Macaulay Culkin laughs off Michael Jackson abuse allegations in front of singer’s daughter, reports say
With Paris Jackson in the audience for a live presentation of his Bunny Ears podcast, Macaulay Culkin seemed to joke about the molestation claims made in 'Leaving Neverland.'
Macaulay Culkin has stayed quiet about allegations made in the HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland” that his late friend Michael Jackson molested boys he befriended and invited to stay with him at his famous Neverland Ranch.
But in the past Culkin has defended Jackson against charges of being a serial sexual predator. Culkin, now 38, has said he became friends with Jackson when he was a 9-year-old child star. He said Jackson also invited him to stay at Neverland Ranch and to share his bed multiple times when he was ages 9 to 14.
But in interviews and at Jackson’s 2005 criminal trial, Culkin said Jackson was never inappropriate with him.
“Seriously, he was like my best friend for a good long stretch,” Culkin said in a 2018 interview with Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, adding, “It was a legitimate friendship.”
But the “Home Alone” star finally made a public reference to the “Leaving Neverland” allegations, the Daily Mail reported. Culkin did so by seemingly to joke about the idea that Jackson was sexual predator during a live presentation of his Bunny Ears Podcast at a West Hollywood Club on Tuesday night.
Culkin also made the reference while Jackson’s 20-year-old daughter, Paris, was in the audience. Culkin regards himself as Paris Jackson’s godfather.
According to the Daily Mail, Culkin was interviewing singer-songwriter and satirist Weird Al Yankovic on stage when he jokingly asked: “I’m going to ask you a very serious question: What was your relationship like with Michael Jackson?”
Yankovic chuckled, “Um, mostly platonic. I met him two or three times, he was pretty sweet to me.”
The Daily Mail and the Sun reported that Culkin also burst into “giggles” before replying: “Sounds amazing, he sounds really cool, yeah …”
Culkin added to Yankovic: “I will say he was a huge, huge fan of yours. Yes, he always had your videos kind of playing constantly. There you go, validation. Praise. Hail, Caesar!”
Meanwhile, the Sun reported that Paris Jackson sat in a corner with boyfriend Gabriel Glenn and smoked. She “just kept her head down scrolling through her phone,” an eyewitness told the Sun.
The eyewitness added that Paris Jackson spoke to no one, while Glenn looked downcast before the couple snuck backstage with Culkin’s girlfriend, Brenda Song.
It has been a tumultuous few weeks for Paris Jackson since “Leaving Neverland” aired March 3 and 4. The model and actress reportedly was taken to the hospital Saturday morning for a reported suicide attempt, which TMZ reported was brought about because she was despondent about how the two-part documentary portrays her father.
In the documentary, Wade Robson and James Safechuck go into graphic and emotionally harrowing detail about how they were young boys when they were brought into the music icon’s orbit, then regularly abused by him from roughly the ages of 7 until 14.
Like Culkin, Paris Jackson also has not publicly addressed Robson and Safechuck’s claims, saying her cousin Taj Jackson, the family’s designated spokesperson, was doing a “perfect job” of refuting them. But she has sparred with her father’s fans on social media for not doing enough herself to defend his reputation.
Paris Jackson also has sparred with TMZ and other news outlets that reported on her alleged suicide attempt. After being released from the hospital later Saturday, Paris Jackson slammed those reports via Twitter, writing, “(expletive) you you (expletive) liars.”
But the reports continued, with TMZ saying that her loved ones have urged her to enter rehab following the alleged suicide attempt, only to have her balk at the idea.
The Blast reported that Paris Jackson has gone out every night since the alleged suicide attempt. She also was photographed by paparazzi when she and Glenn arrived at the Largo at the Coronet for Culkin’s show. She was wearing pink bunny ears, likely to display support for the podcast.
Paris Jackson took in some laughs with her Godfather, Macaulay Culkin, after a rough few days.https://t.co/VFgGZbMxAi
— The Blast (@TheBlastNews) March 20, 2019
In response to all the scrutiny, Paris Jackson tweeted Monday, “this past week it’s been nonstop (expletive) i’m so sick of it.”