The Michael Jackson Story (2026) s01e03 Episode Script
Episode 3
1
The number one artist in the world!
That level of mega-stardom is not
healthy.
People are not gods.
Tonight, Jackson is wanted by police
of multiple felony counts of child
molestation.
The Jackson machine just keeps right
on rolling.
The British documentary called
Living With Michael Jackson
has everybody talking.
This is the way the Times newspaper
in Britain covers it.
"Jackson faces ruin after admitting: I
slept with boys."
Why can't you share your bed
with?
The most loving thing to do is to
share your bed with someone.
Merely admitting that on television
has created
what one person says is the longest
professional suicide note in history.
This documentary started a disaster.
It was clear he was really in trouble
with this.
It's just a question of what does he
do
when he's in bed with them?
- I mean, anybody advising Michael
Jackson
would have to say, A, don't do that,
and after he did it,
they must lock him up in a room and
say, "You've got to be kidding."
But he's Michael Jackson, so probably
nobody does that.
He really was scared.
It was Michael's biggest fear
after the documentary, the fans could
go away.
He could lose his whole brand, his
reputation, everything he did.
We were in a hotel, Miami, and middle
in the night,
Michael knocked on the door.
He was crying,
and he got a letter
from his accountant saying,
"There's no money right now.
"You need to go in a smaller room."
And he was saying,
"Can you believe that they put me out
of a suite
"and put me in a small room?"
Michael Jackson does not earn the
kind of money he used to make.
You know, at the height of his
earnings power,
this guy made $50 million a year.
Guess what?
His records don't sell any more. And,
you know,
he's in a very tenuous spot right now.
On song, but no longer making the
notes.
The latest claim that the Peter Pan of
pop is nearly penniless.
He's spending about $700,000 a week,
which means
that when he gets out of bed in the
morning,
he's spent $100,000 before he's had
coffee.
We hope he's not broke,
because he owes my client $12 million.
All of the money that Michael has at
this point,
all the cash that he has,
I should say, comes from loans.
Everything is borrowed, borrowed
Borrowed, borrowed,
borrowed against the Michael Jackson
catalogue
that has Billie Jean and Beat It and
all his hit songs,
borrowed against the Beatles
catalogue.
Michael Jackson celebrated his 45th
birthday in true Jackson style.
It was just him and the fans.
After all he's been through, they
still love him.
The King of Pop!
Michael taught me very clear that
now as it's over
with touring, now he starts with new
business.
The fans going to keep the business
machine moving.
There's going to be a new
Michael Jackson clothing line,
resort hotels
We promise to make Neverland more
accessible to the fans.
What's the media trying to say about
you, Michael?
We don't believe a word of it.
- He's perfect,
and he's an angel, and I don't care
what anybody says.
In 2003,
I was a prosecutor specialising in
child sexual abuse cases.
I got a call to go see the district
attorney,
and he showed me a two-page report.
It involved an allegation of child
sexual abuse.
It said "Michael Jackson" on it.
And I thought, "Oh, my gosh, he's
back!"
That scene in the documentary that was
played
over and over and over again of Gavin
Arvizo
sitting next to Michael Jackson
and resting his head on his shoulder
and holding his hand
I knew it was an inappropriate
relationship.
You sit right there, buddy.
We are going to try our best to make a
case.
OK, a criminal case. We're going to
try our best.
But you need to understand
that we're going to need your
cooperation.
Gavin, can you tell us
what your conversations
what you guys talked about?
Good evening. For years, pop star
Michael Jackson
has denied having inappropriate
contact with children
and he has never been charged,
but tonight, Jackson is wanted by
police.
We would encourage him to turn
himself in
and cooperate with law enforcement.
Yes. Anita? What? Have you heard?
Any sightings?
Not yet. We're all on the lookout,
though.
We were in the hotel in Vegas.
Somebody called me and told me,
"Dieter, watch TV."
The police went to the ranch.
The service of the warrants
was part of an ongoing investigation
alleging criminal misconduct on the
part of Michael Jackson.
When I told him there's a new charge
from this young boy, Arvizo
..he was so deeply shocked
that I think he's going to He's
going to die.
And then something terrible happened.
The director of the hotel told us to
leave right away.
They did not want to have somebody
with these charges in the hotel.
Michael was out of control and was
screaming,
"Why you close the door in front of
me?"
They didn't allow him to come in.
But then I told him,
"Michael, look, this time, you have to
fight it."
Jackson flying from Las Vegas
to Santa Barbara, turns himself in to
the Santa Barbara sheriff
Michael Jackson has been booked on
charges of child molestation.
The famous shot you'll see plastered
all over newspapers around the world -
Michael Jackson in handcuffs.
Michael Jackson today went from
being
the gloved one to the fingerprinted
one
I just sat down and said, "Not
again."
Seven counts of child molestation.
I told him, "You don't know these
wicked people.
"The people are just mean and wicked."
The bail amount on the warrant has
been set at $3 million.
They'll tarnish your reputation, and
people will always remember you
the way they said he was, not the way
he really is.
How do you view the guy now?
Probably not in a good way.
Definitely don't respect him.
Reporters, cameras and helicopters
have been chasing
the Jackson story around Southern
California.
Fox has confirmed he is now back in
Las Vegas,
and here are the pictures to prove it.
Hold on. He's coming out. Hold on,
hold on,
hold on.
- I remember when we went to the
airport
We took blankets and tried to stop all
the press taking pictures.
He was so deeply shocked about the
situation, how they treated him.
Later on, he showed me
these bruises on his arm, on his
shoulder.
He was thinking the police, the
system
America was against him.
I wanted to let you know
that this is Michael Jackson's car as
they ride through Las Vegas.
He keeps rolling his window down at
intersections like this.
People have been coming up to the
window
and he's been reaching out, shaking
their hands.
I think they're setting them up.
I mean, it just none of this makes
any sense.
You know? I love him so much. I mean,
he needs us, you know?
And no matter what, I'll believe in
him, and I'm here for him.
Michael was ready to fight.
He was focussed completely on this
whole problem.
Then the new security people came in
and his lawyers and his accountants
showed up.
Michael's empire and reputation was at
risk.
And this situation was terrible for
me, because I had to leave.
I could do nothing any more. They took
over completely.
It was the end of my work with Michael
Jackson.
Hey, I need to speak to Angela now.
Every crew is here and my crew is not
here.
I'm still checking on what's going on.
I got an assignment. There's going
to be this huge
Michael Jackson business meeting, this
summit.
Find out all about it. And if you can,
get in there.
If we can get a quick statement
- Thank you.
Come on. I had this little sort of
mini cam
that I was walking around with, to the
annoyance of everybody.
Can I get a brief statement? Is there
any way?
You'll get a statement later?
- Oh, you are OK.
Thank you. Sorry to bother you.
I was a journalist reporting for
Celebrity Justice,
and that later kind of morphed into
TMZ.
So if you guys want to just, uh, you
know,
shoot the room, do what you want
It's going to last about five
minutes
It was all very confusing.
Oh, were we invited? How did we hear
about it?
This is the Michael Jackson smoke and
mirrors world.
Is there a reason why you wanted us
to see the type of business meeting it
is?
No, no, the reason is you all are here
- Right.
You had Charles Koppelman, an
industry legend,
you had Al Malnik He's the one who
bailed Michael Jackson out
to the tune of $3 million when he was
arrested.
Then you had Leonard Muhammad,
who is a top echelon Nation of Islam
guy,
and you had John Branca,
the genius behind getting the Beatles
catalogue.
And so these super heavyweights, they
were there to keep
the glue together, right, in the
Jackson Empire.
There are people who have wondered who
is in charge.
Can you clarify that, sir?
- Michael is in charge. Yeah,
clearly, Michael is in charge.
Will he be taking part in today's
meeting,
Mr Koppelman?
- Um He may. He's welcome at any time.
Do you plan on seeing him at the
meeting today?
He's welcome at any time.
Constantly it's said that Mr Jackson
is in financial trouble.
Can you clarify that, sir?
- Again, do we look worried?
Total BS, total BS.
Mr Mohammad
There's nothing normal about this
meeting
because Michael Jackson was about
to be subjected to the most
high-profile trial.
The fact that his finances were such a
convoluted mess, with debt,
with loans, with mortgages, with
skyrocketing interest payments
Obviously, this was the crisis summit.
The brand was on life support,
and if it died right there, it wasn't
going to have a future.
CNN has confirmed that a grand jury
that's been meeting
to consider charges of child
molestation
against pop star Michael Jackson has,
in fact, indicted Michael Jackson.
We've just received this release
from
Michael Jackson's attorneys,
saying he will appear and enter a plea
of not guilty.
I know you know him, Donald. Any
reaction to this?
Well, I know him very well. He's
lived in my buildings.
He lived in Trump Tower, and I know
him very well,
and I don't believe it.
I'm going to stick up for him because
nobody else is.
Why would he turn around and say
"Michael Jackson sexually molested me"
if it weren't true?
Because parents have power over
children.
This is not him. No, I know his heart.
It was past midnight
and the telephone rang and I hear,
"Hello?"
I said, "Michael, is that you?"
"Brian? Is that you?
"Oh, Brian, I'm so scared. Did you see
what happened today?
"Yes, I did," Michael.
"This is not good, Michael." "Brian,
what am I going to do?"
I said, "What we do is
"we have to find out everything there
is to know about this family.
"Everybody has dirt. Everybody They
are not clean.
"And from what I hear, they're really
dirty, Michael.
"And we will find the dirt on these
people."
And he said, "Do it, do it, Brian."
I am Brian Oxman.
I am the former attorney for Michael
Jackson.
I have known all of the Jackson
family for most of my life.
My first client was Randy Jackson.
I did his divorce and then I did
Jermaine's divorce,
and then I did Jackie's divorce, and
then I did Tito's divorce,
La Toya's divorce, and I did Michael's
divorce.
I am part of this family. It's sort of
like Hotel California.
You can check out any time you want,
but you can never leave.
Michael, come over here. Shake our
hands.
Michael!
When I got to Santa Maria for the
trial,
the press was camped out like it was
the end of the world.
It was bigger than OJ Simpson, which I
had been at.
This was in a small town. It was hard
to get to,
but the whole place was taken over by
this.
It was an extraordinary thing.
Michael!
- Innocent!
Michael!
- Innocent!
One, two, three, four, Michael's not a
molest-or
Why? Why? Why, why, why?
When Michael went to his
arraignment,
it was a deluge of fans.
They were going crazy.
And in his own showmanship way, he let
them know, "I am not afraid."
He had no shortage of lawyers.
I mean, they got every single piece
of paper,
every single document that had ever
generated
by any member of the family - medical
records,
psych records, school records,
business records
They got it by way of subpoena without
notifying the prosecution.
Michael's innocent! Michael's
innocent!
Pervert, pervert, pervert, pervert!
The prosecution said the family
is being harassed by these subpoenas.
They said the so-called victim's
family
is going into witness protection.
So I needed to find them.
I called my friend, and she says,
"I'll find them for you."
So she called the grandmother and
asked
if she had their new address, and she
said sure,
and she gave it to us.
It was to make it clear
that Michael Jackson was not backing
down.
Years ago,
I allowed a family to visit and spend
time at Neverland.
I allowed this family into my home
because they told me their son
was ill with cancer and needed my
help.
These events have caused a nightmare
for my family, my children and me.
I never intend to place myself in so
vulnerable a position ever again.
I will be acquitted and vindicated
when the truth is told.
Opening statements began today.
The defence is expected to describe
Jackson
as the victim of a money-hungry mob
who coached her son to lie for cash.
The prosecution, on the other hand,
will paint Jackson as a wicked
paedophile
who got a sick boy drunk to molest
him.
This is a trial for his life.
Not just his freedom, his life.
Everything's on the line.
Justice for Michael! Justice for
Michael!
He's been guilty for years! Put him
away!
In court, the prosecution played
the Living With Michael Jackson movie,
the documentary which created this
whole furore.
And what happened as that programme
progressed,
the jury there were bouncing and
dancing
and snapping their fingers to
Michael's music.
This was Michael's magic, infecting
everybody.
This affected the entire course of the
trial.
We had one witness who worked at
Neverland
..and he told us that he brought
to Michael Jackson's room wine while
the boys were there.
And when he was on the witness stand,
he said he brought Coca-Cola to the
room.
I said, "Didn't you tell us that it
was wine?
"It was alcohol that he brought to the
room?"
"I was mistaken."
One after the other, witnesses would
walk into court,
you would just watch them look over,
see Michael Jackson and their
demeanour changed.
He was a very powerful person.
The pop star didn't show up for
court
this morning until the judge
threatened to have him arrested.
Jackson failed to show up in court
at 8:30am
for testimony from the teen who claims
Jackson molested him.
When Jackson did arrive an hour and
ten minutes late,
he appeared dishevelled, his hair a
bit messy,
only pyjama-bottomed, a T-shirt and a
blazer.
He tripped this morning and he fell
in the early morning hours while he
was getting dressed.
His back is in terrible pain.
I ended up testifying in the trial,
right?
And that's where it became just
absolutely a three-ring circus of
bizarre. I started noticing Michael's
strange behaviour.
And, you know, besides,
when he showed up to court in pyjamas,
which was Nutsoville,
Michael was like, "I can't deal with
it,
"I can't deal with it, it brings me
stress."
And I'm like, "OK".
But he's that brilliant genius, right,
that happens to be half braindead and
dumb at the same time,
that doesn't know anything going on?
Wait a second - which one is it?
Oh, he's trying to get the sympathy.
I could see the women on the jury
looking very concerned and very
worried,
and we knew it was all an act.
His performance really was very good.
Is Jackson spiralling downward?
It was no accident that all of that
pyjama business happened
when the accuser is about to take the
stand
and deliver the most incriminating
evidence.
Michael! Michael!
Go!
You've been through a lot this year.
- That's right.
No joke.
- How is Michael doing financially?
Because he has not been recording or
performing ever since it started,
and he has mega expenses.
How is he doing?
Michael is doing fine.
Are you worried?
Am I worried?
Being the father, you always have to
have some worry.
Do you think if he's acquitted, he
can resume his career?
Of course.
Come on Of course he can resume his
career.
This is This is just the United
States.
All the rest of the countries all over
the world
are very, very proud of Michael. It is
here
we have the most trouble out of.
Why do you think it's such a problem
in America?
Why do you think?
- Come on
You don't want me to answer that, do
you?
No, don't answer it.
- Shall I?
- No, Joe, just shut up. Stop it!
I don't want to cut to the chase on
this one.
- Stop it!
Come on
It might be about racism? What do
you think?
It is racism. It is.
Katherine's not going to say it, but I
will say it. It is racism.
We shouldn't be even out here
talking about any of this.
We weren't supposed to even bring
Michael up.
You might get us in a lot of trouble.
- No, no, no.
A flurry of activity outside the
courthouse in Santa Maria
as SUVs are seen leaving Michael
Jackson's Neverland Ranch.
What's going on?
Michael Jackson entered the courthouse
to learn his fate.
You've got to wonder
what is going through his mind at this
point.
He really thinks there are going
to be riots in the streets if he's
convicted.
He really believes that?
- He really believes
that somehow this injustice will be
overturned instantly,
because who would put the King of Pop
in jail?
The people of the state of California
plaintiff
versus Michael Joe Jackson, defendant.
Case number 1133603. Verdict
We the jury in the above entitled
case
..find the defendant not guilty of a
lewd act upon a minor child.
And there it is. All ten counts. Not
guilty on all ten counts.
Michael Jackson will be walking out of
this courtroom a free man.
..Michael!
Was I disappointed? Sure.
You never, as a prosecutor, want to
hear the words "not guilty".
I felt that it was remarkably obvious
that he was molesting children.
I was mystified why other people
didn't see it.
Everything about him just screamed
"child molester".
He needs to, you know, stay low for
a while
and keep the adults at the ranch
and maybe stay away from the kids for
a little bit,
maybe bring some girls over, Michael.
Come on now!
The result was innocent,
but so many Americans thought he was
guilty.
Michael was extremely concerned about
all of these people.
He would complain to his mom and to
his dad and to everybody,
to me "My life's over."
What exactly is happening to Michael
Jackson today?
It's the same thing that always
happens, Nancy.
This guy doesn't pay his bills.
How much are we talking about?
We're talking about nearly $300
million outstanding debt.
After the trial, a lot of people
were saying
Michael Jackson put himself into
exile.
Right?
He had to not only leave Neverland
but he left the United States of
America.
He pops up in Bahrain, and of course,
he's friends with the royal family
and living like the King of Pop again,
borrowing millions of dollars from his
host.
Then it's "where's Michael Jackson?
He's left Bahrain.
"Oh, wait. Hold on. He's in
Ireland"
Ireland!
At around 4:00 today, Michael
Jackson emerged
from his scheduled Aer Lingus flight.
He made his way down the plane's steps
holding a masked child's hand.
Jackson and his travelling party
boarded a silver Volkswagen minibus
via the VIP exit of the airport.
Michael Jackson was trying to figure
out -
what am I going to do with the rest of
my life?
Ireland is kind of a little out of the
way,
and he was able to live kind of a
tranquil life -
he hoped, anyway.
In June 2006,
rumours started circulating in the
Irish press
that Michael Jackson had been sighted
in different places.
But I didn't think much of it. So we
were quite surprised
when the door opened and the patient
said,
"Hello, my name is Michael Jackson."
And it wasn't too long before Michael
entrusted us
with his aesthetic treatments.
We treated in that period his
bottom of his ankles were beginning to
turn black again
and he wanted us to increase
the bleaching cream to a stronger
percentage.
He didn't really have any money.
I mean, his credit cards bounced on
many occasions.
I remember one time he was in our big
glass showroom
and he started pocketing quite a lot
of the cosmetics.
Some of the things were worth between
100 and 500 euros,
and he had a big sort of jacket, coat
on,
and when I ran into him, he had as
many as 20 or 30
of these products in his pockets, and
he just laughed.
I think as time progressed,
you could see that Michael became
happier
and happier living in Ireland.
He said that he'd love to settle here,
away from the press.
Our friendship became closer,
and when I was down his house, he
opened up to me.
I think he felt trapped between
finding a new location to live
..and having to go back to the United
States
to overcome those financial struggles.
I could see that this did play on his
mind.
I was asked would I be interested in
doing a security detail
for a dignitary that was coming to
town.
Mr Jackson - I called him Mr Jackson -
he was returning to the States
on the basis of being a headliner in
Las Vegas.
Come on, guys, come on in.
It was a lot going on. I mean, he
had a lot going on.
He was raising three kids, that he
wanted to do on his own.
Mrs Jackson moved into the house,
which was on Monte Cristo.
We realised that he did have insomnia.
Even though we had armed security at
the property,
we would see him walking throughout
the house at night, checking doors.
A very lonely world.
..or Candyland?
There's always someone trying to see
him
Business associates,
all different type of producers trying
to get at him.
I think it put him into seclusion a
little bit.
Michael, we love you!
- We love you, Michael!
You're the best!
There he is! David Beckham,
the huge international soccer star, is
coming to America!
My partner and I, Paul, worked for a
division of AEG.
The core business is live
entertainment, sports
You know, those kind of things.
AEG had just done a deal with David
Beckham
to play for the LA Galaxy.
It's nice to see so many fans, and I
thank you for that.
When Michael saw that, he was really
excited,
he was kind of jumping around the room
and saying, "Hey,
"you guys should do a David Beckham
deal with me."
Remember that Michael's last tour was
the HIStory tour in 1997,
so this would have been a good 12
years after that.
So the anticipation of being able
to see Michael Jackson live was
I don't know. I can't think of
anything, really,
that would be bigger than that.
I remember the day he signed the
deal,
when This Is It was in formation.
He came out and said, "Bill,
"now you're going to see the
vultures."
I started to get all the phone calls
from people
that we've never heard from before.
People were coming out the woodwork.
They wanted to be part of this tour.
They wanted to be part of him.
I always said it. Mr Jackson was a big
ATM.
Feel my heart, it's going boom,
boom, boom right now, seriously.
Since I was little, I used to come
home from nursery, yeah,
put on my Michael Jackson video and
that's it. I was gone.
Like, he taught me how to dance,
everything, man.
It's gonna be sick.
London was Michael's Probably
biggest market in the world.
Our plans were that the tour would go
global.
I've got every single album, I've
been to every single tour,
and I'm going to go to every single
date
that he releases that I can get my
hands on.
You're obviously a very rich woman,
then?
No, I'm not. It's the credit crunch!
It's my credit card.
The This Is It tour was going to be
much bigger than
anything he had He had done.
Do you really think he can come back
after everything that's happened?
There's nothing happened. It's just
the media, innit? So it's fine.
Court case, rumours of financial
- Rubbish. This is Michael Jackson.
You know, he's He's the King of
Pop.
Ready for this?
London welcomes the King of Pop, Mr
Michael Jackson.
So it's been a while,
and everyone's waiting and waiting and
waiting.
They didn't realise that Michael was
drunk and out of it.
I was at the O2 and they were back
at the hotel with Michael
trying to get him going because things
were going very slowly.
While we were waiting, I kind of wrote
a really short speech,
and when Michael walked in, he came
over to me
and he gave me a big hug and I said,
"Here's the speech."
And he went And he whispered in my
ear,
"Make the words really big, I can't
see."
And the crowd just erupted.
I love you.
He just started to bask in it.
He started to glow, in a way, you
know
I think he was overwhelmed, actually.
This Is It. This Is It!
This Is It. This Is It!
I just want to say that, um
This will be it. This is it. And when
I say this is it,
it really means this is it,
because these will be
my final show performances.
This is it, and see you in July.
So what happened was we ended up at
50 shows.
I've never seen demand like that.
We had about 15,000 sellable seats per
show.
They all went for 50 shows.
Got a calculator? Do the math!
We're kind of excited, Michael's
coming today.
There's the man.
- There's Michael.
- The man is here.
During rehearsals, Michael knew
exactly what he wanted,
but it was Kenny who ran the
rehearsals.
Michael really didn't have to say
anything to anyone
because Kenny was so on top of it.
Michael
- It's not easy, though.
Michael One more time, I couldn't
hear you, sir.
The inner ears are very difficult
for me. When you're raised
To use just your real, own you
know, aural oratory ears.
Yeah. Is it?
- It feels like It feels like
somebody's fist
Just their fist is shoved into your
ear.
Mr Jackson was not happy.
Privately, he felt that physically, he
was not prepared
to do that many shows in that short a
time.
He said to me directly He said,
"Bill,
"I can't do 50 shows. Bill, it would
kill me."
But he was going to make a lot of
money from this show,
enough to where he was done.
Just trying to conserve my throat,
please. So understand
I would watch Michael,
and the impression I got was kind of
lost.
He was dealing with an addiction
issue.
I was watching, you know, pills come
in and pills go out.
You see people with fetty or other
things in street drugs
that they're not alive, but they're
not dead yet.
And it just had this feeling of, like,
limbo.
The assumption I think that a lot of
people think
is that he's being controlled
and that he doesn't know what he's
doing.
That isn't true. He knew what he was
doing,
and he knows what kind of drugs he's
taking.
But Michael was surrounded by people
that wanted to please him,
people he chose to surround himself
with.
But he is going downward. And so
you
You have to ask yourself, "Where am I
going?"
You know, "What's the next train
stop?"
It's an American tragedy.
The tragedy was not that he was taking
prescription drug medication.
The tragedy was that this man who got
more attention
than any human being that might have
ever lived
in the history of the world
was still so utterly lonely.
When I was in Macy's, they kept
saying,
"Michael's dead, Michael's dead."
I dropped everything and just came
running out here.
No-one else. No-one else. No-one
else
I walked into the emergency room.
And I looked through the doors and I
could see the family.
And I saw La Toya, and she was leaning
up against the wall.
And then I saw her slump to the ground
and sat on the floor.
I said, right then and there
I said, "Michael Jackson is dead.
"Michael Jackson is dead."
This is hard. Um
My brother, the legendary King of Pop,
Michael Jackson,
passed away on Thursday, June 25th,
2009, at 2:26pm.
It is believed he suffered cardiac
arrest in his home.
This is a Fox News alert. The
chopper is in the air.
They have picked up the body of
Michael Jackson.
His body is now going to be in the
custody of the LA coroner.
The autopsy has been expedited.
It will happen tomorrow at some point
between 7am
and three o'clock in the afternoon.
After that, the body will then be
released to the family.
There was a fire inside me that I
could not contain that day.
In my mind, I was saying to myself,
"You stupid, stupid man.
"I begged you, I warned you, you've
now orphaned your children.
"There's nothing you loved more in the
world than your children.
"You were the only one who could
protect them.
"And now you orphaned your children.
"You stupid man!"
Michael's demons that I think he was
dealing with was self-loathing.
Well, you don't have to feel anything
if you're on, um
Demerol. You just numb it all away.
He felt desperate to change, but
couldn't.
And he actually ends up finding people
that help him to his death.
Is that the most crazy thing in the
world?
If somebody would have just told the
truth,
he would probably be alive, but nobody
did.
Michael Jackson T-shirts, Michael
Jackson T-shirts.
King of Pop, King of Pop. Come down
here, guys.
Come support Michael.
- You got change?
Give you two for 20.
- Oh, how many did you make?
We made, uh, I think it was 1,500
T-shirts.
We sold 40. We've been here for about
ten minutes.
And then you give 10% to the charity
of Michael Jackson's choice!
Woo! Yes, you do that!
I feel like Michael's of
the magnitude to deserve a state
funeral.
I just wanted to wake up and
somebody told me this isn't real.
People are saying that this is going
to be like when Princess Di died.
1,500 inmates in the Philippines
pulled together
a brand new tribute to the King of
Pop.
Michael Jackson fans have always
been committed,
and when he died, it didn't diminish
at all.
In fact, it became stronger.
Tonight, a family's pain.
For the very first time since
Jackson's shocking, unexpected death,
Jackson's family is speaking out.
Do you know anything, Mr Jackson,
about funeral arrangements?
Have you had time?
- Yeah, we haven't gotten to that yet.
Yeah, but we're working on that.
You said your wife has helped.
What about Janet and the rest of the
family? The daughters
They're all doing fine.
But I want to make this statement.
This is a real good statement here.
Marshall and I have We own a record
company called
Tell them.
- Ranch Records.
- Right.
- OK?
It's driven by Blu Ray technology, and
that's his next step.
And that's your next step.
For most of his life. Michael's
father
was constantly coming to him for
money, also with schemes.
So you could say Joseph Jackson, he
was very opportunistic.
Even when Michael died, nothing
changed.
Hello, everybody.
What I'm doing is, I established a
record company,
and this is Marshall, by the way.
Marshall, go ahead.
OK, what's happening is, in the
entertainment side,
we're going all the way back to the
beginning.
We are going back to Michael Jackson's
legacy,
and we're going to bring him all the
way back to the top.
We love you.
Michael's will was brought to his
family
a couple days after his death.
It was absolutely startling.
Joe Jackson and his children were not
included in the will.
And I filed objections
How do you feel about Michael not
including you in the will?
I didn't think that they were given
the consideration that they should
have been.
How do you feel about Michael not
including you in the will?
Thank you, Joe.
Joining us from LA is Jackson family
attorney Brian Oxman.
Good morning, Mr Oxman.
- Good morning. How are you?
I'm fine. Thank you for joining us.
Is it safe to assume that
Michael Jackson did not want his
father,
whom he very publicly accused of
abuse,
to control neither his estate nor his
children?
Joe Jackson is a good man. Michael
loved his father,
and I want that to be known throughout
all of time.
Michael Jackson's brothers and
sisters were left nothing.
It's a slap in the face.
I mean, they were there from the
beginning.
Jackson Five Right?
Now, John Branca and another business
type
were named co-executors of Michael
Jackson's estate.
There was a tug of war between
the Jackson family and the executors
about the will.
Last week, Randy, Jermaine, Janet,
Tito and Rebbie signed a stunning
letter
to the executors of Michael's will.
They're crying conspiracy over his
death,
calling the will fake, flawed and
fraudulent.
Jane, help me out here. What the
heck is going on?
One word - money! Money, money,
money, money!
Michael was massively in debt when
he died. $500 million.
But the inherent value of his work
was such that there was money to be
made.
As concert promoters, we had spent a
lot of money,
close to, I think, $40 million already
on the This Is It project.
So the day that Michael passed,
we went around and collected
everyone's hard drives,
any footage of Michael
Yo, dude, taking a quick little tour
here.
..and then we produced the
theatrical release that went to DVD.
It was the story of a making of the
tour,
all those hits and all those great
songs,
seeing Michael Jackson live, and
people wanted to see it.
This is us going to the premiere.
Hey!
That's when John Branca, who ran
Michael's estate,
jumped in and made the deal with Sony.
He managed to maximise this revenue
in ways that I
You know, I couldn't believe.
We think that the movie This Is It
gave fans a pretty good glimpse
at the real Michael.
He was a perfectionist,
and at the same time, he was a
humanitarian
Branca steered that beautifully.
I mean, This Is It was the
highest-grossing
concert documentary of all time.
That deal got us all of our money
back.
And then some.
Go, Michael, go!
The This Is It DVD and the
theatrical release
just made a huge amount of money for
the estate.
But it was just the beginning of what
they were going to do.
They cleared Michael's debt, put
Neverland up for sale
..then they did their show in Las
Vegas,
the Cirque du Soleil show.
The estate became a money making
machine.
He is raking in more than any
musician in history,
years after his death.
Your view of American icon Michael
Jackson
will never be the same
once you hear about the new
documentary Leaving Neverland.
Once the abuse started, within that
first week,
you know, every night that I was with
him, there was abuse.
You know, he started talking about how
much he loves me.
What this is is us,
how we show our love for each other.
The new documentary detailing abuse
accusations
against Michael Jackson has sparked a
new debate about his legacy.
I found the testimony from the two
alleged victims of Jackson
to be incredibly compelling and
visceral
in a way that the criminal trials and
previous accusations
had not been, so personally, as a
listener,
my relationship to this music has
changed completely.
Jackson's estate filed suit against
HBO.
They actually called this documentary
a public lynching.
It may be too soon to know if there
will be
a lasting impact on the popularity of
Jackson's music.
After the film Leaving Neverland,
the estate was really shaken.
Those accusations could have been the
end of everything.
But the estate kept their eyes on the
prize
..and Michael's legacy survived.
The Michael Jackson Story is about
one of the great performers of all
time.
He was a genius, and yet he was very
troubled and problematical.
And now, in death, the executors of
Michael Jackson's estate
are working ferociously to erase
the problematical side of Michael
Jackson
and focus entirely on his younger
years,
his creative years, and focus on the
music.
This is the most extraordinary effort
to un-cancel someone.
The show must go on.
Woo!
I've been on an incredible An
incredible journey.
I've seen children just shower all
over me with love.
They want to just touch me and hug me,
and just hold on and cry and not let
go.
I really believe
..that children are God.
When I look in the eyes of a child,
it's like God saying,
"Michael, everything will be OK."
The number one artist in the world!
That level of mega-stardom is not
healthy.
People are not gods.
Tonight, Jackson is wanted by police
of multiple felony counts of child
molestation.
The Jackson machine just keeps right
on rolling.
The British documentary called
Living With Michael Jackson
has everybody talking.
This is the way the Times newspaper
in Britain covers it.
"Jackson faces ruin after admitting: I
slept with boys."
Why can't you share your bed
with?
The most loving thing to do is to
share your bed with someone.
Merely admitting that on television
has created
what one person says is the longest
professional suicide note in history.
This documentary started a disaster.
It was clear he was really in trouble
with this.
It's just a question of what does he
do
when he's in bed with them?
- I mean, anybody advising Michael
Jackson
would have to say, A, don't do that,
and after he did it,
they must lock him up in a room and
say, "You've got to be kidding."
But he's Michael Jackson, so probably
nobody does that.
He really was scared.
It was Michael's biggest fear
after the documentary, the fans could
go away.
He could lose his whole brand, his
reputation, everything he did.
We were in a hotel, Miami, and middle
in the night,
Michael knocked on the door.
He was crying,
and he got a letter
from his accountant saying,
"There's no money right now.
"You need to go in a smaller room."
And he was saying,
"Can you believe that they put me out
of a suite
"and put me in a small room?"
Michael Jackson does not earn the
kind of money he used to make.
You know, at the height of his
earnings power,
this guy made $50 million a year.
Guess what?
His records don't sell any more. And,
you know,
he's in a very tenuous spot right now.
On song, but no longer making the
notes.
The latest claim that the Peter Pan of
pop is nearly penniless.
He's spending about $700,000 a week,
which means
that when he gets out of bed in the
morning,
he's spent $100,000 before he's had
coffee.
We hope he's not broke,
because he owes my client $12 million.
All of the money that Michael has at
this point,
all the cash that he has,
I should say, comes from loans.
Everything is borrowed, borrowed
Borrowed, borrowed,
borrowed against the Michael Jackson
catalogue
that has Billie Jean and Beat It and
all his hit songs,
borrowed against the Beatles
catalogue.
Michael Jackson celebrated his 45th
birthday in true Jackson style.
It was just him and the fans.
After all he's been through, they
still love him.
The King of Pop!
Michael taught me very clear that
now as it's over
with touring, now he starts with new
business.
The fans going to keep the business
machine moving.
There's going to be a new
Michael Jackson clothing line,
resort hotels
We promise to make Neverland more
accessible to the fans.
What's the media trying to say about
you, Michael?
We don't believe a word of it.
- He's perfect,
and he's an angel, and I don't care
what anybody says.
In 2003,
I was a prosecutor specialising in
child sexual abuse cases.
I got a call to go see the district
attorney,
and he showed me a two-page report.
It involved an allegation of child
sexual abuse.
It said "Michael Jackson" on it.
And I thought, "Oh, my gosh, he's
back!"
That scene in the documentary that was
played
over and over and over again of Gavin
Arvizo
sitting next to Michael Jackson
and resting his head on his shoulder
and holding his hand
I knew it was an inappropriate
relationship.
You sit right there, buddy.
We are going to try our best to make a
case.
OK, a criminal case. We're going to
try our best.
But you need to understand
that we're going to need your
cooperation.
Gavin, can you tell us
what your conversations
what you guys talked about?
Good evening. For years, pop star
Michael Jackson
has denied having inappropriate
contact with children
and he has never been charged,
but tonight, Jackson is wanted by
police.
We would encourage him to turn
himself in
and cooperate with law enforcement.
Yes. Anita? What? Have you heard?
Any sightings?
Not yet. We're all on the lookout,
though.
We were in the hotel in Vegas.
Somebody called me and told me,
"Dieter, watch TV."
The police went to the ranch.
The service of the warrants
was part of an ongoing investigation
alleging criminal misconduct on the
part of Michael Jackson.
When I told him there's a new charge
from this young boy, Arvizo
..he was so deeply shocked
that I think he's going to He's
going to die.
And then something terrible happened.
The director of the hotel told us to
leave right away.
They did not want to have somebody
with these charges in the hotel.
Michael was out of control and was
screaming,
"Why you close the door in front of
me?"
They didn't allow him to come in.
But then I told him,
"Michael, look, this time, you have to
fight it."
Jackson flying from Las Vegas
to Santa Barbara, turns himself in to
the Santa Barbara sheriff
Michael Jackson has been booked on
charges of child molestation.
The famous shot you'll see plastered
all over newspapers around the world -
Michael Jackson in handcuffs.
Michael Jackson today went from
being
the gloved one to the fingerprinted
one
I just sat down and said, "Not
again."
Seven counts of child molestation.
I told him, "You don't know these
wicked people.
"The people are just mean and wicked."
The bail amount on the warrant has
been set at $3 million.
They'll tarnish your reputation, and
people will always remember you
the way they said he was, not the way
he really is.
How do you view the guy now?
Probably not in a good way.
Definitely don't respect him.
Reporters, cameras and helicopters
have been chasing
the Jackson story around Southern
California.
Fox has confirmed he is now back in
Las Vegas,
and here are the pictures to prove it.
Hold on. He's coming out. Hold on,
hold on,
hold on.
- I remember when we went to the
airport
We took blankets and tried to stop all
the press taking pictures.
He was so deeply shocked about the
situation, how they treated him.
Later on, he showed me
these bruises on his arm, on his
shoulder.
He was thinking the police, the
system
America was against him.
I wanted to let you know
that this is Michael Jackson's car as
they ride through Las Vegas.
He keeps rolling his window down at
intersections like this.
People have been coming up to the
window
and he's been reaching out, shaking
their hands.
I think they're setting them up.
I mean, it just none of this makes
any sense.
You know? I love him so much. I mean,
he needs us, you know?
And no matter what, I'll believe in
him, and I'm here for him.
Michael was ready to fight.
He was focussed completely on this
whole problem.
Then the new security people came in
and his lawyers and his accountants
showed up.
Michael's empire and reputation was at
risk.
And this situation was terrible for
me, because I had to leave.
I could do nothing any more. They took
over completely.
It was the end of my work with Michael
Jackson.
Hey, I need to speak to Angela now.
Every crew is here and my crew is not
here.
I'm still checking on what's going on.
I got an assignment. There's going
to be this huge
Michael Jackson business meeting, this
summit.
Find out all about it. And if you can,
get in there.
If we can get a quick statement
- Thank you.
Come on. I had this little sort of
mini cam
that I was walking around with, to the
annoyance of everybody.
Can I get a brief statement? Is there
any way?
You'll get a statement later?
- Oh, you are OK.
Thank you. Sorry to bother you.
I was a journalist reporting for
Celebrity Justice,
and that later kind of morphed into
TMZ.
So if you guys want to just, uh, you
know,
shoot the room, do what you want
It's going to last about five
minutes
It was all very confusing.
Oh, were we invited? How did we hear
about it?
This is the Michael Jackson smoke and
mirrors world.
Is there a reason why you wanted us
to see the type of business meeting it
is?
No, no, the reason is you all are here
- Right.
You had Charles Koppelman, an
industry legend,
you had Al Malnik He's the one who
bailed Michael Jackson out
to the tune of $3 million when he was
arrested.
Then you had Leonard Muhammad,
who is a top echelon Nation of Islam
guy,
and you had John Branca,
the genius behind getting the Beatles
catalogue.
And so these super heavyweights, they
were there to keep
the glue together, right, in the
Jackson Empire.
There are people who have wondered who
is in charge.
Can you clarify that, sir?
- Michael is in charge. Yeah,
clearly, Michael is in charge.
Will he be taking part in today's
meeting,
Mr Koppelman?
- Um He may. He's welcome at any time.
Do you plan on seeing him at the
meeting today?
He's welcome at any time.
Constantly it's said that Mr Jackson
is in financial trouble.
Can you clarify that, sir?
- Again, do we look worried?
Total BS, total BS.
Mr Mohammad
There's nothing normal about this
meeting
because Michael Jackson was about
to be subjected to the most
high-profile trial.
The fact that his finances were such a
convoluted mess, with debt,
with loans, with mortgages, with
skyrocketing interest payments
Obviously, this was the crisis summit.
The brand was on life support,
and if it died right there, it wasn't
going to have a future.
CNN has confirmed that a grand jury
that's been meeting
to consider charges of child
molestation
against pop star Michael Jackson has,
in fact, indicted Michael Jackson.
We've just received this release
from
Michael Jackson's attorneys,
saying he will appear and enter a plea
of not guilty.
I know you know him, Donald. Any
reaction to this?
Well, I know him very well. He's
lived in my buildings.
He lived in Trump Tower, and I know
him very well,
and I don't believe it.
I'm going to stick up for him because
nobody else is.
Why would he turn around and say
"Michael Jackson sexually molested me"
if it weren't true?
Because parents have power over
children.
This is not him. No, I know his heart.
It was past midnight
and the telephone rang and I hear,
"Hello?"
I said, "Michael, is that you?"
"Brian? Is that you?
"Oh, Brian, I'm so scared. Did you see
what happened today?
"Yes, I did," Michael.
"This is not good, Michael." "Brian,
what am I going to do?"
I said, "What we do is
"we have to find out everything there
is to know about this family.
"Everybody has dirt. Everybody They
are not clean.
"And from what I hear, they're really
dirty, Michael.
"And we will find the dirt on these
people."
And he said, "Do it, do it, Brian."
I am Brian Oxman.
I am the former attorney for Michael
Jackson.
I have known all of the Jackson
family for most of my life.
My first client was Randy Jackson.
I did his divorce and then I did
Jermaine's divorce,
and then I did Jackie's divorce, and
then I did Tito's divorce,
La Toya's divorce, and I did Michael's
divorce.
I am part of this family. It's sort of
like Hotel California.
You can check out any time you want,
but you can never leave.
Michael, come over here. Shake our
hands.
Michael!
When I got to Santa Maria for the
trial,
the press was camped out like it was
the end of the world.
It was bigger than OJ Simpson, which I
had been at.
This was in a small town. It was hard
to get to,
but the whole place was taken over by
this.
It was an extraordinary thing.
Michael!
- Innocent!
Michael!
- Innocent!
One, two, three, four, Michael's not a
molest-or
Why? Why? Why, why, why?
When Michael went to his
arraignment,
it was a deluge of fans.
They were going crazy.
And in his own showmanship way, he let
them know, "I am not afraid."
He had no shortage of lawyers.
I mean, they got every single piece
of paper,
every single document that had ever
generated
by any member of the family - medical
records,
psych records, school records,
business records
They got it by way of subpoena without
notifying the prosecution.
Michael's innocent! Michael's
innocent!
Pervert, pervert, pervert, pervert!
The prosecution said the family
is being harassed by these subpoenas.
They said the so-called victim's
family
is going into witness protection.
So I needed to find them.
I called my friend, and she says,
"I'll find them for you."
So she called the grandmother and
asked
if she had their new address, and she
said sure,
and she gave it to us.
It was to make it clear
that Michael Jackson was not backing
down.
Years ago,
I allowed a family to visit and spend
time at Neverland.
I allowed this family into my home
because they told me their son
was ill with cancer and needed my
help.
These events have caused a nightmare
for my family, my children and me.
I never intend to place myself in so
vulnerable a position ever again.
I will be acquitted and vindicated
when the truth is told.
Opening statements began today.
The defence is expected to describe
Jackson
as the victim of a money-hungry mob
who coached her son to lie for cash.
The prosecution, on the other hand,
will paint Jackson as a wicked
paedophile
who got a sick boy drunk to molest
him.
This is a trial for his life.
Not just his freedom, his life.
Everything's on the line.
Justice for Michael! Justice for
Michael!
He's been guilty for years! Put him
away!
In court, the prosecution played
the Living With Michael Jackson movie,
the documentary which created this
whole furore.
And what happened as that programme
progressed,
the jury there were bouncing and
dancing
and snapping their fingers to
Michael's music.
This was Michael's magic, infecting
everybody.
This affected the entire course of the
trial.
We had one witness who worked at
Neverland
..and he told us that he brought
to Michael Jackson's room wine while
the boys were there.
And when he was on the witness stand,
he said he brought Coca-Cola to the
room.
I said, "Didn't you tell us that it
was wine?
"It was alcohol that he brought to the
room?"
"I was mistaken."
One after the other, witnesses would
walk into court,
you would just watch them look over,
see Michael Jackson and their
demeanour changed.
He was a very powerful person.
The pop star didn't show up for
court
this morning until the judge
threatened to have him arrested.
Jackson failed to show up in court
at 8:30am
for testimony from the teen who claims
Jackson molested him.
When Jackson did arrive an hour and
ten minutes late,
he appeared dishevelled, his hair a
bit messy,
only pyjama-bottomed, a T-shirt and a
blazer.
He tripped this morning and he fell
in the early morning hours while he
was getting dressed.
His back is in terrible pain.
I ended up testifying in the trial,
right?
And that's where it became just
absolutely a three-ring circus of
bizarre. I started noticing Michael's
strange behaviour.
And, you know, besides,
when he showed up to court in pyjamas,
which was Nutsoville,
Michael was like, "I can't deal with
it,
"I can't deal with it, it brings me
stress."
And I'm like, "OK".
But he's that brilliant genius, right,
that happens to be half braindead and
dumb at the same time,
that doesn't know anything going on?
Wait a second - which one is it?
Oh, he's trying to get the sympathy.
I could see the women on the jury
looking very concerned and very
worried,
and we knew it was all an act.
His performance really was very good.
Is Jackson spiralling downward?
It was no accident that all of that
pyjama business happened
when the accuser is about to take the
stand
and deliver the most incriminating
evidence.
Michael! Michael!
Go!
You've been through a lot this year.
- That's right.
No joke.
- How is Michael doing financially?
Because he has not been recording or
performing ever since it started,
and he has mega expenses.
How is he doing?
Michael is doing fine.
Are you worried?
Am I worried?
Being the father, you always have to
have some worry.
Do you think if he's acquitted, he
can resume his career?
Of course.
Come on Of course he can resume his
career.
This is This is just the United
States.
All the rest of the countries all over
the world
are very, very proud of Michael. It is
here
we have the most trouble out of.
Why do you think it's such a problem
in America?
Why do you think?
- Come on
You don't want me to answer that, do
you?
No, don't answer it.
- Shall I?
- No, Joe, just shut up. Stop it!
I don't want to cut to the chase on
this one.
- Stop it!
Come on
It might be about racism? What do
you think?
It is racism. It is.
Katherine's not going to say it, but I
will say it. It is racism.
We shouldn't be even out here
talking about any of this.
We weren't supposed to even bring
Michael up.
You might get us in a lot of trouble.
- No, no, no.
A flurry of activity outside the
courthouse in Santa Maria
as SUVs are seen leaving Michael
Jackson's Neverland Ranch.
What's going on?
Michael Jackson entered the courthouse
to learn his fate.
You've got to wonder
what is going through his mind at this
point.
He really thinks there are going
to be riots in the streets if he's
convicted.
He really believes that?
- He really believes
that somehow this injustice will be
overturned instantly,
because who would put the King of Pop
in jail?
The people of the state of California
plaintiff
versus Michael Joe Jackson, defendant.
Case number 1133603. Verdict
We the jury in the above entitled
case
..find the defendant not guilty of a
lewd act upon a minor child.
And there it is. All ten counts. Not
guilty on all ten counts.
Michael Jackson will be walking out of
this courtroom a free man.
..Michael!
Was I disappointed? Sure.
You never, as a prosecutor, want to
hear the words "not guilty".
I felt that it was remarkably obvious
that he was molesting children.
I was mystified why other people
didn't see it.
Everything about him just screamed
"child molester".
He needs to, you know, stay low for
a while
and keep the adults at the ranch
and maybe stay away from the kids for
a little bit,
maybe bring some girls over, Michael.
Come on now!
The result was innocent,
but so many Americans thought he was
guilty.
Michael was extremely concerned about
all of these people.
He would complain to his mom and to
his dad and to everybody,
to me "My life's over."
What exactly is happening to Michael
Jackson today?
It's the same thing that always
happens, Nancy.
This guy doesn't pay his bills.
How much are we talking about?
We're talking about nearly $300
million outstanding debt.
After the trial, a lot of people
were saying
Michael Jackson put himself into
exile.
Right?
He had to not only leave Neverland
but he left the United States of
America.
He pops up in Bahrain, and of course,
he's friends with the royal family
and living like the King of Pop again,
borrowing millions of dollars from his
host.
Then it's "where's Michael Jackson?
He's left Bahrain.
"Oh, wait. Hold on. He's in
Ireland"
Ireland!
At around 4:00 today, Michael
Jackson emerged
from his scheduled Aer Lingus flight.
He made his way down the plane's steps
holding a masked child's hand.
Jackson and his travelling party
boarded a silver Volkswagen minibus
via the VIP exit of the airport.
Michael Jackson was trying to figure
out -
what am I going to do with the rest of
my life?
Ireland is kind of a little out of the
way,
and he was able to live kind of a
tranquil life -
he hoped, anyway.
In June 2006,
rumours started circulating in the
Irish press
that Michael Jackson had been sighted
in different places.
But I didn't think much of it. So we
were quite surprised
when the door opened and the patient
said,
"Hello, my name is Michael Jackson."
And it wasn't too long before Michael
entrusted us
with his aesthetic treatments.
We treated in that period his
bottom of his ankles were beginning to
turn black again
and he wanted us to increase
the bleaching cream to a stronger
percentage.
He didn't really have any money.
I mean, his credit cards bounced on
many occasions.
I remember one time he was in our big
glass showroom
and he started pocketing quite a lot
of the cosmetics.
Some of the things were worth between
100 and 500 euros,
and he had a big sort of jacket, coat
on,
and when I ran into him, he had as
many as 20 or 30
of these products in his pockets, and
he just laughed.
I think as time progressed,
you could see that Michael became
happier
and happier living in Ireland.
He said that he'd love to settle here,
away from the press.
Our friendship became closer,
and when I was down his house, he
opened up to me.
I think he felt trapped between
finding a new location to live
..and having to go back to the United
States
to overcome those financial struggles.
I could see that this did play on his
mind.
I was asked would I be interested in
doing a security detail
for a dignitary that was coming to
town.
Mr Jackson - I called him Mr Jackson -
he was returning to the States
on the basis of being a headliner in
Las Vegas.
Come on, guys, come on in.
It was a lot going on. I mean, he
had a lot going on.
He was raising three kids, that he
wanted to do on his own.
Mrs Jackson moved into the house,
which was on Monte Cristo.
We realised that he did have insomnia.
Even though we had armed security at
the property,
we would see him walking throughout
the house at night, checking doors.
A very lonely world.
..or Candyland?
There's always someone trying to see
him
Business associates,
all different type of producers trying
to get at him.
I think it put him into seclusion a
little bit.
Michael, we love you!
- We love you, Michael!
You're the best!
There he is! David Beckham,
the huge international soccer star, is
coming to America!
My partner and I, Paul, worked for a
division of AEG.
The core business is live
entertainment, sports
You know, those kind of things.
AEG had just done a deal with David
Beckham
to play for the LA Galaxy.
It's nice to see so many fans, and I
thank you for that.
When Michael saw that, he was really
excited,
he was kind of jumping around the room
and saying, "Hey,
"you guys should do a David Beckham
deal with me."
Remember that Michael's last tour was
the HIStory tour in 1997,
so this would have been a good 12
years after that.
So the anticipation of being able
to see Michael Jackson live was
I don't know. I can't think of
anything, really,
that would be bigger than that.
I remember the day he signed the
deal,
when This Is It was in formation.
He came out and said, "Bill,
"now you're going to see the
vultures."
I started to get all the phone calls
from people
that we've never heard from before.
People were coming out the woodwork.
They wanted to be part of this tour.
They wanted to be part of him.
I always said it. Mr Jackson was a big
ATM.
Feel my heart, it's going boom,
boom, boom right now, seriously.
Since I was little, I used to come
home from nursery, yeah,
put on my Michael Jackson video and
that's it. I was gone.
Like, he taught me how to dance,
everything, man.
It's gonna be sick.
London was Michael's Probably
biggest market in the world.
Our plans were that the tour would go
global.
I've got every single album, I've
been to every single tour,
and I'm going to go to every single
date
that he releases that I can get my
hands on.
You're obviously a very rich woman,
then?
No, I'm not. It's the credit crunch!
It's my credit card.
The This Is It tour was going to be
much bigger than
anything he had He had done.
Do you really think he can come back
after everything that's happened?
There's nothing happened. It's just
the media, innit? So it's fine.
Court case, rumours of financial
- Rubbish. This is Michael Jackson.
You know, he's He's the King of
Pop.
Ready for this?
London welcomes the King of Pop, Mr
Michael Jackson.
So it's been a while,
and everyone's waiting and waiting and
waiting.
They didn't realise that Michael was
drunk and out of it.
I was at the O2 and they were back
at the hotel with Michael
trying to get him going because things
were going very slowly.
While we were waiting, I kind of wrote
a really short speech,
and when Michael walked in, he came
over to me
and he gave me a big hug and I said,
"Here's the speech."
And he went And he whispered in my
ear,
"Make the words really big, I can't
see."
And the crowd just erupted.
I love you.
He just started to bask in it.
He started to glow, in a way, you
know
I think he was overwhelmed, actually.
This Is It. This Is It!
This Is It. This Is It!
I just want to say that, um
This will be it. This is it. And when
I say this is it,
it really means this is it,
because these will be
my final show performances.
This is it, and see you in July.
So what happened was we ended up at
50 shows.
I've never seen demand like that.
We had about 15,000 sellable seats per
show.
They all went for 50 shows.
Got a calculator? Do the math!
We're kind of excited, Michael's
coming today.
There's the man.
- There's Michael.
- The man is here.
During rehearsals, Michael knew
exactly what he wanted,
but it was Kenny who ran the
rehearsals.
Michael really didn't have to say
anything to anyone
because Kenny was so on top of it.
Michael
- It's not easy, though.
Michael One more time, I couldn't
hear you, sir.
The inner ears are very difficult
for me. When you're raised
To use just your real, own you
know, aural oratory ears.
Yeah. Is it?
- It feels like It feels like
somebody's fist
Just their fist is shoved into your
ear.
Mr Jackson was not happy.
Privately, he felt that physically, he
was not prepared
to do that many shows in that short a
time.
He said to me directly He said,
"Bill,
"I can't do 50 shows. Bill, it would
kill me."
But he was going to make a lot of
money from this show,
enough to where he was done.
Just trying to conserve my throat,
please. So understand
I would watch Michael,
and the impression I got was kind of
lost.
He was dealing with an addiction
issue.
I was watching, you know, pills come
in and pills go out.
You see people with fetty or other
things in street drugs
that they're not alive, but they're
not dead yet.
And it just had this feeling of, like,
limbo.
The assumption I think that a lot of
people think
is that he's being controlled
and that he doesn't know what he's
doing.
That isn't true. He knew what he was
doing,
and he knows what kind of drugs he's
taking.
But Michael was surrounded by people
that wanted to please him,
people he chose to surround himself
with.
But he is going downward. And so
you
You have to ask yourself, "Where am I
going?"
You know, "What's the next train
stop?"
It's an American tragedy.
The tragedy was not that he was taking
prescription drug medication.
The tragedy was that this man who got
more attention
than any human being that might have
ever lived
in the history of the world
was still so utterly lonely.
When I was in Macy's, they kept
saying,
"Michael's dead, Michael's dead."
I dropped everything and just came
running out here.
No-one else. No-one else. No-one
else
I walked into the emergency room.
And I looked through the doors and I
could see the family.
And I saw La Toya, and she was leaning
up against the wall.
And then I saw her slump to the ground
and sat on the floor.
I said, right then and there
I said, "Michael Jackson is dead.
"Michael Jackson is dead."
This is hard. Um
My brother, the legendary King of Pop,
Michael Jackson,
passed away on Thursday, June 25th,
2009, at 2:26pm.
It is believed he suffered cardiac
arrest in his home.
This is a Fox News alert. The
chopper is in the air.
They have picked up the body of
Michael Jackson.
His body is now going to be in the
custody of the LA coroner.
The autopsy has been expedited.
It will happen tomorrow at some point
between 7am
and three o'clock in the afternoon.
After that, the body will then be
released to the family.
There was a fire inside me that I
could not contain that day.
In my mind, I was saying to myself,
"You stupid, stupid man.
"I begged you, I warned you, you've
now orphaned your children.
"There's nothing you loved more in the
world than your children.
"You were the only one who could
protect them.
"And now you orphaned your children.
"You stupid man!"
Michael's demons that I think he was
dealing with was self-loathing.
Well, you don't have to feel anything
if you're on, um
Demerol. You just numb it all away.
He felt desperate to change, but
couldn't.
And he actually ends up finding people
that help him to his death.
Is that the most crazy thing in the
world?
If somebody would have just told the
truth,
he would probably be alive, but nobody
did.
Michael Jackson T-shirts, Michael
Jackson T-shirts.
King of Pop, King of Pop. Come down
here, guys.
Come support Michael.
- You got change?
Give you two for 20.
- Oh, how many did you make?
We made, uh, I think it was 1,500
T-shirts.
We sold 40. We've been here for about
ten minutes.
And then you give 10% to the charity
of Michael Jackson's choice!
Woo! Yes, you do that!
I feel like Michael's of
the magnitude to deserve a state
funeral.
I just wanted to wake up and
somebody told me this isn't real.
People are saying that this is going
to be like when Princess Di died.
1,500 inmates in the Philippines
pulled together
a brand new tribute to the King of
Pop.
Michael Jackson fans have always
been committed,
and when he died, it didn't diminish
at all.
In fact, it became stronger.
Tonight, a family's pain.
For the very first time since
Jackson's shocking, unexpected death,
Jackson's family is speaking out.
Do you know anything, Mr Jackson,
about funeral arrangements?
Have you had time?
- Yeah, we haven't gotten to that yet.
Yeah, but we're working on that.
You said your wife has helped.
What about Janet and the rest of the
family? The daughters
They're all doing fine.
But I want to make this statement.
This is a real good statement here.
Marshall and I have We own a record
company called
Tell them.
- Ranch Records.
- Right.
- OK?
It's driven by Blu Ray technology, and
that's his next step.
And that's your next step.
For most of his life. Michael's
father
was constantly coming to him for
money, also with schemes.
So you could say Joseph Jackson, he
was very opportunistic.
Even when Michael died, nothing
changed.
Hello, everybody.
What I'm doing is, I established a
record company,
and this is Marshall, by the way.
Marshall, go ahead.
OK, what's happening is, in the
entertainment side,
we're going all the way back to the
beginning.
We are going back to Michael Jackson's
legacy,
and we're going to bring him all the
way back to the top.
We love you.
Michael's will was brought to his
family
a couple days after his death.
It was absolutely startling.
Joe Jackson and his children were not
included in the will.
And I filed objections
How do you feel about Michael not
including you in the will?
I didn't think that they were given
the consideration that they should
have been.
How do you feel about Michael not
including you in the will?
Thank you, Joe.
Joining us from LA is Jackson family
attorney Brian Oxman.
Good morning, Mr Oxman.
- Good morning. How are you?
I'm fine. Thank you for joining us.
Is it safe to assume that
Michael Jackson did not want his
father,
whom he very publicly accused of
abuse,
to control neither his estate nor his
children?
Joe Jackson is a good man. Michael
loved his father,
and I want that to be known throughout
all of time.
Michael Jackson's brothers and
sisters were left nothing.
It's a slap in the face.
I mean, they were there from the
beginning.
Jackson Five Right?
Now, John Branca and another business
type
were named co-executors of Michael
Jackson's estate.
There was a tug of war between
the Jackson family and the executors
about the will.
Last week, Randy, Jermaine, Janet,
Tito and Rebbie signed a stunning
letter
to the executors of Michael's will.
They're crying conspiracy over his
death,
calling the will fake, flawed and
fraudulent.
Jane, help me out here. What the
heck is going on?
One word - money! Money, money,
money, money!
Michael was massively in debt when
he died. $500 million.
But the inherent value of his work
was such that there was money to be
made.
As concert promoters, we had spent a
lot of money,
close to, I think, $40 million already
on the This Is It project.
So the day that Michael passed,
we went around and collected
everyone's hard drives,
any footage of Michael
Yo, dude, taking a quick little tour
here.
..and then we produced the
theatrical release that went to DVD.
It was the story of a making of the
tour,
all those hits and all those great
songs,
seeing Michael Jackson live, and
people wanted to see it.
This is us going to the premiere.
Hey!
That's when John Branca, who ran
Michael's estate,
jumped in and made the deal with Sony.
He managed to maximise this revenue
in ways that I
You know, I couldn't believe.
We think that the movie This Is It
gave fans a pretty good glimpse
at the real Michael.
He was a perfectionist,
and at the same time, he was a
humanitarian
Branca steered that beautifully.
I mean, This Is It was the
highest-grossing
concert documentary of all time.
That deal got us all of our money
back.
And then some.
Go, Michael, go!
The This Is It DVD and the
theatrical release
just made a huge amount of money for
the estate.
But it was just the beginning of what
they were going to do.
They cleared Michael's debt, put
Neverland up for sale
..then they did their show in Las
Vegas,
the Cirque du Soleil show.
The estate became a money making
machine.
He is raking in more than any
musician in history,
years after his death.
Your view of American icon Michael
Jackson
will never be the same
once you hear about the new
documentary Leaving Neverland.
Once the abuse started, within that
first week,
you know, every night that I was with
him, there was abuse.
You know, he started talking about how
much he loves me.
What this is is us,
how we show our love for each other.
The new documentary detailing abuse
accusations
against Michael Jackson has sparked a
new debate about his legacy.
I found the testimony from the two
alleged victims of Jackson
to be incredibly compelling and
visceral
in a way that the criminal trials and
previous accusations
had not been, so personally, as a
listener,
my relationship to this music has
changed completely.
Jackson's estate filed suit against
HBO.
They actually called this documentary
a public lynching.
It may be too soon to know if there
will be
a lasting impact on the popularity of
Jackson's music.
After the film Leaving Neverland,
the estate was really shaken.
Those accusations could have been the
end of everything.
But the estate kept their eyes on the
prize
..and Michael's legacy survived.
The Michael Jackson Story is about
one of the great performers of all
time.
He was a genius, and yet he was very
troubled and problematical.
And now, in death, the executors of
Michael Jackson's estate
are working ferociously to erase
the problematical side of Michael
Jackson
and focus entirely on his younger
years,
his creative years, and focus on the
music.
This is the most extraordinary effort
to un-cancel someone.
The show must go on.
Woo!
I've been on an incredible An
incredible journey.
I've seen children just shower all
over me with love.
They want to just touch me and hug me,
and just hold on and cry and not let
go.
I really believe
..that children are God.
When I look in the eyes of a child,
it's like God saying,
"Michael, everything will be OK."