The saying goes, you can pick your friends but not your family. In an effort to uncover more about Michael, we will focus from time to time, on a person who, at some point in Michael’s life, held prominence.
Born in New York in 1971, Emmanuel Lewis was a big star in the 80′s, thanks to the American sitcom Webster. The premise of the show was similar to that of Diff’rent Strokes which depicted a tiny African-American boy being raised in a white family. Prior to Webster, Emmanuel had appeared in around 50-60 commercials including one for Campbell’s Soup, Colgate Toothpaste, Life Cereal, and for products such as fruit juice, cars, stereos, glue, soup, toys, coffee, pudding, and pizza. At the time he became famous as Webster, Emmanuel was also the Burger King Whopper kid (he made four commercials for the burger chain).
His physical size (he was 3′ tall at the time), combined with his age (twelve) made Emmanuel’s Hollywood clout all that more incongruous.
Apparently, Michael had seen Emmanuel on tv commercials and had always wanted to meet him. One story goes that he phoned Emmanuel’s mother inviting him to Hayvenhurst in Encino, the home he shared with his family at the time. Another story goes that they met at an awards ceremony. In any case, the two quickly became close friends. This would be the first of many close friendships Michael would have with young boys.
The year was 1983. Michael was twenty-five years old. Thriller had turned him into a superstar and his performance at the Motown 25th Anniversary Special had catapaulted him to legendary status. The friendship he struck with Emmanuel was all the more odd because of this. He could have been out partying, meeting people his own age, forming romantic liaisons, and doing all the things any other young, super-wealthy, super-famous man would do. Instead, he chose to spend his time playing cowboys and indians with a child. Why?
Michael and Emmanuel would play with Michael’s pets, run through his garden, roll around on the grass and wrestle. Michael appeared to be trying to live the childhood he felt he missed.
From biographer J Randy Taraborrelli’s account, we also see that Michael’s fixation with Peter Pan was already in place. He writes, “One visitor to the Encino estate recalled watching as Michael read the story of Peter Pan to Emmanuel. Afterwards the two of them imagined themselves as characters in the story. According to the eyewitness, twenty-five-year-old Michael and twelve-year-old Emmanuel sat on the floor with their eyes closed and fantasized that they were flying over Never-Never Land. ‘Believe it and it’ll be true,’ Michael whispered…They then began to recite dialogue from the story. After a while, the two broke up laughing and began to wrestle on the floor like puppies.” (p.264)
During this time, Emmanuel and Michael would regularly be photographed together, Michael typically carrying Emmanuel around in his arms like a baby. He even accompanied Michael and Brooke Shields to the Grammys.
Their close friendship reportedly ended when Emmanuel’s family became concerned after he and Michael checked into the Four Seasons hotel in L.A as father and son. It’s not known what exactly ensued, but apparently Emmanuel’s parents did not take kindly to it. Although they are said to have remained friends, Emmanuel and Michael hardly saw each other after that.
In 2003, Howard Stern chatted with Emmanuel. He brought up the subject of Michael Jackson, asking him if he thought Michael was in love with him and whether he ever came onto him or fondled him. Emmanuel emphatically and angrily denied it, insisting that Michael was his good friend and that nothing like that ever happened.
A video of Michael and Emmanuel was shown on programmes such as Inside Edition during Michael’s 2005 child molestation trial. The only parts shown were of Michael holding Emmanuel in his arms and Emmanuel gyrating. What follows is the full version:
Clearly, they were just dancing.
During this time, Emmanuel was quick to defend his old friend, saying, “He said I was his form of inspiration. He loved our humor and just hanging out and having fun, with not just me, but my whole family.”:
Upon hearing of Michael’s death, Emmanuel sent a message to his agent, Mike Esterman who noted that he had received a text message from Emmanuel stating that Michael’s death was “very personal and very emotional” to him and that he was “sincerely devastated at this time.”
Michael’s friendship with Emmanuel was probably the first physical manifestation of something being slightly askew in his deeper self. However at this time, most observers thought it was just Michael trying to live out the childhood he felt he missed. But was he so comfortable in the company of this child because he was allowed to lose himself in fantasy and not have to confront the real world? In time, Michael would go deeper and deeper into this fantasy world, surrounding himself with children and rejecting most contact with the outside world. A behaviour which would eventually cost him dearly.
Would things have turned out differently, i wonder, had someone at this point, spotted Michael’s growing uneasiness with the world and extended a loving hand?
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