Oscar-winning actress Michael Jackson was desperate to date

Teddy Riley and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds gave fans hit after hit during their rescheduled Instagram Live battle on Monday night — including Edmonds’ attempt at once hooking up Michael Jackson with Halle Berry.

The R&B legends traded songs from their catalogues while dropping “fun facts” about their favourite tracks and collaborators. After listening to Riley’s hit track for SWV, Right Here — a song that samples Jackson’s 1982 tune Human Nature — Edmonds recalled the late icon reaching out to him in an effort to set up a date with Berry. “One time Michael called me,” Edmonds, 62, began.

“Michael said, ‘Babyface!’ I said, ‘Yeah?’ He said, ‘Do you know who Halle Berry is? Do you know Halle Berry?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know Halle Berry.’ He said, ‘Could you do me a favour? I want you to call her, ’cause I wanna take her out on a date.’ I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Call her — I wanna take her out on a date.’”

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Edmonds continued, “So I reached out through the agent, ’cause I didn’t have Halle Berry’s number. So I called and get the message to her manager, and he said, ‘What?’ (I said), ‘Yeah, he wants to take her out on a date.’ And then I was waiting to hear back from Halle, and I can’t tell you exactly what Halle said, but I imagine it probably would have been something like this …”

 

The Grammy-winner then played a snippet of Berry’s voice from the 1992 movie Boomerang where she quips, “You know, what do you know about love? What do you possibly think you know about love?”

Fans of Riley, 52, Edmonds and Berry, 53, took to Twitter to share their surprise, with one fan writing, “Today I found out dat MJ (Michael Jackson) tried to shoot his shot and take Halle Berry out on a date and I can’t get over it.”

Meanwhile, another fan commented, “Michael Jackson using Babyface as the plug for Halle Berry is the ultimate flex!”

MADONNA’S ADVICE INFURIATED MJ

Babyface also revealed Madonna suggested Michael Jackson dress as a girl for his 1991 In the Closet video.

He said Jackson told him, “‘Babyface, can you believe she wants me to dress like a girl?’ He was like, ‘I’d never do that.’ He said, ‘She was trying to change it all up. It was crazy’ … He was really mad about it.”

Edmonds reminisced with Teddy Riley, who produced the song, during their music battle for Verzuz TV on Instagram Live. Madonna ended up not appearing on the song, and Naomi Campbell was cast in the video.

Mariah Carey was among 500,000 watching the hitmakers’ online powwow.

This article originally appeared on Page Six and was republished here with permission