Dish (44 page)

“Jackson would leak stories to us all the time,” says the
National Enquirer’s
Mike Walker. “Then he’d do this whole ‘the tabloids lie’ routine.” Jackson regularly planted items that he was feuding with rival singer Prince; one of his favorite tabloid stories reported that Prince was using ESP to drive Jackson’s beloved chimp Bubbles crazy. “This is the final straw,” the story quoted Jackson as saying. “What kind of sicko would mess with a monkey?” Jackson personally orchestrated the publication of stories that he wanted to buy the Elephant Man’s bones and that he slept in an hyperbaric oxygen chamber because he wanted to live to be 150. Jackson wanted the hyperbaric chamber story to run on the cover of the
National Enquirer
—the one condition was that the writer use the word “bizarre” at least three times. “He really liked the word
bizarre,”
according to Charles Montgomery, the reporter who did the piece. When Jackson was told that the Polaroid that showed him sleeping in the chamber wasn’t good enough quality to run as a cover, he posed for a second photograph. “I did more articles on Jackson than I did on anyone else,” said Montgomery. “Before I ran anything, I would always check with people close to Michael to see how accurate it was. I almost always had full cooperation from his camp.”
*

Jackson was shocked that the mainstream press, including
Time, Newsweek,
the AP, and UPI, picked up the oxygen chamber story. “It’s like I can tell the press anything about me and they’ll buy it,” Jackson said. “We can actually control the press. I think this is an important breakthrough for us.”

By the time Jackson did his highly rated interview with Oprah Winfrey in February 1993, his handlers told him he had gone too far with the “bizarre” front; he had to distance himself from the “Wacko Jacko” stories.

“I have been in this house looking for that oxygen chamber,” Oprah said to Jackson. “I cannot find the oxygen chamber anywhere in the house.”

“That story is so crazy,” Jackson dolefully said. “I mean, it’s one of those tabloid things. It was completely made up. It’s a complete lie.”

For the first few days after the Pellicano press conference, the Michael Jackson story was reported largely as the private detective had spun it: an extortion attempt gone awry. “Michael Jackson Tells Fans He Did No Wrong: Complaint Linked to Extortion,” read one typical headline. “Don’t Believe the Dirt!” advised another. “This Is a Guy Who Doesn’t Even Swear!”

While
Hard Copy
correspondent Dimond was working the phones on the story, she got a call from someone who started reading from a police report on the Jackson investigation. It was filled with phrases like “masturbation” and “oral copulation.” “I’ve got to meet with you now,” Dimond said. That evening, at a small Italian restaurant in Santa Monica, the informant showed Dimond a confidential report from the Los Angeles Department of Children’s Services. “I saw an extremely graphic, detailed narrative from this child,” said Dimond, “right down to the sexual acts.” Dimond knew a big story when she saw one. “[The informant] was upset by the way the whole story was being reported as a botched extortion,” said Dimond. “He said, ‘You’ve got to promise me this story won’t get buried.’ ” He needn’t have worried. “It was either going to be a superstar being falsely accused or it was going to be a superstar perhaps guilty of one of the most heinous crimes we know,” said Dimond. “Either way, I couldn’t lose.” The report was stolen property so Dimond’s producer forbade her to take it or pay money for it; she spent three hours transcribing the twenty-five-page report in longhand.

“Tonight, on
HARD COPY
¹
.”
a teaser blared the next day. “Diane Dimond reveals the exclusive details behind the Michael Jackson child abuse allegations!”

The story became the biggest sexual scandal in decades. Competition for scoops was furious—and was often fueled by money. Within hours of Dimond’s broadcast, a news agency called Splash was selling copies of the Child Services report for $750 each. ABC, CBS, and NBC all got copies. The
National Enquirer
assigned a team of twenty reporters who canvassed Los Angeles, knocking on 500 doors in the neighborhood where the accuser lived. Even
Nightline
and
60 Minutes
sent letters to participants, begging them to appear. “First let me say that I am sure this week has been overwhelming to you,” Ted Koppel wrote to the accuser’s father. “You have had a first-hand crash course in dealing with the media. I’m sure it has not been easy…. Anthony Pellicano and the Jackson people have been trying to tip the balance of the media coverage in their favor by making allegations that you were the perpetrator of an extortion attempt…. Therefore, I am offering you and/or your attorney the opportunity to be my sole guest on ‘Nightline’ tomorrow evening.” The father turned down the offer, but Koppel devoted an entire segment of
Nightline
to the scandal on the evening of the State of the Union address.

Jackson’s long-running antagonism toward the press actually worked in his favor during the child abuse scandal. His advisers cast the story as a media vendetta against the singer. One of Pellicano’s strategies was to hire dozens of Michael Jackson look-alikes to show up in various locations around the world. “Michael Jackson spotted in London!” a news report would declare. His handlers would then prove that Jackson wasn’t near London, adding, “This is yet another example of the media’s sloppy, irresponsible coverage of Michael Jackson. How can you believe anything they say?”

Pellicano also produced young boys who insisted that their intimate friendships with the singer were entirely chaste, although some thought that strategy backfired when one of the kids volunteered information that he shared a bed with Jackson. “It’s a very big bed,” Pellicano explained.

The detective had more success persuading people not to talk to the media and discrediting those who did. Reporters who tracked down potential sources were constantly told, “Mr. Pellicano has told us not to say anything.” Four former security guards who filed suit against Jackson, alleging that they were fired because they “knew too much,” sold their story to
Hard Copy
for $100,000. They accused Pellicano of threatening them. When two ex-employees, Mark and Faye Quindoy, sold their story, Pellicano immediately called their credibility into question, pointing out that they were involved in a back-pay dispute. He also called them “cockroaches” and “failed extortionists.”

Jackson’s supporters, including his own family, were hardly more honorable. “Every single person I’ve contacted on Jackson’s side or in his family has wanted money,” said Dimond. “People would say, ‘Michael’s a lovely well-balanced young man and if you give me $5,000 I’ll go on the record with that.’ ” The singer’s father, Joseph Jackson, wanted $150,000 to appear on talk shows to defend his son. He negotiated with
Hard Copy,
but talks fell apart because the show wanted Michael’s mother to appear too, and Joe couldn’t deliver her.
*
When PBS did an exposé on how checkbook journalism fueled the Jackson controversy, Jackson’s parents said they’d be willing to speak out against it—for $100,000.

Pellicano’s most successful tactic, however, was taping the accuser’s father apparently negotiating the terms of a screen deal or settlement. The detective had been dealing with the father for four months and had been recording the calls. He gave reporters twenty-five-minute tapes of the conversations, and although the evidence from the recordings was far from conclusive, the fact that anyone would have financial discussions with someone who supposedly molested his son was enough to turn the tide in Jackson’s favor. After Pellicano released the recording, a poll showed that only 12 percent of those questioned believed the allegations against Jackson; most believed that he was the victim of extortion.

It wasn’t from his biological family that Jackson would find his most effective supporters. It was from his Hollywood family, particularly Elizabeth Taylor. Chen Sam, Taylor’s spokeswoman, had urged the star to disassociate herself from the messy controversy. On August 29, Sam got a call from the
New York Post’s
Richard Johnson, checking out a story that Taylor was on her way to Singapore to publicly support Jackson. Sam convinced the columnist that the story wasn’t true. Later that day, Johnson called back. He’d heard the story again. He had details. Chen angrily denied the story, threatening to sue Johnson if he printed anything. Soon after she hung up the phone, Sam got a call from Liz Taylor. The star was on the plane heading to Singapore.

“You can’t do this!” Sam screamed at Taylor. Sam slammed down the phone. “Goddamn her!” Sam said. “She thinks she’s going to get another bauble from Cartier!”

“What do you mean?” an assistant asked.

Sam explained that once, to thank Taylor for her public support, Michael Jackson gave the star a $250,000 canary diamond necklace. “Now every time he’s in trouble, she rushes to his side hoping for another little gift.” Whatever Taylor’s motives, the former screen goddess’s trip to Singapore turned into a minor media event in itself. Taylor and two members of her entourage took three of the seats in the first class cabin; the other twelve were all filled with tabloid reporters. Chen Sam’s office suspected Jackson’s people had tipped off the reporters.

“Michael is one of my best friends in the whole world, and I can’t think of anything worse that a human being could go through than what he’s going through now,” Taylor told one reporter during the flight. “He’s a very sensitive, very vulnerable, very shy person. I believe totally that Michael will be vindicated.” Asked about the motive for the allegations, Taylor said, “Well, I think all of that is becoming quite clear—extortion.”

Sam watched furiously as the woman whose image she had spent much of her adult life shaping appeared on
A Current Affair,
defending Jackson. “She looked like Elvis on a bad day,” said a member of Sam’s staff. “She was wearing an unflattering Hawaiian
shirt and Chen was furious because her hair and makeup hadn’t been done. The lighting was terrible.”

“How could she do this to me?” wailed Sam.

But with Elizabeth Taylor’s support, others were more willing to defend Jackson. Sharon Stone spoke in his defense. Donald Trump stood up for the singer, at one point putting Jackson up in his Plaza Hotel. “If anyone wants to mess with Michael,” said Trump, “they have to come through me first.” Liz Smith weighed in, urging Pepsi not to drop his sponsorship on the basis of unsubstantiated charges.
*
Smith attacked Diane Dimond and
Hard Copy
for so aggressively exploiting the scandal. When Dimond reported a Jackson biographer’s unsubstantiated and apparently untrue claims that a video existed of the star having sex with a minor, Smith wrote, “Diane Dimond glowed as she hasn’t in months, squeezing out every scintilla of innuendo from what appears to be a totally baseless rumor.” Jackson filed a $100 million lawsuit against
Hard Copy
and Dimond.

The reaction to Dimond’s coverage was, she said, “swift and threatening and violent.” Her phones were tapped, she believed, her car was followed, her past investigated, her friends and family called and harassed. Some of it came from irate Michael Jackson fans—a gang of them once physically attacked her. More often, she said, it was from Pellicano and his team.

“For months, the Michael Jackson story consumed every waking moment of my life. At every turn, Anthony Pellicano kept popping up,” said Dimond. “I started hearing from friends that Anthony Pellicano had called, asking questions like where does she live? Where did she come from? Does she have any kids?” Other reporters would pass along veiled threats, she said, from Pellicano—which he denied making. “He’d say, ‘Tell Diane Dimond I’m watching her.’ or ‘Tell her I hope her health is good.’ ” Dimond became convinced that her phone was tapped. “Paramount was pretty convinced too,” she said. “They got a security expert to come to my house…. They found evidence of some weird tampering.” Dimond also believed that her phones at
Hard
Copy
were tapped. She decided to do her own detective work and devised a plot with her husband.