Jackson accuser’s mother tries to keeps focus off herself

Santa Maria, Calif. — Holding her arms out to the jury, the mother of Michael Jackson’s teenage accuser sobbed and pleaded, “Please don’t judge me!” as she recounted her family’s involvement with the pop star in dramatic testimony Wednesday.

The woman’s turn on the witness stand came after Judge Rodney S. Melville allowed her to testify despite her refusal to discuss alleged welfare fraud — an issue on which the defense had hoped to attack her credibility. She invoked the Fifth Amendment in fending off that line of questioning.

Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old former cancer patient, plying the boy with alcohol, and holding his family captive in February and March 2003 to get them to help rebut a damaging documentary.

The accuser’s mother said Jackson had convinced her that her children were in danger, that there were “killers” after them, and that he was the only one who could protect them.

“I thought, ‘What a nice guy,”‘ she said. “I was just like a sponge, believing him, trusting him.” She recounted what she sarcastically called Jackson’s “lovey dovey speech” at a Florida hotel room, in which Jackson told the family “in a very male voice” that he would be their father figure and protector.

She said Jackson told the family “that he loves us, that he cares about us, we’re family. … That we were in the back of the line, now we’re in the front of the line, that he’s going to protect us from those killers.”

Later she added: “And you know what? They ended up being the killers.”

Earlier, the woman described how she had lived from 1998 to 2003 in a small bachelor-style apartment with only one main room. She said her son and husband sometimes stayed at her mother’s house because the boy had a special sterile room there.

Defense attorneys contend the family kept the bachelor apartment to make celebrities believe they were poor, but actually spent much of their time at the home of the boy’s grandmother.

They also have raised questions about the woman’s credibility by accusing her of bilking celebrities and committing welfare fraud.

But in taking the stand outside the presence of jurors earlier in the day, the woman took the Fifth, and refused to discuss “everything to do with the welfare application.”

Rehab reports

Actor Joaquin Phoenix has checked himself into a rehabilitation facility to deal with alcohol abuse problems, his publicist said.

“He was uncomfortable with the way that he was living his life and found the courage to deal with his disease,” publicist Susan Patricola said in a statement Tuesday.

Phoenix, 30, voluntarily entered an undisclosed rehab facility two weeks ago.

Phoenix starred in 2004’s “The Village” and was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of Commodus in 2000’s “Gladiator.” He will portray legendary singer Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line” due out later this year.

His brother, River Phoenix, died of a drug overdose in 1993 outside The Viper Room in Los Angeles. He was 23.

• Meanwhile, Billy Joel has finished a 30-day stay at the Betty Ford Center in California for treatment of alcoholism, his second stint in rehab since ’02, reports The New York Daily News.

Joel, 55, is reportedly fit, and according to a friend, “has completely sworn off all alcohol.”

Joel checked out Sunday morning.

Museum honors Merv Griffin

New York — Who is … Merv Griffin?

The “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” creator will be honored by the Museum of Television & Radio at its annual New York gala on May 26. The event will be held at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

Griffin, 79, began as a 19-year-old radio singer. His pseudo-Cockney interpretation of “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” sold 3 million copies in 1950.

He was often a substitute host on the “Tonight Show” before Johnny Carson took over, and later had his own long-running daytime talk show.

Dylan coming to picnic

Fort Worth, Texas — Willie Nelson is returning to Fort Worth for his Fourth of July picnic — and he’s bringing Bob Dylan with him.

His 32nd annual picnic will be at the 27-acre North Forty concert field, just east of Billy Bob’s Texas. Last year’s concert at the same site drew 19,000 people.

Los Lonely Boys will perform, and about 20 more acts will be announced over the next month.

“Willie takes such an interest,” said Pam Minick, marketing director for Billy Bob’s Texas, which helps organize the picnic. “He picks every artist according to who he likes, and he negotiates the contract. Last year he wrote on a brown paper bag how much each one was going to get.”

Pope’s poetry put to music

Opera tenor Placido Domingo wants to sing poetry written by Pope John Paul II that he says is of “great literary value,” reports Agence France-Presse.

“I’ve asked my son Placido, who is a composer, to write a musical score for lyrics based on the verse of John Paul II,” Domingo said. “I hope we will be able to make use of the poems very soon.”

Domingo said he was a great admirer of the late pontiff, who granted him three audiences and for whom he performed three times.