A roped-off section of a half-empty cinema, a Muslim mother sits with a group of children, munching popcorn and slurping noisily from an oversized soft drink.

She is marked out not by her head-to-foot black Islamic robes, which cover her face­ - this is after all the Arab state of Bahrain ­- but by the large and clumpy men's shoes she dangles gracelessly over the seat in front.

Nor, it should be said, do many families arrive at the Seef Cineplex accompanied by a phalanx of twitchy gun guards who diligently patrol the theatre during the main feature.

But then this not your average family on a night out at the pictures. The 'mother' is none other than deposed King of Pop Michael Jackson sporting his latest disguise in a bid to fool his fans.

Not that the traditional female outfit - called an abaya - which the disgraced star has recently taken to wearing, is deceiving many in the tiny oil-rich country that has been Jackson's unlikely home for the last 12 months.

He has become a regular sight in his new get-up in shopping malls, browsing in Mothercare, and, bizarrely, even applying make-up in the ladies' toilet.

All of which is utterly peculiar behaviour even for a man famed for the multiplicity of his eccentricities.

But on the anniversary of his controversial acquittal on charges of child molestation, the weird world of Wacko Jacko is about to get even stranger.

With his career in tatters and facing bankruptcy, there now comes the threat that he could have his children taken off him in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife Debbie Rowe.

A judge has ordered that secret documents about the couple's 1999 divorce must be made public next month, revealing, it is alleged, that Jackson is not the natural father of his eldest son and daughter.

At the same time the 47-year-old star is said to be planning to marry for a third time and is trying to adopt a Japanese orphan while, the Mail has learnt, threatening to go on the run with his children if he loses the court fight with Rowe.

And if that were not enough, he is being sued by a former associate who claims Jackson is secretly plagued by a serious drink and prescription drugs problem.

Jackson faces the prospect of even more of his dirty linen being aired publicly

But it is the custody battle with second wife Rowe that is most exercising the star's mind. The former nurse, whom Jacko married in 1996 following his divorce from first wife Lisa Marie Presley, is battling her ex-husband for custody of their children; son Prince Michael, nine, and eight-year-old daughter Paris.

Two weeks ago a California Supreme Court threw out Jackson's claim that he should continue to have undisputed custody of the children, whose identity he protects by making them wear veils in public.

Miss Rowe, it should be said, hardly falls naturally into the category of doting mother. She signed away her rights to the children in October 2001 in return for a multi-million pound pay-off.

But four months ago a court accepted her claim that she should be allowed access to her children after she alleged that Jackson had 'abducted' them by taking them to Bahrain on what she claims were faked passports.

Jackson has sought all along to keep the details of the case secret, but at the latest hearing the judge ordered that the papers relating to their divorce and custody agreement should be unsealed.

Now the shamed singer faces the prospect of even more of his dirty linen being aired publicly including, it is said, evidence that his continued insistence that the children are his and fathered 'the natural way' is a lie.

In fact, the American showbusiness set, which once feted him, is buzzing with claims this week that Prince Michael and Paris - who do indeed appear to be white ­ were fathered by an anonymous Caucasian sperm donor chosen for his physical characteristics by Jackson from a catalogue.

The court case is also set to reveal the true parentage of his third child, four-year-old Prince Michael II, mysteriously nicknamed 'Blanket'.

The child, whom Jackson famously dangled over the balcony of a Berlin hotel in 2002, is said to have been born to a surrogate mother selected by Jackson because of her resemblance to the beautiful Mexican actress Salma Hayek. His father is also said to be a sperm donor.

But despite Miss Rowe's success thus far in her dispute with Jackson, the Mail has learnt her legal team fear that if she wins custody of her two children, Jackson will never return to America and may carry out a threat to go on the run with them in the Middle East where the US courts have no power.

A source close to Rowe said: "Michael has made it clear that Debbie won't get her hands on Prince and Paris. He would rather die than lose them. His says his children are all he has left.

"By leaving America for Bahrain, he has made it virtually impossible for her to force him to hand them over."

But Rowe's lawyer Eric George told the Mail this week she plans to carry on her battle with the star regardless.

"Debbie has won the right like any other parent to seek the custody of her children," he said.

'A pariah in his home country, he now relies on the largesse of Bahrain's King Hamad to fund his still hugely extravagant lifestyle'

If Jackson thought his problems had ended with those contentious not guilty verdicts in a Californian court last June, he was very much mistaken.

To add to his woes he has been forced to close down his Neverland home and theme park after being threatened with foreclosure on huge unpaid loans.

A pariah in his home country, he now relies on the largesse of Bahrain's King Hamad to fund his still hugely extravagant lifestyle. His benefactor has supplied Jackson with a ranch-style home in the suburbs of the country's capital Manama, plus a fleet of luxury cars which includes a Bentley GT and £220,000 Rolls Royce Phantom.

In return Jackson has agreed to record an album for the new record company set up as a plaything for the King's son Sheik Abdullah.

Jackson certainly needs the money. He is said to be more than £135 million in debt after 20 years of mind-boggling profligacy and bad investments saw him blow the £500 million fortune earned from a string of hits including Thriller and Billie Jean.

He has even been dumped by the lawyers who defended him during his four-month sex trial because he was unable to pay his £6 million legal bill.

It was only a last minute deal, thrashed out earlier this year in his £6,000-a-night suite at the Burj Al Arab hotel in neighbouring Dubai, that allowed Jackson to stave off bankruptcy.

At the meeting with senior executives from the Sony Corporation, the company agreed to find a bank willing to give the broke star more than £200 million in loans to help him pay off his debts to New York-based finance company The Fortress Group.

But in return Jackson, who had been paying close to £3million a-month in interest alone, had to agree to put up as collateral his 50 per cent share in the lucrative song rights of acts including The Beatles, which he owns jointly with Sony.

Yet those close to the star say he has done little to rein in his spending on antiques, private jet hire and paintings. He has even hinted that he is considering buying a castle in Scotland or Ireland to recreate his former home Neverland.

He is also recently said to have bought on a whim a pair of villas on a new island development in the Gulf and instructed his chauffeur to stop when he spotted a house he took a shine to in an upmarket district of the Bahraini capital.

A member of his entourage was dispatched on the spot to make the owner an offer for the property. When he declined, Jackson invited himself in for dinner.

His spendthrift nature has even tested the patience of his ultra generous hosts. At Christmas the fading star flew a dozen friends to his adoptive home and lavished presents on them before delivering the whole bill to the royal prince.

Meanwhile, Jackson is reluctant to return to his native America because he fears being hit with a further raft of legal action from creditors. He will face trial in his absence next week over claims by former associate Marc Schaffel that Jackson owes him £1.7million.

In court papers for the trial Schaffel alleges that the singer's "excessive use of drugs and alcohol impelled him into irrational demands for money and extravagant possessions."

At the same time there have been reports in the US that he is addicted to the anti-anxiety drug Xanax.

And his new and damaging dispute with his Rowe could not come at a worse time for Jacko as he attempts to get permission to adopt a child he met at a Toyko orphanage two weeks ago.

He flew to the Japanese capital - his first public appearance since his child sex trial - as part of tour of Asia where his reputation is less tarnished and where he hopes to begin the resurrection of his career.

After receiving an award before cheering fans at the city¹s Yoyogi Olympic stadium, Jackson was ushered into a downtown orphanage housed in a huge gymnasium where nuns dressed in grey uniforms showed him more than 160 children aged between three and 18.

He is said to be 'deadly serious' about his intention to adopt one of the children, though quite why the Japanese authorities would be willing to sanction his attempts to add to his family is alarming.

After all, Jackson¹s trial centred around accusations that he twice molested 13-year-old fan Gavin Arvizo on his bed at the Neverland ranch. Although he was cleared, two of the jurors went on to claim that they believe he had assaulted other boys at his private theme park.

He also famously paid another young fan Jordy Chandler £10million in 1993 to drop molestation charges against him.

But then as Jackson is only too aware, his wealth and international celebrity have granted him special status. In Bahrain he has been engaging in increasingly regal behaviour.

Sources close to him say he plans to make his children's nanny, 38-year-old Grace Rwarmba, wife number three. The formidable Miss Rwarmba is known in his camp as 'The Enforcer' because of the zeal with which she has taken on the role of organising Jackson's life.

She is responsible for taking a fine-tooth comb to planning his itinerary. For one of those regular visits to the cinema in his new home she will routinely lay down the rules in advance to any member of staff who should find themselves face-to-face with the demanding star.

They are informed that they must under no circumstances touch him and may come no closer than one metre. They are permitted to smile, but instructed not to try and engage him in conversation. If they take pictures, they are told in no uncertain terms, their cameras will be smashed by his bodyguards.

The star, his children and their entourage then duly arrive in a fleet of blacked-out SUVs and are ushered through a fire exit to their own cordoned off section.

Jacko insists on being allocated a toilet for his sole use which, bizarrely, he visits every half hour during the film.

It was while in another large shopping mall that he is said to have been found, dressed as a woman and applying make-up in the ladies' toilet (his PR's explain that it was a simple mistake because he was unable to read the sign saying, 'Ladies' in Arabic).

Whatever the truth, his staff claim he will release his new album, funded by his royal friend, next year as he makes another tilt at unlikely public redemption.

Meanwhile as Jackson languishes in his gilded Middle East bolthole, it remains to be seen how much longer his children will remain star attractions in his grotesque freak show.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=389987&in_page_id=1773&ct=5

oh boy u can write o. Did you study history in school.

boy,i neva knew that ya head were fille with books

oh boy u can write o. Did you study history in school

lol

Jalal now what do you want us to gain from all this.i could not even finish reading it,it is tooooooooooo loooooooooooooooong

I could not even start let alone read sumtin

Menh that article is sure damn mean and freaking racial, I am not surprised when i realised its source as being british

Can someone round it up for me and tell me the important facts cause that is too long.
I have enough books to read at home.

The article is long, I agree. I'm going to shorten it now so people who want to read the full article can go to the source.

good lusk seun

I am a great fan of MJ and i agree the writer of that article has been very harsh on Michael, but most of what he wrote is VERY true.

The DailyMail is a very influential newspaper and has a very high reputation, it has been known for investigative reporting where its reporters even risk their lives to uncover the truth behind every story.

So if the writer was lying he would be faced witha real HUGE lawsuit together with the paper.

Michael should get his act in order, this is from a concerned fan!!!!!

micheal, i just pity 4 him sha. i pray he gets out of all dese mess some day.i still fell 4 him sha[font=Lucida Sans Unicode][/font].

It's all wonderful. I really thank Seun for bringing to light some of the investigations which the Mail undertook. I love Michael and felt bad when I heard of his physical condition. I really dont quite support morally (if it is true) all the reports on child abuse and other vices. INevertheless, all of us have our individual shortfalls. I pray that God will help Michael to come out of his offending habits and shines once again, this time, for God and Jesus Christ.

Above all, I am glad to learn that Michael is still strong enough to organise tours and entertain fans. Prior to now, I have felt that he has been caged somewhere and if he must move around, he has to go places under the protection of an UMBRELLA.

Kudos, Seun!!

I'm gobsmacked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i dont' know what 2 say. This is really a sad story!

he's back 2008.

sadly he passed away Yesterday
What a controversial figure now mourned by millions upon millions