Elizabeth and Michael by Donald Bogle

Author:Donald Bogle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books

Chapter 12

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SOON BACK ON a demanding schedule, Michael traveled to New York for a tribute at the American Museum of Natural History. Then came the major awards shows, first the American Music Awards on January 16, 1984, where he won multiple awards, including Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Album for Thriller, Favorite Pop/Rock Single for “Billie Jean,” and Favorite Pop/Rock Video for “Beat It.” He also was the youngest person ever to win the Award of Merit that night. Accepting the award and thanking his parents as well as Diana Ross, who was there that night, he was dressed in a dazzling military-style red jacket with gold trim—and dark glasses. The latter was for a time part of his signature look. He would even wear them during a visit to the White House when he met President and Mrs. Reagan. It was partly a stylish statement: the glasses added to his glamour and enhanced his mystery, the idea of a not wholly accessible star who was keeping something back and hidden. But the glasses also helped him shield himself from the stares, from the people who wanted to get too close. The eyes are the window to the soul, and the soul was something he had to preserve for himself.

Accompanying him was model and actress Brooke Shields. Then came the Grammy Awards on February 28. Again Michael’s date was Brooke Shields. A young beauty with a full mane of brown hair and magnificent brown eyes with thick, luxurious brows, Shields had grown up in the public eye. With her assertive mother, Teri Shields, as her manager, Brooke had been a model since 1966—at the age of eleven months—in an Ivory soap ad. Her mother had kept her working. French director Louis Malle had starred a twelve-year-old Shields as a girl growing up in a brothel in the controversial 1978 film Pretty Baby. By age fourteen, she was the youngest model ever to land on the cover of Vogue. She also appeared in a controversial commercial for Calvin Klein designer jeans in which she was seductively sprawled out as she said, “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” By the time Michael met Shields, she had also starred in such films as The Blue Lagoon and Endless Love. Some comparisons at the time were made between Shields and the young Elizabeth Taylor. Yet lovely as Shields was, she did not have Taylor’s fires of defiance nor her Old Hollywood beauty. Shields, however, was a stunner. She exuded a sweetness that may have undercut her seductiveness. Though Michael clearly liked Shields and enjoyed her company, their relationship went but so far.

It’s been questioned as to whether Michael really wanted Shields on his arm the night of the Grammys.

The story has been told by biographer Randy Taraborrelli that on the day of the Grammys, Shields unexpectedly showed up at the Jackson home in Encino, asking to see Michael. Could she attend the Grammys with him? she reportedly asked.

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