Taylor Joins Jackson in Singapore During Ordeal : Tour: Actress says she does not believe allegations of sexual abuse. Singer’s investigator describes details of alleged extortion attempt.

Michael Jackson and his entourage arrived in Singapore on Saturday, where they were welcomed by hundreds of fans but haunted by a police investigation half a world away.

Jackson was joined by his longtime friend, actress Elizabeth Taylor, who arrived a few hours after the world-renowned entertainer checked into a $4,000-a-night suite at the Raffles Hotel. Taylor’s plane landed early today, and she was whisked through a side entrance at the airport, ducking a throng of reporters.

Jackson sent two beefy security guards to the airport to collect her luggage, which filled three push trolleys.

Although Taylor did not speak to reporters at the airport, she told Newsweek magazine that she did not believe the allegations leveled against Jackson. A 13-year-old boy has accused Jackson of sexually molesting him over a period of months, and police are interviewing other young boys close to the entertainer to determine if any of them have been molested.

In an article scheduled for publication Monday, Taylor, whose most recent wedding was held at Jackson’s Santa Barbara County ranch, said she was “absolutely shocked, in utter disbelief and horror that such a thing could happen to Michael because I totally believe 100% in Michael’s integrity.”

Taylor said she had spoken to Jackson and was confident that he would be vindicated. She added that Jackson would “rather cut his own wrist than harm a child. He worships children.”

While Jackson carried on with his world tour, investigators in Los Angeles worked overtime to get to the bottom of two separate but intertwined cases. The Los Angeles Police Department and investigators from the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services are trying to determine if Jackson sexually molested one or more boys, while police are investigating allegations that Jackson was the victim of a blackmail attempt.

In an interview Saturday, Jackson’s private investigator, Anthony Pellicano, told The Times that the lawyer for the father of the 13-year-old boy whose complaint sparked the probe had approached him and Jackson to demand $20 million. Unless the money was paid, Pellicano said, the boy’s father and his lawyer threatened to accuse Jackson of child molestation and to make those charges in court documents related to a custody dispute between the boy’s estranged parents.

According to Pellicano, the father and son met with Jackson and the private investigator at a Southern California hotel on the night of Aug. 4.

At that meeting, details of which Pellicano said he has shared with the Police Department, the father demanded that Jackson set him up as a screenwriter and accused Jackson of molesting his son. Pellicano said Jackson did not respond during that meeting, and that the father stormed out of the room.

Later the same night, Pellicano said, the father’s lawyer proposed that Jackson pay the father $5 million a year for four years in exchange for not publicly accusing Jackson of molesting his son. The money was to be paid in the form of four film development projects, according to Pellicano.

Pellicano said he refused that offer, and on the next day he told the father’s lawyer that he would pay the father $350,000 as a film development deal.

“I was trying to set him up with the extortion,” Pellicano said. “I wanted to see if he would take it.”

Instead, the father took his son to a therapist, and the son reported a history of alleged sexual abuse by Jackson. The therapist called authorities, who opened their investigation the same day, Aug. 17.

Neither the father nor his lawyer has publicly commented on the case since news of it broke a week ago. Neither could be reached Saturday. However, the father has told friends that the allegations of an attempted extortion are untrue.

The LAPD and Children’s Services have refused all official comment on the status of their investigations, but sources familiar with the probe say they are struggling with a shortage of physical evidence linking Jackson to sexual molestation charges. Videotapes seized from Jackson’s home do not provide enough evidence to bring a sexual molestation case against the entertainer, a high-ranking police source has told The Times.

Police and social workers continue to review thousands of photographs that were seized in the Aug. 21 raids. They also are interviewing young people and others with connections to Jackson.

Despite the furor engulfing Jackson, the singer kept up his schedule Saturday. He had a day off between concerts, but Jackson, who turns 35 today, began the day by shooting scenes for a music video at a Thai air force base near Bangkok. At the air base, Jackson performed in front of 3,000 air force troops marching on the Tarmac.

Jackson then flew to Singapore on the second leg of his concert tour, where he will give concerts today and Monday.

About 400 Singaporean fans were on hand when Jackson arrived in a minivan from the airport. A couple of hours later, he appeared at the window of his suite, dressed in a rust-colored shirt and wearing his trademark Dick Tracy black fedora.

Lee Solters, Jackson’s publicist, said the tour was continuing “business as usual” and he said rumors in Los Angeles that the tour might be canceled “could not be further from the truth.”

Wallace reported from Singapore, Newton from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Chuck Philips also contributed to this report.