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What Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando really did after 9/11

It’s an irresistible story: Three of the world’s most iconic superstars, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando, jumped in a car together to flee New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Liz, the ever-bejeweled dame of classic Hollywood; Brando, the greatest actor of his generation; and Jacko, the King of Pop, terrified, crammed into one car, grabbing KFC takeout and making pit stops at gas ­stations.

And so Sky Arts Television’s “Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon” was born. The British TV production is expected to hit the airwaves this year, and it’s already stirring controversy with the casting of a white actor, Joseph Fiennes, to play Jackson.

Unfortunately, it never ­really happened.

I know, because I helped Jackson’s family return to California after the 9/11 ­terror attacks.

The three legends — who never spoke publicly about their 9/11 experience before their deaths, fueling the ­urban legend that was first printed in Vanity Fair — were in New York to participate in Jacko’s two concerts at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Sept. 7, and Monday, Sept. 10.

On Tuesday, Sept. 11, they awoke at their Plaza hotel suites to find chaos. Jackson had been up early, about 4:30 a.m., searching newspapers and scouring the television for the first reviews of his shows.

As the catastrophe unfolded, Brando refused to leave his room. But Taylor took off to meet Debbie Reynolds, who had attended the concerts but needed to be back on the West Coast for an engagement. Taylor called her ex-husband, Virginia Sen. John Warner, to ask for help.

Knowing that Taylor and Brando were OK, MJ checked in on his mother, Katherine, and his brothers (they had performed with him for the first time in 17 years), who were staying across town at the W Hotel.

I was friends with Jermaine, and since I was a longtime Queens resident, he asked for my help getting out of the city.

I helped them book two RVs — each fit 18 passengers and were driven by their security guards.

But Jacko was not with them. He had moved into the Trump International and sent his spokesman, Bob Jones, to check on Brando.

“Brando doesn’t want to talk to anybody. He said he’s not going to come out of his room until the world ends,” Jones said.

Jackson actually made his escape from New York in his tour bus two days after the attacks. Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando were not with him — but his young children Prince and Paris, friend Frank Cascio, Cascio’s brother Aldo and ­father, Dominick, and two security guards were.

After learning that the Lincoln Tunnel had re-opened, Jacko headed to the Meadowlands, stopping at a hotel near Giants Stadium before deciding to bunk at Cascio’s home in Franklin Lakes, NJ. Planes were still grounded.

But something kept nagging at him — the fate of the dozens of fans who had camped outside The Plaza all week. He ordered the tour bus to return to Manhattan on Thursday and Friday to offer rides out of the city to anyone who needed them.

“I’ve got to make sure they’re OK,” Jackson told me by telephone that Friday. “What would they think if I’m safe and they’re left hanging out there with nowhere to go? They came from England, they came from France and they came from Japan. How are they getting along?”

Jackson wound up footing the bill for nearly three dozen fans to stay in New Jersey. He even treated them to fast food and movie outings.

“We should get that in the newspapers,” Jones told MJ.

“No,” the singer protested. “The people in those buildings [the World Trade Center], the paramedics, firefighters, the police, the mayor. They should be in the newspapers.”

Jackson stayed in the New York City area until late December, when he ­finally returned to Los ­Angeles.

Mike, Quincy and Rod Temperton holding cassettes of Bruce’s final mix of Thriller, Nov 30 1982

Portion of a Letter Michael Jackson Had Anonymously Written To a Philosopher He Had Befriended Online In May 2009

imagine experiencing the birth of two little stars, unsophisticated yet shining astonishing bright, sacrificed by melodious angels playing thin guitars, adventurous and brave yet holding on tight, convenient in writing historical memoirs, while navigating their lives into the eternal light, turning aside to prevent accidental scars, with the only desire to duel upon the 12th night

According to a blogger by the screen name “Jasmin de virginie” who had previously hosted an online philosophy forum, she had befriended a man on that site going by the name “Jack” around 2007-2009.

As the blogger tells it:

“Soon, Jack and I found out that we had much more in common. Not only philosophically spoken, but life didn’t always serve us the way it should have been. That said as a human being, since none of us know the true reason of life. Perhaps some of us have been given an unhappy or unpleasant life with the sole intention of making a difference to the world. Who will tell?

What I can tell you, is that Jack and I spend many hours online discussing and enjoying philosophical riddles.”

She admits to having developed feelings for this man:

The more I met Jack online, the more I got to know his human side… and probably the more I fell in love with the person “Jack” and his remaining mystery.

And that “Jack” had even written to her in person after telling her, “writing on paper [makes] our contact more real in an already very unrealistic world”. Though he chose not to give her his own address in turn.

But something happened in the course of their writing that changed everything:

Suddenly, there was a break in the continuity of our contact. The last letter received dates back from may 2009 and remains a mystery.

She finished by saying:

Was it worth it? I met a (virtual) beautiful person and received many gorgeous letters. I was capable of experiencing a magical feeling and found a philosophical soulmate yet it didn’t last.

Still I am inclined to say “thank you” because without you, I didn’t do anything by half. You made me build castles in the air and assured that my “work” will never be lost.

She would make a blog post in 2010 sharing the story about what had happened between them in the hopes that he would get back in contact with her or that someone else would know what had happened to “Jack”. However a follower on her blog noticed that the handwriting in the portion of the letter she’d shared bore an uncanny resemblance to that of the late Michael Jackson’s, with the further coincidence in the alias and the stop in letters matching the time when he had passed away. A letter released after his death even revealed that the two shared the same misspelling for words like “Expierience/ing”. The letter is also very similar in tone to other letters he had written to women (also confirmed as being his via Brenda Anderson).

After Jackson’s fans descended on her blog giving her the kind of attention she’d never wanted, she would delete the post and has not made any further comments on the matter.

Michael Jackson films in Brazil (1996) 

The airport had never been that crowded, there were hundreds of fans waiting for Michael. Some of them had cameras and posters, some of them were dressed up like him. All the fans were singing “you are not alone”.

Michael and the kids were the last ones to walk out of the plane, he had a black mask on. He tried to stay a little at the airport but there was way too many confusion, so he got inside the car and left to his hotel. All the rooms of the 11th floor at the Tropical Hotel were reserved for Michael and his staff; he asked for white towels, water, fruits and orange and apple juice.

Michael arrived to Pelourinho on Saturday; he had an umbrella with him to protect him from the sun and a black shirt. He went inside a room to change his clothes. When he came out he was wearing a pair of jeans, Olodum t-shirt and a black waistcoat. 

While Michael was filming on the roof of a house, a fan tried to run to him but was stopped by bodyguards, when Michael noticed, he asked them to let her in to meet with him. She was inside the house with him for about one hour. When she came out she told the press: ‘I was shakinga lot. I can’t believe I was with him. He’s so humble… So nice. I didn’t understand anything he was telling me, but everyone can tell he was happy. I’ve never seen him that happy’. 

After that Michael went back inside the room to get changed once again. He changed the white t-shirt for a red t-shirt. Some brazilian women who were in the same building said: “Oh he’s very shy! He asked us to get out of the room so he could change his t-shirt, although we couldn’t see a thing… He laughed a lot, and looked very happy!’. 

Another fan broke the wall of security men while Michael was filming and dancing in the street. She tried to hugged him and made him fall, Spike Lee helped him up and he continued filming. In one of his last scenes, he asked a boy to dance with him, the boy was so nervous  that his lips turned white. 

Michael went shopping to Ipanema, the news quickly spread, everyone in Rio knew Michael was at the mall. He went to a music store, took some albums from The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Later on he went to a store of brazilian instruments, spent some time on the percussions section. After that, he went to the ‘Look Toy Store’, he ignored the security rules and walked out of the store to give autographs. Two little kids tried to dudge the security men and go in the store. Michael bought them toys and gave them some money, in return they gave him a brazilian coin as a token.

Aaow! - Hi, Diana! First of all, congratulations for your work on the HIStory statue! It’s amazing and remarkable!

Diana Walczak - Thank you! I am truly fortunate to have had the incredible opportunity to create the Michael Jackson HIStory statue. ———— Aaow! - In this month, we are celebrating 20 years of the HIStory album. Do you have some special memory of that time?

Diana - Surely the most amazing thing that happened to me in 1995 was when I received a call from Sony telling me that my statue and the cover image I created was officially chosen to be the Michael Jackson HIStory album cover! I felt like someone who had just won a gold medal in the Olympics or an Oscar at the academy awards. I was so incredibly excited and honored and satisfied that my hard work had paid off in such an immeasurable way. ———— Aaow! - Tell us about the challenge on the creative process of the statue. 

Diana - The biggest challenge in creating the Michael Jackson HIStory statue was the tight deadline I was given by Sony. I had only one week in which to build the sculpture before sending video and photos to Michael for approval. The first way to make this possible was to get photo references of Michael. Per my request, Sony set up a photo shoot in New York and I came down to pose Michael and supervise the process of getting reference photos that I wanted shuttered simultaneously from different angles on high-format film. The other way that helped me to work that fast was hiring two sculpture assistants who helped me build a very strong armature: a metal skeleton capable of holding 300 pounds of wet clay. They also helped me by creating clay versions of the gold metal decorations on Michael’s jacket and by casting the sculpture in white resin. After I received notes from Michael, I spent a few more days making his thighs a bit thinner, adding the thong-like piece over his pants, and addressing a few notes on the face. ———— Aaow! – Have you already met Mr. Jackson before that job?

Diana - Once before the HIStory statue project I encountered Michael Jackson without meeting him. In May, 1990, I was with my younger brother and had parked my car on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood heading to Tower Records Classical which was (is?) a separated building across the street from Tower Records Popular. We walked past a beautiful, large antique convertible with wood interior with the top open. I remarked to my brother how gorgeous that vehicle was. My brother wanted to look at the Mozart box sets so we asked the cashier at the entrance who pointed us to them. In the aisle of the Mozart box sets, I smelled a sweet scent of perfume coming from my left and looked in that direction. It was Michael Jackson looking at the Mozart box sets too! What flashed through my head then was that of course Michael Jackson is the Mozart of our time. It was unmistakably him: he was wearing black pants and a red shirt, a black hat with a few curling strands of hair over his face. I must have stared a few seconds too long, and he fairly quickly left the store. When we made our purchase, the cashier asked if we had seen Michael Jackson. We walked out the door and saw Michael driving around the corner and right past us in the swanky convertible we had seen earlier. Never could I have guessed that four years later I would meet him face to face and work with him on a major project! I’m just now realizing that I was pregnant with my first child that day in 1990 when I encountered Michael Jackson at tower records and I was again pregnant with my third child in 1994 when I met Michael in New York for the HIStory photo shoot! ———— Aaow! - Some funny or curious story about meeting MJ? 

Diana - At the photo shoot, Michael gave me his jacket so I would have it for reference. At first I refused, “Oh no, I can’t take this.” And he responded, “Take it, you can have it. I have another one.” On the train back home, I kept peeking in my bag at the jacket. I couldn’t believe I had Michael Jackson’s jacket in my bag! Surely I was the luckiest person on the train that day. Sony asked for the jacket back sometime in 1995. Sadly, I sent it back. I recently noticed the jacket is hanging in the background behind some of the photos of the sculpture while it was still wet clay. Though I no longer have it, the blurred image is nonetheless a beautiful reminder of that very special time in my life. ———— Aaow! - Thank you for your contribution and your kindness! Please say something to the Brazilian fans, who certainly admire your work. God bless you! Diana - I am very impressed by Brazil’s huge population of fans of the greatest artist of our time, Michael Jackson. And I am deeply moved that you have given me the opportunity to speak with you about my work on the HIStory statue. I was in Rio de Janeiro in 2003 and loved it so much and found leaving very difficult. Brazil is one of my favorite countries and I have been dreaming of visiting again someday.

Amo a todos vocês,

Diana Walczak