Jackson Exes Don't Stick to Script

The prosecution couldn't have scripted it any better: Michael Jackson's ex-wife teared up on the stand.

But by the time Debbie Rowe and Jackson's other ex--the ex-personal videographer--were through for the day, the government might have wished it had the power to order a rewrite.

On Wednesday, the pop star's molestation and conspiracy trial was all about scripts. But if the accuser's mother said she and her children were forced to memorize one for a Jackson-ordered rebuttal video, then neither Rowe nor the videographer, Hamid Moslehi, were able to corroborate the claim.

Rowe said her own Jackson video testimonial was done sans coaching; Moslehi said he never saw the mother or her children run lines during their shoot.

For Rowe, it was an emotional first day at the Santa Maria, California, courthouse, her voice cracking, per reports, when she spoke of the two children she had with Jackson.

Asked to define her relationship with Jackson, Rowe said simply, "We've been friends, and we were married." She said they never shared a home.

Rowe, a former nurse for Jackson's dermatologist, was wed to Jackson from 1996-99. She is the mother of the entertainer's eldest children, Prince, eight, and Paris, seven. Following the divorce, she ceded parental rights to Jackson. And while those rights have since been restored, she is currently battling Jackson in the Los Angeles courts over visitation.

On the stand Wednesday, she said that in early 2003, Jackson phoned and informed her of a "bad video coming out."

The "bad video" was the Martin Bashir documentary Living with Michael Jackson. At the time, the special had not yet debuted on ABC. Still, Jackson already was unhappy with it.

Rowe testified that Jackson asked her if she'd be willing to help him out. She said it was the first time she'd spoken with him since the split.

The prosecution alleged Prince and Paris were used as "pawns" by Jackson's team to ensure Rowe's participation in a video in which she would talk up her former husband. But on the stand, Rowe spoke of no specific promises--other than her own.

"I promised [Jackson] that I would always be there for him and the children," Rowe said.

Rowe did allow that she hoped her cooperation would allow her to "be reintroduced to [the children] and to be reacquainted with their dad."

When the time came for Rowe to sit down for the interview, the ex-wife said she turned down a chance to review questions prior to taping.

"Mr. Jackson knows no one can tell me what to say," Rowe said. "I tend to speak my own mind, and I didn't want the interview to be construed as something other than what it was, which was a cold interview."

In his opening statement, Tom Sneddon told jurors that Rowe would talk about the interview not only being "scripted" but being groomed in a "complete rehearsal."

While Jackson isn't charged with any wrongdoing with regard to his ex-wife, he is charged with allegedly conspiring with his henchmen to strong-arm his accuser's family into appearing in a similar videotape.

Both videos were shot by Moslehi in February 2003--Rowe's right before the Bashir documentary aired on Feb. 6, 2003; the accuser's family's a few weeks after.

The footage was intended for The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See, the singer's answer to the Bashir documentary. The special, hosted by Maury Povich, aired on Fox on Feb. 20, 2003. As it turned out, Rowe's footage made the final cut; the family's didn't--Moslehi said even as he shot it he knew it wouldn't because the show's production deadline had passed.

Last week, the accuser's mother said that, at her shoot, "the whole thing, from the beginning to the end, including outtakes...was all scripted."

The mother's testimony outstripped even the prosecution's take on what had occurred. In its indictment against Jackson, it charged that the singer's associates prepared "a script of questions." (TV producers the world over might want to take note that "a script of questions" can count as an "overt act" of conspiracy given the right circumstances.)

Since the mother opened the door to the possibility that the responses, not just the questions, were scripted, defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. walked right through and asked Moslehi if he ever saw the woman's children memorizing dialogue in the two to three hours they hung at his house prior to taping. Moslehi said he did not.

"In fact, what you saw them doing was mostly playing and having fun, right?" Mesereau asked.

"As I remember," Moslehi replied.

As for the mother, Moslehi said he didn't see her memorizing her lines, either. And he said he never saw anyone coach the mother or the children.

In other matters, the defense's latest request for a mistrial was denied. Jackson's camp had problems with questions asked by the prosecution of Moslehi regarding the shoot for the Bashir documentary.

Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting the woman's eldest son in 2003 when the boy was 13. The pop star also faces charges of plying the child with alcohol and plotting to ship the youngster and his family to Brazil. The entertainer has pleaded innocent to all charges.