Jacksons vs AEG - Day 8 - May 9 2013

Jacksons vs AEG - Day 8 - May 9 2013 - Summary

Katherine Jackson was in court.

Karen Faye Testimony

Jackson direct

Karen Faye MJ's long time Hair and Makeup artist takes the stand. (ABC7). Faye starts out by listing some of her famous clients, including Michael Jackson, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening and Smokey Robinson. (AP)

Faye spends several minutes describing what she does. She talks about having to get close to someone when she’s doing their hair, makeup.(AP)

She says her relationship with MJ grew over the 27 years she worked with him to a brother and sister relationship. (ABC7) Faye and Jackson became "very close" starting in the early 1980s, she said. "It was almost like a brother and sister relationship. If I was having trouble, I could call him and he could call me. You talk, you share, you become very close, and imagine that over 27 years."(CNN)

Faye spent about 90 minutes testifying about her close relationship with Jackson, who hosted her wedding at his Neverland Ranch and enlisted her to travel around the world with him. She breezily described Jackson's meetings with Princess Diana and other dignitaries, his Super Bowl performance, and other larger-than-life moments from the singer's life. Jurors and spectators laughed at times as a parade of photos and videos shot during Jackson's performances were played. "I was from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was just very normal," she told jurors. "I found myself working with this magical person." She said Jackson was like a brother to her. Even after she gave birth to her daughter, Jackson enlisted her for another tour."I said, 'I can't go all around the world with you. I'm a mother now,'" Faye recalled."Michael never took no for an answer. 'Yes you can, it'll be great for her,'" she recalled him saying. (AP)

She’s asked about the 1984 Pepsi commercial shoot accident. She says she worked with Jackson after that to mask his injuries.(AP) 

Jackson’s scalp was badly burned, she tells jury. “I had to figure out, along with him, how to hide his injury,” (AP)

Faye, a Pittsburgh native, tells jury she traveled the world with Michael Jackson. “I found myself working with this magical person.” (AP)

Panish asks Faye to describe Jackson: “He was a gentleman. He was elegant. He was brilliant.” _ she says as she starts to break down. (AP) After a couple more questions, Faye starts to cry. She gets emotional describing Jackson’s creativity and relationship with his fans. (AP)

The jury is shown a photo of Jackson doing Faye’s makeup, brush touching her face. Panish asks her how Jackson did. “I didn’t like it at the time, but now that I look at it, I look pretty good.” _ Faye says of Jackson's makeup job.Lots of laughter. (AP)

Panish next shows Faye and jury photos of just Jackson where she did his hair and makeup. One of images is an Annie Leibovitz shot for Vanity Fair. “Who’s Annie Leibovitz?” Panish asks. “Really?” Faye responds. There’s laughter. Panish in a continuation of his self-deprecating questioning of Faye, responds to her Leibovitz quip, “Hey, I don’t get out that much.” (AP)

One picture shows MJ with tape on his fingers...Karen explains that it was a trick to get the audience to follow his hands. She says she knew he couldn't wear the glove forever. (ABC7)

Lots of photos are shown, including a smoky image of Jackson standing on tippy-toes. Debate ensues over what brand the shoes are. Panish asks if they’re Air Jordans. No, Faye responds. Judge names another brand. Nope, Faye says. Faye says fans in the courtroom would know the brand of shoes. Before Panish can stop them, two or three voices call out, “LA Gear!” (AP)

Jurors viewed a series of photos of Faye and Jackson together through the years, including one taken in January 1996, the day after Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Jackson.
Jackson was upset because just before filing, Presley called him and begged him not to file for divorce, she said."She begged and begged, saying please don't file," Faye said. Jackson promised not to file, only to see "the next morning it was all over the press that she filed before him." The photo of Jackson out with Faye "was to give the press something to talk about" with Faye being "the mysterious blonde." (CNN) "Lisa Marie Presley was calling Michael the day before (the photo) was shot, begging him not to divorce," she testified. "So he promised her he wouldn't file for divorce. But the next morning, it was all over the press she had gone ahead and filed. He was devastated." (NYDailyNews) 

Panish moves to videos of Jackson performances. He starts off with a performance of “Man in the Mirror” in Bucharest from “Dangerous” tour. In the video, fans are screaming, some being carted out on stretchers. Panish asks Faye if this is common for a Jackson concert.
Faye: “You obviously have not seen a Michael Jackson concert in your life.”
Panish: “I’m not answering that. I get to ask the questions.” (AP)

Part of Jackson's 1993 Super Bowl halftime show was viewed, including his rendition of "We Are the World" and "Earth Song." "It was a very big deal, sir," Faye said. "I think it started the trend of having a big artist at the Super Bowl."(CNN)

They viewed several minutes of Jackson's "Thriller," which Faye pointed out was a short film, not just a music video. A clip from a Jackson concert in Bucharest, Romania, showed jurors how fanatical his fans were, dozens of them fainting as he sang "Man In the Mirror."
When his 1995 MTV awards performance was shown, Faye noted, "He can moonwalk in a circle."Jackson's stamina during a show was remarkable, she said. "Some dancers would pass out, but Michael would be fine. He was able to do it."(CNN)

Faye tells jury she was responsible for keeping Jackson hydrated during shows. She says she’s never seen another performer like MJ. “Michael would do five songs to the dancers’ one. I never saw anything like it.” _ Faye says of Jackson’s performances. (AP)

A vintage video of Michael Jackson’s hair catching on fire during the third take of a 1983 Pepsi commercial was played for jurors as a Karen Faye testified about the devastating migraine headaches the pop singer endured because of the injuries.

“I never saw anything like that in my life," Karen Faye testified. "This was someone I knew and he was on fire." (LATimes)

She says when MJ was burned shooting the Pepsi commercial he did not know it and just kept singing. His friend Miko had to tackle him. He suffered migraines after that injury. He had several surgeries to try to repair the damage to his scalp. (ABC7)

“He was dancing. He didn’t know he was on fire,” Jackson’s trusted makeup artist Karen Faye testified, describing the footage. “His hair wasgone.There was smoke coming off his head.” (NYPost)

Faye recalled that when Jackson's hair caught on fire, he continued dancing down the stairs, having no idea he was burning. Finally, a friend of his ran onto the stage and wrestled him to the ground to put it out."All his hair was gone and there was smoke coming out of his head." Jackson, she said, suffered intense migraines while the burns were healing, Faye said. (LATimes)

"His hair caught fire, but he kept dancing," she said, as jurors watched the infamous video of pyrotechnics igniting Jackson's head as he danced down stairs on a stage. "I was screaming and Miko (Brando) got through somehow and had to wrestle him to the ground, because he had no idea he was on fire. Miko put the fire out with his hand."The fire burned off a section of hair, which doctors tried to repair with surgery to stretch his scalp, she said. Jackson suffered migraine headaches after that, she said. (CNN)

Instead of suing Pepsi, she said, Jackson asked Pepsi to build a burn center at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City where the singer was treated. "Everybody thought he'd sue Pepsi because it was a mistake," the makeup artist said.(LATimes)

Jackson attorney Panish played a video of MJ falling several stories during a concert in Munich. Faye said Jackson fell three or four stories when a prop he was standing on collapsed. “When I saw what happen, I thought he could be dead,” Faye said.But Jackson, she said, pulled himself up and continued performing. "I can't disappoint the audience," she said he later told her. When he finished, he collapsed and security took him to the hospital, she said. (LATimes)

Later, a bridge suspended above a stage collapsed as Jackson danced on top of it during a show in Munich, Germany, she said."When I saw what happened, I thought he could be dead," Faye testified. But Jackson held onto his microphone, stood up and finished the song. "He said 'I can't disappoint the audience,'" she said. So he finished the show finale but collapsed in the dressing room when it was over, she said. "He suffered back pain from that moment on," she said.(CNN)

The fall, she said, left Jackson with back pain that flared when he was under physical or emotional stress. (LAtimes)

She said MJ had so much adrenalin while performing 2 hours that it took him a day or two to calm down and rest. On the early concert tours there was enough time between concerts for him to get rest but later tours got longer and show got closer (ABC7)

Jackson "was so buzzed by his own adrenaline after a show" it would "take him 24 hours to relax his body and, sometimes it would take two days to be able to sleep," said Faye.
"As the tour went on, shows got closer and closer, and he would have trouble sleeping," she said. "It would start out OK, but it would get worse and worse. He tried to find ways to deal with it."Dealing with it involved a series of doctors, she said.
"Michael always believed that a doctor had his best interest at heart," Faye said. "He believed if he got something through a doctor that it was safe and OK for him to use it."(CNN)

She says Jackson trusted the advice of doctors to help him sleep and deal with pain from injuries and performances. (AP)

He was doing a short film for the Adams Family - and suffering pain because of scalp surgery. Debbie Rowe would come with pain meds. (ABC7)

Faye says during the "Dangerous" tour, promoters asked that she give Jackson injections of pain medications, but she refused. She says a tour manager who later became a top AEG executive then enlisted a doctor to treat Jackson.(ABC7)

That Pepsi burn touched off Jackson’s reliance on painkillers -- though Faye said she really didn’t grasp it until his “Dangerous” tour in 1992-93. Faye said there were always two doctors around Jackson on that tour, willing and able to give him as many painkillers as necessary.(NYPost)

“I came to learn there was a balance of medication,” Faye said. “They [medication] had to be strong enough to overcome Michael’s pain but not so strong that he couldn’t perform.” (NYPost)

On one concert tour, Rowe asked Karen to carry pain medication and learn to give an injection. Karen said no. (ABC7) "Debbie Rowe asked me to learn how to give injections," she said. "I thought about it and said 'No.' I am not qualified to handle any kind of medications."(CNN)

Despite being asked by tour promoters, Faye said she refused to give the performer injections for pain. She said Paul Gongaware, a promoter who later became a top executive with AEG Live LLC, then brought in doctors who treated Jackson in 1993 on his "Dangerous" tour, which she told jurors had to be halted early due to the singer's prescription drug addiction.(AP)

A Doctor was added to the tour in Bangkok. He met Karen in the lobby of the hotel with the medication she refused to carry. The package had vials and syringes. The Doctor told her she might not have gotten into the country with the package. (ABC7)

When the tour was on its way to Bangkok, Thailand, Faye was asked to carry a package she was told contained medicine patches for Jackson's pain, she testified. She refused to travel with it, she said.Faye testified that the tour doctor -- Dr. Stuart Finkelstein -- later told her "I'm glad you weren't carrying it. It has vials and syringes. If you had brought this in, you might not be here." The implication was she could have been arrested for smuggling drugs. Gongaware, now the Co-CEO of AEG Live, was in charge of logistics for the "Dangerous" tour and was involved in the incident, Faye said. (CNN)

In Singapore she saw MJ stumbling and fell into a tree in his dressing room. She was afraid for him and told the Doctor. She told the doctor he couldn't go on in that condition but the Doctor said he could go on. She was afraid for his life. (ABC7)

Karen Faye testified that before a concert in Bangkok, Michael Jackson was having a hard time walking, seemed to be in a daze and stumbled over a potted tree in his dressing room before finally being led on stage to perform. (LAtimes)

Faye testified that while backstage in Bangkok, she turned to someone she knew as “Dr. Forecast” and urged him not to let the wobbly Jackson take the stage.

"I put my arms around Michael and said, `You can't take him.' "

“Forecast replied, 'Yes I can,' " she testified.

The makeup artist testified the man, who she said was “an insurance doctor,” backed her up against a wall and put his hands on her neck, choking her until she couldn't breathe.

"He said, `You don't know what you're up against,' " Faye testified.

The doctor, whose full name was not mentioned, took Jackson on stage to perform, she said. (LATimes)

Later in the tour in Singapore, Jackson stumbled into his dressing room before a show, she said. "He was having a very hard time walking," she said. "He was glazed over. He fell over a tree."
She told the tour doctor -- whom she identified as Dr. David Forecast -- that "Michael can't go on."
His show opened with him being thrust onto the stage by a "toaster," which requires him to "curl up and be shot up" from a small enclosure under the stage, she said.
"His arm could be severed," Faye said. "I feared for his safety, I feared for his life. I told Dr. Forecast 'You can't make him go out. You can't take him.' And he said 'Yes, I can.'"
The doctor "backed me up against the wall and put his hands around my neck and said 'You don't know what your doing,'" she testified. "I nearly fainted, and he grabbed Michael and took him to the stage." (CNN)

She said Dr. Forecast marched a disoriented Jackson to the stage, but the concert was cancelled nonetheless. (NYDailyNews)

Faye said she never witnessed the singer's treatments, but he appeared to become more dependent on prescription drugs in the years following the "Dangerous" tour. she said she worried every time she saw a doctor arrive to treat Jackson."I was always worried that Michael was in pain," Faye said under questioning by Brian Panish, an attorney for Jackson's mother. She said Jackson had a low pain tolerance except while performing.(AP)

MJ on tour when the first allegations of Child Molestation hit the papers. MJ under a lot of stress. The world thinks he is a pedophile. That tour ended when Elizabeth Taylor came to Mexico to accompany MJ to a rehab facility. (ABC7) The tour, though, would soon come to an end in Mexico City, when Elizabeth Taylor flew down to take the singer to a rehab facility outside London, she said."Everyone knew Michael had a problem," Faye said. (LATimes) The tour ended early when it reached Mexico City "because everybody knew Michael had a problem," she said. Elizabeth Taylorcame down to Mexico to get Jackson, and "we all went home."Faye later flew to England to join Michael at a rehab facility, which she described as a beautiful country home.(CNN)



Witness Karen Faye also recalled how Jackson's reliance on medications coincided with the first time he was accused of child molestation in the early 1990s."Michael had to go on stage every night knowing that the whole world thought he was a pedophile," Faye said, shaking her head and crying. (AP)

Faye also recalled an odd incident before Jackson performed at Madison Square Garden in fall, 2001.When she went to his hotel room to make up his face before a show, Faye testified that a doctor stopped her and said: “I just gave Michael a shot, he’s going to be asleep for the next five or six hours.” “I said that can’t be, he’s set to perform,” Kaye said she responded.She eventually got into Jackson’s room, woke him up and fed MJ bagels to keep him awake and ready to perform, that makeup artist testified.(NYPost)

The media put Michael Jackson "on display" during his molestation trial, Faye said, wiping tears. During that trial, MJ would wake, play classical music, watch 3 Stooges-anything that made him happy- before heading to court. Michael Jackson took care with his hair and dress but couldn't eat during the trial and lost weight, Karen Faye said. (LATimes) Faye cried as she described dressing him and washing his hair. They would get on their knees and pray, then hug each other and cry. They would play classical music and watch "Three Stooges" videos.While Jackson tried to be brave, “he couldn’t eat. He was afraid," she testified. "The pain got worse. He got thinner. " (LAtimes)

She was with him during the trial. She would do his hair and makeup for the "red carpet" at the courthouse. He wouldn't eat or drink during the trial for fear he had to go to the bathroom one of the guards would have to escort him. He was too shy. (ABC7)
Faye also described working with Michael during the 2005 molestation trial that ended with his aquittal. She would go to Neverland Ranch each morning before daybreak to help him wash and dress, she said.
"I wanted people to think he still looked good and was still strong," she testified. "I'd wash his hair in the shampoo bowl (and) blow it dry. We'd play classical music and watch 'The Three Stooges.'"
She said it was a particularly difficult time for the superstar.
"He was losing weight," she said. "He couldn't eat because he didn't want to throw up because he had to watch all these people he loved and cared about tell all those lies."
He also refused to drink in the mornings because he hated using the courtroom bathroom, she said.
He eventually got so frail that one morning he fell and had to go to the hospital, she said. That event led to the infamous "pajama" incident, in which Jackson arrived at court in his nightclothes because a judge threatened to send him to jail if he didn't appear immediately.
"There was no time (to change him)," she said, crying and dabbing tears with a tissue. "He went into court without his hair done in his pajamas." (NYDailyNEws)

Jackson's condition worsened during the singer's 2005 trial on child molestation charges, Faye said. Although he was acquitted, the pressure of the case and media attention took its toll, she told jurors."He couldn't eat," she said. "He was afraid. He was in pain. He got thinner. His physical pain, his back pain, it all kicked in." (AP)

Karen Faye said MJ asked her to be on the "This is It" tour and she said yes. (ABC7) Jackson attorney Panish asks who Faye negotiated with. She says AEG executive Paul Gongaware negotiated her rate to work on tour.(AP) Gongaware signed Karen Faye’s contract, which was finalized in May 2009. She was with Jackson a lot during "This Is It" preparations. (AP)

Faye, said she was concerned when she first saw the schedule for Jackson's 50 "This Is It" shows at London's O2 arena. "On looking at that, I said, 'He can't do this,'" Faye testified. "The shows are far too close together. I knew what he needed between shows. I thought he might last a week." When she raised the matter with show director Kenny Ortega, "he kind of fluffed it off," she said. "Michael's adrenaline and what it takes for him to perform with that much effort and what he himself puts into a show, he needed a lot more time to at least get some rest and sleep, and to be healthy and maintain that kind of longevity," she said. (CNN)

Panish asked Faye whether Jackson ever expressed concerns about the “This Is It” production. She says yes, but AEG objects. The attorneys went into a lengthy sidebar on whether Faye can tell jury what Jackson’s concerns were. AEG argued it’s hearsay. Katherine Jackson's attorneys had to tell Faye not to automatically say what other people told her, especially if AEG objected. (AP)

Faye testified that MJ wanted to do the Tour for his children. they had never seen him perform. He also wanted to do it for his fans. (ABC7)

Jackson appeared "very, very excited" in early production meetings, but "the first time he actually got up on stage and rehearsed, I saw the change in him.""The turning point was when he had to get up on stage and actually start performing," she said. (CNN)

She said the first time MJ went on stage to perform at the This is It rehearsals, she saw a change in him. (ABC7)

She said MJ's skin was very dry, his eyes were dry, he was losing weight, and he kept repeating himself. (ABC7)

She testified that MJ was showing signs of paranoia. That MJ had to see her when he was on stage always. He would repeat over and over (ABC7)

She had concerns about MJ and expressed those concerns to Kenny Ortega. (ABC7)

Jackson tried to avoid rehearsing for "This Is It," Faye testifies"They had to make him rehearse," she says. Eventually, "they had to make him rehearse," she said. "They're insisting to the point of going to his home." (CNN)

She said Director Kenny Ortega and AEG CEO Randy Phillips insisted MJ rehearse.She overheard Paul Gongaware from AEG yell into the phone to MJ security to get MJ out of the bathroom.(ABC7) 

AEG executives continued to push Jackson, Faye said. She testified she overheard a phone conversation in which AEG executive Paul Gongaware told Jackson's assistant to get him out of a locked bathroom and to a rehearsal. Faye described Gongaware, AEG Live's co-CEO, as "angry and kind of desperate" in the conversation. She testified Gongaware told the assistant to do "whatever it takes."Faye said the only people she saw insist that Jackson rehearse were Gongaware and tour director Kenny Ortega. (AP).

At one point, Jackson locked himself in a bathroom at his home, refusing to leave for rehearsals at the Forum. AEG Live Co-CEO Paul Gongaware, who was in charge of the production, was "angry and kind of desperate to get Michael to the Forum," she said.
She overheard a phone call in which Gongaware was telling Jackson's security guard "to get him out of the bathroom. Do you have a key, do whatever it takes," she said Gongaware screamed. (CNN)

After a meeting between MJ, Ortega, and Phillips, Faye was told not to follow MJ's instructions anymore. She should show tough love. (ABC7) She said that after Jackson missed several rehearsals, Phillips told her to ignore the singer's instructions. (AP)

She became more concerned for MJ's health in the last few days. She forwarded several emails to producers and included her own concerns. Faye said Randy Phillips told her that he had read her emails and tried to do everything he could for MJ. That was at the funeral. (ABC7) Faye testified that Phillips told her at Jackson's funeral that "he tried to do everything he could."Did she believe him, Jackson lawyer Brian Panish asked.
"Sir, Michael Jackson is lying in a casket only a few feet away from me," she said. "I had no words to respond. That's not everything you can do." (CNN)

Faye said she informed Ortega, Jackson's manager and AEG Live co-CEO Randy Phillips about her concerns about Jackson's health during the preparations for the shows. She said Jackson was frustrated and after a costume fitting days before his death repeatedly asked her, "Why can't I choose?" (AP)

Faye, choking back tears, read portions of an email from one of Jackson's fans that she forwarded to his now deceased manager, Frank Dileo. It described the singer as a skeleton."If we do nothing, he will die," the fan wrote. "I know people who work for him cannot tell him anything. I know his own family tried to help him but he won't listen."Faye said she wrote Dileo that she agreed with the assessment, but the manager never responded in writing. By this point, Jackson was often cold to the touch and was becoming increasingly paranoid. Faye said he became obsessed with her being within sight when he was rehearsing onstage. (AP)

Michael Jackson appeared paranoid, repeating himself and shivering from chills in his final days, Karen Faye testified. "This was not the man I knew," Karen Faye testified. "He was acting like a person I didn't recognize." (CNN)

At a rehearsal in mid-June, Jackson was talking to himself, she said. "When I was around, he was repeating himself an awful lot, saying the same thing over and over again." (CNN)

Faye, who had to touch Jackson when she put on his makeup, said it was "like I was touching ice." At one rehearsal, she covered him with blankets and put a space heater next to him, she said. (CNN)

Faye said she raised her concerns once in June with AEG CEO Randy Phillips. He told her, "Yeah, this is bad. It's not so good. I had to scrape Michael off the floor in London at the announcement because he was so drunk," she said.(CNN)