Photo: Kevin Kane/WireImage
01of 04MACAULAY CULKINMichael Jackson and Macaulay Culkin.Ernie Mccreight/REX/ShutterstockCulkinfirst met Jackson when he was performing inThe Nutcrackerin New York City as a child, but it was after the actor starred inHome Alonein 1990that the then-10-year-old received a random call from him. The pop star told Culkin he understood the pressures of child fame and offered to be his friend. Culkin then became a regular atNeverland Ranch, starred in Jackson’s “Black or White” music video and was named the godfather to Jackson’s daughterParisin 1998.“WhenMacaulay Culkinwas little, [his brother] Kieran Culkin would sleep on this side, Macaulay Culkin was on this side, his sisters in there," Jackson told Martin Bashir in his 2003 documentaryLiving With Michael Jackson. “We all would just jam in the bed, you know, we would wake up at dawn and go in the hot-air balloon.”Culkin took the witness stand in Jackson’s2005 child molestation trialto defend the King of Pop. He said at the time that Jackson never molested him, and continues to call hisfriendship with Jackson “normal."“It’s almost easy to try to say it was like weird or whatever, but it wasn’t, because it made sense,” Culkin, 38, said on theInside of You with Michael Rosenbaumpodcast. “At the end of the day, we were friends.”
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MACAULAY CULKIN
Michael Jackson and Macaulay Culkin.Ernie Mccreight/REX/Shutterstock
Culkinfirst met Jackson when he was performing inThe Nutcrackerin New York City as a child, but it was after the actor starred inHome Alonein 1990that the then-10-year-old received a random call from him. The pop star told Culkin he understood the pressures of child fame and offered to be his friend. Culkin then became a regular atNeverland Ranch, starred in Jackson’s “Black or White” music video and was named the godfather to Jackson’s daughterParisin 1998.
“WhenMacaulay Culkinwas little, [his brother] Kieran Culkin would sleep on this side, Macaulay Culkin was on this side, his sisters in there," Jackson told Martin Bashir in his 2003 documentaryLiving With Michael Jackson. “We all would just jam in the bed, you know, we would wake up at dawn and go in the hot-air balloon.”
Culkin took the witness stand in Jackson’s2005 child molestation trialto defend the King of Pop. He said at the time that Jackson never molested him, and continues to call hisfriendship with Jackson “normal.”
“It’s almost easy to try to say it was like weird or whatever, but it wasn’t, because it made sense," Culkin, 38, said on theInside of You with Michael Rosenbaumpodcast. “At the end of the day, we were friends.”
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COREY FELDMAN
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“When I was a kid, Michael and I became regular friends,”Feldman, 47, said in 2017 on Bravo’sThen and Now, recalling a time they went to Disneyland together. “So Michael and I were visiting one day and I wanted to do something. I was bored, and one thing that popped into my head was, let’s go to Disneyland. And he’s like, well you know, I don’t have my security tonight. We go into his closet and he’s got this whole array of costumes, so he gives me a wig and fake mustache, and he puts on a fake afro and a fake mustache and we get in the car and we drive to Disneyland.”
Feldman and Jackson then got a room at the Disneyland Hotel; The singer slept on a cot and gave Feldman the bed. “What it was like staying in a room him was that he was a total gentleman, more so than I would even be,” Feldman said.
“I don’t want to be perceived as I’m here to defend Michael Jackson, because I can no longer do that,” hetoldCNN. “I cannot in good consciousness defend anyone who’s being accused of such horrendous things.”
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EMMANUEL LEWIS
John Paschal/DMI/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Lewisand Jackson’s friendship started in 1983 when he invited the 12-year-old to the set of his"Thriller” video. Jackson then took the child star — and model Brooke Shields — to the 1984Grammy Awards. He also brought Lewis up on stage during hisVictorytour that year, and the two spent time together at Disney. Their friendship raised eyebrows when Jackson tried to check them into a hotel as father and son.
Lewis’s family took care of Jackson after he set his hair on fire while shooting a Pepsi commercial in 1984. Jackson moved in with them during that time.
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AARON CARTER
Bruce Glika/FilmMagic; Carlo Allegri/Getty Images
“Michael and I have been friends for three years,” Carter told PEOPLE in 2004. “I went to Neverland for his [45th] birthday bash. We were smashing cake in each other’s faces. It was really cool. Until 5 a.m., me, him and Chris Tucker were out on four-wheelers, riding around in the mountains. Nothing happened between me and Michael. We didn’t sleep in the same room, we didn’t share a bed. We have a normal friendship. There’s nothing sexual to it.”
His mom Jane continued, “I don’t know what happened at Michael Jackson’s house, but I was concerned like any parent would be.”
The teen pop star was a frequent visitor atNeverland Ranch(he lived next door with his family in Santa Barbara), and he and Jackson “stayed in touch with him for many years,” Carter, now 31, toldFusein 2017.
source: people.com
