Sunday, November 13, 2011

9503: Jacko Manager Blames Pepsi Spot…?


The New York Daily News reported Michael Jackson’s personal manager now claims the late superstar’s drug problems began after the infamous Pepsi commercial shoot. Great. Another example of Blacks getting screwed by Madison Avenue.

Michael Jackson started taking pain meds after burning his head in a Pepsi commercial shoot, manager writes

Struggle with drugs began after fiery ad shoot went wrong

By Erin Durkin, New York Daily News

Michael Jackson’s long odyssey with pain medication began after he burned his head while shooting a Pepsi commercial more than 25 years ago, his personal manager writes in a new book.

Frank Cascio, a long-time family friend who went to work for Jackson as an assistant and then manager, writes in “My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship with an Extraordinary Man” that the singer first took demerol after suffering burns during the commercial shoot in 1984.

He had been taking propofol as early as 1999, when a platform he was performing on collapsed, and also took it to treat the skin disease vitiligo, according to Cascio.

The Associated Press obtained an advance copy of the book, set to be released Nov. 15.

Jackson was drugged up before his 2001 anniversary concerts and started his first show an hour late.

“My naive belief that Michael wouldn’t let his medicine interfere with the show blew up in my face,” Cascio writes. “I can’t begin to describe my disappointment and panic at this moment.

“It had become clear to me that Michael’s drug use was escalating,” he writes, adding he paid doctors in cash to keep the pop star’s medical issues secret. “But in the end, physical and mental anguish prevailed, and Michael died in his endless quest to attain some inner peace.”

Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter Monday for giving Jackson the surgery-strength anesthetic to combat the insomnia that gripped him in the midst of a comeback try.

With The Associated Press

No comments: