Michael Jackson: What Did The King Of Pop Really Do After 9/11?
A new Michael Jackson movies is in the works, and not only is the lead actor Joseph Fiennes facing a lot of criticism for taking on the lead role of the King of Pop, but many are wondering if the events in the movie ever took place. According to some people, it never did.
The new Michael Jackson film, entitled, Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon, is a story about the King of Pop’s activities shortly after the tragic September 11, 2001, event in New York. According to the movie, Jackson, Marlon Brando, and Elizabeth Taylor couldn’t find a way out of the city, so they escaped in their own vehicle.
The story revolves around their escapades, thoughts, and feelings as they embark on a road trip. Although it makes for an interesting story, the New York Post indicates that it simply isn’t true.
New York Post – What Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando really did after 9/11 https://t.co/gsMQpyXWGH
— New York News (@newsnyork) January 31, 2016
According to New York Post, writer Stacy Brown, who was in New York helping the Jackson family return back home to California after the attacks, the events are a lack of a better word, invented.
Brown writes that Brando refused to leave his hotel room at the Plaza hotel suites in NYC, and Jackson reportedly had spokesman Bob Jones check up on the actor. The spokesman allegedly revealed that not only was Brando intent on staying in his room, but he intended to do so “until the world ends.”
“Brando doesn’t want to talk to anybody. He said he’s not going to come out of his room until the world ends.”
Taylor reportedly left to meet actress and friend Debbie Reynolds shortly after the attacks, and according to Brown, had her ex-husband, former Virginia Senator John Warner, assist her.
Meanwhile, Jackson, who had been up early on the morning of 9/11, allegedly went to check on his mother, Katherine, as well as the rest of his family who attended his 2001 30th Anniversary concert the night before.
Brown, who said she’s friends with Jermaine Jackson, assisted Michael’s brother in obtaining two RVs for the family to help them leave the city. Michael didn’t leave on the buses with his family, but instead stayed behind in the Trump International hotel. The King of Pop left NYC two days later via a tour bus, with his three children and a friend. Yet, true to his giving nature, the “Thriller” singer couldn’t leave people behind who were trapped.
Jackson camped outside of The Plaza for a full week after the attacks, where he had his assistants offered rides on his bus to anyone who needed to leave the city. Brown states that she spoke to Michael Jackson on the phone, and the King of Pop indicated that he was especially worried about the people who had flown in to see his concert.
“What would they think if I’m safe and they’re left hanging out there with nowhere to go? They came from England, they came from France and they came from Japan. How are they getting along?”
Jackson stayed in the city until December before finally returning home to California.
Corey Feldman, who befriended Michael Jackson after the singer visited him in the 1980s while on the set of The Goonies, shared a similar story about Jermaine Jackson and the RVs. In his memoir, Coreyography, Feldman indicated that Michael “abandoned” him during the 9/11 aftermath, but Jermaine Jackson allowed him to ride back with the family in one of the RVs.
Yet, despite Brown’s account of the event, Feldman wrote that Jackson did indeed get Brandon and Taylor out of NYC, although the actor never said anything regarding a road trip.
“Elizabeth hadn’t arrived yet, and then 9/11 happened. But I remember that [the next day] Michael was trying to get Elizabeth out! He was at first looking for a private jet. He wanted permission to fly out—but everything was surreal. I didn’t go with him.”
One of Michael’s former employees, however, said that Jackson led Brando and Taylor to a temporary safe spot in New Jersey before the trio jumped in a car and drove off.
“They actually got as far as Ohio—all three of them, in a car they drove themselves!”
Taylor’s assistant rebuffed any stories about her client leaving the city. The assistant, who wishes to keep her name private, adamantly denied that Taylor left NYC at all the day after 9/11, much less embarked on a road trip.
“Elizabeth stayed behind where she went to a church to pray, and she went to an armory where people were who couldn’t get home or who’d stayed behind to look for the missing. She also went down to Ground Zero, where she met with first responders. Eventually, the airports opened and she flew home.”
Whether that assistant’s story is true or not remains unknown, but there are no pictures of Taylor anywhere near Ground Zero, and if photos were taken, they still have yet to surface.
Joseph Fiennes, a white actor, will play Michael Jackson in a new movie. That's not OK. https://t.co/eRlttgOLaj pic.twitter.com/c4WUe5w7Eo
— Slate (@Slate) February 1, 2016
It’s possible that that the true story in its entirety may never come to fruition. In the meantime, however, the movie will continue as planned. The Michael Jackson film is scheduled to air on England’s Sky Arts channel, but doesn’t have a release date yet.
[Photo by Beth A. Kaiser/AP]
