Jane Fonda
At this time, the autumn of 1980, Michael supervised a music video of the Jacksons' song ‘Can You Feel It?’. Ironically, considering what was going on at home with Gina Sprague, the song, written by Michael and Randy, is an anthem to loving human relations. In the video, the brothers appear as superhuman behemoths hoisting a colourful rainbow to light the heavens. They sprinkle Stardust upon the earth, which causes small children of all races and colours to beam at them with appreciation. Bathed in rainbow hues, the youngsters gaze up in wonder at Michael and his brothers. In return, the Jacksons smile down upon the children benevolently; Michael with the biggest smile of all.
‘It's a nice place Michael comes from,’ Steven Spielberg has observed. ‘I wish we could all spend some time in his world.’
Michael also became close to actress Jane Fonda, at this time forty-two, about twenty years Michael's senior, who would try to encourage him to see his mother in a more human light. He and Jane met in 1980 at a press function in Los Angeles. The two discussed their lives, both having come from show-business families, and quickly became close. Some people in Michael's world have speculated that the reason he gravitated towards powerful women who seem self-sufficient, such as Diana Ross and, later, Elizabeth Taylor, was because he had felt so helpless while watching his mother being abused by Joseph. He viewed Katherine as weak and victimized, therefore he searched for a substitute mother, a strong woman he could emulate and respect. It's as good a theory as any other; who knows? Maybe he just likes to hang out with divas.
Jane's Fonda's father, legendary actor Henry Fonda, had been an emotionally distant, difficult man, much like Michael's father, Joseph. She understood Michael's anger at the way Joseph treated his wife, Katherine, had similarly heated emotions about her own parents, and had worked for years to resolve them. She invited Michael to stay with her in her cabin on a New England lake as she and her father, along with veteran actress, Katharine Hepburn, filmed
On Golden Pond.
‘In some ways,’ Jane Fonda recalled, ‘Michael reminded me of the walking wounded, an extremely fragile person.’
As Michael sat with Katharine Hepburn with a tape-recorder, she shared anecdotes about her life. ‘Every one included some kind of message for Michael,’ said Jane, ‘about the way he might want to handle fame, about the way he might want to deal with his life. They became good friends. He just thought she was fascinating.’
While in New England, Michael also befriended Henry Fonda.
He and Jane, though, were the closest. As he told me, ‘We would go out on the water together in a row boat and just talk, talk and talk… you name it: politics, philosophers, racism, Vietnam, acting, all kinds of things.’
Once, Michael and Jane were taking a drive – Jane was behind the wheel – and they were discussing possible film projects for him. ‘God, Michael, I wish I could find a movieI could produce for you,’ she said, wistfully. Suddenly, an idea occurred to her. ‘I know what you've got to do,’ she said. ‘
Peter Pan
! That's it!’
Tears began to well in Michael's eyes. He wanted to know why she would suggest that character. She told him that, in her mind's eye, he really was Peter Pan, the symbol of youth, joy and freedom.
Michael began to weep. ‘You know all over the walls of my room are pictures of Peter Pan. I totally identify with Peter Pan,’ he said, wiping his eyes, ‘the lost boy of Never-Never Land.’
When the subject of Katherine came up between them during one conversation, Michael confided in Jane about the Gina Sprague incident. According to Bernice Littman, who was a Beverly Hills friend of Jane Fonda's and worked for her as a personal assistant at this time, ‘Jane thought the whole [Katherine vs. Gina.] thing was tragic, and that Michael was too fragile to handle it. She also felt badly for Michael's mother and wondered just how far a woman has to be pushed before she reacts in such a way. She spent a lot of time trying connect with him, really worked at it, took it on as a true concern in her life. “I feel a responsibility to him,” she told me, “just from one human being to another. He so needs love.” “You have to stop trying to find strength in other people,” she told him one day during one of their talks. He was at her home in the library with her; I was in the outer office. “Your mother has flaws, Michael, just as we all do. But you're an adult, now,” she said. “Why not let your mother be who she is, and find your own strength, within?” I don't think Michael could understand what she was saying. “Can you help me?” he asked her. “I'm so miserable. I'm having a terrible life.” They embraced. “You're having a wonderful life, Michael,” she said. “These are just hard years, but it'll get better. I promise.”
‘Michael sobbed like a baby,’ said Bernice. ‘So did I. I stood outside of the library and just cried. It was so sad. He was so sad. It was as if he was an alien, just visiting, from another world.’
Meanwhile, in the real world, a CBS Records executive telephoned Michael to ask him how he should handle the press, who had begun asking questions about his mother.
‘What do you mean? Michael wondered.
‘The Gina Sprague incident.’
‘Who's she?’ Michael asked, snappishly.
‘The woman who got into the disagreement with your mother, Randy and Janet.’
‘That never happened,’ Michael said, quickly.
‘But – ’
‘I'm sorry,’ Michael concluded, ‘but I have to go, now.’
With that, he hung up the phone. Michael was withdrawing deeper into his fantasy world, a place where such things as his mother possibly assaulting his father's girlfriend would never occur. He was becoming more distant, harder to reach. How long would it be before no one, not even someone like Jane Fonda, would be able to connect with him? It would simply be too painful for him to allow anyone to get that close.