‘Not Debbie too.’
Another surprising development in Michael Jackson’s life since the most recent edition
of Michael Jackson – The Magic and the Madness
has been the emergence of his ex-wife and mother of two of his children, Debbie Rowe, in a surprisingly antagonistic manner. Though she has said in the past that she has little interest in the upbringing of the children to whom she gave birth, Prince Michael and Paris, she apparently changed her mind once Michael was arrested.
During the months after Michael’s arrest, an alarmed Debbie attempted to contact him to discuss his state of mind. She knows how sensitive he is, and she was concerned about him. However, she had another agenda: she also wanted to discuss the terms of the custody and visitation agreements, especially after learning that the Nation of Islam was involved in Michael’s life. She is Jewish – having converted for her first marriage – and was ‘extremely, extremely upset’, according to a close friend of hers, about Michael’s new alignment with the Nation, an organization known to be anti-Semitic.
It could be argued that it makes little sense, at least from a public-relations standpoint, for Michael Jackson to be involved with any organization deemed to be controversial. He has enough problems. However, that said, the Nation of Islam is an easy mark – and there has been a great deal of overheated media coverage of the organization’s sudden association with the Jacksons because of its obviously biased cultural positions. In fact, fundamentalist religions usually do lean toward certain biases. For instance, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are both overt in their disdain for Islam and for Muslims. There is open disdain at the top of many religions. Is Catholicism not openly against homosexuals? Fundamentalists of all religions often ignite emotions in people, no matter what the religion: fundamentalist Jews, fundamentalist Christians, fundamentalist Muslims, etc… Debbie has said, privately, that she doesn’t want her children around fundamentalists of
any
religion, and especially the Nation of Islam because of its incendiary position against whites and Jews.
Jermaine Jackson is a Muslim, though not a member of the Nation. There are many confounding and contradicting stories about how the Nation became involved in Michael’s life, but the simple truth is that the organization contacted him and asked if he wanted their support… and he said yes. Michael welcomes all support at this time, and seems happy to have it from any quarter. Is the Nation merely involved in Jackson’s security, as he and his handlers have insisted? Or is the group actually managing his business affairs, as strongly rumoured? Is there some kind of religious ‘brainwashing’ going on? It’s doubtful. The Jehovah’s Witnesses couldn’t tell Michael what to do when was a young adult, and Scientologists couldn’t influence him either, when he was with Lisa Marie. It’s doubtful the Nation of Islam will be able to tell him what to do.
However, for an artist who has never preached separatism or racism, the Nation’s involvement in his life is perplexing. To explain away the surprising association, it’s claimed by those presendy in his camp that Michael has known Nation leader Louis Farrakhan since he was six years old. ‘Excuse me?’ remarked a long-time Jackson family associate. ‘Were they socializing back in Gary? Did he come by the house for pre-Jackson 5 rehearsals?’ Indeed, how did a six-year-old boy who wasn’t even famous yet meet Louis Farrakhan in Gary, Indiana? Small world, isn’t it?
It is known, though, that twenty years ago, Louis Farrakhan spoke out against Michael and criticized him as a bad example to the world’s youth. All has been forgiven, apparently, because Farrakhan is now one of Jackson’s supporters. ‘We don’t believe Michael is guilty,’ he said in a recent speech. ‘And there are a lot of people that know the mother who is accusing him and the little boy that he helped to heal, and they don’t believe Michael is guilty. What happened to the presumption of innocence? See, black people are always guilty until they are proved innocent; white people are innocent until they are proved guilty.’
During this time, Michael Jackson should, it could be argued, only be presented in a way that is credible to critical-thinking people and not just that faction of the public arena – his fans, mostly – who will believe anything they are told as long as it is stated by a famous person, or someone described as ‘an official spokesman’. Of course, as soon as Louis Farrakhan made his sweeping and untrue racial generalization in an attempt to play on the basic fears of people of colour, his support of Michael lost all credibility, or as one pundit put it, ‘Too bad that after all these years he doesn’t know where to draw the line.’
It does seem that the Nation has isolated Michael from those in his circle. Even his family members, such as his own mother, have not had access to him after the generous show of familial support at the arraignment. His videographer, Christian Robinson, has not seen Michael since the day of the arrest, either. He ‘absolutely’ believes that the Nation of Islam has kept him away from Jackson. At Michael’s arraignment, a different videographer was at his side when the star leapt atop an automobile to greet his fans. He says that the Nation’s influence is ‘hopefully the closest thing to a jail Michael will ever see’.
It’s easy to blame the Nation for running interference between Michael Jackson and others, especially lately, but if one traces Michael’s history, there has always been some person or some group of people charged with isolating him – and at his own request.
Ten years ago, for instance, when Michael didn’t want to be pressured during the Jordie Chandler debacle with the possibility of another Jackson family reunion venture, his attorneys and Elizabeth Taylor were charged with keeping his parents and siblings at bay. Remember Katherine Jackson asking why it was that Elizabeth had access to Michael, but she did not? Years before that, the job fell to Frank Dileo. Everyone in the family complained then that
he
was the one keeping them from Michael. Before that, John Branca was the person certain family members, blamed for preventing them from having free access to Michael. Going all the way back to the late 1970s, Michael’s managers Ron Weisner and Freddie DeMann were targeted by Joseph and Katherine as being culprits responsible for ruining their relationship with Michael by not allowing them to speak to him.
In truth, no one has ever kept Michael Jackson from anyone in his family, or from certain staff members, without his explicit request that distance be created between him… and ‘them’. The representatives from the Nation of Islam may or may not have their own financial or political agenda at hand in their association with Michael. However, to Michael they serve what he feels is a valuable and habitual purpose: they shelter him from those he feels are out to drain him of whatever little joy he has left in life. Maybe his family has all of the best of intentions, and nothing but love for him, these days. However, if Michael doesn’t see it that way and if he doesn’t act as if he wants them in his life, the notion of their affection and loyalty is moot.
As far as Debbie Rowe is concerned, for her to end up on the outside side of Michael’s present circle is a surprising occurrence. The question remains, though, as to whether or not she has a right to an opinion about Michael’s children, and the way they are being raised. She and Michael did have a custody and visitation agreement (while she did not have custody, she was allowed a couple of visits a year if she wanted them, an opportunity of which she had not availed herself in the past), but it can be changed at any time, said her attorney, ‘with a showing of changed circumstances’. While she gave away custody of her children, she, apparently, did not give away her parental rights. ‘She can always go back to the courts and re-petition to change custody,’ said one attorney, ‘however, no one ever thought she would, but she did – after she could not get a return call from Michael, and after she felt disrespected by him.’
When Michael set a dismissive tone with his ex-wife, his loyalists followed suit and froze her out, as well. Suddenly, no one was returning her phone calls, nor those of her attorney. Whereas just a year earlier, Michael had called upon Debbie to appear in a documentary defending him against the Martin Bashir allegations, now he wanted nothing to do with her. ‘Doesn’t she know I have enough on my hands?’ he asked one associate. ‘Why can’t she just leave me and my children alone?’
While Michael’s associates held a major meeting at the Beverly Hills Hotel in January 2004 to discuss his future, Debbie was in a meeting of her own: at the Ivy in Beverly Hills with two of Michael’s former managers, Dieter Weisner and Ronald Konitzer, to discuss her concern over the involvement of the Nation of Islam in Michael’s life, and also her options relating to child custody.
A final straw for Debbie came in the week of 16 February 2004 when she heard rumours that Michael had gone back into rehab, this time in Colorado.
In truth, Michael was not in rehab in Colorado, but was being treated there by herbalist Alfredo Bowman for what one source close to him describes as ‘not really an addiction but definitely a dependency’ on morphine and the prescription-drug Demerol. Michael’s use of such drugs might explain his detached and odd demeanour of late, especially during his interview with Ed Bradley for
60 Minutes
during which he seemed physically and mentally lethargic. According to reports, he’s been using the medications in order to cope with the stress of the allegations and with chronic insomnia. It’s dangerous behaviour, especially considering what happened ten years ago when he became addicted to painkillers during the Jordie Chandler matter and ended up in rehab in England.
Alfredo Bowman maintains an office in Beverly Hills, and another in Honduras. He was treating TLC singer Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes at his ‘USHA Healing Village’ when she died in a car accident there, in the spring of 2002. Bowman apparently got into trouble with the New York State attorney general a couple of years ago when that office objected to his claiming to have found cures for AIDS, cancer and leukaemia. On his website Bowman boasts of never having gone to school – ‘not even kindergarten’. His website also claims, ‘We are proud to inform you that Cosmo Therapy is part of our healing journey realigning with the energy of life which is beyond spirituality. Return to MOTHER!!!’
Debbie tried to obtain information about Michael’s so-called ‘detox’, but, again, was unsuccessful in contacting him, or anyone around him. The walls around Michael and his children were up, and she was on one side, while the Jackson camp was on the other side. She has always said that Michael is not a paedophile; however, according to sources close to her, she is no longer sure what to believe about him – and until she makes up her mind, she wants guardianship of her two children. She’s even indicated in court papers filed in Los Angeles that the children are not biologically Michael’s, no surprise to his critics who have always been sceptical of the paternity of his children.
In a court order filed on Friday 20 February 2004, Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl approved an agreement reached by the Rowe and Jackson camps to have retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen M. Lachs preside over the case. The order said his appointment would continue ‘until the conclusion of all matters’.
Judge Lachs works with a centre for alternative dispute resolution that allows parties concerned about their privacy who are involved in civil disputes to hire private judges at a rate of $650 an hour. ‘They hire private judges so that everything can be done behind closed doors,’ said attorney Dana Cole, an expert in family law who is not involved in this case. However, Lachs has said that much of what occurs in his ‘private’ court room will still be open to public scrutiny. The private judge’s rulings will be as binding as if they were made in a regular family court.
While Michael does not wish for the matter to proceed as it is in the court system, he has had little choice in it. Ironically, the millions he has paid Debbie over the years have made it possible for her to become one of his biggest adversaries, and maybe one of his biggest nightmares. He’s going up against a woman who can afford to retain legal counsel as powerful as his own – and using money he has paid her to do it! Michael’s signature on the paperwork is big and sprawling, as if he was extremely agitated when he committed it to the document.
Those in his private world say that Debbie Rowe’s re-emergence in Michael Jackson’s life as an opposing force is as hurtful to him as the allegations of child molestation. In retrospect, Michael handled the matter of Debbie’s discontent the way he handles most problems – he tried to avoid it. As has been repeatedly stated by those who know him, he is childlike in many ways, and, it seems, has become more so in this last, traumatizing year – especially when it comes to dealing with unpleasantness.
Like a youngster facing some disagreeable situation, Michael simply could not, or would not, cope with it. He was frightened that Debbie Rowe was positioning herself to pose a serious threat to his family. His hands would shake when he would pick up the telephone to call her. He couldn’t follow through, he was so fearful of what it was she wanted from him and how she might impact his relationship with his children, all three of who have given him the greatest joy he has ever known. One of his associates recalled it best: he handed him the phone to call her. ‘Do it, Mike. You gotta call her,’ he said. Michael looked at him with such an anguished expression, it appeared that he was about to let out a long, desperate scream. But he didn’t. Instead, he put the phone down and walked away in tears. ‘Not Debbie too,’ he said, shaking his in disbelief. ‘Not Debbie too.’