Email Trove Reveals 'Drunk, Despondent' Jacko

Another side to the story of Michael Jackson's final months is emerging, thanks to 250 pages of emails obtained by the Los Angeles Times. They reveal concerns over a singer plagued by "paranoia, anxiety, and obsessive-like behavior," as the director of Jackson's planned London shows wrote to promoter Randy Phillips, urging psychiatric help. Phillips himself put it in even starker terms: "MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent," he wrote to the president of AEG, the firm behind the comeback concerts.

"He is an emotionally paralyzed mess riddled with self loathing and doubt now that it is show time." Despite the emails, Phillips was opposed to the idea of a psychiatrist, instead trusting Jackson doctor Conrad Murray: "It is critical that neither you, me, or anyone around this show become amateur psychiatrists or physicians," he wrote to the director. Meanwhile, insurer Lloyd's of London was struggling to get access to Jackson's medical records, complaining of "no response" from AEG. The emails may be key to an upcoming pair of lawsuits: one from insurers wanting to void a policy they say was based on false health information, the other from Jackson's heirs, who say AEG pushed the star too hard given his condition. (More Michael Jackson stories.)