JACKO'S ADVENTURES IN THE ARABIAN MAGIC KINGDOM

By Scott MacLeod

Michael Jackson's image was in tatters. His album sales were flagging. And the tabloids were running out of space to print Jacko stories, ranging from his alleged child molestation to his bizarre marriage to--and divorce from--Lisa Marie Presley. To whom did the troubled singer turn to restart his faltering career? Desert royalty from Saudi Arabia, one of the most culturally isolated nations on earth, where even Beethoven concerts, much less Michael Jackson spectacles, are banned by the government.

Jackson and the prince may be one of the strangest pairings in show business, but Alwaleed seems to be making it work. Last year he and the Gloved One set up a fifty-fifty venture called Kingdom Entertainment that led to an important deal with Sony, Jackson's record label. Jackson will serve as producer for a new label called MJJ (for Michael J. Jackson), which will release CDs by new singers and groups. The Alwaleed-Jackson company also acquired 55% ownership of Landmark Entertainment Group, famous for such design projects as the Forum shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and the Terminator II 3-D ride at Universal Studio's park in Orlando, Fla. Sony continues to produce Jackson's music, including his latest album, Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix.

Jackson and Alwaleed became pals in 1994, when a mutual friend from Alwaleed's college days in California arranged a lunch meeting aboard the prince's yacht in Cannes. They hit it off, and Alwaleed became very protective of Jackson, whom he saw as a creative genius with lousy business instincts and bad p.r. "I cannot base my relationship on innuendo," says Alwaleed. "I believe that all the fuss around him has no basis. I believe that he is still an underdeveloped asset. There is no other artist who can go to some countries and have the whole place come to a standstill."

Indeed, in a business brimming with bad management--for example, the handling of Jackson's popular yet troubled 1984 Victory Tour--Alwaleed's sharp-penciled philosophy may be just the ticket. And for Alwaleed, already a record producer in the Middle East, the partnership could be an inexpensive shortcut to big-time entertainment deals. "With Michael's negative image in America, people concluded 'He's through,'" says an Alwaleed adviser. "The prince likes an underdog. He moves in when it appears a business has no chance. It was easier to get involved with Michael Jackson because he was down."

Alwaleed dispatched his media consultant Tarak Ben Ammar, a film producer, to explore ways of shoring up Jackson's career. Jackson soon hired Ben Ammar to manage his business affairs, including his just ended 1997 European tour. "The prince's advice and guidance have been extremely helpful to me in all facets of my life and career," Jackson told TIME. "With the prince's business skills and my help on the creative side, I truly believe we can grow into a global company."

Jackson has plenty of new moves in mind. They include a Kingdom Entertainment movie starring himself, to be filmed next year and, not surprisingly, exploiting his and the prince's shared interest in theme parks; the prince already owns 24% of Disneyland Paris.

Getting Jackson's popularity turned around in the U.S. is a much knottier issue. While he remains a top star internationally--foreign sales of HIStory actually matched those from Thriller, the best-selling album of all time--his draw in America is still slack. Next year Jackson will be recording an album with Kenneth ("Baby Face") Edmonds, one of the hottest producers in the music business. Says an Alwaleed adviser: "We've got to make him hip again, and how you do that is all about perception."

For his part, Ben Ammar complains that no matter what Jackson does, it tends to come out negative in the press. For example, Ben Ammar says, Jackson's recent tour--42 gigs in Europe and South Africa--was a commercial smash, yet it received mainly sniping coverage. According to Ben Ammar, the tour matched the $100 million gross brought in by Jackson's 1996 swing through Asia, and was even more profitable, because operational costs were slashed 50%. Ben Ammar says Jackson netted $15 million instead of going in the red. That is music to the ears, even in Saudi Arabia.

--By Scott MacLeod