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Jurors stunned by video of Michael Jackson’s hair catching fire

Rapt jurors today watched shocking video of Michael Jackson going up in smoke, as his longtime makeup artist chronicled The King of Pop’s decades-long bout with painkillers.

Panelists, weighing evidence in his family’s civil lawsuit against concert promoters, couldn’t take their eyes off the courtroom screen as they were shown footage of MJ’s hair catching fire during a 1984 shoot for Pepsi.

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

That wild accident touched off Jackson’s reliance on painkillers, leading to The Gloved One’s death on June 25, 2009.

Faye showed jurors e-mails she sent to Jackson’s manager, Frank DiLeo, on June 20 and 22, 2009, illustrating her concern about MJ’s health. At that time, Jackson was in rehearsals for a string of 50 London concerts.

“Please intervene … concerts are not worth jeopardizing his life for,” Faye wrote.

Jackson’s long-time dance collaborator, Alif Sankey, gave similar testimony yesterday. Sankey said she rang all the bells in June 2009, demanding that concert promoters and MJ’s managers step in to help the ailing star.

Faye traced Jackson’s struggle with painkiller to the 1984 Pepsi shoot — though the makeup artist said she really didn’t grasp it until his “Dangerous” tour in 1992-93.

There were always two doctors around Jackson on that tour, willing and able to give him as many painkillers as necessary, Faye told jurors today.

“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.”

Jackson’s family is suing AEG Live, claiming that promoters knew MJ was in poor health and didn’t do anything about it, as he prepared for the “This Is It” concerts set for 2009-10.

Faye’s testimony could build the foundation for the plaintiff’s contention that everyone around The Gloved One knew about his pill-popping.

Jackson, 50, died after Dr. Conrad Murray gave him a lethal dose of painkillers and anesthetics.

Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter at a criminal trial. Now Jackson’s family wants AEG to be held responsible for allegedly hiring the quack.

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 claims 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, the makeup artist testified.