JUST EAT IT: Concert promoter Paul Gongaware (right) denied trying to hide Michael Jackson’s emaciated state. (AP)
LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson was so thin in his final days that an aide joked that Jacko needed an infusion of Wisconsin brews and brats to fatten him up while he was on tour, according to testimony presented yesterday.
John “Bugzee” Hougdahl, tour production manager for Jackson’s ill-fated “This Is It” shows, offered his advice in a June 14, 2009, e-mail to concert promoter Paul Gongaware.
“He needs some cheeseburgers with a bunch of Wisconsin cheesehead bowlers . . . and a couple of brats and beers,” Hougdahl wrote in an e-mail shown to jurors yesterday with Gongaware on the witness stand.
Jackson’s family is suing concert promoters AEG Live, claiming that executives knew The Gloved One was terribly sick in 2009, but did nothing to help him.
Despite Hougdahl’s crack, Gongaware testified that he wasn’t concerned about Jackson’s health at that time.
Jackson was 5-foot-9 and 135 pounds when he died from an overdose of anesthesia on June 25, 2009.
The King of Pop’s loved ones claim Gongaware, co-CEO of AEG Live, has been trying to cover up what he and other company executives knew about MJ’s deteriorating condition.
In a pretrial deposition, Gongaware said he and other executives never discussed fears that Jackson might look too skinny in the “This Is It” documentary made after his death.
But in court yesterday, plaintiffs showed Gongaware’s e-mail exchange with AEG President Randy Phillips on Aug. 9, 2009.
Phillips wrote to Gongaware, “Make sure we take out the shots of MJ in that red leather jacket at the song stage . . . He looks way too thin and skeletal.”
Gongaware replied, “OK, will have a look when it comes on screen.”
Jackson family lawyer Brian Panish lit into Gongaware, accusing him of covering his tracks.
“You didn’t want anyone distressed that Michael Jackson looked so emaciated, correct?”
Gongaware responded, “No, we didn’t try to control anything.”
On the witness stand, Gongaware said Jackson’s 2009 death at the age of 50 reminded him of Elvis Presley’s passing in 1977, at 42.
“When a major artist like this dies, it immediately puts at least 100 people out of work,” Gongaware said.
“It’s such an incredible shock. Everything is different in an instant.”
Additional reporting by David K. Li in New York