Chandler sued him again! claiming that he had breached the terms of the settlement with Jordie. Michael's lawyers eventually got the suit dismissed.) It was a shame that Michael couldn't have conceded to Diane Sawyer that he may have used poor judgement in the past. She was on his side, trying to work with him, and pus.h.i.+ng for him to do the mature thing or at least the responsible thing and say that he would exercise more caution in the future where youngsters were concerned. There were many ways he could have approached the matter, but being obstinate and haughty was not the best way. 'I had off-the-record information that there were some ambiguities about the case in Jackson's favour,' Diane Sawyer later explained. 'Still, I have heard people say, after seeing him during that interview, that a parent would be crazy to let their child be alone with him,'

Later, in the interview, when asked whether her marriage to Michael was a sham, Lisa said of such rumours, 'You know it's c.r.a.p. I'm sorry. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I'm not going to marry somebody for any reason other than the fact that I fall in love with them, period. And they [the public] can eat eat it if they want to think anything different.' it if they want to think anything different.'

Lisa hoped the couple would be perceived as serious, not silly, during the televised interview. However, Michael's mugging and clowning as if he was testing to see how many faces he could get away with before his strict mother would send him to his room undermined her efforts. She was exasperated, especially when he put his two fingers behind her head as if making devil-horns. However, the interview was emblematic of their relations.h.i.+p: she was the adult, he was the child.

'What a f.u.c.king disaster,' Lisa said the day after the interview. She was mortified, and angry. 'I am so p.i.s.sed off at that Diane Sawyer, the way she pushed and pushed and pushed about our s.e.x life. Jesus, that was terrible. Oh my G.o.d. I can't believe it,' she said, shaking her head miserably. 'I can't even f.u.c.king believe that was on TV.'

'I don't know, I thought it was pretty cool,' Michael said, thoughtfully. 'I mean, we made some good points about the allegations. We made a good-looking couple, too. People loved it, Lisa.' He reached over and put his arm around her, lovingly. 'Don't worry,' he said, 'it was all right.' Lisa rolled her eyes.

What originally brought Lisa and Michael together was the drama of molestation allegations and subsequent drug abuse. Her desire to work out a crisis for him was a powerful, motivating force in their relations.h.i.+p. However, once the drama was over, they had little more to fall back on but their surprising physical relations.h.i.+p. 'It was right after the Diane Sawyer show that things started going bad,' says Monica Pastelle. 'Lisa started to wonder if she'd made a mistake in choosing him as a life partner. The great s.e.x continued, though. It was the thing that made it difficult for her to see straight where he was concerned. Whatever was going on in the privacy of their bedroom was enough to keep her hooked into the relations.h.i.+p. However, things were getting strained. When they weren't in bed making love, they were fighting.'

One adviser recalled, 'I was in the studio with him as he cut some new music when Lisa walked in. She slumped down next to Michael, looking miserable. They didn't say one word to each other. He just played with his k.n.o.bs and dials, ignoring her. Then, after about five minutes of silence, Lisa gave him a long look. She got up. On her way out the door she said, ”Nice talkin' to you, as always.” He ignored her. I said, ”Yo! Mike! What's up? Is everything okay with you two?” He said, ”Sure. We're doing just great. I don't know why she's so p.i.s.sed off at me.” Then, as if hit by a sudden thought, he said, ”Wait! Do you think she's on her... you know... her... you know... her,” and he lowered his voice dramatically, ”herperiod?”'

Lisa Marie Wants to Know Why Michael is 'So Selfish'

In October 1994, about six months after Michael and Lisa were married, the two of them and some friends were invited to dine with Elizabeth Taylor at her Bel Air home. Sixty-two-year-old Elizabeth took twenty-six-year-old Lisa aside to offer some hints as to how she might keep her husband happy. 'Always look your best,' she told Lisa. 'He's into glamour, and you must be into it, too. And if you don't like the jewellery he gives you, fake it; act like you do. And keep separate bedrooms to keep him guessing. Also,' she said, 'find the right colours and wear the h.e.l.l out of them.'

Later, when Elizabeth was out of ear shot, Lisa asked Michael, 'What era is she she living in? No wonder she's been divorced seven times!' living in? No wonder she's been divorced seven times!'

'Now, Lisa,' Michael said, with a wag of his finger. 'Be nice.'

Lisa also found it amusing that Michael was, as she put it to one intimate, 'an absolute cosmetics freak'. He would spend hours in the bathroom, she said, putting on and taking off different kinds of makeups. In fact, she never saw him without his makeup. If they slept together, in the morning Michael would be gone before she awakened in the bathroom, applying his morning makeup. She'd look at his pillow and find it smeared with makeup. 'It didn't bother her,' said one friend. 'She thought of it as being sort of rock and roll, freaky, you know? ”Lots of rock stars wear makeup,” she said. ”Whatever. I don't care, as long as he's happy. What do I care?” Lisa would try to surprise him, though, by waking up before him and then tapping him on the shoulder. The sun would be up, and there he would be, with smudged makeup in the light of day. ”No, Lisa,” he would shriek, ”don't look. Please, don't look!” Then, he would jump out of bed and scamper into the bathroom. Lisa would crack up.'

However, light moments like that one between Michael and Lisa had become rare. A major problem for them in their marriage was that Michael insisted that he still be free to go on vacations with young male friends, even though he was now a married man. Lisa did not believe her husband was a paedophile; she made that much clear. 'I wouldn't have let him near my kids if I ever thought that,' she later said. 'Never once did I see him do anything inappropriate, ever.' However, she was dismayed that he would still want to be seen in the company of youngsters, considering all that they had been through with the Jordie Chandler matter. She felt that any public display with youngsters, and especially with boys, would only serve to spark more rumour and innuendo about him and, by extension, her. While many in her husband's 'world of wonder', as she called his insulated environment, put up with Michael's poor judgement, she wasn't going to be one of them. However, Michael was not going to compromise; he had no experience with the notion. When the two fought about the ongoing presence of youngsters in his life, he laid down the law: he was going to do what he wanted to do and, if Lisa loved him, she would have to accept his choices.

'Lisa didn't understand how Michael could disregard her feelings,' said James Cruse, who knew her well at the time. 'It was embarra.s.sing for her to constantly defend his actions, always explaining that he was not a paedophile, he was misunderstood, he was a child at heart and, blah, blah, blah... the same stuff you always hear about the guy. He didn't seem to care that it was hard on her. He just wanted to live his life the way he had always lived it. 'What I do is none of your business,' he told her. That really set her off. 'How can you say that? Of course it's my business,' she told him. 'You're my husband. You 're You 're my business.” my business.”

'Why are you so selfish?' Lisa hollered at Michael one evening in front of staff members at Neverland. They had just finished dinner and settled themselves in front of the fireplace, the blazing logs casting a warm glow over them. As they all talked, Michael slipped into the conversation that he was considering a vacation to France with the Cascio brothers from New Jersey, Eddie II and Frank. Lisa was stunned.

'How did you get to be this way?' she demanded, her eyes hard and condemning. 'Do you care how that makes me look, you going on vacation with two kids? Don't you care about me, at all?'

'Me? Selfish?' Michael asked, seeming dismayed. 'But look at the money I give to charities. Why, Lisa! I love all the little children of the world.'

According to witnesses, Lisa stared at him, her mouth agape. 'What does that have to do with anything?' she countered. She was furious and getting more so by the second. 'I'm talking about you and me, Michael. Not, all the little children of the world all the little children of the world. In fact,' she concluded, 'you are the most selfish person I have ever known.'

Michael grimaced, as if struck in the stomach. Quick tears sprung to his eyes. No one had ever talked to him like that before, not since Joseph, anyway.

'Oh, what's the use?' Lisa asked, ignoring his hurt. 'You don't get it, do you? The little children of the world,' she repeated, angrily. 'I can't even believe you would say that to me.'

'I got into this whole ”I'm going to save you” thing,' Lisa admitted in 2003. 'I got some romantic idea in my head I could save him and we could save the world. I thought all that stuff he was doing, philanthropy and the children thing and all of that, was awesome. OK. h.e.l.lo h.e.l.lo. I was delusionary.'