| If you thought you knew everything about history's most bizarre entertainer, think again... |
Here's what the New York Daily News said on April 2, 2007, a day after the book's release: A new biography of Michael Jackson contains stories that are eyebrow-raising even for his weird life. "Jacko: His Rise and Fall" recounts an encounter between Truman Capote, Jackson and a teenage John F. Kennedy Jr. that the author claims Capote told him about. "Jackie [Kennedy] invited Michael to accompany her to the Robert Kennedy Tennis Tournament, where she introduced him to her children," Darwin Porter writes. Jackson and Capote were then invited by JFK Jr. to the locker room after he played a match. "At the time, I didn't know John-John was an exhibitionist," Porter reports Capote said. "Before both Michael and me, John-John peeled off." Later, Jackie - sensing something was off with her son's new buddy - "intervened and nipped Michael's friendship with John-John in the bud." There's also a hilarious account of a dinner party at the home of Liberace ("Just call me Cuddles, dear boy"), where Mae West told the young Jackson: "Let me give you some advice, kid. You should develop a distinctive walk on the stage." Porter said that story was told to him by Liberace's former boyfriend, who was present. By Ben Widdicombe, Gatecrasher, New York Daily News |
| "Don't stop till you get enough. Darwin Porter's biography Jacko isn't easy to put down," says Chloe Todd Fordham from London's The Observer: April 29, 2007: Sometimes, it looks like the world isn't quite big enough to support the myth of Wacko Jacko. Literature (if you can call it that) on America's weirdest and most talked-about superstar abounds, and increasingly so in the form of biography. Darwin Porter's Jacko: His Rise and Fall, which looks at Jackson 'from the inside out', claims to be the most comprehensive of the lot. Porter 'takes the face off' the Michael Jackson we think we know. Michael (Darwin and he are on first-name terms) is a normal kid, living in abnormal times, Porter says. He may be the subject of corporal punishment by his father and allegations of knife threats from his brother Jermaine, and of accusations of homosexuality, bisexuality and even asexuality by the media. But in Porter's account, he 'always got up to go to the Sunday meeting of the Jehovah's Witnesses', experienced 'history's worst case of acne' and refused Andy Warhol's request to film his face while being penetrated anally with the words: 'No thanks. It's long past my bedtime.' This is the story of the good boy turned rotten, or 'Peter Pan grows up'. J.M. Barrie wouldn't be impressed. 'Literature' it certainly isn't, but this biography is dangerously addictive. |
| On May 8, 2007, the Syndicated TV Newsmagazine INSIDE EDITION aired an interview with Darwin Porter. Click on the blue ink immediately below to access that interview. Watch Darwin Porter on INSIDE EDITION TV Newsmagazine. CLICK HERE! |
| Jacko: He was "Bad," He was "Dangerous," He was Thrilling. And even post-mortem to his tragic death in June of 2009, maybe he'll be back. Before he turned white--and still had a nose--before scandalous kiddie sex charges and weird marriages, before money woes and widely televised humiliations, Michael Jackson was the world's most exciting show-biz legend. OK, so he's Wacko. Frank Sinatra hated him; Elvis Presley would probably have shot him, but the Gloved One profoundly changed the face of pop music, selling more than 45 million copies of Thriller, the mega-hit album of all time. THE MAN IN THE MOONWALK. Remember the time? The madness? The music? That dance? In this exposé by celebrity biographer Darwin Porter, Blood Moon presents the first-ever complete saga of an incredible American life--the good times, the very bad times, the desperate attempt to stay on top, and the international aftermath of "those lawsuits" when everything, including Neverland, came crashing down. Even his loudest detractors admit that they love his music. This candid bio, updated to reflect the circumstances of his death in 2009, takes you behind closed doors to explore the star-studded, bizarre world of America's most maligned superstar. |
| "Dripping with ironies and with text that really connects the dots, this is the most all-inclusive bio ever written about America's most bizarre celebrity." Ingram |
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WHAT THE CRITICS SAID ABOUT JACKO: "I'd have thought that there wasn't one single gossipy rock yet to be overturned in the microscopically scrutinized life of Michael Jackson. But Darwin Porter's exhaustive (but always zippy) hybrid of celebrity bio and solid reporting proves me quite wrong. It's all here: The abuse Jackson suffered as a boy from the fists of his father; rough early years on the "chitlin' circuit”; his rocky relationship with Diana Ross and his quirky relationship with Liz Taylor; his sham marriages and his oddly conceived three children; unflagging rumors of his homosexuality; and his scandalous affection for generations of adolescent boys. Definitely a page- turner. But don't turn the pages too quickly: Almost every one holds a fascinating revelation." Richard Labonte, Books To Watch Out For |
| JACKO, His Rise and Fall The Social & Sexual History of Michael Jackson by Darwin Porter ISBN 978-1-936003-10-5 Hardcover $27.95 Copyright 2009 600 indexed pages, with photos |
