LOS ANGELES: It was the Michael Jackson his fans love to remember: a creative genius, a lean, muscular athlete and a doting father.
A court case that is expected to shred his reputation took a detour into the positive this week with testimony about the singer’s talent and kindness.
A makeup artist and a former dancer depicted Jackson as a hardworking “magical” star who inspired those around him, softening the tone of a trial set to scrutinise his darker side.
“He was a gentleman. He was elegant. He was brilliant,” Karen Faye, who did the king of pop’s hair and makeup for nearly 30 years, told a packed Los Angeles superior court. “I found myself working with this magical person.” Faye said she had never seen another performer with such energy or drive.
Earlier this week Alif Sankey, a dancer and associate producer, said she yearned to recreate Jackson’s magic. “Michael’s imagination was endless. He would visualise it, and it happened. It was amazing. It was like living a dream, working with an artist like that, and I will treasure it and have it in my memory forever.”
The glowing recollections followed grim testimony last week from a police officer and a paramedic, who detailed the circumstances of Jackson’s death at 50 in June 2009 while preparing for his comeback tour, ‘This Is It’.
His doctor, Conrad Murray, was convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter for giving him the surgical anaesthetic propofol as a sedative at his rented home in Los Angeles.
Jackson’s family is suing the concert promoter AEG Live for wrongful death, on the grounds that it negligently hired Murray and pushed the singer to breaking point. Lawyers for both sides have said they will detail his addiction to drugs. AEG’s legal team warned of “ugly stuff” to come, a reference to revisiting Jackson’s child molestation trial in 2005.
In a separate development it emerged that Wade Robson, an Australian choreographer who testified in 2005 that Jackson did not molest him during sleepovers at his Neverland ranch, now claims he was abused by the singer. The claims were revealed in court documents filed on May 1.
Allegations of sex abuse are expected to be heard later in the trial, which may last throughout the summer. But this week a sunnier image of Jackson emerged. Faye hugged Jackson’s mother, Katherine, 82, and on occasion joked with Brian Panish, the family’s attorney, as she related the singer’s creativity and popularity.
Sankey described Jackson as being indomitable during a 1987 recording of his Smooth Criminal video. “I was completely inspired by his craft and inspired by his attention to every detail.”
By arrangement with the Guardian
