The Battle Over Michael Jackson's Legacy

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Jackson had hoped to star in a Steven Spielberg film of the James M. Barrie play Peter Pan, about the boy from Neverland who refuses to grow up. The story's reflection of his own needs, dreams and scars was poignant. In a tearful (and top-rated) interview with Oprah Winfrey, he confessed that his father had beat him and called him ugly (this beautiful child!). Who wouldn't want a makeover of that scarred youth? Once he had the money and power, the perpetually preadolescent Jackson moved into a fantasy version of childhood, in the company of young boys he saw as his peers and saviors. Asked by Winfrey what he missed most in his own youth, he replied, "Slumber parties." He'd make good on that wish, bunking with kids his own emotional age. (Read "Spike Lee Remembers Michael Jackson.")

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One of those boys brought a child-molestation suit against Jackson, which consumed the tabloids, subjected him to a penis examination and ended only when he settled with the boy's family for a reported $20 million. In 2003, Jackson was charged with child molestation in criminal court. At his trial in 2005, he proclaimed his innocence, once showing up in court in his pajamas. The jury agreed with him. He was never convicted of anything, except terminal weirdness, by a public for whom Jackson was less famous than notorious.

This Peter Pan died just as he was showing signs of adult behavior. In 2005, Jackson saw Ron Burkle, the billionaire chairman of Yucaipa Cos., at the funeral of Johnnie Cochran, who had defended Jackson. Burkle, a person close to the matter told People, "told him in a very honest way that he kind of had to grow up, and as an adult, you have to start paying attention to where your money is going. Ron advised him to cut his spending or go back to work." Jackson sold Neverland to a partnership run by Colony Capital, a private-equity firm, and moved to the ultra-posh Holmby Hills in West L.A. Burkle's counsel was sensible, free and friendly, and it more than likely saved Jackson's wealth. He even paid for forensic accountants to untangle Jackson's finances. The Gloved One began writing his own checks. But even with cutbacks, Jackson needed income to maintain his lifestyle. That would mean performing; he hadn't toured since 1997. So he reluctantly agreed to a London gig that would eventually grow to 50 shows. He had already sold over $90 million worth of tickets. The aging King of Pop was primed for a comeback.

Now his realm will be open for inspection and vandalism by any number of interested parties and their lawyers. A will Jackson signed in 2002, made public after his death, leaves his estate to a family trust and nothing to Debbie Rowe, his second wife and the mother of Prince Michael Jackson, 12, and Paris Jackson, 11. A third child, Prince Michael II, 7, was born to an unidentified surrogate mother. The star's mother Katherine is named as a beneficiary to the trust and guardian of the three children. But they won't see their inheritance, if any, until the debt issues are resolved. "You have to pay your creditors before you can pay your children," says Robert Rasmussen, who teaches contract law at the University of Southern California. "That's Law 101."

And with the estate's current net worth north of $200 million and likely to spew cash forever, the vultures will circle ever lower; expect the convergence of cash and carrion. The will is sure to be contested. However sad the child-molestation cases were, the battles over the Jackson fortune, and the allegations that are sure to surface, will be uglier still. (Read "Remembering Michael Jackson on Twitter.")

All sorts of pepper is flying out of the postmortem-Michael rumor mill: that Jackson dermatologist Arnold Klein is the father of two of the children, that Rowe was only the surrogate mother of those kids. Even if any of this is true, says Scott Altman, a law professor at USC, "that's probably going to be irrelevant. In California, a child born during a marriage is strongly presumed to be the child of the husband and the wife. And if Rowe has been visiting pretty regularly — if they think of her as a mother and have an ongoing personal, intimate relationship with her — then she could probably succeed in getting custody."

Twenty years ago, Jackson was concluding one of the hottest decades enjoyed by any star in any medium. Twenty years before that, he was a magic child, the Prince of Pop. It would be a blessing if he could be remembered for the joy he engendered and the musical kingdom he created and — if we see that last rehearsal tape — the artist he was about to prove he still could be.

Reported by Stephen Gandel, Hitha Prabhakar, Andrea Sachs and S. James Snyder / New York City and Champ Clark, Jessica Herndon, Elizabeth Leonard and Alison Stateman / Los Angeles

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