0
Actress Says Neverland Purchase Followed Visit
Jane Fonda told Piers Morgan that Michael Jackson's 1981 visit to her California ranch inspired him to purchase what was to become Neverland Ranch.
The actress and author of the new book "Prime Time" -- which is about the last third of life -- is a guest on tonight's "Piers Morgan Tonight."
"I had a ranch in Santa Barbara," said Fonda. "And he came and visited me once. And I was walking him around. It's how he was introduced to that area -- where he eventually bought Neverland -- is when I had him to my ranch."
The King of Pop, who was in his early 20s at the time, spent a week on the set of "On Golden Pond."
"He came and he wanted to watch my father and Katharine Hepburn work," said Fonda. "He was interested in becoming a movie actor."
Fonda also recalled pointing out to Jackson the spot on the ranch's grounds where she intended to be buried.
"I thought he was going to have a meltdown," Fonda stated. "The notion that I could countenance the fact that I was going to die was anathema to him. He just -- he screamed."
The actress recalled Jackson insisting that he was never going to die.
"He talked about how he would get into an oxygen tank and he thought that was going to keep him, you know, alive forever."
Fonda told Morgan that she doesn't like the notion that Jackson's 2009 death was a "Hollywood cliché," but that "it's hard to imagine that someone that was as tormented as he was, you know, could have sort of lived a long and peaceful and natural life."
Fonda and her father, Henry Fonda, co-starred in 1981's "On Golden Pond," for which they both won Oscars. The film also won Best Picture that year.
"I feel so blessed, Piers, to have been able to have that experience," said Fonda. "He died five months later. I bought the play. I made the movie, because I wanted to work with him. We knew he was dying."
Read more: http://www.wptz.com/...l#ixzz1g4wSjlsd
