Wire services are quoting the fact that LaToya Jackson told ABC’s 20/20 that her ex husband Jack Gordon was trying to have her do a porn movie https://adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=7939.

But if you actually read ABC’s account of it, they refer to it as softcore porn. http://abcnews.go.com/2020/MichaelJackson/story?id=432027&page=1 No, this was hardcore, baby.

Porn Valley- John Bowen and I had a chat this week about the recent LaToya Jackson article https://adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=7939 posted on this site. Jackson interviewed with 20/20 last week and apparently talked about the time that she almost got involved doing sleazy projects. And Bowen would know about that because he was the director tabbed to shoot some of the sleaze.

Bowen’s recollections are that the deal was struck about the same time as the ruckus raised when Hugh Grant solicited Divine Brown and got busted, while Brown got a deal to shoot a porno with Mark Carrier’s company Leisure Time.

“The deal was struck right at contract point then she refused to do it,” says Bowen of Jackson. “Jack Gordon was forcing her into doing this, and we took the meeting. We struck the deal. The money was agreed and everything was done. Then they couldn’t get her to sign.”

I asked who the “they” were. Wiseguys, according to Bowen. Preferring not to name names, Bowen left it as people who knew people who knew people but seems to think that the Jackson family got into the picture on this one. “I think she called the family and the family stormed in.”

The events took place during one of the January trade shows in Vegas. “I was spirited away from the convention in a black limousine,” Bowen recalls. “We went to an Italian restaurant. I met with some 300-ound Italian guys. The whole deal was structured right there over the lunch. It was just a matter of signing a contract.”

Asked how he got singled out for the project, Bowen again falls back on the people who know people explanation. “It was all done through wiseguys,” he tells me. “Everything. It was friends of friends. Guys who knew guys. I know one of the guys who was working with us. And so I was taken in to make the deal. Mark Carrier was on a tear of getting personalities to do movies. That was when we were approached.”

Assuming that Jackson would have signed, I asked what kind of deal was being put on the table. Bowen tells me she was going to get $100,000 to do one scene. By the same token, Bowen’s recollection don’t include having met Jack Gordon. “But I wouldn’t have known at that time who he was,” says Bowen. “I knew who LaToya was but she wasn’t at the meeting. I think there was four guys I met with. This was a long time ago. There was two friends of mine and maybe two or four of them and me.”

Bowen remembers a lot of ass kissing going on at the table. “I think we took like a two and a half hour meeting, struck the whole deal, then I was whisked back to the convention in a limousine. We were left with an, okay, we’re going to do it. We even set a date to shoot it within two weeks or something. Within that two weeks the word came down that she wasn’t going to do it.”

I asked Bowen the supposin’ question, that if Jackson went through with it, who would she have done the scene with. According to Bowen, he was doing a lot of work with Rocco at the time. “I think we had earmarked him to do the scene with her. He eventually tied up with an Italian company and went on to owning his own product but he worked with me a lot. I’m pretty sure it was at that time.”

Bowen got a feeling that Jackson was not a party to any of the porn movie discussions. “The people who handled her decided this was what she was going to do next,” said Bowen. “The way the meeting went down she was presented as having no choice in the matter. They were the guys who made the decisions and she did what she was told.”

In fact, Jackson in her 20/20 interview states that Gordon had beaten her up on several occasions. Gordon has denied that. As Bowen remembers it, in the context of the meeting, there was no reference to having to check with Jackson to see if she agreed to anything. “It was just done. They were there.”

But, strangely, Jackson seemed to have had her way to finally nix the deal. It was Bowen’s impression that it was the last straw in Jackson’s relationship with Gordon that she stood up for herself. “I think the family rescued her.”

I suggested that Michael may have sprinkled some fairy dust to make the whole thing disappear.

Regarding Michael Jackson, Bowen remembers that gay porn director Marc Schaffel had always been around the Jackson camp. When Bowen first came to America he was an antique dealer. “We used to deal primarily in jewelry.” Bowen had a store on Beverly Blvd and one of his clients was an interior designer and one of Michael Jackson’s best friends. According to Bowen, Jackson’s friend used to come by the store at least once a week. “He collected pins [in the shape of crowns] you’d put on a jacket and so did Michael. He used to come in and buy them saying, oh, Michael would like that one.”

Consequently, Bowen said he’d be privy to second-hand Jackson info. “I remember at the time I was very into costumes,” says Bowen. “We were breaking down an enormous collection of Hollywood costumes. One of them Errol Flynn had worn in a movie.” Bowen says Jackson acquired the costume. “We sold that for a fortune.”

According to Bowen, the interior designer would also talk a lot about Schaffel. “He used to talk about this guy [Schaffel] who was there all the time. At that time Michael lived in Encino, next door to Dave Arthur [the porn director who made the Taboo series a household name]. They would always talk about this gay porn director who was part of the [Jackson] inner circle.”

Schaffel used to work for Mark Franks, one of the most successful gay company owners around.

“I remember 20 years ago that the rumors first surfaced that Michael was gay,” states Bowen. “Everybody was denying it including the interior designer. I remember saying to him one time that if Michael isn’t gay, why does he have a gay porn person around him. He said, no, Michael isn’t gay. Michael likes pornography. I never heard of Schaffel and it came out that he made gay porn.”