Neverland Ranch may be lined with statues of Peter Pan, but to Michael Jackson's former housekeeper, the estate conjured another fairy tale.

"Without their parents there, it became like Pinocchio's Pleasure Island sometimes," Kiki Fournier testified Thursday.

Fournier was portrayed as a reluctant witness in Jackson's child-molestation trial. She worked "off and on" for the pop star from September 1991 to September 2003, leaving two months before Jackson was arrested on charges he abused a boy at his ostensibly kid-friendly home.

In Pinocchio, Pleasure Island is a den of deception, a place where boys are lured, and turned into donkeys. According to Fournier, Neverland was 2,800 acres of id, a place where "you could watch videos, play videogames, eat whatever you want[ed] to eat, stay up as late as you want, ride amusement park rides."

Jackson's fantasy-land home, Fournier said, treated a child "like any child wants to be treated."

But sometimes the fun seemed more than mere kid stuff. Fournier said on "three to four" occasions she saw children who appeared to be intoxicated.

In addition to molestation, Jackson, 46, is accused of playing bartender to his alleged 13-year-old victim and holding the boy and his family against their will. He has pleaded innocent to all charges.

Under cross-examination, Fournier said she never saw Jackson serve alcohol to any children, and never saw the accuser or his under-age siblings appear to be intoxicated.

Early in her testimony, Fournier called Jackson a "very detail-oriented person."

"He did like to have his service the way he wanted it," Fournier said.

Later, the ex-housekeeper said Jackson gave his young guests free reign, allowing them on the estate even when he was away. Absent authority figures, Fournier explained, the young guests took to Neverland the way rock stars take to hotel rooms--except with more candy fights.

Later, the ex-housekeeper said Jackson did little to rein in his guests, pre-teen boys, who frequently took to Neverland the way rock stars take to hotel rooms--except with more candy fights.

"Sometimes they [the children] would get pretty rowdy," Fournier said. "They could get pretty rambunctious sometimes."

Notable Neverland boarders during Fournier's tenure, she said, included former Home Alone tyke Macaulay Culkin and the boy at the center of the never prosecuted 1993-94 molestation case.

Culkin has been mentioned as a possible defense witness; Jackson's former accuser, meanwhile, has been floated as a possible prosecution witness--if the judge allows evidence from the old case to be introduced.

Under questioning by defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr., Fournier acknowledged the current accuser and his younger brother were among the more colorful guests. Before leaving the estate with their family for the final time in March 2003, the boys trashed their private unit, she said, leaving behind broken drinking glasses, garbage and food, she said.

"They were getting a little ornery," Fournier said of the brothers.

One time, Fournier said, the accuser's brother pulled a knife on her while she was washing dishes in the kitchen. She later said she assumed the boy was joking--not that the humor wasn't without its point.

"Well, I mean, I didn't feel comfortable about it," Fournier testified. "Who wants a knife in your back, you know?"

Fournier's testimony largely seemed to be used by the prosecution to establish that Jackson enjoys the company of boys, aged 10-14, although the observation is hardly novel. In Martin Bashir's 2003 Jackson documentary, screened in court two weeks ago, the pop star spoke openly of his love of children, and his habit of sharing his bed with them. While being interviewed, Jackson holds the hand of his future accuser.

The defense used the ex-housekeeper, as well, even getting her to clarify what she thought Jackson's role should have been in policing "Pleasure Island."

"How could he supervise that many children?," Fournier testified, noting young visitors frequently were brought in by the bus-load. "Sometimes the parents didn't even help."

In other testimony Thursday, jurors heard from a Los Angeles TV weather forecaster, who put in a few good words for the accuser's family, a unit whose collective character and credibility is regularly attacked by the defense.

Fritz Coleman, who moonlights as a standup, talked of meeting the accuser and his two siblings at a 1999 comedy camp for underprivileged children. "I found them personable and polite and charismatic," he said.

Coleman later helped out the family at Christmastime, and, when the accuser became ill with cancer in 2000, performed at a benefit for the boy at L.A.'s Laugh Factory nightclub.

One time when he visited the child in the hospital, Coleman said, the boy was "beaming" as he showed him a "huge" gift box that had been sent over by Jackson.

Coleman denied being badgered for money or donations by the accuser's mother, a woman the defense has depicted as being on the make.

Even with Coleman's benign testimony, the defense was able to extract a little blood. Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. asked Coleman about a police interview in which the accuser's mother said the weatherman, Jackson and basketball star Kobe Bryant had agreed to help her in a domestic-abuse case against her then husband. Coleman said he'd offered no such help, and didn't know of the mother's statements until contacted about them by a newspaper reporter.

Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville, meanwhile, announced the fast-paced trial would go dark on Friday. While noting that one juror has a "pressing family matter," he said he thought "a break for everybody is in order."

Technically, Friday will be a workday for almost all involved except the jurors. Melville will hear a handful of motions, including one related to Jackson's finances.

Melville informed Jackson he is not required to appear in the Santa Maria, California, courtroom for the procedural matters.

Responded Jackson: "Okay."