Michael Jackson kept his spirits up during his recent child molestation trial by watching movie classic To Kill a Mockingbird.

Jackson's movie making pal BRYAN MICHAEL STOLLER insisted the film would help to cheer his friend up, despite its dark subject matter and the fact the storyline aped his own real-life problems.

Stoller tells MTV NEWS, "It's his favourite movie. He has an actual 35-millimetre print of the movie.

"I said to him one day, 'You're living To Kill a Mockingbird right now - it was all about a black man who was on trial. And you're innocent. It was just really weird that was his favourite film even before these allegations happened."

02/08/2005 02:57