SCOTT BERG - HEPBURN: JACKO WAS LIKE 'E.T.'

Late actress KATHARINE HEPBURN enjoyed a friendship with wacky popstar MICHAEL JACKSON - even though she thought he was like "E.T.".

The OSCAR winning star, who passed away last month (29JUL03) aged 96, first met the eccentric singer when he visited her in 1979 on the New Hampshire, America set of ON GOLDEN POND - and was shocked to discover Jackson couldn't remake his bed after sleeping over for the night.

She told biographer SCOTT BERG, "He had never made a bed in his life! He's E.T.!"

Their frienship flowered and endured during the eighties - with Hepburn, like Jackson's fellow Hollywood queen friend DAME ELIZABETH TAYLOR, sympathetic to the child star's showbiz life.

She said, "He fascinated me. He's an absolutely extraordinary creature. He's worked his entire life, entertaining professionally since he was three, and he's never lived a single moment - not a moment - in the real world.

"He's this strange artistic creature, living in a bubble, barely touched by the outside world."