I was working as the L.A. bureau chief for the tabloid t.v. show "A Current Affair" at the time and I can tell you few stories titillated the tabloid industry like Michael Jackson and his interest in children.
It was a feeding frenzy from the moment the story broke and in the first few fevered hours of the scandal, sources were telling us that long time Jackson friend--two-time Academy Award winner and Hollywood legend--Elizabeth Taylor was about to jump on an airplane and rush to the side of her embattled pal Michael Jackson.
Wow does it get any better!
It was really like a sordid tsunami slamming on to the front pages of newspapers around the world--at once threatening to swamp both Michael Jackson's life and career--to say nothing of sinking his very big-budget and suddenly very endangered "Dangerous Tour."
Jackson had opened the gigantic world-wide promotion for his just released "Dangerous" album in Thailand and it was there that Jackson was performing when the headlines first hit.
My job as L.A. correspondent for "A Current Affair": get out to LAX ASAP!
Tips were suddenly flying fast and furious all over tinsel town and one of them was directing us to the airport where word was a very famous actress just about to get on board a Singapore Airlines jet headed first for Taipai and then on to Singapore.
The tip certainly made sense. Singapore was the next scheduled stop for Jackson and the "Dangerous Tour."
Two first class tickets were booked for me and my glode-trotting buddy, cameraman Alex Fragnito.
I have had the great good fortune to work with some of the best cameramen in the world during my career. Alex Fragnito, the swashbuckling Italian Stallion from Australia is among the best of the best. Alex and I would travel all over the world chasing the Michael Jackson story during the next several month.
But first we had a date with Elizabeth Taylor on the long flight to Singapore...more to come...mw