Michael Jackson plied children with Coke cans full of "Jesus juice" (for white wine) and "Jesus blood" (for red) and quaffed enough of the stuff himself to get snockered on an airplane ride.
Such are the allegations from an article in the March Vanity Fair, which details child-abuse cases past and present against the formerly chart-topping pop star.
The most salacious claim has Jackson offering Jesus-themed beverages to everyone from his accuser in the current molestation investigation to the 13-year-old son of a Japanese investment partner.
According to Vanity Fair, the accuser has said that Jackson extolled the virtues of spiked soda to him and his siblings by saying, "Jesus drank it, so it must be good."
The Jesus juice reference previously surfaced in a December article in the National Enquirer.
In addition to seven counts of child molestation, Jackson is formally charged with two counts of supplying an unspecified "intoxicating agent" to his alleged victim. He has pleaded innocent to all charges.
Vanity Fair says Jackson's accuser, who was 13 at the time of the reputed molestation last year, was offered a Coke can full of wine during a flight from Florida last February.
The magazine quotes former Jackson business adviser Myung-Ho Lee as saying Jackson himself ended up on the floor of a plane during a flight to Germany in 1999--the reputed result of too many cans of Jesus juice and pills.
The Jackson FileE! Online tracks all the latest developments.
Kat Pellicano, former wife of now-imprisoned P.I.-to-the-stars Anthony Pellicano, tells Vanity Fair Jackson fell asleep at her house in 1993, after drinking "glass after glass of orange soda."
The article paints Jackson as a man who has had "serious drug problems" with Demerol and morphine and has been "in and out of rehab."
A message seeking comment from Jackson's attorney, Mark Geragos, was not immediately returned Thursday.
Among the article's other claims:
A-list legal-eagle Geragos was retained by Jackson last February, nine months before authorities in Santa Barbara raided Neverland Ranch and issued an arrest warrant for the singer.Off camera, Jackson speaks in a "guy's voice," not the high-pitched whisper heard in interviews.
Jackson was third on his accuser's celebrity wish list when the boy was an ailing cancer patient. The top two: Adam Sandler and Chris Tucker, both of whom the child eventually met.
The attorney representing the accuser's mother pledged to Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon that he would not file a civil suit while the criminal case proceeds.
The boy at the center of the 1993-94 Jackson molestation case, now a college grad, has been contacted by Sneddon about testifying at the new trial. No charges were filed in that decade-old investigation, with the family opting for a multimillion-dollar payout from Jackson.
Meanwhile, in other Jackson developments, California's state attorney general says he'll need at least three more weeks to investigate Jackson's claims of abuse at the hands of Santa Barbara authorities during his arrest and booking last November.
Though Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson threatened to prosecute Jackson if his charges are proved unfounded, Attorney General Bill Lockyer tells the Santa Barbara News-Press that because Jackson issued his complaints on 60 Minutes and not, say, in a police report, the entertainer can't be held liable for his words.
But Anderson doesn't sound as if he's ready to give up the fight. "It's not right for anyone to make false claims, and I believe he should be held accountable," Anderson says in the News-Press.
Finally, on Jan. 16, Jackson's arraignment turned media circus left Santa Barbara in a $35,000 hole.
While the county collected $40,000 from price-gouged reporters for parking spaces (at $250 per), the entire affair, including security, portable potties and trash cleanup, cost the county at least $75,000, the News-Press reports.