The book is trash, but this part was very interesting indeed. I don't believe 100% of the book's content is false, that's not all too likely, so there might actually be some truth to it. This has been said about Michael a lot, but Jones really goes into detail when it comes to this particular kind of hoaxes...
For anyone who can't read it online (the italics belong to Jones, the rest to Stacy Brown):
"He had been contracted to do an HBO special entitled "One Night Only." The network had promised a worldwide audience of 250 million people. But once again the King of Pop was up to his old tricks.
Something happened and he decided he didn't want to do the shows despite his agreement with HBO. You had to figure that he was up to something and he didn't disappoint.
I had attended the rehearsal for the show at the Beacon Theater earlier that day and all seemed to be going very well. However, later, after I left, I got a call from Jim Morey saying that I better get back there because they were taking Michael Jackson to the hospital in an ambulance. Morey said I needed to rush back in order to be available to the media.
Another sensational story lead-in: Pop star Michael Jackson was hospitalized today after collapsing during a rehearsal for an HBO concert special in New York.
The King had gotten his doctors to admit him after collapsing on stage. [...]
Michael had a penchant for staging illness and other problems to get out of commitments and promises he had made. [...] The King was concocting a hoax to get out of commitments.
Upon my return to California, I had to join the King and his doctor to discuss how we would fake an illness and have him admitted to St. John't Hospital in Santa Monica, California. At the appointed hour on the morning of June 3, 1990, his doctor would ring my phone and I would rush to the hospital. In the meantime, I had to arrange for someone to tip off the Associated Press to stimulate the media. I arranged for a lady friend of mine to call the Associated Press, offering to sell them information that she had seen Michael Jackson being rushed into the emergency room of St. John's Hospital. It worked like a charm.
We then had to issue daily reports on his condition, which fooled the media. However, many did question why his doctor, a plastic surgeon, was Michael's attending doctor during his stay. [...]
I think this information is so very important, I don't and can't believe that Jones made it all up. He certainly is a nasty and vindictive liar which was basically proven in court, still, alleging that absolutely everything he claims in his book is a lie would be silly.
We have Michael fooling the media, being rushed into the hospital, in order to get out of commitments. And according to Jones, it even worked perfectly, except for people wondering why his plastic surgeon attended Michael. Yet, Michael stayed in the hospital and nobody seemed to complain or have anything to say about that, the media, the outside world got fooled and Michael managed to get out of those deals, as he wanted.
Déjà vu, huh?
