Liz Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando Went On A Post-9/11 Road Trip
May 5, 2011, 11:37 a.m.
We've heard lots of tales of how people left New York City after 9/11 and we sort of thought the book on that particular genre was closed. But then Vanity Fair blew it back open.
Road trip!
We've heard lots of tales of how people left New York City after 9/11 and we sort of thought the book on that particular genre was closed. But then Vanity Fair came and blew it back open. According to the magazine one of America's greatest tragedies led to possibly the most surreal road trip we've ever heard of. Oh, to have been a fly on the windshield of the rental car that Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando drove from New York to Ohio en route to California!
The three were in town for Jackson's Madison Square Garden concerts on September 7 and 10 (Jackson's "original idea had been for them to sit onstage like two great Easter Island figureheads flanking the show, but instead they sat in the audience.") and, when the planes struck the WTC, Jackson and Brando reportedly got spooked that they would be the next targets. And this is where it gets amazing. In at least one version of the story the trio then drove to a safe house in Jersey (after fending off fans waiting outside their hotel) before heading west:
A former employee of Michael Jackson’s says that Michael, like General Washington, led his entourage to a temporary safe haven in New Jersey, before the three superstars took to the open road. “They actually got as far as Ohio—all three of them, in a car they drove themselves!” he recalls. Brando allegedly annoyed his traveling companions by insisting on stopping at nearly every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway. One can only imagine the shock their appearance caused at gas stations and rest stops across America.
We really, really, really, hope this story is true. But, sadly, it does have its detractors. One of Taylor's assistants swears to the magazine that Taylor didn't flee the city but stayed behind and “went to a church to pray, and she went to an armory where people were who couldn’t get home or who’d stayed behind to look for the missing. She also went down to Ground Zero, where she met with first responders. Eventually, the airports opened and she flew home.” Anybody remember seeing La Liz talking to first responders at Ground Zero? Because we certainly don't.
