Michael Jackson was allegedly paid an extra $1-million for a planned television appearance to secure an exclusive interview broadcast last Sunday in which he accused police of manhandling him.
In the interview Jackson, who is due to appear in court on child molestation charges next week, said he was innocent, and alleged that sheriff’s officers had handled him so roughly when they arrested him in Santa Barbara last month that his shoulder was dislocated and he had been unable to sleep because of the pain.
Yesterday officers involved in the case denied manhandling him.
Jackson was working on a $5-million CBS television special in Las Vegas at the time of his arrest. At first CBS said the special would not be shown, because of the criminal charges, although Jackson had already been paid $1,5-million.
Now, according to a business associate of his quoted in the New York Times, the special will be broadcast because Jackson agreed to an exclusive interview in exchange for an additional $1-million.
”In essence they paid him” for the interview, the associate told the New York Times, ”but they didn’t pay him out of the 60 Minutes budget; they paid him from the entertainment budget, and CBS just shifts around the money internally.
”That way 60 Minutes can say 60 Minutes didn’t pay for the interview.”
CBS denied paying, saying that 60 Minutes did not pay for interviews as a matter of policy. It is understood that Jackson was told that CBS would be unable to broadcast the special unless he went public in his own defence.
In the Sunday interview Jackson said he would slit his wrists rather than abuse a child.
He also said that 80 police officers had examined his bedroom at his ranch in Santa Barbara, and his bed had been dismantled. He said he was not going to live at the ranch because of the search. He is now staying in Los Angeles.
The Santa Barbara county sheriff, Jim Anderson, denied the allegations yesterday. ”I’m shocked and troubled,” he said. ”I think Mr Jackson has seriously hurt his credibility.”
The sheriff’s department released footage in which Jackson was heard saying he was ”OK” when asked, while he was being booked, how he was. – Guardian Unlimited Â