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LoginMichael Jackson wrongful death trial: Witness says Jacko's beating heart visible to naked eye in days before his deathMakeup artist said she was in the King of Pop’s private quarters at Los Angeles’ Staples Center when costumer emerged wide-eyed from a bathroom after witnessing Jackson’s unclothed body.Michael Jackson's beating heart was visible to the naked eye in the two days before his death, but his skeletal condition was shrouded in lies after his June 2009 overdose, a jury heard Friday.
Makeup artist Karen Faye testified she was in the King of Pop’s private quarters at Los Angeles’ Staples Center in late June 2009 when costumer Michael Bush emerged wide-eyed from a bathroom after witnessing Jackson’s unclothed body.
“He said, ‘Oh my God, Turkle, I could see Michael’s heart beat through the skin in his chest,’ ” Faye, whose tour nickname was Turkle, told jurors. Faye said Bush was clearly “upset.”
“It was like, ‘Oh my God!’ He was pretty much in shock,” Faye said of Bush.
The woman who served as Jackson’s primary makeup artist for nearly three decades said she personally prepared Jackson’s body for his family to view in his casket. She broke down crying, describing the intimate experience and how she later was asked to “help retouch” footage of Jackson for the posthumous documentary “This Is It.”
Faye declined the offer.
“It was a lie. I didn’t want a lie,” she told jurors. “Everybody was lying after he died, (saying) that Michael was well. Everybody knew that he wasn’t. I felt retouching Michael was just a part of that lie.”
Faye, 60, testified for Jackson’s mother Katherine on the ninth day of a civil trial pitting the “Thriller” singer’s heirs against AEG Live, the promoter of his ill-fated comeback concerts.
Katherine Jackson, 82, claims AEG negligently hired Dr. Conrad Murray, the now-disgraced cardiologist serving four years for feeding Michael the milky anesthetic that killed him on June 25, 2009.
AEG denies any wrongdoing, claiming it was Jackson who hired Murray and caused his own self-destruction behind closed doors.
Faye’s Friday testimony offered a behind-the-scenes look at Jackson’s last two rehearsals on June 23 and 24.
She said while rehearsal footage from those final days shows Jackson dancing and singing on stage, he was a frail mess under his layers of multiple bulky shirts.
She said backstage in Jackson’s Staples Center dressing room, she overheard his manager Frank DiLeo inquire about his low weight and dismissively order someone to “get him a bucket of chicken.”
She wiped tears as she recalled the moment during the singer’s last 48 hours alive.
“It was so cold. It was such a cold response. It broke my heart,” she said.
Under cross examination by AEG lawyer Marvin Putnam, Faye admitted she had no idea whether anyone else stepped in to retouch the “This Is It” footage.
She also described being let go from Jackson’s entourage during his 1996 HIStory tour.
Faye said Jackson’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe — the biological mother of his two eldest children —- apologized to her years later for playing a role in her firing.
“Debbie Rowe was pregnant, Sir, and she was obviously in love with Michael Jackson,” Faye testified. “She (later) told me she was jealous of me being there as Michael’s makeup artist. She thought that Michael liked me better than her.”