Carole Bayer Sager talks about her friendship with Michael and Elizabeth Taylor

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Academy Award-winning singer-songwriter Carole Bayer Sager opened up about her friendship with Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson in a new memoir, They’re Playing Our Song. In the book, out Tuesday, Sager shares intimate insights into the lives of both legendary entertainment figures —from Taylor’s relationship with men, drugs and jewels, to Jackson’s “tortured genius child-man” persona.
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“Theirs was a special relationship,” Sager writes of her friends in They’re Playing Our Song. “Two of the world’s greatest superstars, with lives that were lived on stages or on movie screens since they’d been children. How could either of them find anyone else who could understand their lives?”

Sager first became friends with Taylor, the violet-eyed legendary actress, when Sager moved to Bel Air, California, in 1985. Sager adds that she and her then-husband, Burt Bacharach, were greeted with an extravagant cake and a huge box of Edelweiss chocolates from Taylor, who lived three houses away.

At the time, Sager says she could have never predicted the deep bond that she would develop with her new neighbor — “and certainly not what a generous, loving, and special soul she would turn out to be.”

Husbands weren’t the only ones Taylor showered with love. Some of the most intense moments in the book revolve around Taylor’s friendship with Michael Jackson, which involved more than bizarre gifts (remember the elephant Taylor gave Jackson?). Sager writes that Jackson arrived early to Taylor’s fifty-fifth birthday. Sager, the host, ushered him to her room at his request because he said he was nervous.

“He sat on my bed looking very handsome, dressed all in black. He had not yet gone over the top in his facial surgeries,” writes Sager. “He was quite beautiful looking in a Diana Ross way. He had not altered his skin tone and he had not yet begun to sabotage his career. Still, he was afraid.”

Jackson allegedly told Sager that he was shy, so she suggested he stay in her room. When Jackson finally joined the party, “he never left Elizabeth’s side, even holding her hand for most of the evening,” writes Sager.

“I had real empathy for him and the unloved childhood his abusive father robbed him of,” writes Sager. “As Elizabeth often said, she connected with Michael on a soul level because they were both deprived of a childhood by early stardom, yet they each looked at life at times through the eyes of a child.”

According to They’re Playing Our Song, one of her last interactions with Jackson occurred in 2006, at a party held by Barbara Davis. Even for Sager, who had partied and worked with celebrities for years, the evening was surreal. Marvin Hamlisch, Sager’s ex-boyfriend, fell asleep at the table and their host, Davis, looked like she was about to as well, writes Sager. Even though Michael Jackson’s two young children were present at the table, he also nodded off. According to Sager, Jackson said he was exhausted because he had been traveling in the Middle East. In reality, Sager writes that she learned Jackson had “been home for three weeks and was on some heavy narcotics” that caused him to slur and fall asleep.

So when Sager learned of Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009, she wasn’t shocked — “just terribly sad.” Elizabeth Taylor, in contrast, was inconsolable. According to Sager, she held Taylor’s hand as “she cried through the whole telecast.” Sager feels that “losing Michael accelerated [Taylor’s] decline.” Taylor died less than two years later, in 2011.


Sager continues to mourn the loss of both her celebrity friends. To her, Elizabeth was great because of her “humanity,” while Jackson was a “phenomenon.”

“Singular in his stunning talent and stunted beyond measure in the rest of his life,” Sager writes. “And to the extent that he was capable of love, I believe he loved his children, his mother, and he loved Elizabeth.”

Source: People.com
 
"And to the extent that he was capable of love......"

I am bothered by this comment, cause Lisa Marie said almost the same thing too.......why would people think this? Michael Jackson was one of the most loving person's I have ever seen, it emanated from his music, his works and his very being!

"He had not altered his skin tone......"

It bugs me to no end when 'friends' say this, at least state he had a skin disorder and stop playing into the tabloid drama!
 
^ It's getting tiresome, isn't it, the way people he once knew portray him.
 
Cliche upon cliche. Yawn. I expected better from someone who was his creative partner.
 
Why does she sound so bitter? Did Michael refuse to sleep with her or something?
 
"And to the extent that he was capable of love......"

I am bothered by this comment, cause Lisa Marie said almost the same thing too.......why would people think this? Michael Jackson was one of the most loving person's I have ever seen, it emanated from his music, his works and his very being!

"He had not altered his skin tone......"

It bugs me to no end when 'friends' say this, at least state he had a skin disorder and stop playing into the tabloid drama!
Well, Lisa was very bitter and hateful toward MJ after the split anyways.
As for this Sager woman, I honestly have no idea who she is, but she doesn't sound very smart at all.
Edit:I just found out she wrote some songs for MJ and yet she still says this bullshit.
SMH, she's a mess.
Why does she sound so bitter? Did Michael refuse to sleep with her or something?

LOL.
 
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I can't stand these fake people that comes out of the woodworks after his death claiming their "friendship," yet talk disparagingly of him.
 
It pisses me off the way people still believe lies about MJ even when there is solid concrete proof that IT IS A LIE.
How dumb do you have to be not to believe an autopsy?
People will legit believe anything about MJ.
F*** the media for pounding into people's heads that MJ bleached his skin all the while he was trying his best (covering up lights spots with make up) to cope with a disease.
Goodness knows he had to have been self conscious about it in the first place, and I'm sure that the bleaching rumors didn't help.



I just had to come back and say this.
 
Didnt read the article i prefer to read your comments first! Shes one of the most famous songwriters of her generation. She wrote a few songs that mj ended up with but did she actually spend more than two minutes with him or even meet him at all?. No intrest hearing from people who obviously didnt know mj or were friends with him.her lack of knowledge about him says that.nothing but name dropping in her book.embarassing to say the least

Of shes on twitter (arent they all?) Those with accounts could educate her
 
For a so-called friend of Michael, I find that she didn't really know him to write that.
If even us, fans and a part of the general public, know he had a skin disorder and, later, relied on sedatives and anesthetic in order to sleep, I don't know how a friend can say that he altered his skin or consume (heavy) narcotics like marijuana or heroine. He didn't even smoke.
Plus, if it was true, why she didn't do anything to help him ?
The definition of friendship should really be reminded, for some people.


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I don't think Bayer meant anything bad by this statement,
"the extent that he was capable of love". Maybe I read it differently.

I think it would be best to wait to read the actual part than just take this article as the be-all, end-all. We've seen situations where publications or excerpts didn't give you the full story (Remember Clive Davis' book and how certain journalists reported on it)
 
I don't think Bayer meant anything bad by this statement,
"the extent that he was capable of love". Maybe I read it differently.

I think it would be best to wait to read the actual part than just take this article as the be-all, end-all. We've seen situations where publications or excerpts didn't give you the full story (Remember Clive Davis' book and how certain journalists reported on it)

"He had not altered his skin tone and he had not yet begun to sabotage his career" That's all I needed to read. Didn't even read past that.
 
You have to laugh at the ignorance of people who obviously were not his friends but will attach his name and importance of their "friendship" even when they themselves are celebs inorder to make themselves look good.
 
whatever... no one is interested in her unless she is writing about Mike or Liz.. when is the last time she wrote a hit song? and her face is the one that is on plastic surgery overload.. she currently looks nothing like how she looks on that book cover.
 
valeryjackson;4171086 said:
Sager writes that Jackson arrived early to Taylor’s fifty-fifth birthday. He had not altered his skin tone and he had not yet begun to sabotage his career. Still, he was afraid.”

Altered his skin.
Facepalm-Memes-14.png

Taylor's 55th birthday was in 1987 February. By that time MJ lost a lot of melanin and was certainly not fully brown.

As for sabotaging his career by 1987 he spent a lot of time with Rodney Allen Rippey, Bob Good, Sean Lennon,
Mark Ronson, Jonathan Spence, Emmanuel Lewis, Corey Feldman, Frank Cascio
any of their parents could have done what the Chandlers did so what exactly did MJ begin to do
to "sabotage his career" in 1993 what he was not doing in the 80s already?
Ignorant woman.

valeryjackson;4171086 said:
According to They’re Playing Our Song, one of her last interactions with Jackson occurred in 2006, at a party held by Barbara Davis. Even for Sager, who had partied and worked with celebrities for years, the evening was surreal. Marvin Hamlisch, Sager’s ex-boyfriend, fell asleep at the table and their host, Davis, looked like she was about to as well, writes Sager. Even though Michael Jackson’s two young children were present at the table, he also nodded off. According to Sager, Jackson said he was exhausted because he had been traveling in the Middle East. In reality, Sager writes that she learned Jackson had “been home for three weeks and was on some heavy narcotics” that caused him to slur and fall asleep.
So when Sager learned of Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009, she wasn’t shocked — “just terribly sad.”

1. Everybody can fall asleep at a boring party but if MJ does it too he must be on drugs.

2. She learned that from who? Who was this insider who not only knew that MJ was "at home for three weeks"
but that he was on "heavy narcotics" during those three weeks?

4. His death had nothing to do with narcotics. Nevermind those pesky medical facts.

5. In 2006 MJ spent months in Ireland where his only doctor was Dr. Patrick Treacy who has been absolutely
adamant that MJ never asked for any drug, was not a drug addict period. His bodyguards also said they saw
no sign of a a drug problem. If he had been "on some heavy narcotics" in 2006 or 2007 he either should have been
on them all the time, or experience serious withdrawal symptoms or go into rehab. There is no evidence
of either of those.


valeryjackson;4171086 said:
“And to the extent that he was capable of love, I believe he loved his children, his mother, and he loved Elizabeth.”

MJ told more people "I love you" than probably anyone else in human history. But somehow he was not capable of love.
It was his habit of loving strangers like others can only love their family members which made him such an easy target.
Instantly, no question asked. 99% of people are simply not capable of loving strangers like that.
The fact that Sager and millions of others completely missed that and still don't get it despite overwhelming evidence
that that's how MJ was all his life from the time he was little kid to the very end is in and of itself evidence that he was too loving for this corrupt world.

Ironically Liz Taylor whom Sager remembers for her humanity understood what MJ was all about.
[video=youtube;CErBPMhShiY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CErBPMhShiY[/video]

Some people get it.
love.jpg
 
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About Michael not being able of loving - we don't know Michael on that bases so we really can't make a sound judgement on it.. I mean being a loving and caring person and being able to be 'in love' with the actions that come of it are two different things..

Michael has stated that when It comes to that he can be selfish because he puts his career and the children of the world first... He knew and said that he could not give a woman the devotion they want..



The skin quote annoys the crap out of me.. I mean If this is all she has to say about a dear friend.. that what a waist of a page in her book.
 
About Michael not being able of loving - we don't know Michael on that bases so we really can't make a sound judgement on it.. I mean being a loving and caring person and being able to be 'in love' with the actions that come of it are two different things..

Michael has stated that when It comes to that he can be selfish because he puts his career and the children of the world first... He knew and said that he could not give a woman the devotion they want..

Yes Lisa probably meant that type of love but Sager mentioned his mother, his kids and Liz so she was not talking about "being in love". MJ loved all children like he loved his own and he made that clear during the same conversation where he talked about not giving full attention to women.
love.jpg


He also loved Rose Fine like a mother I doubt Sager knows anything about that.
love.jpg
 
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Is it a "requirement" to trash Michael and write complete and utter bullshit to have your book published? Why do liar ignorant people get doors open more easily than the ones trying to tell the truth?
 
Is she pally with randy by any chance.sounds like spoon fed
 
Altered his skin.
Facepalm-Memes-14.png

Taylor's 55th birthday was in 1987 February. By that time MJ lost a lot of melanin and was certainly not fully brown.

As for sabotaging his career by 1987 he spent a lot of time with Rodney Allen Rippey, Bob Good, Sean Lennon,
Mark Ronson, Jonathan Spence, Emmanuel Lewis, Corey Feldman, Frank Cascio
any of their parents could have done what the Chandlers did so what exactly did MJ begin to do
to "sabotage his career" in 1993 what he was not doing in the 80s already?
Ignorant woman.



1. Everybody can fall asleep at a boring party but if MJ does it too he must be on drugs.

2. She learned that from who? Who was this insider who not only knew that MJ was "at home for three weeks"
but that he was on "heavy narcotics" during those three weeks?

4. His death had nothing to do with narcotics. Nevermind those pesky medical facts.

5. In 2006 MJ spent months in Ireland where his only doctor was Dr. Patrick Treacy who has been absolutely
adamant that MJ never asked for any drug, was not a drug addict period. His bodyguards also said they saw
no sign of a a drug problem. If he had been "on some heavy narcotics" in 2006 or 2007 he either should have been
on them all the time, or experience serious withdrawal symptoms or go into rehab. There is no evidence
of either of those.




MJ told more people "I love you" than probably anyone else in human history. But somehow he was not capable of love.
It was his habit of loving strangers like others can only love their family members which made him such an easy target.
Instantly, no question asked. 99% of people are simply not capable of loving strangers like that.
The fact that Sager and millions of others completely missed that and still don't get it despite overwhelming evidence
that that's how MJ was all his life from the time he was little kid to the very end is in and of itself evidence that he was too loving for this corrupt world.

Ironically Liz Taylor whom Sager remembers for her humanity understood what MJ was all about.

Some people get it.
love.jpg

I read the capable of love part as he loved his kids, mother and Liz as much as possible.

We know he was loving and generous, but unconditional love, I'd say his love for PPB, his mother and rest of his family and Liz....if he loved ANYBODY, it was definitely those people

I believe the part about sabotage doesn't link with the allegations, but probably more about how people feel the tabloid or spectacle overshadowed his career and feeling he could've prevented a lot of it

It annoyed me reading that part and about his skin but remembered that alot of people feel he could've handled certain things better
 
The fact that most of the tabloid junk wasn't even created because of Michael's own wrongdoing cannot be omitted, either.


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Why should have mj have had to put out in public his private medical info just because the media had an agenda to push lies and inturn bate him which in the end he didnt fall for. Another reason they hated him
 
I believe the part about sabotage doesn't link with the allegations, but probably more about how people feel the tabloid or spectacle overshadowed his career and feeling he could've prevented a lot of it
Either way, whatever it was, and regardless of how she felt about it, she pretty much said that he brought it on himself, which is wrong.
How could he have stopped the tabloids from speculating and reporting false things?
So what he didn't want to tell people everything about his life, people really need to get over that.
And we all know that the allegations were false and weren't his fault.

It annoyed me reading that part and about his skin but remembered that alot of people feel he could've handled certain things better
How, could he have handled it better though?
He vehemently said that he had vitiligo, yet people didn't believe him.
After the autopsy results there's now undeniable proof that he had vitiligo, yet a lot of people still don't believe he did.
What else could he have done?
And showing the world his medical records isn't a viable answer (hell, even had he did that people probably would've believed they were fake).
 
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I read the capable of love part as he loved his kids, mother and Liz as much as possible.

Then she should have said that. What she said, if the quote is accurate, suggest that MJ was not really capable of loving others.

I believe the part about sabotage doesn't link with the allegations, but probably more about how people feel the tabloid or spectacle overshadowed his career and feeling he could've prevented a lot of it

She was talking about 1987. By that time tabloids were all over MJ. He was asked about those
"crazy stories" in the Ebony interview. The media's madness started right after Thriller, for obvious reasons.
They did everything they could to turn the public against him and make money at the same time.

But none of that shit really sabotaged his a career. The Chandler and Arvizo allegations did.
And yes he could have prevented them by staying away from the families who tried to
get into his inner circle but then a lot of those families would have been poorer for it,
the Cascios, Lewis family, the Barnes, the Culkins, the Agajanians, the Stein family and so many kids who
absolutely loved being with MJ, Omer Batthi, Michael Jacobshagen, Bryton McClure, Kelly Parker, Sky Ferreria, Mandy Porter for example. They all had better lives
because MJ did not turn his back on the families and kids who wanted to be with him.
Sager does not understand that. If anything it was MJ's big heart and ability to love strangers which sabotaged his career.

He could have a kid on his lap reading a story for him right when his mother could just walk in
and even that could be twisted. (Blanca Francia did that)

I wish he would have closed the door and avoid people as much as possible, he could never know the next Judas
and even record every phone call he had because even a phone call gave an opportunity to losers to accuse him (Terry George).
 
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Here's what she had to say about Whitney Houston.
It's no secret Houston battled with drug abuse throughout the course of her career, and the songwriter reflects on Houston's many missteps, referring specifically to 2002's Primetime interview with Diane Sawyer, in which Houston repeatedly claimed sobriety, and how Houston was infamously "fired" from performing at the 2000 Oscars. In an effort to "empower" Houston from her current state of mind, Sager penned the song "Try It On My Own."

Read the lyrics Sager wrote for Houston in the excerpt below:

After years of fighting an often-losing battle with drug addiction, 2002, and the aftereffects of her cigarette and cocaine use left her voice not quite as brilliant as it once was.

I knew Whitney through her aunt, Dionne Warwick, who had collaborated so closely with Burt [Bacharach]. Whitney was still a young girl when I first met her, and she was in awe of her famous aunt. Whitney's mother, Cissy Houston, was one of Dionne's backup singers for many years.

With over 170 million sales of albums, singles, and videos combined, Whitney's success had eclipsed every other female artist ever. But that was then. The last ten years had been all downhill and her life was chronicled weekly in the tabloids.

With this as background, Kenny Edmonds called me about writing a song for Whitney. What was her voice like now, and what was she like physically? I asked. He said she was clean and really sounding very good.

Two years prior, she'd shown up late and disoriented at the Academy Awards rehearsal. She was to sing "Over the Rainbow" and didn't know the words. Burt, who was the musical director that year, met with Lili and Dick Zanuck, who were producing the show. They told him to fire Whitney. "No one will remember who won Best Picture," they said. "They will only remember that Whitney was a train wreck." They replaced her with Faith Hill with only twenty-four hours before the show went on the air.

That was the last I'd heard about Whitney until Kenny's call.

I loved her voice. To me, she was one of the greatest singers of our time.

Like millions of other viewers, I was heartbroken watching her disastrous exchange earlier in the year when Diane Sawyer interviewed an anorexic-looking, clearly stoned-out Whitney who denied using any drugs at the time -- yet another tragic moment in a career that was spiraling out of control.

Believing, or wanting to believe, that she was better, Kenny and I began working on a song for Whitney. She was separated from her husband Bobby Brown at the time, and her family was helping her stay sober and clean. I thought a lot about what Whitney might want to say if she was writing her own song. I gave Kenny my title, "Try It On My Own." I wanted to write a lyric that would empower her. He liked it. I wrote the following to his melody.

And I am not afraid to try it on my own

I don't care if I'm right or wrong

I'll live my life the way I feel

No matter what I'll keep it real, you know

It's time for me to do it on my own

Kenny produced the record, and Whitney did sound great. I also loved the video, which parodied her being fired from the Oscars, spoofed American Idol, and had her pushing Bobby Brown away, and then singing the song her way with a large gospel choir in front of a live audience at the Lyric Theatre, one of the oldest black-owned theatres in Miami. I don't know if the video was Whitney's idea or the director's, but as with Michael Jackson's Invincible, not outstanding, and nowhere near what she did at her height.

The problem was that Whitney was not truly recovered, and every time she sang live, her performance got worse. Her pitch was off. She struggles for notes that were once easy for her. She was lost in her addiction, and her rail-thin appearance was difficult for audiences, including me, to see. This might have been what prevented the song from being a much bigger hit on the scale of some of her others. But for me, as her fan, the sight of her unraveling was the worst part.
I guess this book is just going to mainly consist of her being a bit of an ass by needlessly shading and giving back handed compliments to the artists she worked with while trying to seem caring and sympathetic.
tysonreaction.gif




It seems to me that she may have something against MJ though.
Notice how she's talking about Whitney but still slips in some MJ shade (the comment about Invincible).
TBH, with all of the other things she's said her opinion of MJ and/or his music is invalid to me anyway though.
 
I am not saying the media has a pass in anyway but I do think (just in general) if Michael was a little more open in general it would have taken a lot of weapons that the media had to run with.. (I understand the seclusion and PR etc.) but at some point it would have been beneficial to simply show people the real Michael..
 
Either way, whatever it was, and regardless of how she felt about it, she pretty much said that he brought it on himself, which is wrong.
How could he have stopped the tabloids from speculating and reporting false things?
So what he didn't want to tell people everything about his life, people really need to get over that.
And we all know that the allegations were false and weren't his fault.


How, could he have handled it better though?
He vehemently said that he had vitiligo, yet people didn't believe him.
After the autopsy results there's now undeniable proof that he had vitiligo, yet a lot of people still don't believe he did.
What else could he have done?
And showing the world his medical records isn't a viable answer (hell, even had he did that people probably would've believed they were fake).

I actually meant he could've handled certain coverage better. Remember some of the "crazy stories" came from his camp lol

I think her comment about his skin was wrong and I agree with you on that but other aspects of his life and career, yes many people feel he could've handled better or prevented altogether
 
I am not saying the media has a pass in anyway but I do think (just in general) if Michael was a little more open in general it would have taken a lot of weapons that the media had to run with.. (I understand the seclusion and PR etc.) but at some point it would have been beneficial to simply show people the real Michael..
I don't think being more open would have helped because Michael could have drank a glass of water and people would have twisted it and made it weird or strange.
It seemed that whatever Michael did, no matter how normal or mundane, that the media made it seem strange.
Either way, why should someone have to be more open when they don't want to just to receive common human decency?




Remember some of the "crazy stories" came from his camp lol
Can you link me to some cold hard proof of this?
Not that it would change my mind about what I said before considering a lot of celebs had and have done crazy things but the media didn't/doesn't treat them the same way they treated Michael.
I think her comment about his skin was wrong and I agree with you on that but other aspects of his life and career, yes many people feel he could've handled better or prevented altogether
IMO, people can feel a lot of things, but in the end they weren't Michael and don't know what he went through or how they would have done things if they were in his place, so they shouldn't judge or point the finger.
People need to remember that when they point the finger there are three pointing back at themselves.
 
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simply show people the real Michael..
------------------

Which was what ? And what should he have done to show the "real" mj.
 
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