Michael Jackson on 20/20
 

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/G...ry_bashir.html

Jacko’s Wacko World
‘King of Pop’ Hosts Child Sleepovers and Forces Own Kids to Wear Masks

Feb. 5 — Despite being accused of child molestation in 1993, Michael Jackson still sleeps in the same bedroom as children who visit his Neverland ranch, and insists that his own children be masked in public, a new documentary reveals.

Martin Bashir, a British journalist who had nearly unfettered access to the reclusive pop star over an eight-month period, said Jackson keeps his three children in disguise because he's worried that people are looking to abduct them.
"He believes they could be the subject of some kind of multimillion-pound kidnapping," Bashir said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "He refuses to reveal them to the public."

The self-proclaimed "King of Pop’ allowed Bashir to trail him for eight months to make a documentary called Living With Michael Jackson. The program airs in the United States on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, in a special broadcast of 20/20.

The pop star's lifestyle has been the subject of controversy and rumor since 1993, when Jackson reportedly reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with a 14-year-old boy who had accused him of sexual molestation. The superstar maintained his own innocence throughout. But given the previous scandal, Bashir said he was surprised to see that Jackson was still inviting children to spend the night at his home.

Neverland Sleepovers

One overnight visitor was Gavin, a 12-year-old cancer sufferer whom Jackson had befriended two years ago, after the boy was told he was dying. Gavin said Jackson's friendship and support helped him beat cancer, and that the 44-year-old pop star is a child at heart.

Gavin, who is shown cuddling and holding hands with Jackson in Bashir's documentary, said that he slept over at the 3,000-acre ranch, three hours north of Los Angeles, and even stayed in Jackson's bedroom.

Jackson said that there was nothing sexual about the sleepovers, and the boy defended his friend.

Bashir said Jackson doesn't seem to understand why people question his behavior. For his part, Jackson said anyone who would criticize the sleepovers as inappropriate is missing the point of his loving gesture, and deserves pity.

"The problem is, he appears to exist in a world he has constructed himself," Bashir said.

Though he and Gavin say they never slept in the same bed, Jackson said that he slept in a bed with Home Alone child star Macaulay Culkin and his siblings when he was little. They would just "jam in the bed" together and there was nothing sexual about it, Jackson said.

Bashir said no one who works around Jackson ever questions his behavior, although some lawyers in the United States, including California attorney Gloria Allred, have publicly expressed worry over Jackson's bevior around his own children.

"I know that there are people in the United States of America, lawyers who believe that his actions should result in the children being removed from him," Bashir said. "I think what you have to ask is whether it's right that somebody with so much financial power should be able to have people within his home, within the boundaries of his own property, and nobody can enter in to check that it's safe, to check that things are appropriate."

The Seldom-Seen Jackson Children

Jackson's own children, Prince Michael I, who is almost 6, and daughter Paris, 4, are rarely seen in public. His third child, Prince Michael II — the infant whom Jackson infamously dangled over a hotel balcony in Berlin in November to show him to fans — was born to a surrogate mother. Jackson would not identify the woman and says he does not know her.

The children always wear masks in public, but Bashir said Jackson didn't keep them masked when they were at home and not filming.

"They were covered when we were outside filming with the crew, but in fact I saw them a number of times at his home, and indeed at a hotel in Las Vegas, and they were not covered at all," Bashir said.

The two older children are the result of Jackson's brief marriage to his dermatology nurse, Debbie Rowe. The children do not see their mother at all, which is the way Rowe prefers it, Jackson said.

When Bashir asked Prince Michael I about his mother during a visit to Neverland, the boy said, "I haven't got a mommy," Bashir said. "And he was adamant about it, absolutely clear," Bashir said.

When Paris was born, Jackson said he was so anxious to bring her home from the hospital that after cutting the umbilical cord, he brought the newborn home before hospital staff had cleaned the afterbirth.

"I hate to say this, I snatched her and just went home with all the placenta and everything all over her," Jackson said. "Got her in a towel and ran."

Both Rowe, the mother, and doctors were fine with what he did, Jackson said.

In Berlin, after the baby-dangling incident, Jackson told Bashir that he would never hurt his children, and was only trying to show off the baby to the thousands of fan below his window.

Soon afterward, Jackson fed the baby his bottle and bounced him on his knee, while the infant's face was covered by a green chiffon scarf.

On an outing with Jackson to the Berlin Zoo, Jackson's children wore feathered party masks over their faces and were mobbed by paparazzi to the point that Bashir felt worried for their safety. Jackson, on the other hand, seemed unaware of the chaos and intent on seeing the gorillas.

When Bashir asked him if it would have been easier to have the children go to the zoo with bodyguards and nannies, Jackson said he didn't feel comfortable with that.

"I can't take that chance," he said. "I'd rather it be my fault if something happens."


A Future Career for the Pop Icon?

Jackson hasn't had a major hit since his album Dangerous was released 12 years ago. Newsweek magazine entertainment editor B.J. Sigesmund said his lack of major success isn't the result of his strange behavior as much as it's a result of his most recent work.

We don't really take him seriously in the job anymore," Sigesmund said. "I think he's taken as a pop culture figure, someone to look at."

Sigesmund said he didn't think Jackson's interview with Bashir would have any kind of impact on his future in the music industry.

Danyel Smith, music critic and former editor-in-chief of Vibe magazine, said she thinks Jackson will continue making records, even if Sony doesn't re-sign him when his contract runs out.

"No one will leave Michael Jackson hanging in the wind. Some other major label will sign him," Smith said.

"Nobody wants to take the chance that somebody else will sell a trillion albums with Michael Jackson. Somebody will do it. Whether it does two million or 51 million remains to be seen," she said.

************************************************** **

I am so looking forward to this debacle. It looks like it will be so funny!!!

As The Jacko Turns
 

I might watch it tonight if The Basketball Games on TNT is boring. I think that michael has really gone out of his mind this time.:o

I love Michael's music so much... but he has really gone off the deep end. Poor kids are gonna need a lot of therapy...

Let's see...he doesn't want his kids to be abducted so he makes them wear masks all the time? What weirdness. How do the masks help? All of the people wanting to abduct the kids will never guess which ones they are, since they're the only ones wearing MASKS all the time, for crying out loud. OMG, my cat has said things that make more sense.

He's put out some great songs -- I even really liked "Butterflies" with Eve, but good lord, old boy is WACK. And why does he want to look like an old white woman with bad cosmetic surgery and half a nose?

I herd a rumor (I think it was on Conan O’Brien) that during the interview MJ claims he only had two nose jobs and only so he could be capable of hitting the high notes.

Those poor kids... can you imagine what they are going to be like when they grow up??? :rolleyes:

"I live in Neverland, I dont have a mommy, I have the same name as my dad and my little brother, for the first 18 years of my life no one was allowed to see my face, and dad used to have sleepovers with all my friends" geeeeeeeeeeeez, these kids therapists are going to need therapy...

I thought you guys would appreciate this.
No really, once upon a time he DID have a nose

Oh Lord, after seeing those post-1987 photos, I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight. :eek:

The man is not living on the same planet as the rest of us. I shudder at the thought of his being a father.

Why, Michael, why?

Those pictures are freaking me out! :eek: He really is El Bizarro!

what kind of parent would let a 12 year-old sleep at Michael Jackson's HOUSE? seriously now...

Shutup.

-Rudey
--Michael is awesome. I love you Jacko!

I so want to see this show with Michael!

I love Michael!:)

I feel sorry for him. He's a man-child.

Didn't get to watch the program because Thursday's lodge night, but I did get to see some previews earlier today.

Holy sh*t! That man (if you could even call him that) needs some SERIOUS psychological help... trying to be Peter Pan incarnate. He is living his own Neverland! :rolleyes: :confused:

Moonwalker was an anti drug movie with Joe Pesi and spiders.

Michael rock

Just beat it, beat it

God, I want to remember him as the biggest pop star in our history. Seriously, in his prime, and it was a long prime, his phenomenon was bigger than any of those stupid talentless interchangeable pop acts we see today, bigger than BSB, NSUCK, Britney, Jessica and Christina put together. Here was a guy who could sing, dance, was a (well we thought) a good person, a guy who brought attention to him (in a good way) wherever he went.

Then came the lawsuit that brought him down. I seriously thought that he could overcome it. Hell, I even thought that he was completely innocent, that he was the victim of the media. But the guy has just self destructed.

As far as I know, my memories of Micheal Jackson are from his days with the Jackson Five to the early 90s before the scandal. After that to 2003 and beyond will be blanked out of my mind.

It was like a train wreck. I couldn't stop watching it even if I wanted to.

I thought the funniest part of the whole special was that his baby's nickname is Blanket. Is that perhaps because he's never seen his face except through a blanket?

I feel so bad for those kids. Their mothers should be punished for giving those poor innocent children to the biggest freak in the world. I love that he kept insisting that they were his children. Umm, hello, that little boy is in no way his. The kid has white-blond hair, for goodness sake. Those children aren't just going to need therapy, they're going to need to get amnesia to wipe away everything that growing up with him will do to them.

The saddest thing is that MJ really thinks that he and what he is doing is perfectly normal, and there is no one who will ever be able to convince him otherwise.

I wonder what he'd be like if he weren't a multi-kazillionaire who is able to more or less completely disassociate himself with the "real world"? Would he be the crazy guy down the street who never leaves the house and keeps the shades drawn? Would he be in a mental hospital? Would he be viewed as just a regular guy because he wouldn't have been able to act on his bizarre ideas and therefore no one would know how odd he really is?

Somewhere, sometime, something happened to MJ that turned him into *whatever* it is we're seeing today. Really, whatever it is must be pretty terrible. And, of course, the people he surrounds himself with no doubt find it serves their best interests to just keep their mouths shut. It seems to me that he's too far gone to be considered merely "eccentric" What a horrible waste.

My morning DJs were joking about that this morning. One guy was like, "yeah, and I call my kids comforter and pillow."

I really think MJ has some kind of mental deficiency. He didn't have a normal childhood and it's like he's regressed to being a child again, that's why he doesn't think any of his actions are weird.

I'm glad you noticed this too. Micheal's real shade is medium brown and he had his skin bleached. There is no way you can come out with 3 blond hair, blue eyed caucasian children. I mean there are some interracial children that really take to one side of their heritage or the other, but I doubt you could have 3 kids who are yours and they have NO ethnic charateristics.OMG...Who is he trying to fool. I think he has some serious identity issues.

I noticed when they showed a closeup of Prince Michael I's head, his hair had been bleached because his roots were growing out and were a bit darker than the rest of his hair. Now, they weren't that dark, but they weren't white blond...the kids do look darn white, though. And who bleaches a six year old's hair, anyway?

Oh, my lord. That's some creepy shit. :eek: I hope there's intervention, for those children's sake. :(

Anyone else find it extremely disturbing that if you have enough $$$, you can live in your own fantasy world that doesn't acknowledge any rules????
I'm sorry but from dying your 6 yr olds hair to having little boys sleep in your bed AFTER YOU'RE SUSPECTED OF CHILD MOLESTATION to veiling them, any normal person would be under some type of scrutiny or surveilance by child protective services. what about school? I highly doubt his 6 yr old goes to school, and do we really want Michael J teaching our youth???
Sorry it just freaks me out to think what could be going on in the 'neverland ranch' but no one will ever know about b/c MJ has more money than small countries. I'm not saying he is a molester or criminal, just that if you are a parent of kids under 18, you might be subjected to something that will make you uncomfortable but tough, you know?? If it's for the welfare of the child then suck it up and give them the most normal life you can.

Another thing that freaks me out---


What kind of parents are allowing their children to spend the night at Neverland slumber parties with MJ?????? :eek:

At one time, I can see how parents would have truly believed that it was his benevolence and care for children that justified such parties. Now, however, what kind of parent would let their child spend time with a suspected molester??? Is this man's personal charisma so strong that I cannot understand without meeting him? Or is it just that these parents were in their younger years when MJ was huge and they still see him as a role model? I guess maybe I can't understand since I was a toddler in the 80s...

:eek:

I just watched the special on tape and all I have to say is WOW. I think he means well...but he is QUITE disturbed. I just wished that they could've shown more of the documentary, I could tell it was very edited (more than usual), I don't know what to believe and what not (about the doc the didn't show).

I was wondering the same thing.

Here are the 1993 Allegations of sexual abuse levelled against Michael Jackson (in detail). It is from The Smoking Gun's website and it is very graphic and disturbing.

Frankly, I think he is a sick pervert, a pedophile and he needs to be kept away from children.

I don't know. If someone did that to my child I would not settle, no matter what amount of money. IF some one did that to your child, wouldn't you want to see them punished so they couldn't do it again rather than just take the money?

I do agree but I also think that if someone was wrongfully accused of sexual abuse that they'd would want to go to court to prove their innocence. He said that he didn't want to turn into what had happened to OJ but I just know that if I was innocent I would fight until the very end...even if it meant my case got turned into something like OJ's.

But, I feel really bad for the guy. He has lived his whole life in the spotlight and has had millions of fans. Ever since the sexual misconduct allegations, his career has taken a nosedive. I'm sure it's very hard for him. I bet he doesn't understand what having a normal life is like. In my opinion, he looked like he was one minute short of a nervous breakdown.

i have heard SO much bad about this interview.. my friend laura LITERALLY had nightmares about him in the tree... how freaky is that?

:eek:

I only saw part of it.. and I agree that this man is awfully distrubed. My bf said (like you delta sig stan) that no one could have predicted this 15 years ago.

oh, and I also heard that his business deals are going down the tube and that he is going to be bankrupt someday. I hope those kids have a trust-fund!
-M

VH1 is replaying the interview this weekend, and Jacko is launching a "counter-attack" special on FOX next week.

Ok you f*cking moron. If you knew or had some sort of idea that the interview was going to incriminate you in any way (WHICH THE ENTIRE THING DID), then why the f*ck did you agree to do the first interview in the first place?

You're basically launching a counterattack against your own words............................................. ................

Can you just beam back to your own planet? I'll buy you a new nose if you do.