Ready, get set, go.
You cheater!
He cheats a lot, but he's fun.
He loves to have fun.
I first met him, he kind of called me randomly, like, out of the blue.
Just kind of like, Hi, it's Michael.
And it's like, hey.
And the thing is- after Home Alone?
This is after Home Alone.
I actually had met him before,
I was doing 'Nutcracker' at Lincoln Center.
I was playing Fritz, and he came backstage
one day and I actually met him very briefly,
and he kind of recognized me because it was after I'd done Uncle Buck.
You and Mac has had quite an extensive relationship.
Is that true?
Yes we've known each other
for about four years now.
How did you guys meet?
We met what was it? Lincoln Center.
Lincoln center? He was in the 'Nutcracker'.
You were in the 'Nutcracker'.
Mac's a great dancer.
He is.
When Michael saw the movie 'Home Alone' at Christmas 1990 he asked his housekeeper
to contact his young star, Macaulay Culkin.
Michael saw the movie,
and he asked Norma to have him bought over and spend some time at the ranch.
Yeah, he he reached out to me because yeah, because a lot of things were
happening like, you know, big and fast with me.
And I think yes, I think he identified with that.
And then he calls me up kind of out of the blue and it's kind of just this
weird, random thing and say why don't you come over to my house?
Thing is, I didn't react to him the way most people did.
Most people like Michael Jackson. And, you know, I mean,
he was a god to people, and to me, he was you know,
I knew he was a pop singer, but beyond that, I wasn't one of the fans.
And I think that's one of the reasons why we connected.
I really didn't actually give a shit
about famous people because I was thoroughly unimpressed by them.
So when I first met him, I was like, okay, cool.
You're just that guy.
Oh, that guy who sings songs like, cool, great.
I sing songs in school. That's great.
So anyway.
I've never lost a water balloon fight.
I'm the Michael Jordan of water balloon fights.
We won the fight again and again.
I think that's one of the reasons also why
we got along, is that everyone's always thoroughly impressed by him.
And so the fact there was somebody who was kind of just, like,
treated him like a normal person was kind of just like yeah, it was that simple.
Believe me. I called him a jerk all the time.
I call him a fat head and this and that.
You know?
Knowing Macaulay Culkin, he made sure he schemed on me.
He told me to go up on the diving board and I went up there like a nut.
No
I'll kill you.
I'll kill you, Mac.
Mac, I'm going to annihilate you.
We're in Bermuda, and we're looking for some treasure.
Mac and I would go on vacation together, and Mac is very smart and he's very
ingenious in causing trouble, but it's his idea.
Yes. We were in Bermuda
together, and we were signing water balloons.
Yeah, he had me signing water balloons,
and he was throwing these balloons at the fans on the balcony.
They loved it. They wanted more.
They were asking for more.
Mac and Brock were watching a movie or something like that over in the other
room, and we went out on the balcony, and that's when he came out with.
He really missed not having a childhood.
And that was one of the reasons why he ran around doing all these crazy things,
because now he could do what he wanted.
And he wanted to have the fun that he didn't get when he was a kid.
I remember a statement he made that kids are honest.
You can trust them.
He says I haven't been around hardly any
adults that haven't ended up wanting something from me.
You know, what Michael went through as a child, he had to grow up so fast that he
related to what you went through as a child.
And I think, in a way, he was trying to protect you.
It was kind of profound. Did you feel that?
Yea.
He used to tell me that very few people
besides Michael could really understand that kind of white hot attention.
I was a peerless person. I was like, yeah.
Nobody else in my Catholic school even had
even this much idea of what I was going through.
He was the kind of person who's like,
yeah, been through the exact same freaking thing and wanted to make sure that I
wasn't alone in that.
One time I wore a ski mask.
I was walking down the street,
and this guy goes I heard him just whispering,
is that the kid from 'Home Alone'?
I'm wearing a ski mask.
Boy, I better get my plans.
I better get a facelift or something, you know.
I really had this sense of loneliness
This looks very dangerous to me.
In appreciation for working on the 'Black or White' short film.
We like to say thank you and we love you and we think you did a wonderful job.
John.
What Mac?
John
Yes
He was hilarious.
He was sweet, and people don't know how funny he fucking was.
He liked prank calling people.
He actually was really good with no, no.
It was like, how are you?
Andyea, like, I'm good.
Like, hi, you know, do you have any mattresses in your mattress store?
He was charming, fucking funny. Silly.
Macaulay truly excited, eager to introduce Michael to his home alone.
Two costar, Devon Retray, who was taping away.
Ladies and gentlemen, the one, the only Michael Jackson is in that airport van.
Don't I know you from somewhere?
You're that guy errr
T
hriller. Billie Jean.
He's armed, he's dangerous.
Oh, Michael.
Then later in 1993, Macaulay's good friend
Michael Jackson was accused of child molestation.
These statements about me are totally
false, as I have maintained from the very beginning.
I am hoping for a speedy-
Mac later admitted he wished to speak out
in Jackson's defense, but his father wouldn't let him.
He was 13 years old at the time.
Things like when you and Liz Taylor were
the godparents for Michael Jackson's son.
That was a recent thing, though, also,
was that kind of Michael's, my mate and Liz's other mate.
Yea, he called me up and he said, hey, you want to be my son's godfather?
I said, yeah, sure.
And the next thing I know, it's like in the magazines and stuff like
that. Which is like I didn't think it was a big deal.
He's like one of my best friends and he asked me to be his son's godfather.
What am I going to say? No?
Macaulay was there for Michael's All Star salute in 2001.
He's a sweet person and he's just I'm very happy to have him in my life.
I think one of the great things about our relationship is me and him could just act
like kids all the time and that's kind of what we do.
And Macaulay is the godfather of Michael's two kids.
How are they doing? Oh, they're doing great.
They're beautiful.
They're beautiful and they just keep on getting bigger.
I think, you know, as normal of a life as Michael can give them, the better
the relationship that you had with Michael Jackson.
Had or have? I mean, whatever.
Listen, you know, he's just he's a good friend of mine, and he still is.
I mean, everything that's going on, I mean, it's unfortunate.
It's an unfortunate situation for everyone involved.
What happened at the house, that's what all these things-
That's what's so weird.
Is it? Nothing happened.
I mean, nothing really.
I mean, we played video games.
We played it in his amusement park.
Well, the thing is with that whole thing
is that they go, you slept in the same bedroom as him.
It's like I don't think you understand.
Michael Jackson's bedroom is two stories.
It has, like, three bathrooms and this and that.
So when I slept in his bedroom yeah,
but you have to understand the whole scenario.
Talked about young boys sleeping in his bed in his bedroom.
Well, you and your brother Kieran had done that.
Yeah. It wasn't anything, like, weird.
It wasn't anything we thought about.
We go to the movies and we do this,
we do that, and it's like, okay, you plop down, you go to sleep, you wake up.
It's kind of just what happens.
Did your parents encourage it?
They weren't against it.
It wasn't like they encouraged it or pushing me upon it.
It was just kind of like I wanted to hang out with him, and they were fine with it.
What do you make of what he's going through now?
Like I said, it's unfortunate, and it's a circus right now.
I don't know. It's a little crazy.
And I kind of have taken a step back
from the whole thing because it is a bit of a circus.
And if the same thing was happening to me,
I wouldn't want to drag him into it and vice versa.
So I try my best to keep a distance
from it.
If they ask you to be a character witness, would you appear?
I guess so, but probably not.
I mean, like I said, it's crazy, and I don't really want to be a part of it.
Actor Macaulay Culkin arrived and left
the courthouse here in Santa Maria with very little fanfare.
His testimony didn't last too long.
In a very clear and strong voice,
he told the jury Michael Jackson never touched him inappropriately.
He also said, quote, I never saw him act improper with anybody.
Culkin did face a somewhat aggressive cross examination by prosecutor Ron Zonen.
Culkin did say, yes, he shared a bed with Michael Jackson,
but he described it as more like falling asleep on Jackson's bed.
The prosecution then attempting to try
and suggest that perhaps Jackson molested Culkin while he was sleeping.
The prosecutor Zonen saying, So,
as far as you know, you were never molested while you were awake?
Culkin's response, as far as I know, I was never molested by Michael Jackson.
You did say that you felt that he did not have unnatural relationships with any
of the kids, any of the boys who stayed in his house.
How did you know that?
Well, I mean, you never know anything without 100% certainty.
But at the same time, I mean, if my opinion is if he didn't do anything
to me, I don't think he would have done anything to anyone else.
When was the last time you talked with Michael Jackson?
About four months ago. How is he doing?
He's living in Bahrain. In the Middle East?
Yeah.
When I talked to him, it sounded like he was doing better.
I mean, his voice was stronger.
So I just said, Just go and take care of yourself, essentially, was my advice.
So, who knows if he'll take it?
Jackson's three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket,
solemnly emerged from a caravan of Rolls Royces just after sunset,
his entire family more than an hour late for a service witnessed by Jackson's
dearest friends, among them 77 year old Liz Taylor, frequent Neverland guest
Macaulay Culkin, and his longtime collaborator Quincy Jones.
He has always defended his friendship with Michael.
That's right.
And just this past January, Macaulay talked about the pop star
on The Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum podcast.
He revealed that he and Jackson bonded over their childhood fame.
It's almost easy to try to say, oh,
it was, like, weird or whatever, but it wasn't.
It's like one of my friendships that people question only because
of the fact that he was the most famous person in the world.
He was the kind of person who's, like, yeah, been through the exact same freaking
thing and wanted to make sure that I wasn't alone in that.
For me, it's so normal and mundane.
I know it's a big deal to everyone else, but for me, it was a normal friendship.
Now, Macaulay has always said that Michael never did anything inappropriate to him,
despite other sexual abuse accusations against the pop star.
Now, in the interview, Macaulay says,
in part, quote, if I had something to speak up about, I would totally do it.
But no, I never saw anything.
He never did anything.
Now, Macaulay also talked about an awkward interaction he had with James Franco
on an airplane regarding the Michael Jackson documentary 'Finding Neverland'.
He said that James asked him what he thought about it.
Well, he simply responded with, quote, do you want to talk about your dead friend?
And for some reason, though,
people think he's the only one who knows because he was there.
So everyone wants his opinion.
In my head, there is no way, again, I'm speculating,
there's no way Michael Jackson would have touched or done anything to Macaulay
Culkin because he was the most famous person on Earth at that time.
I mean, one of them.
I think he used him as a beard or a hide to say, look, I have children friends,
and I do nothing with them, and he can go broadcast that out to everybody.
Sam, I think he did this interview because he does not do a lot of interviews.
He hadn't done one in 15 years I
think. He doesn't need to.
He's not promoting anything right now.
He's a multi, multi-millionaire.
Doesn't need the money, doesn't need the exposure.
Everybody knows his name. He's doing this, I think,
to tell people to take my dead friend's name out of your mouth.