The Magic & The Madness
The below quotes were all taken from the Michael Jackson biography 'The Magic & The Madness' by J. Randy Taraborelli. Many fans have disputed the legitimacy of the book due to its at times tabloidish nature, as well as the legitimacy of the close relationship J. Randy has claimed to share with the Jackson family, but I've decided to include them anyway as I find them cute as hell.
The direct quotes from Michael and Lisa are, according to J. Randy, direct quotes from interviews he himself has conducted with them over the years. Neither Michael or Lisa has ever disputed that, so I guess it's up to us to make up our own minds. Mmmm, I know which side I'm on.
"I always liked him," Lisa Marie, who prefers to be called Lisa, recalled. "Michael fascinated me with his talent. I loved watching him dance. He wanted to know me better, but I always thought he was sort of freakish. I didn't really want to know him any better than I already did."
"She had no confidence in herself as a vocalist," said Brett Livingston-Stone. "When I suggested that Michael could help her, she said 'He's a superstar. Do you really think he'd help me?' After dinner at my house, Lisa played tapes of some of her music, and Michael was blown away. He told her, 'You have real talent... a fine voice. You could be a star. Let me see what I can do for you.' [...] When Michael was about to leave, he offered Lisa a penetrating look and, in a conspiratorial voice, said, 'You and me, we could get into a lot of trouble. Think about that, girl.'"
He truly was misunderstood, he told her. "I know you think I'm gay," he said. "But I'm not. I get tired of people thinking I am gay. But oh well, fuck them. I know you have heard a lot of things about me, in fact," he continued, "but most of it isn't true. And the stuff that is true, you shouldn't hold against me," he winked at her.
"Hey, I'm a married woman," Lisa said. "And you're coming on to me."
"Yes, but are you happy?" Michael asked.
"No."
"See?" Michael remarked. "I knew that. You look like a woman who needs to let go and have some fun. You look like a woman who needs to hook up with me!"
Lisa recalled, "I thought to myself, wow, this is a real guy. He swears. He's funny. I told him, 'Dude, if people knew who the hell you really are, they would be so surprised. People wouldn't think I was so crazy for being into you if they saw who you really are; that you sit around and you drink and you curse and you're fucking funny, and you have a bad mouth and you don't have that high voice all the time.' He said, 'well, just don't tell them.' I thought he was normal and that everything you saw of him publicly was just a mask."
"As time went on, Michael and I talked more, I thought, I'm getting to know the real man here. He puts on an act for outsiders, this sort of victim thing, I thought, but I'm the one seeing the real deal, the real person. I started thinking I was special, that he was opening up to me as he never had to anyone else. He made me feel that way. He can be very seductive when he's pulling you in."
"I'm not a woman who goes for the norm, anyway," Lisa said in explaining her attraction to him. "I like strange guys, the ones on the edge, the ones with an edge, the ones with fire in their bellies. That was Michael, to me."
"I was in on the beginning of the molestation stuff, and I was getting the phone calls, and he was telling me that it was extortion," she recalled. "I believed him at the time. I mean, I was convinced. He was freaking out. I believed that he didn't do anything wrong, and that he was being wrongly accused and yes, I started falling for him. I wanted to save him. I felt that I could do it."
He was at his hide-out in Westwood. "Hey, listen up, girl," he said, according to her memory, "I'm heading up to Las Vegas to see The Temptations and the Fifth Dimension. Come with me. I'll get us a suite at the Mirage and we can party like there's no tomorrow."
"Am I staying in the suite with you?" she asked.
"Hell yeah," Michael said. "What do you think, girl?"
"I think I'm still married," Lisa said.
"Then separate rooms, if that's what you want," Michael responded.
Otis Williams of the Temptations told me, "Man, we were backstage after the show, and here comes Mike with this chick, and he's all up in her face, kissing on her, and we were saying, 'Who the heck is this girl?' Finally, he introduced her: Lisa Marie Presley. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I said to the guys, 'Check this out. The King of Pop and the King's daughter, together. It had to happen.' They looked pretty cosy."
It was then that Lisa had an uncomfortable encounter with Elizabeth Taylor, who had tried to coax Michael into performing. He didn't want to sing. Rather, he just wanted to make an appearance, present an award, and then sit in the audience. As Elizabeth tried to change his mind, an already-protective Lisa intervened. "Look, he's not going to perform," she told Elizabeth, "so you might as well just leave it alone." Elizabeth, taken aback, gave Lisa a once-over and remarked, "Well, you're the boss, I guess," and walked away.
Workers at the estate recall seeing Michael and Lisa kissing while high atop the ferris wheel, then nodding graciously to the Neverland staff members as they sauntered from one ride to the next.
There were times when Michael seemed unable to contain his laughter; he seemed to appreciate Lisa's sharp and clever mind as much as he relished her new role as protector and sounding board. "I can run anything by her," he said, "and she has a good point of view about it. She's on top of everything, she knows so much. I've never known a person like her."
On the third night, Michael ordered a dinner of poached salmon and cucumber salad to be served to him and Lisa on one of the candle-lit terraces. Afterward, he presented Lisa with a gift: a three-strand, pearl choker with a diamond clasp at the front, worth about $50, 000. That evening, while her children and their nanny slept in the guest quarters, Lisa stayed with Michael in his bedroom.
In truth, Lisa and Michael had an intense and active sex life, which came as a surprise to many people. According to all available evidence, it was the first time he had ever experienced such chemistry with a woman, or with anyone, for that matter. His associates say the early stages of the romance impacted his personality in positive ways, in terms of his self-confidence and self-image.
"Apparently, Michael Jackson is a freak in bed," said Lisa's friend Monica Pastelle. "Lisa said he was amazing, and she's been around. Everyone was saying, 'No way, Lisa. It can't be true. Michael Jackson? Are we talking about the Michael Jackson, the one with the glove?' However, she wasn't joking, and it wasn't long before she didn't think it was funny, either."
The 'first time' for them was during a weekend stay at Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach. Donald recalls seeing Michael and Lisa walking hand in hand on his estate, seemingly lost in a mutual dream. In a photograph taken on that day, Lisa was elegantly dressed in a severely tailored, black silk dress that fell in fluid lines around her shapely figure. Michael was dressed in a sharp, black suit, scarlet coloured shirt and matching tie. At one point, he dropped to one knee and kissed her hand. She urged him to his feet; the two embraced. Michael gazed at her intently, mesmerized by her face. They kissed. He pulled from his vest pocket a small, wrapped box. When she opened it, Lisa's face lit up. Pearls.
"It was romantic," Donald Trump recalled. "Later I got to ask him how things were going and he said, 'Great. I just got to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world. I hope I'm worthy of her. I think I might marry her.'"
"They made love at the Trump estate," Said another of Lisa's confidantes. "She said it was intense, it took her breath away. I have no idea what they were doing, or what he was doing to her, but since she gravitates toward the unconventional, she was out of her mind over this guy. Maybe it's hard for some to believe," she concluded, "but true, just the same. After that first time, she went to turn on the lights, and he leapt out of bed and ran into the bathroom so she wouldn't see his body. He emerged twenty minutes later, in full makeup and wearing a silk robe. Then, they went at it, again. He liked her to wear jewellery in bed. They were into role-playing games, though Lisa would never say who was playing what kind of role."
She had certainly been persistent in her pursuit of him. She left telephone numbers for a house she was renting in Canoga Park, California. She also left the number of the new three-acre estate which she had just purchased and was gettng ready to occupy on Long Valley Road in Hidden Hills. Then, just to be sure, she left the number where she could be reached in Clearwater, Florida, where she was planning to spend time at the Scientology retreat. She even sent him party balloons with messages attached. Somehow, she could always put a smile on his face, even if it was just her raspy voice proclaiming, 'oh, fuck them!'
Michael valued Lisa's settling effect on him, so much so that during his phone conversation, he posed a question that surprised both of them. "If I asked you to marry me, would you do it?" Without missing a beat, she replied, "I would do it." Michael didn't say a word, at first. He then said, "hold on, I have to use the bathroom."
When he finally did speak into the phone again, he was speaking to his new fiancee. "My love for you is real," Michael told Lisa. "Please believe me."
One of his bodyguards remembered, "it was chaos with the media and fans suspecting that the newlyweds were in the suite, but not able to confirm it. One morning, we were getting ready to leave, and Mike had to explain the strategy involved in getting them out of there. He didn't want them to be seen together. For him, everything was a big drama. Nothing could just occur easily; it had to unfold with loads of bedlam and confusion. That's what he's used to, and I think he thrives on it."
"As Michael was putting on his hat and surgical mask and his sunglasses and his makeup, he explained to Lisa: 'See, first you leave, and they'll take you downstairs and in the back, and then - whoosh! - off you'll go in the car with smokey windows. Then I will do the same. And we'll meet up later, and nobody will be the wiser.' He seemed delighted by the intrigue."
"He was ready to go, looking like Michael Jackson looks with the mask on his face and hat on top of his head," said the bodyguard. "She sized him up from head to toe and said, 'fuck no. Screw this shit,' and she just got into an elevator and went down to the lobby alone. He started screaming, 'Lisa, no! It's dangerous out there! They'll eat you alive!' Then, he turned to me and said, 'Don't just stand there you big idiot, follow her!' So, I raced down after her in another elevator. When I got there, she was gone. When I went back up and told Michael, he freaked out. 'My poor wife! She's been kidnapped!' he said, acting like the biggest drama queen ever. 'How will I live with myself? Call the police!' he shrieked. 'No, call the FBI. No, call the CIA.' I said, 'look man, she's probably in a coffee shop somewhere eating a doughnut, let me find her.' I did find her, an hour later, in a bar down the street, having a martini with some guy she just met, and it was only ten in the morning. I thought to myself, What match up is this."
When I appeared on the United States news programme, Good Morning America to report on the news of Michael's marriage, I joked that 'the newleyweds are registered at Toys 'R' Us'. There was, I felt at the time, little choice but to remain light about the subject, the reaction the news had been so cynical in America. After the show was broadcast, I received a telephone call from an irate Michael. 'How could you say that?' he demanded. "How can you make light of my marriage? I love Lisa. Why won't people believe that? Why won't people let me be happy?"
"You have to understand that it does seem odd," I explained. "The marriage came out of nowhere. There are people who don't believe it's legitimate."
"You know what? I don't care what people think," Michael said angrily. "She's my wife, I love her."
Was Lisa pregnant, as had been reported? "No," he said, "but we want children and we will have children. But don't rush me," he said, now giggling.
There had been recent reports that Lisa had plastic surgery in a Los Angeles hospital, her breasts enlarged and liposuction on her hips, at Michael's behest. "Ridiculous," he told me. "Just try telling Lisa Marie what to do. It would never happen. I would not be able to convince her to do anything."
He also volunteered an anecdote about giving her an engagement ring (after his telephone proposal, once they were in Los Angeles, together). "Lisa and I were in the living room [at Neverland] having a glass of wine," he said. "We have just finished watching All About Eve, starring the great Bette Davis. We both love that movie. I walked over to her, reached into my pocket and pulled out this huge diamond ring. 'So what do you think?' I asked her. 'You wanna?' She screamed out, 'yes, yes, yes.' So anyway, I gotta go. Just tell people to leave us alone, will you? We're happy. That should be the end of it."
"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 sex 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 relationship. However, things were getting strained. When they weren't in bed making love, they were fighting."
The only problem with 'You Are Not Alone' was the bizarre video for it, in which Michael and Lisa Marie frolic about semi-nude against an ethereal backdrop. "I don't know why I did it," Lisa says. "I was sucked up in the moment. It was kind of cool being in a Michael Jackson video. Come on!"
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 knobs 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 ok with you two?' He said, 'Sure. We're doing just great. I don't know why she's so pissed 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, 'her period?'"
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 hell out of them."
Later, when Elizabeth was out of ear shot, Lisa asked Michael, "What era is she living in? No wonder she's been divorced seven times!"
"Now, Lisa," Michael said, with a wag of his finger. "Be nice."
Michael's divorce from Lisa was finalized on 20 August 1996. As part of the settlement, Lisa received ten per cent of the royalties from Jackson's HIStory album. According to the agreement, she was allowed to write a tell-all book about her marriage, if she ever chose to do so; she did not sign a so-called 'confidentiality agreement'. At the time, though, Lisa just wanted to get on with her life and career. She said that she had great regard for Michael and refused to speak critically of him. She knew that he wasn't entirely venal... she just didn't know, at this point, what to think of him.
The day before he married Debbie Rowe, Michael telephoned Lisa Marie Presley in Los Angeles to tell her of his plans. He still cared deeply about her, he said, and didn't want her to 'read about the wedding in the papers.' He felt dreadful, he told her, about the way their relationship ended, "with us saying mean things to each other. And now I'm moving on," he told her, according to a later recollection, "but I don't really feel that it's right, not without your blessing."
Lisa didn't know how to react to Michael's telephone call. She still loved him, she said, but she was adamant that they would never be together, again. Anyway, it was time for her to move past the madness of his world, to stop trying to fathom the unfathomable.
When Michael heard from Janet that she was socializing with Lisa, he became intensely interested. "Does she ever talk about me?" he wanted to know. "I'll bet she hates me, now. Does she hate me, now?" Janet told her brother that Lisa seemed to hold no grudge against him for what had happened in their relationship and, in fact, would actually like to see him. - you
Michael then telephoned Lisa to ask if they could be friends. "I've always loved you," he said to her, according to a later recollection, "and I hate the way it ended between us. I really do."
Lisa told him that an important aspect of her Scientology training is that she not hold on to bitterness and anger, and that she had dedicated herself to get past any negative feelings about him. He was happy to hear it. He then invited her and her children to join him in South Africa where his HIStory tour was finally wrapping up. His mother and father would also be there, he said, so Lisa wouldn't have to feel awkward about the propriety of such a visit. They were helping him watch Prince Michael, he explained. Lisa couldn't resist; she said, yes.
Whatever Lisa's intentions had ever been involving Michael, she still had a deep connection with him - and seeing him building a family with another woman wasn't easy for her. It had been some time since she'd immersed herself in his world, which as she once said, was "the only way to figure out how she's doing. You can't ask someone how a rollercoaster ride is while they're still on it - you just have to hop on too."
Three months went by, and Lisa joined him again in South Africa in October. This time Lisa stepped off the plane with a shock of blonde hair, moderately resembling the shade of Debbie's hair. During this trip, she made a concerted effort to 'weasel' her way (as she later put it) into his busy days.
Lisa and Michael, and his parents, son and her children, all stayed at the Palace Hotel in the centre of Johannesburg. The former couple was seen holding hands and beaming at one another.
That afternoon, Michael and Lisa went water-skiing at South Africa's Sun City resort. Then, that night they had dinner with Katherine at the resort. During the meal, they applauded as youngsters dressed in leopard skin tribal garb performed for them.
The next day, Michael rehearsed for his concert at Johannesburg Stadium. Lisa, with her plans to depart already made, watched from backstage, waiting for Michael to finish so she could say her 'goodbyes'.
A small coterie of people watched Michael as he and the dancers rehearsed 'Thriller'. In the middle of the song, he halted the performance. "Hold it, guys," he said. "That's all wrong. It goes like this. Watch." He then glided across the stage effortlessly, as if on air, thereby demonstrating the correct moves for his troupe. Katherine, who was standing with Lisa, beamed.
"When I thinbk of how bad it got with those damn lies, and how far he has come since then, I have to cry," Katherine said, not taking her eyes off her son. "He was almost destroyed. Now, just watch him, he's so darn good." She then put her arm around Lisa and gave her a warm look. "And it's because of you that he got through it. Do you know that? Do you know how much we appreciate what you did for him?"
Lisa smiled dimly and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know if I helped, or not," she told Katherine, modestly. "I did love him. That I know. But, face it, Katherine, your son is one big mystery."
Katherine tilted her head back and laughed. "Girl, tell me about it," she exclaimed.
Michael came off the stage just as the two women were sharing their conspiratorial moment. "Now, what are you two gossiping about?" he asked, good-naturedly.
"You!" they both said, in unison.
He executed a quick, soft shoe routine, made a funny face at them, and went back to work.
Michael anxiously prepared himself for the birth of another baby, excited to see his family grow. Though he and Debbie still did not live together - and never would - they got along well. She was his friend - the one who had his children. The other woman in his life, Lisa Marie Presley, was still the one who had his heart, and Debbie knew it. "She told me that Michael had Lisa's picture in his bedroom, on his nightstand," said Tanya Boyd. "Debbie never had any misguided notion that Michael was in love with her, and she's never been in love with him either, I don't think. 'What he has with Lisa, now that's true love,' Debbie told me. 'I have always known it,' she said. 'I've never fought it. I've only encouraged it.' She never wanted to come between Lisa and Michael. 'If Lisa would have had his children,' she told me. 'I never would have done it for him. There would have been no reason for it.'"
On Saturday, 7 February 1998, Michael got together with Lisa for dinner at the Ivy in Los Angeles. He had telephoned her and said he wanted to take her out for her thirtieth birthday, which had been about a week earlier.
They arrived at the restaurant holding hands. Michael wore a black hat and matching surgical mask, Lisa a dark blue dress with a gold choker. Because they didn't have a reservation, the manager took them into his office and served them drinks while they waited for a table in a quiet, romantic corner. Once seated, Lisa enjoyed a plate of steamed vegetables. Michael ate crab cakes and fried chicken. However, he slipped the food underneath his mask, rather than take it off. One wonders what it might be like to sit across the table from a person who is eating while wearing a surgical mask, "Once you get past the preposterousness of it," Lisa explained, privately, "and decide in your head, okay, now, look, the guy is not going to take the mask off..."
For dessert, they shared a piece of cake, decorated with a single candle - which Lisa happily blew out. "How's it going with Debbie?" Lisa wanted to know, according to what she later recalled to a friend.
Half-heartedly, Michael said it was 'okay' with his wife. He had another glass of red wine, his fourth. He told her that as much as he cared for Debbie, when he was with her, "I focus on what I don't have, instead of what I do have. I just want to be in love. Like what you and I had. I was so afraid," he told her, according to her memory. "I know now that I closed you out. What can I do now?"
Lisa says that she didn't respond. She no longer had the answers to his problems - not that she ever did - or the solution to his life. There wasn't much she could propose, except perhaps the most basic of offerings between two people with a history who still care about each other "I want you to know," she told him, "that if you ever need a friend, I'm here for you. You have such a good heart, Michael," she added. "But dude, tell me this: why do you have to be so fucking strange?"
The two dissolved into laughter, probably realising that there was no simple answer to that question.
After dinner, they strolled down Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills, window shopping under the watchful eye of paparazzi. At one point, Michael kissed the top of her head and put two fingers under her chin, lifting it so her eyes would meet his. His arms closed around her, enveloping her. They kissed through his silk mask, as if he was some kind of comic book super hero and it made all the sense in the world. She then snuggled against him. A paparazzo memorialized the tender moment, the photographs appearing five days later in a tabloid.
Later, they were driven to Santa Monica for a long walk on the beack, talking late into the night.
"I love her," Michael told one of his associates the next day, "more than anything, more than anyone, I still love Lisa. We have such a strong connection." His eyes filled with tears. "That was my one shot, man," he said. "I did a lot of foolish things. I may never get another shot, you know?"
"In another world, we would be together," Lisa would say, "just not in his world, I'm afraid."
Two months later, Michael was the father of a new daughter.
A woman who worked as a chef at Neverland recalls, "...there are no pictures of Debbie. Mr. Jackson has just one photo by his bed, and that's of Lisa Marie as a child in the year the two of them met."
For anyone who knew Michael Jackson, watching the Martin Bashir documentary was painful. Lisa Marie Presley telephoned Neverland the following morning, telling his assistant that she wanted to speak with Michael as soon as possible. She was in another state, on a radio tour for her new album. Still, she took time out to call to see how her ex-husband was handling the highly publisized controversy.
When Michael heard that Lisa was trying to reach him, his heart began to race. He still hasn't gotten over what he shared with her and, according to what he has said, believes that one day, they will be together again. When Lisa married actor Nicolas Cage in Hawaii in November 2002 Michael had been troubled. When they separated after just four months, Michael called her to check in on her. "Oh don't worry about me," she told him, "it's just another shit storm in my life. I'm getting through it, just shovelling through all the bullshit." He laughed.
He called her at a number she had left for him. "Dude!" Lisa said as soon as she got on the line. "That documentary fucking sucked, man. What were you thinking?"
They couldn't stop laughing. Leave it to her to lift his spirits. "Oh screw that Martin Bashir," she said. "That guy's never gonna work again, Michael. Who would ever trust him? He's over, you fucking killed his career."
"I think maybe he tried to kill mine, Lisa," Michael said.
"Oh please," she told him, "it's gonna take more than that shithead of a reporter to kill your career, believe me."
