Did anyone see the larger TV pics? Pretty scary.
By James Langton in New York, Evening Standard
14 November 2002
Michael Jackson was forced to reveal his ravaged face in public for the first time. A judge in a California court ordered him to remove his surgical mask before giving evidence in a multimillion dollar lawsuit over a cancelled concert appearance.
The singer arrived at the court wearing the trademark mask, which he believes protects him from germs and traffic fumes. When he removed the mask inside, the full toll of years of plastic surgery on his face were revealed.
Onlookers gasped at the sight of Jackson, whose nose was scarred and discoloured and covered with a clear plaster. His upper lip also appeared to be covered with scabs, with a beard covering his chin.
Jackson is being sued for £15 million by his former concert promoter Marcel Avram, who claims the singer pulled out of two millennium concerts. The promoter says Jackson also demanded £1.5 million in "production fees" for two more concerts in Seoul and Munich.
Hundreds of fans gathered outside the court in Santa Maria, 25 miles from Jackson's Neverland ranch. When trial judge Zel Canter asked him to state his full name he replied: "Michael Joseph Jackson."
At this point Jackson blew and tapped the microphone in front of him, causing members of the public - who are allowed into the court on a lottery system - to laugh. Later, he was grilled by Avram's lawyer, Louis "Skip" Miller, who said there were differences between his sworn testimony and his evidence on the witness stand.
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• Pictures that will shock fans
After accusations that Jackson had not even bothered to rehearse for the performances, the singer revealed the details of his concert preparations. "I conceptualise everything," he said.
"I visualise what I want the concert to look like. I stand in front of the mirror in my bathroom and try out the dance moves. I don't do it in my bedroom because there are lots of games in there and they are noisy. It is a lot quieter in the bathroom.''
At times the 44-year-old star nodded his head backwards and forwards as if he was listening to music. He went on: "I have to have oxygen on stage because the weather is very humid in some of the countries I perform in. Wardrobe is also very important. If I rip a pair of pants, I have to have another pair."
Avram said Jackson suddenly backed out of the concerts. He said: "He was going to be paid $15 million for the concerts which was the biggest ever purse." Avram said he was phoned by two of Jackson's representatives and asked to fly to meeting at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. When he got there, he was told Jackson no longer wanted to have anything to do with the concerts. "I was shocked," said Avram. "I had worked the whole year to prepare for this and now he was saying 'no'.
However, Jackson said Avram cancelled the shows with a single phone call. When Miller suggested the call never happened, Jackson said he had a vivid memory of it. "I remember feeling a little bit upset because I was looking forward to doing the millennium shows. I was so excited about them that I told people in my organisation that we should reach the Guinness Book Of World Records because I felt that these would be the most-watched events of all time."
When Miller accused him of a "discrepancy" in his account, Jackson said his memory of events surrounding the concerts had improved. "It's not unusual for my mental clarity to be heightened," he said.
Jackson sued the Daily Mirror in 1998 after it claimed his face had been disfigured by plastic surgery and called him a "scarred phantom".
The paper later apologised. Jackson says the whitening of his skin is caused by a medical condition called vitiligo.
-- Anonymous, November 14, 2002
From the BBC
Jackson looked very different aged 14 in 1972 (left). Seven years
later he appeared on BBC Radio 1
His famous Thriller video brought worldwide fame in 1984 (left) and by
1988 and he was still a musical success story
Jackson appeared on Top of the Pops in 1989 (left) and by 1992 he had
radically changed how he looked
Jackson's image did not change that much between 1993 (left) and 1996
He briefly married Lisa-Marie Presley before splitting in 1996, when
this picture was taken
Jackson met the crowds at the Carousel of Hope, a star-studded charity
gala in 2000
Jackson spoke at Oxford University union in 2000 (left) and visited
the House of Commons in 2001
Jackson spoke in the Los Angeles court as a witness
-- Anonymous, November 15, 2002
As Helen says, it's very sad.
Surgeons' Verdict Grim on Michael Jackson's Nose
November 15, 2002 06:29 PM ET
By Deena Beasley
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A rare courtroom appearance by "King of Pop"
Michael Jackson in a breach-of-contract lawsuit this week has the
whole country rendering a judgment on his looks -- especially on
whether he went through one nose-job too many.
And as far as plastic surgeons are concerned, the public might be right.
"His nose is more collapsed than it ever was. That's also consistent
with the fact he's been walking around wearing surgical masks in
recent times," Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Fleming said
on Friday.
"I would never go back and do work on Michael Jackson's nose ... it is
just too risky," he added.
Fleming said that with each nose job, the blood circulation to the
area decreases and the risks of scarring and infection increase.
"I think he has accepted it (the nose). He is almost a fantasy figure
or a cartoon character," said Dr Edward Domanskis, a Newport Beach,
Calif., plastic surgeon.
"At the age of 40, people don't act or look that way," he added.
Domanskis said it looked like Jackson had at least five nose jobs and
"There had to be some complications along the way."
Jackson returned on Friday to a courthouse in Santa Maria -- the
central California town nearest to his Neverland Valley ranch -- for a
third day of testimony in a $21 million lawsuit which accuses him of
pulling out of two millennium concerts.
The entertainer's testimony has been overshadowed by his bizarre
off-stage appearance, captured in media photographs on Wednesday. The
close-up photographs, which caused an Internet stir, depicted an
eyeliner-and-lipstick-wearing Jackson with a stubbly goatee, a clear,
Band-Aid-type plaster on his scarred nose and a wild mane of black,
silky hair.
News photographers snapped the photos in court, after Superior Court
Judge Zel Canter told Jackson to remove the surgical mask he was
wearing. His appearance prompted gasps from the courtroom audience,
which included media and about 30 fans who won a seating lottery.
The next day, Jackson showed up for court four hours late and appeared
drowsy. The nose plaster had either been removed, or was covered by
heavy make-up.
"He's got kind of a shrunken skin, but it is impossible to speculate
on how it happened," said Chicago plastic surgeon Dr. Laurie Casas,
chairwoman of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery's
communications commission.
She said Jackson could be suffering from a rare psychiatric condition,
called body dysmorphic disorder, in which patients are dissatisfied
with surgical results, regardless of any objective improvement in
their appearance.
"You have to wonder how someone has gotten into a situation where they
look very abnormal," Casas said, emphasizing that the vast majority of
plastic surgery candidates have much more realistic expectations.
She also said Jackson's apparent goal of honing his once broad, flat
African-American nose into a perkier nose is out of step with current
fashion.
"In the 50s, 60s and 70s everyone got a cookie-cutter nose, but now
people don't want to change their ethnicity. They just want a nose
that fits their face," the plastic surgeon said.
"What he's done is to go from a Negroid or black nose, which is round
and broad and flat, to a Caucasian nose that's narrow and projecting,"
Dr. Harvey Zarem, a former chief of plastic surgery at the University
of California at Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times.
"To do that, you have to put cartilage or silicone or bone in the nose
like a tent stake to make the nose stick out. But when you do that
enough, the cartilage or silicone or bone pokes through."
Beverly Hills surgeon Fleming said much of the work on Jackson's nose
appears to have been done by a single doctor.
"I do see people who want repeated surgeries, but you can't operate on
them. If Roseanne Barr comes in wanting to look like J-Lo, I can't
help her," he said.
-- Anonymous, November 16, 2002
