Culkin defends Jackson on the stand

Macaulay Culkin slept in Michael Jackson’s bed several times between the ages of 10 and 14, but the now 24-year-old actor didn’t realize there were allegations that Jackson had molested him until he saw the trial coverage on TV. That’s what the former child star said on the stand during Wednesday’s trial proceedings, according to the Associated Press. He denied for the record that Jackson had ever molested him, said he’d never seen Jackson abuse anyone else, and called the current criminal molestation charges against his friend ”absolutely ridiculous.”

”I wasn’t really planning on testifying,” Culkin said, but then he learned that two former Neverland employees had testified that they’d seen Jackson fondle him. ”Somebody told me you should probably check out CNN because they’re saying something about you. I just couldn’t believe it,” he said, noting that prosecutors had never contacted him to hear his account. ”It was amazing to me that nobody even approached me and asked if these allegations were true.”

The Home Alone star is one of five boys that prosecutors, in an effort to establish a pattern of prior bad acts, said that Jackson molested in the 1990s, a decade before the current accuser leveled his allegations. Of the five, two received multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlements from Jackson, though he denied any wrongdoing then, as he has in the current case. One of those two, the son of a former Neverland maid who testified that she saw Jackson behave improperly with Culkin, testified for the prosecution about his alleged molestation. The other three — Culkin, former Britney Spears choreographer Wade Robson, and Australian fan Brett Barnes — have all testified on Jackson’s behalf. Asked Wednesday if he’d ever seen Jackson behave inappropriately with Robson or Barnes, Culkin said, ”I’ve never seen him do anything improper with anyone.”