Leaked emails reveal that Michael Jackson was suffering from 'paranoia and anxiety' in the days leading up to his death...

 

Emails have surfaced showing that the promoters of Michael Jackson's planned 2009 comeback feared for the megastar's stability, describing him as 'an emotionally paralyzed mess.' The Los Angeles Times has obtained 250 pages of messages between executives at the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which was financing the This Is It tour, and production crew members. The emails will play a central role in a lawsuits set for trial next year involving insurance giant Lloyds of London, who are asking a judge to nullify a $17.5-million policy that they say AEG got with false claims about Jackson's health and readiness to perform. Jackson's heirs are also are pressing a wrongful-death suit accusing AEG of pressuring the pop star to carry on despite indications he was too weak.

'An emotionally paralysed mess': Emails have emerged showing that tour promoter AEG had serious doubts regarding Michael Jackson's ability to perform on his comeback tour

The correspondence clearly shows that there was far greater alarm about Jackson's mental state than has previously been claimed. The show's director, Kenny Ortega, who had known Jackson for 20 years, told AEG exec Randy Phillips their star was not ready for the comeback and called for a psychiatric intervention.

Troubled: All of those on the This Is It tour were aware that Michael Jackon was mentally and physically compromised

'There are strong signs of paranoia, anxiety and obsessive-like behavior. I think the very best thing we can do is get a top psychiatrist in to evaluate him ASAP,' he said.
'It is like there are two people there. One trying to hold on to what he was and still can be and not wanting us to quit him, the other in this weakened and troubled state,' Ortega added. 'I believe we need professional guidance in this matter.'
A subsequent visit to Jackson's London hotel suite by Phillips confirmed the worst.
'MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent,' he said in an email to AEG boss Tim Leiweke in Los Angeles. 'I [am] trying to sober him up.'
'I screamed at him so loud the walls are shaking,' Phillips said.
'He is an emotionally paralyzed mess riddled with self-loathing and doubt now that it is show time.' Publicly, however, AEG continued to project confidence with Leiweke telling a music industry symposium: 'The man is very sane, the man is very focused, the man is very healthy.'
The emails also show that despite his concern for Jackson, Phillips resisted the request for immediate psychiatric intervention by Ortega.
'It is critical that neither you, me or anyone around this show become amateur psychiatrists or physicians,' Phillips wrote to him.
He added that Conrad Murray, the doctor Jackson insisted AEG hire as his personal physician at $150,000 a month, was confident the singer was ready.
Murray, who was deep in debt and in danger of losing his home, was described as Philips as being: '... extremely successful (we check everyone out) and does not need this gig so he [is] totally unbiased and ethical.'
The doctor, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter of Jackson last year and was sentenced to four years in prison, was in fact giving the star nightly doses of propofol, a powerful surgical anesthetic, for his chronic insomnia, according to police.

Totally ethical: Dr. Conrad Murray listens as Judge Michael Pastor sentences him to four years in county jail for his involuntary manslaughter conviction of pop star Michael Jackson

 

Lawyers for AEG, which has denied any wrongdoing, said most of the messages reviewed by The Times were incomplete and leaked to portray the company in a negative light and that Phillips had exaggerated. Jackson's demise ultimately tuned out to be a commercial boon for AEG after the musical documentary This Is It, which AEG co-produced, grossed more than $260 million worldwide.
'Michael's death is a terrible tragedy, but life must go on,' Phillips wrote to a concert business colleague after the star's passing. 'AEG will make a fortune from merch sales, ticket retention, the touring exhibition and the film/dvd...I still wish he was here!' he added.

Cash cow: AEG has managed to gross more than $260 miilion from the documentary DVD This Is It