Star-studded witness list expected to shrink

Macaulay Culkin

Who is willing to stand up and defend Michael Jackson? With the prosecution case winding down after almost two months of testimony, that is the question now hanging over the courtroom where the 46-year-old singer is on trial on child molestation charges.

The defence has certainly had plenty to work with - inconsistencies, credibility problems and out-and-out lies from the family of the recovering cancer patient at the centre of the criminal charges.

But Jackson's reputation has taken a public shredding as one witness after another has testified to blatant sexual acts he allegedly committed on pre-pubescent boys over the past 15 years.

To remedy that, the defence is likely to call several of Jackson's friends, family and loyal staff members. The witness list presented during the jury selection phase of the trial suggests it could be a star-studded affair - everyone from Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Ross to Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones and basketball star Kobe Bryant, along with celebrity interviewer Larry King and late-night chat show host Jay Leno.

The list is misleading, however, because the judge has already made clear he won't accept witnesses unless they are strictly relevant to the case. Bryant, for example, is almost certain to be kept off the witness stand - he was himself charged with rape in Colorado last year (the case collapsed).

Some of the witnesses are also less than willing defenders of Jackson's honour.

Macaulay Culkin, for example, is certainly relevant to the case - two prosecution witnesses testified that they saw Jackson put his hands down his trousers when he was 10 years old. And he has repeatedly denied that anything untoward ever went on between them. He has also made clear, however, that he wants nothing to do with the trial, and will come to the courtroom only if he is dragged there on pain of contempt charges.

The most compelling defence witnesses may, in the end, be more anonymous ones - people like Jackson's make-up artist, say, or his personal magician.

A Los Angeles child protective services officer who looked into the allegations when they were first raised and concluded they had no merit is also likely to take the stand.

Also expected to take the stand are Jackson's closest family members - the brothers who formed Motown's Jackson Five, and two of his children, Paris and Prince Michael.

- INDEPENDENT