By Maureen Dowd,\u00a0Opinion Columnist, Sunday Review, Feb. 17, 2019<\/p>\n
When Dan Reed ordered up a score for his documentary, he asked the composer to evoke the image of a shimmering sprite leading two boys deeper and deeper into an enchanted forest. The boys don\u2019t notice that the trees grow menacing. And suddenly, the sprite turns into a monster.<\/p>\n
As \u201cLeaving Neverland\u201d shows, Michael Jackson spent his life shape-shifting from best pal, father figure and beneficent idol into cruel, manipulative rapist.<\/p>\n
It was apparent for decades that Jackson\u2019s cotton-candy lair was sulfurous. But as with other monsters \u2014 Harvey Weinstein<\/a>, Bill Cosby<\/a>, R. Kelly<\/a>, Woody Allen<\/a>, Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> and Bryan Singer<\/a> \u2014 many turned a blind eye.<\/p>\n Celebrity supersedes criminality. How can you see clearly when you\u2019re looking into the sun? How can an icon be a con?<\/p>\n It was easier to ignore a landscape designed as a spider web for child sexual abuse than to give up the soundtrack of our lives, the catchy songs that coursed through memories of weddings, bar mitzvahs and other good times.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Michael Jackson, you can see how grotesquely his fame, and our worship of fame, distorts and excuses and enables evil \u2014 to the point mothers fail to protect their children and literally throw them in harm\u2019s way,\u201d says Maureen Orth, who did groundbreaking stories<\/a> in the \u201990s for Vanity Fair about both Jackson and Allen.<\/p>\n Indeed, the most harrowing part of the new documentary about the shredded lives of two of Jackson\u2019s victims is the complicity of their mothers. Jackson spent as much time grooming the mothers as the sons, to the point where the women saw nothing wrong in letting their children share a bed with a grown man. (The documentary, which left the audience stunned<\/a> at Sundance last month, premieres on HBO next month.)<\/p>\n Reed is a Brit who made several documentaries about terrorism. He says he became practiced at leading victims gently back to their traumas, so they could use their minds as cameras to bring key moments to life, letting their faces and voices tell the stories.<\/p>\n And that is how the tragedies of James Safechuck and Wade Robson unfold, through the pain in their eyes and the confusion in their voices and the moments where they tear up or swallow hard.<\/p>\n Safechuck, who works as a computer programmer, was raised in Simi Valley. He met Jackson when he was a 9-year-old child actor in 1987, starring with the singer in a Pepsi commercial. Jackson promised to make the boy the next Spielberg.<\/p>\n Robson, a dance teacher who did choreography for Britney Spears and \u2019N Sync, grew up on the other side of the world in Brisbane. He spent all his time dressing and dancing like Jackson. He won a dance contest in 1987 and got to meet Jackson, who was on tour in Australia, and dance onstage. Then, he was ensnared in the warped fantasy, a 7-year-old being initiated into sex at Neverland by the 31-year-old Jackson.<\/p>\n The mothers, Stephanie Safechuck and Joy Robson, knew that Jackson was ensorcelling their sons, even as he lured the mothers out of the frame with luxurious enticements. But they were stage mothers and fans, so they chose to believe Michael was a kind, lonely little boy at heart, not a heartless pedophile, and they did not dig deeper when their sons said nothing bad was going on.<\/p>\n \u201cHe flies you first class, you have a limo waiting for you at the airport, amazing, you know, it\u2019s a life of the rich and famous,\u201d Mrs. Safechuck gushes in the film, adding: \u201cI got to meet Sean Connery. That was big for me. It was like, \u2018Oh my God, Sean Connery!\u2019\u201d She also loved Neverland: \u201cHe had a beautiful wine cellar, really good wines, champagne, that was just something I enjoyed \u2014 it was a fairy tale every night.\u201d After all, as she says, he was a genius and they were \u201cjust nobodies.\u201d Jackson bought them a house after James testified on the singer\u2019s behalf in a trial involving another boy.<\/p>\n It somehow made sense to James\u2019s mother when she was told that she couldn\u2019t be near the hotel rooms her son and Michael shared in Europe because the nicer suites she would prefer were farther away.<\/p>\n As Wade Robson puts it, \u201cWhat you\u2019d think would be standard kind of instincts and judgment seemed to go out the window.\u201d<\/p>\n His mother left Australia and his father and moved to L.A. with Wade and her daughter to be closer to Michael; the father later committed suicide. After Wade finally told a therapist and his wife and family what had happened, he was alienated from his mother for a time. Like James, Wade \u2014 who lied in court twice to protect the man he loved \u2014 had symptoms of trauma that intensified with the birth of his son. James\u2019s hands shake as he shows a diamond ring that Jackson gave him for a private mock wedding. Wade had a nervous breakdown and stopped dancing for a time.<\/p>\n \u201cI had one job\u201d and messed it up, Mrs. Safechuck says. \u201cMy son had to suffer for me to have this life.\u201d<\/p>\n Even with this shocking documentary, the Michael Jackson estate is still demonizing the victims and planning to bring<\/a> a musical about Jackson\u2019s life to Broadway in 2020.<\/p>\n Reed says he is \u201cagnostic\u201d about it: \u201cAm I going to campaign to have Michael\u2019s name removed from classrooms and his statues removed from shopping malls? No. Is this the right time to celebrate Michael as a legitimate good person you might want to emulate? Possibly not.\u201d<\/p>\n And that is what\u2019s known as British understatement.<\/p>\n