Macaulay Culkin has reportedly joked about the allegations of abuse levelled at his friend Michael Jackson in a comedy gig.
Over the last few weeks, Michael Jackson - who died in 2009 at the age of 50 - has been put back under the media spotlight in the aftermath of the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, which follows the stories of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, two former friends of Jackson who say the pop star sexually abused them.
Culkin, now 38 years old, became friends with Jackson when the Home Alone actor was nine years old, and had so far refrained from commenting on the abuse allegations beyond his 2005 testimony. But in a comedy gig at the Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles last week, Macaulay allegedly had a sense of humour about the allegations against his close friend.
Culkin was there as part of a live recording of his Bunny Ears comedy podcast, which was watched by Jackson's 20-year-old daughter Paris Jackson - who also happens to be Culkin's goddaughter. He was on the mic with the musical comedy legend Weird Al Yankovic.
During the show, Culkin apparently turned to Yankovic, 59, and said to him: "I’m going to ask you a very serious question. What was your relationship like with Michael Jackson?" Then, both Culkin and Yankovic burst out laughing, before Yankovic replied: "Um, mostly platonic."
"I met him two or three times, he was pretty sweet to me," explained Weird Al Yankovic, who parodied two of his songs in Eat It and Fat (based on Michael Jackson's songs Beat It and Bad, respectively). This exchange drew raucous laughter and applause from the audience present at the show.
"Sounds amazing, he sounds really cool, yeah," joked Macaulay Culkin, before revealing that Weird Al Yankovic's parodies were especially popular with the King of Pop at the Neverland Ranch. "I will say he was a huge, huge fan of yours Yes, he always had your videos kind of playing constantly," Culkin apparently said.
"There you go, validation. Praise. Hail, Caesar!" added Culkin, before the conversation moved swiftly on.
Paris Jackson was in attendance with her boyfriend Gabriel Glenn, but an eyewitness said she did not talk to Culkin or Yankovic, smoking and staying silent at the back. Instead, she headed backstage with Culkin's partner Brenda Song.
"She didn’t talk to anybody and just kept her head down scrolling through her phone while smoking at a little table in the corner. Paris barely spoke to Gabriel and looked pretty downcast before sneaking backstage with Macaulay’s girlfriend Brenda Song."
It's unclear what Paris thought of the reported jokes made by Macaulay Culkin, but what is clear is that the actor, unlike others, is refusing to wade into the debate surrounding his Michael Jackson.