Who is Louise Palanker? Comedy writer claims Michael Jackson’s accuser Gavin Arvizo’s mother alleged late pop icon kept them against their will

Comedy writer Louise Palanker is part of the brand-new Netflix documentary Michael Jackson: The Verdict. The three-part docuseries is based on MJ’s 2005 criminal jury trial after the 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo accused the King of Pop of getting him drunk and s*xually abusing him twice. Jackson maintained his not guilty stance all along and was ultimately acquitted of all ten felony counts due to insufficient evidence.

According to her official website, Louise Palanker is a writer, director, producer, filmmaker, author, photographer, comedian, podcaster, drummer, songwriter, and teacher. She is also the co-founder of Premiere Radio Networks and an old family friend of Gavin Arvizo.

In the recent documentary, Palanker recalled that she reached out to Gavin’s mother, Janet, in February 2003, via the boy’s grandmother, after Martin Bashir’s ABC documentary about MJ’s s*xual misconduct was aired.

“I received a phone call from Janet. She was panicky and whispery and she was saying, ‘They’re listening to everything I say. I can’t talk very long.’ She really wanted to leave Neverland, but she was being told, ‘We’re trying to keep you safe. You need to stay here.’ But she just felt like something was off,” Louise said around the 26-minute mark of the first episode.

She continued:

“Janet called a good friend and said, ‘Do you know of any lawyers?’ He recommended a lawyer who watched the Martin Bashir documentary and said, ‘These children need to speak to a psychologist.’”

It is noteworthy that Louise Palanker narrated the same incident in April 2012 while speaking with the Daily Mail. At the time, she also claimed that Gavin Arvizo’s mother called her and accused MJ of holding her and her three children against their will at a Los Angeles hotel.

All you need to know about Louise Palanker amid her brief appearance on MJ’s recent Netflix documentary

In January 2023, Louise Palanker sat down with VoyageLA for a cover story and shared that she was born and raised in suburban Buffalo, New York. She has two sisters and one brother.

“I was a hybrid nerd/geek/dork. I was a straight-up tomboy, obsessed with the drums. I was, however, not permitted to play the drums, which led to a frustrating drive in parallel creative directions. I was into vocal harmonies, collecting records by The Mills Brothers, The Bee Gees, The Cowsills, and The Lettermen.”

She continued by recalling earning money via babysitting at 11 and spending it on records, magazines, and books, and visiting libraries, studios, and bookstores. Her other passion lay in photography, and she asked for cameras, film, and musical instruments as gifts.

“I had a few Kodak cameras, a Polaroid Land camera, and a Super 8 film camera. I even sent away some low-tech editing equipment and began splicing my early work to the best of my limited ability… I was a chubby, pimply kid, and I learned to survive socially via wisecracks. I have always been a huge comedy fan.”

Louise Palanker also shared that she has been “mentoring young people” since she was 12 and noticed the “power of listening.”

In her 20s, she moved to Los Angeles, California, to work in the entertainment industry. For a while, she did internships at several studios before landing a gig as a page at Metrotape and helping with Norman Lear’s sitcoms, John Davidson’s talk shows, and other specials and telethons. Palanker soon moved on to a syndicated local magazine called PM Magazine, where she wrote for the hosts and also produced stories.

One week, radio star Rick Dees co-hosted a show for PM Magazine and offered her a writing role for his radio countdown show, The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, for KIIS-FM. Louise took him up on the offer and worked for Dees for two years.

With her colleagues from KIIS-FM, Tim Kelly, Steve Lehman, and Ed Mann, Louise Palanker launched Premiere Radio Networks in the ‘90s. With the turn of the century, the four partners sold their company to Clear Channel (now iHeart Media).

Around this time, Palanker decided to try out stand-up comedy as she wanted to host her own show someday. She noted:

“Then along came podcasting. I was in. As soon as the technology became available, allowing us to create and post our own content, I was interested. Photography, filmmaking, music, blogging, and audio entertainment.”

In 2004, Louise Palanker began making a documentary about a real-life family band called the Partridge Family, who had disappeared from the scene after a few successful years. Her docufilm titled Family Band: The Cowsills Story took eight years to be ready and was finally aired on Showtime. Today, it is available on Amazon Prime.

Louise Palanker now co-hosts the podcast, Media Path, with Fritz Coleman. It is based on books, movies, TV shows, web series, podcasts, music, and more. Palanker shared about her podcast:

“We create an audio-only and a video podcast, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts on YouTube. We take our audience along on a scenic tour through the content that captures, compels, and captivates us… exploring entertainment, politics, history, true crime, world events, and all of their intriguing intersections.”

So far, they have entertained guests including Henry Winkler, Cindy Williams, Keith Morrison, Butch Patrick, Adam Schiff, Pat Boone, The Cowsills, Maz Jobrani, Christopher Knight, and John Sebastian.

Louise Palanker’s other podcasts include Things I Found Online, Journals Out Loud, and Weezy and the Swish. Her filmmaking/ documentary credits include We Played Marbles, Margaret Singer: Seeking Light, and Praying with my Feet: The Women’s March on Washington.

Besides her podcasts’ social media pages, Louise Palanker can be found on her own Instagram, X, Facebook, and SoundCloud. She told VoyageLA three years ago:

“Every road has its twists and bumps. I’ve also hit many cul-de-sacs where I need to back out and find another approach. My goal is to keep learning. One lesson is to recognize red flags before you are in a partnership with them! I try to align myself with great people who are proactive, innovative, creative, and open to constructive dialogue. Most problems can be worked out with conversation, problem-solving and hard work.”

Ms Palanker continued:

“It’s important to be a finisher and to work with fellow finishers. It is super common for folks to get stuck, get distracted, and stall out. These people can be insanely kind, creative, and compassionate. They can be your best friends. We just want to avoid working with them… I have also learned to steer past anyone who exhibits or tolerates cruelty. Whether it be face-to-face or via typed technology… It’s counterproductive and unhealthy. There is always a civil means of making your point. We can all be kinder and I strive to work with folks who embrace that ethic.”

She divides her time between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Louise Palanker is married to a man named Ron.

When and how did Louise Palanker meet Gavin Arvizo?

According to The Standard, Louise Palanker first met Gavin Arvizo and his family in 1999 at a summer camp for sick and unprivileged kids organized at the L.A. comedy club Laugh Factory. It was reportedly the same place Gavin met Michael, who later sent him gift baskets and visited him at the hospital.

When the boy was diagnosed with cancer in June 2000, she befriended the family and provided them with financial aid, including writing a $10,000 cheque to set up a “clean room” for Gavin at his grandparents’ L.A. home.

During MJ’s 2005 trial, Louise Palanker testified how she became close to Gavin’s family, including his father, David, who’d often ask her for money. Meanwhile, Mrs Arvizo never asked for financial favors. Additionally, Louise said on the stand that she took legal advice after hearing about Gavin’s alleged experience with MJ and spoke with Janet.

Her recent version matches the testimony she gave at the time:

“She called me within a couple of days. Janet was extremely disturbed; she was almost whispering. Janet is a very emotional person, but normally in a very ebullient, happy and charming type of way. This was fear-based agitation.”

The comedy writer continued:

“It was an extremely disturbing phone call. She started by saying, 'If you have caller ID, this is not a safe line, do not call me back, they are listening to everything I say.' She said, 'These people are evil, they are keeping us.' I would say, 'Where are the children?', and she said, 'They are with me'. I said, 'Are the children in school?', and that is when she started crying.”

Following the 2019 documentary, Leaving Neverland, Louise Palanker had said in an interview with TheWrap that Gavin Arvizo, who was then in his late 20s, was considering law school and starting his own business before becoming a dad. She also confirmed he’d been a married man since 2013. Back then, she also noted Gavin worked as a paralegal and a Catholic school teacher for a few years and was then working in sales.

“He really just wants to live his life. He doesn’t like it when Michael Jackson comes back into the news.”

Trending

The latest Netflix documentary features more interviews with journalists, attorneys, friends of the Arvizo family, and people in MJ’s inner circle. Footage includes the sheriff’s sit-down with Gavin and the FBI’s raid of the Neverland ranch.

Michael Jackson: The Verdict dropped as MJ's biopic, Michael, continues to dominate the box office worldwide, starring his nephew, Jaafar Jackson, in the titular role.

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