Jackson Story Officially Refuted

It started over the weekend when Ian Halperin, saying he was Jackson’s biographer, told media outlets the moonwalker was at death’s door.

“He needs a lung transplant, but may be too weak to go through with it. He also has emphysema and chronic gastrointestinal bleeding, which his doctors have had a lot of trouble stopping,” Halperin was quoted as saying by London tabloid The Sun. “It’s the bleeding that’s the most problematic part. It could kill him.”

By late Monday, Rolling Stone was contesting part of Halperin’s story. No, not the Michael Jackson part, but the part where Halperin claimed to have won the “Rolling Stone Award for Investigative Journalism.”

“This came as news to us, so we looked in our own archives and discovered this claim has been greatly exaggerated,” the magazine stated. “He did win an RS honor, but it was the College Journalism Award in 1985 and it was split among the staff at Concordia University’s student newspaper in Montreal.”

It wasn’t long after the Rolling Stone smackdown that Jackson’s people issued their own response.

“Concerning this author’s allegations, we would hope in the future that legitimate media will not continue to be exploited by such an obvious attempt to promote this unauthorized ‘biography,’” said Dr. Tohme Tohme, described as Jackson’s “official and sole spokesperson.”

“The writer’s wild allegations concerning Mr. Jackson’s health are a total fabrication. Mr. Jackson is in fine health, and finalizing negotiations with a major entertainment company and television network for both a world tour and a series of specials and appearances.”

World tour? What’s up with that?

Dr. Tohme Tohme’s response would seem to be the last word on stories that Jackson is suffering almost every conceivable malady on the planet and is about to become a “late” King Of Pop in the near future. But this is Michael Jackson we’re talking about. Anything can happen.