Michael Jackson was a booze-fuelled “basket case” in the weeks before he died, shock new documents reveal. They show Jacko didn’t rehearse, needed psychiatric treatment and refused to sing at practices before his attempted comeback. Weeks before Jacko’s This Is It shows in London, director Kenny Ortega called for a psychiatrist — emailing how the King of Pop missed rehearsals, struggled with routines and faced miming some of his biggest hits. He wrote: “MJ is not in shape enough yet to sing this stuff live and dance at the same time.” One production manager also wrote: “He was a basket case.” The revelations emerged in emails between bosses at the promoters AEG. MD Randy Phillips said: “We have a real problem here,” in an email to chief exec Tim Leiweke. Mr Phillips also told how Jacko would get drunk. AEG faces a US legal fight with insurance firm Lloyds over whether the brokers should pay £15million for Jacko’s failure to perform — caused by his death on June 25, 2009 from a drug overdose. Lloyds want a judge to scrap a £10million policy they say AEG secured with false claims about Jackson’s health. And the singer’s heirs accuse AEG of pressuring the star to carry on. AEG’s lawyers deny any wrongdoing.
