HE CALLS HIS RANCH NEVERLAND. HE surrounds himself with young boys. He speaks in a child's whisper. He seems to float onstage. And he doesn't want to grow up. Michael Jackson has identified so closely with Peter Pan that for years he hoped to star in a Steven Spielberg film version of the James M. Barrie play. It might have been the first extraterrestrial autobiography.
Yet Jackson's profound weirdness -- not just the glove or the seaweed hair striping his face but the blanched skin, the pained eyes, the tremulous soul -- hinted that Pan was the wrong role for him. Wasn't Jackson really one of the Lost Boys, stranded between childhood and adolescence, loved by the public yet feeling caged and abandoned, and searching, groping for the Edenic innocence he believed was any child's birthright?
Allegations made public last week raised new questions: What humanity may Michael Jackson have lost? What innocence might he have stolen from children dazzled by his aura? In a vitriolic custody battle between a Los Angeles woman and her ex-husband, who is a prominent dentist and (it goes without saying) screenwriter, the pair's 13-year-old child had accused Jackson of fellating him, and the Los Angeles Police Department was investigating the charge. The star, who has poignantly described himself as a victim of child abuse, was in danger of being exposed as a perpetrator.
"I am confident the department will conduct a fair and thorough investigation," Jackson said in a statement, "and its results will demonstrate that there was no wrongdoing on my part." His attorney, Howard Weitzman, denied the charge and accused the father of extortion. "What has transpired here," he says, "is the result of a rejected demand made by a father of one of Michael's young friends." The dentist, Jackson's camp alleged, had proposed a $20 million production partnership with the star and had added this threat: Put up the money or I'll tell the cops you abused my boy. The father has reportedly denied this.
In Bangkok on his Pepsi-sponsored world tour, Jackson canceled two concerts, pleading dehydration, but returned Friday night to wow more than 40,000 fans in the sweltering heat. (In Thai papers, Pepsi's rival placed ads that read, "Dehydrated? There's Always Coke.") As gossips fanned stories of a Michael suicide attempt that were denied by his lawyer, sister Janet and famous friend Elizabeth Taylor jetted to Singapore, the tour's next stop, to give moral support. The Los Angeles police had already searched Jackson's Santa Ynez ranch for lurid videotapes; one report said nothing incriminating was found. The police were questioning other lads, supposedly including child star Macaulay Culkin. And when will results be issued? "It could be tomorrow, it could be two months from now," said L.A.P.D. spokesman Arthur Holmes. "We solve no crime before its time." This is Hollywood, folks; everyone speaks Show Biz.