How Michael Jackson painted Neverland Ranch suite the colour of Elizabeth Taylor’s eyes – and she bought him an ELEPHANT
New book reveals the lavish lengths Hollywood's most famous friends would go to please each other
A NEW book has shed light on one of the oddest Hollywood friendships in history.
Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor had a decades-long relationship which included gift-giving that could put any other celebrity A-lister to shame.
Movie legend Liz once bought the silk-footed pop star an ELEPHANT she had shipped in from Asia.
In return, Jackson commissioned a wall-sized tapestry of her own face.
Their first meeting in 1984 came just six months after the death of Taylor's megastar husband Richard Burton.
Their marriage had been known for its extravagance, harking back to the Hollywood couples of old with lavish gifts of the finest fur and diamond jewellery.
In the new book , author Donald Bogle suggests Taylor latched onto Michael as a way of "replacing" her beloved late husband.
Not only this, but the book analyses the two star's uncannily similar childhoods as an explanation of their astonishing closeness.
Both became child stars while dealing with a troubled family life.
It is well documented that Jackson father Joe was extremely strict and often violent with his children, whom he moulded into Motown sensation the Jackson Five.
What is less well-known is Taylor's similarly difficult childhood.
She first appeared onscreen at the age of 12 in the film National Velvet.
This was at a time her drunk father would regularly "bat her around", Bogle says.
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He suggests both sought to fill the gaps in their lives brought about by their troubled families.
While Michael looked to Liz as a mother figure, Taylor saw her role as "saving" Michael, the book says.
It is this role of Taylor as a "rescuer" to Jackson that led her to convince him to move away from his family into the ranch that would later become Neverland -- causing ire from Michael's family.
It was here at Neverland that Jackson insisted on an "Elizabeth Taylor Suite" to be created with walls painted the same shade as Liz's deep blue eyes.
Their friendship blossomed quickly and one of their first private encounters was when Michael invited Liz to join him for tea -- along with his famous CHIMPANZEE Bubbles.
The book also reveals that the pair acted like young sweethearts, disguising themselves to go to the cinema on Thursdays where they would "hold hands" at the back of the theatre.
She would also come and stay at Neverland, where they would watch "a lot of Walt Disney" and "laugh like children".
Bogle suggests that the pair were perfect for each other, with each providing comfort for their shared physical ailments.
Jackson was left with severe burns after an accident during the filming of a Pepsi ad, while Taylor was regularly taking a cocktail of painkillers that led to a prescription drug habit.
"With his lost boy quality, with his heightened sensitivity, with his Pepsi accident, even with his use of drugs to dull his physical pain, he was reminiscent of Monty Clift, with whom she shared so much, and perhaps of James Dean and Rock Hudson, all troubled, all conflicted, all trying to come to terms with their childhoods and their fame", the book says.
"With each of them she had felt there were no secrets... while Elizabeth never thought of Michael or the others as weak, she clearly believed she could save people, and perhaps she believed she could help Michael to save himself."
Jackson was "under her spell", rejoicing in showering her with gifts.
That included paying for and hosting her $1.5million wedding to seventh husband Larry Fortensky in 1991.
For him their lavish relationship was about being "part of a classic old Hollywood with its greatest star".
In interviews she called their friendship "the purest most giving love I’ve ever known", reports.
She said: "I don’t think anyone knew how much we loved each other".
It meant she was one of the first to come to Michael's defence when allegations of child abuse first surfaced.
But it also meant the shock was all too much for her when Jackson died in 2009.
At the time she said she was "broken" and that she "can't imagine life without him".
But even in their deaths -- Taylor died in 2011 -- they are both united, with both being buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.
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