Joan said in a recent interview that she “liked” the Billie Jean hitmaker (Image: Getty Images)
Joan Collins has shed light on the late Michael Jackson’s true colours, claiming he said the same thing each time they met. The King of Pop, who died in 2009, was reportedly a “huge fan” of Dame Joan, known for her role as Alexis Colby in the 1980s US soap classic Dynasty; indeed, Jackson is said to have made the comments during a visit to the set.
It comes as a new three-part Netflix documentary, Michael Jackson: The Verdict, which revisits Jackson’s 2005 trial after he was charged with molesting a 13-year-old at his Neverland Ranch. He denied the allegations and was subsequently acquitted on all counts. For her part, Joan said in a recent interview that she “liked” the Billie Jean hitmaker and met him on a number of occasions. Interestingly, she claimed he asked her the same question “every time”. She told the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine: “I liked Michael: every time I met him he’d come up to me and say, ‘Hello, do you know who I am? My name’s Michael’.”
Michael Jackson was reportedly a “huge fan” of Joan (Image: Getty)
She continued: “And I’d say, ‘I know who you are, I’ve met you three times before!’ The first time was when he came to the set of Dynasty with his sister. He said, ‘I’m such a huge fan!’ After that I met him several times at different places.
“The last time was at the Royal Albert Hall. We were doing a tribute to Elizabeth Taylor and we were all on stage together singing.”
In other news, Jackson fans have been learning about the true origin of “Annie” from his 1987 classic, Smooth Criminal. In the song, Jackson repeats the line “Annie, are you okay?” about 30 to 40 times.
One Quora user asked: “Did Michael Jackson ever find out if Annie was OK?” But it seems Annie wasn’t actually a real person. Indeed, she was reportedly a training mannequin.
The Resusci Anne CPR training dummy was used for the purposes of teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Reportedly, those learning the practice would ask “Annie, are you OK?”
Joan claimed that Jackson asked her the same question “every time” (Image: AFP/Getty Images)
In Smooth Criminal, Annie is depicted as a victim of violence (“She was struck down”). Yet, the dummy’s face bears the likeness of a girl pulled from the River Seine in 19th-century Paris.
A statement on LifeSaver Training reads: “Since her identity could not be established, a death mask was made, as was customary in such a case.
“There was no evidence of violence and it was assumed that she had taken her own life. Several romantic stories based on this mystery were published. She was known as the Girl from the River Seine.”
Agreeing with this explanation, another user claimed that once the student gave mouth-to-mouth and checked for a pulse, they would ask the question, “Annie, are you ok?”.
They said: “They have to tell Annie what happened, for she doesn’t remember anything after he came into her apartment and left the bloodstains on the carpet.”
Summing up, they added: “The only correct answer is to explain to her that she’s been hit by, she’s been struck by a Smooth Criminal, then start dancing to celebrate Annie being saved.”
Catch Michael Jackson: The Verdict from today (Wednesday, June 3) on Netflix.