Reality TV star ‘sets story straight’ with Jackson movie

The reality TV star and music producer, who produced the film which was released on Monday, was joined at its London premiere in Leicester Square last night by Jackson’s brother Tito and his sister Rebbie.

They said that they had been moved to tears by the film, Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon, which she said was an “honest” portrayal of her brother.

Dozens of fans, including many dressed as the star, gathered at the red carpet for the event.

Gest, who was a friend of the singer for 40 years, said: “I woke up one morning and said I’m going to make a movie about Michael’s life because I was tired of reading all this c*** about him, all these tales that were so fictitious, and I thought let’s set the story straight but let’s give the people a movie that says something new. Not the same rehash, the same moves and that’s what I did.”

Jackson, who died in June 2009, became friends with Gest in the late 1960s and it was he who introduced him to Liza Minelli. She and Gest wed in March 2002 but split up just over a year later and were divorced in 2007.

Gest’s four-hour documentary covers the controversy surrounding the child molestation allegations against the superstar and also addresses his use of painkillers, which his friend has claimed stemmed from the injuries he suffered after the disastrous 1984 TV commercial filming for Pepsi during when his hair caught on fire.

Speaking earlier this week, Rebbie said her brother’s children talk about their father every day.

Prince Michael, Paris and Blanket have been in the care of their grandmother since the pop superstar’s death from a fatal overdose of the anaesthetic Propofol, which he used as a sleep aid, but Rebbie said their memories of him are still fresh. “Every day, all the time when I’m around them, they say, ‘Dad used to do this, Dad used to say it like that’. You hear it all the time,” she said.

Rebbie said the children had also been coping well with the trial of Jackson’s physician Dr Conrad Murray, who has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter over the singer’s death.

“I’ve been around them and seen how they are and they are aware of it. They’re dealing with it OK from what I understand, what I’ve seen, as best can be expected,” she said.

Tito admitted there was much he missed about his brother.

“He was one of the few people that I know that I can put up in the category of some of the greats such as Dr (Martin Luther) King.

“He changed the world, he did it through his music, that was his thing, Dr King did it through speech.

“Michael did make a difference, and he’s still making a difference today.”