British television interviewer Martin Bashir, whose documentary Living With Michael Jackson led to the current molestation charges against the entertainer, is putting the finishing touches to another film which is reported to be equally damaging to Jackson.
British television interviewer Martin Bashir, whose documentary Living With Michael Jackson led to the current molestation charges against the entertainer, is putting the finishing touches to another film which is reported to be equally damaging to Jackson.
Called Michael Jackson's Secret World, it is being kept under close wraps by the ABC network, for whom Bashir now works, but is said to contain video footage showing Jackson with young boys, including the one at the heart of the current criminal trial. Not surprisingly, Jackson did not provide a new interview. The two-hour programme, described by insiders as "still a work in progress" is due to be shown in the US on Thursday.
Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old former cancer patient, giving the boy alcohol, and conspiring to hold him and his family captive. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Jury selection in the case continues tomorrow.
On Friday ABC broadcast a much-publicised television interview by Bashir with the former child actor Corey Feldman, who talked about visiting Jackson's home when he was a young teenager and seeing pictures of naked men and women. Feldman, who, like the interviewer, has been subpoenaed by prosecutors to testify against Jackson, told Bashir on the ABC news programme 20/20 that he went to the singer's home when he was 13 or 14 and saw a book on the coffee table with pictures of naked men and women.
"The book was focused on venereal diseases and the genitalia," he said. "And he sat down with me and he explained it to me, showed me some different pictures and discussed what those meant.
"I was kind of grossed out by it," he told Bashir. "But I didn't think of it as a big deal, and for all these years I probably never thought twice about it. But in light of recent evidence, I have to say that if my son was 13 or 14 years old and went to a man's apartment and I knew they were sitting down together talking about this, I would probably beat his ass." Feldman, whose fee for the interview - if any - is unknown, said he hoped the allegations against Jackson were proved false, but felt compelled to speak out.
The former child actor's statements are inconsistent with previous comments he had made, such as when he told CNN interviewer Larry King in November 2003 that he had never seen Jackson "act in any inappropriate way to a child. Never with me." Feldman, 33, who starred in the 1980s films Stand By Me and The Goonies and was arrested for heroin possession in 1990, said he was coming forward now because he started "looking at each piece of information ... and with that came this sickening realisation that there have been many occurrences in my life and in my relationship to Michael that have created a question of doubt."
He stopped short of accusing Jackson of molesting him, saying: "He never harmed me and he never harmed any children in front of me." He told Bashir that he defended Jackson in an interview with the police investigating molestation allegations that involved another boy in 1993. "I did what I believed was right as a friend," said Feldman. "I defended him up and down. I said, 'No, he's not gay. No, he's not a weirdo.'"
The new ABC film will reportedly use film taken when Bashir was allowed prolonged access to the star's life. That 2003 programme showed Jackson admitting sharing his bed with young boys and holding hands with Gavin Arvizo, now his chief accuser. Its broadcast and the reaction to it prompted the investigation that has led to the current case.
Last week, Geraldo Rivera told his US viewers that Jackson now concedes that sharing his bed with children was wrong. He also said that Jackson plans to "unmask" his three children for the cameras at some point during the trial.
The defence also intends calling former child stars Macaulay Culkin, who stayed with Jackson when he was a boy, and Oliver! star Mark Lester. He, like Jackson, knew fame at an early age, and the pair have been friends for many years. Jackson is godfather to all four of Lester's children.
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