Janet Jackson wrote a book. Now it’s La Toya. She arrives today to push her “explosive shockwave” memoir “Starting Over,” wherein she writes, “My brother Michael was murdered” and “my husband beat me.” Says La Toya: “I saw Michael shortly before he passed on. He was in rehearsal for his concert and wasn’t pleased with how things were going. He was very fragile. All bones. Michael’s always been thin. He’d eat to live. He’d just move food around. But now he was neglecting himself and working too hard. “Dr. Murray was the fall guy. Authorities should look into this more deeply. I believe it was a conspiracy. Michael told me repeatedly, ‘They’re going to murder me. You don’t understand. They’re trying to murder me.’ He’d tell me this again and again. “He had the world’s largest catalog — 750,000 songs. People knew how important it was. He’d say, ‘They’re after it . . . you’ve got to listen to me . . . they plan to get me . . . they’re trying to break me . . . I wanted them out of my life . . . now they’re back in . . . I’m afraid to leave my house . . . they’re going to assassinate me.’ ” Who is “they”? “People running his life. I say it in the book. I know what I’m talking about. Lawyers protecting me have vetted my book. Our mother knew Michael was troubled. He told her, too. He was not under drugs when he told her, ‘Bad people keep resurfacing. I want them out of my house, but they won’t leave.’ He didn’t even like that doctor around him.
“Look, I’m accusing nobody. I’m just putting out what I know. I was in his bedroom right after it happened. That room had been ransacked. Whoever ‘they’ are had gone through everything.” La Toya then discussed his children. “He loved them. They meant everything. They were his pride and joy. Right now they all want to be in show business. Actors or directors. His children have watched their father cry.” And her own life? “I didn’t marry the late Jack Gordon. He married me. It was a forced decision. He’d lock me in a closet, and if I didn’t act normal and smile afterwards and if I showed my hurts I’d have another beating. I couldn’t read magazines or newspapers or have friends. I couldn’t pick up a phone. We met when my father got him to accompany me on my first tour to Japan. But immediately, Gordon took my passport away. He said I’d lose it. My father and he had many fights afterwards.
“See, I was raised Jehovah’s Witness. We’d go door to door helping people. That’s all I knew. I grew up not knowing street people. I’ve never taken a drug. I’d never met a con artist before. I’d never been around people who fight.
“There are auctions of Michael’s things everywhere. I go to buy up his stuff. But whoever runs them or owns them wouldn’t even let me have a photo of the two of us.
“Look. All I know is, I want to fight for the truth.” I tell you one thing. Conversation with La Toya is not boring. Neither is her book.
KELLY Ripa at Oscar Blandi Salon in the tiniest shortest shorts. Also un real housewife of NY Ramona Singer in a too-too-tight dress handing Kelly her business card. Like they’re going to get together . . . LazyBonezz doing a collection of leashes, collars, chic Parisian style beds for Park Avenue dogs . . . His Majesty Whateverhisname is who runs Oman and built its first Middle East opera house plans “The International Cultural Honors” TV show. Producers are Don Mischer and Gary Pudney.
THE Tony Awards A-1 photo is the four Best Actors. First time ever, only Sutton Foster, Mark Rylance, Norbert Leo Butz posed together. Frances McDormand wouldn’t join them . . . Consul-General Phillip Scanlan partied with Australia’s Pat Farmer who’s doing the New York leg of the North to South Pole Run to raise $100 mil for the Red Cross . . . Trouble in Paradise: Mr. & Mrs. Palin argued on their bus. He left and drove waythehell to Alaska alone . . . Leonardo Di Caprio at a West 14th joint called SNAP.
ANNETTE Bening plays Paul Dano‘s mother in “He Loves Me,” written by his girlfriend Zoe Kazan, who co- stars . . . Natural History Museum’s mamenchiasaurus — the biggie in mankind’s largest dinosaurs exhibition — finally got christened. Not Estelle. Not Gloria. Mame. Six hundred suggested names for this 60-foot babe with the 30-foot neck. More than 2,300 voted on five finalists, and Mame grabbed half the vote. . . . Saturday VH1’s “Mob Wives” do their finale party at Pacha. Shivs and sneers will be parked at the door.
SOMEONE sent word Gwen Stefani‘s calling it quits. No. Not . . . Paul Simon auctioning a personal guitar lesson for his Children’s Health Fund charity, which supports mobile services for the needy . . . Olympic gold medalist swimmer Donna de Varona going to Prince Albert of Monaco‘s July 2 wedding to Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock. Her p.r. wants it known Shahin Fashion Tailor is dressing her . . . Whitney Port weekended with Georgica owners Seth Levine and David Schulman in East Hampton.
CHEETAHS Gentlemen’s Club on Times Square will pay $100,000 to Seattle’s 21-year-old Weinergate co- ed if she’ll give Anthony a lap dance. Owner Sam Zherka says, “We already saw Weiner cry on camera. Let’s get him to smile.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.