AEG email: Footage of a 'skeletal' Jackson ordered deleted

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Michael Jackson fans from left, Karlene Taylor, Yvonne Francis, Latrenda White and Jamie Lee, speak out against AEG Live. A jury found Wednesday that AEG Live was not liable in the death of the pop superstar. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Jury foreman Gregg Barden, center, listens to a reporter’s question about their verdict in the civil trial over the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Katherine Jackson and three grandchildren against AEG Live in the death of singer Michael Jackson. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Yvette M. Palazuelos gathers the verdict documents moments before they were publicly disclosed. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Attorneys for Katherine Jackson, Deborah Chang, left and Kevin Boyle listen as jurors are polled following the verdict in the civil trial that lasted for five months. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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AEG attorney Marvin Putnam smiles during verdict polling at the conclusion of the Katherine Jackson v. AEG Live civil trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The jury found AEG not liable in Michael Jackson’s death. AEG attorney Jessica Stebbins Bina is at left. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Brian Panish, left, attorney for the Michael Jackson family, speaks with Kathryn Cahan and Marvin Putnam, attorneys with AEG Live LLC ,in Los Angeles County Superior Court in the Michael Jackson wrongful-death trial Thursday in downtown Los Angeles. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Bailiffs are sworn in to protect the jury as Brian Panish, attorney for the Michael Jackson family, waits during the trial in the Michael Jackson wrongful-death lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday. The singer’s family has sued the entertainment firm AEG Live LLC, saying the company negligently hired and supervised Conrad Murray, the doctor who administered the dose of propofol that killed the singer. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Brian Panish, an attorney for the Michael Jackson family, delivers his closing argument to jurors in a packed courtroom in downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 24. The promoters of Michael Jackson’s last tour were “so excited” about making huge profits that they hired an unfit doctor to care for the star, his family’s lawyer said. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Marvin Putnam, lead attorney for AEG Live LLC and co-counsel Jessica Stebbins-Bina, listen to closing arguments by Michael Jackson family’s attorney, Brian Panish, in a packed courtroom Sept. 24. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Brian Panish, attorney for the Michael Jackson family, delivers his closing argument to jurors in the Michael Jackson wrongful-death lawsuit against concert promoter AEG Live LLC on Sept. 24. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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AEG attorney Marvin Putnam gives closing arguments in the Michael Jackson wrongful-death case on Sept. 25. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Yvette M. Palazuelos listens to a rebuttal argument in the Michael Jackson wrongful-death case on Sept. 26. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Debbie Rowe, Michael Jackson’s former wife and mother of two of his children, leaves Los Angeles County Superior Court after testifying at the trial in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Jackson’s mother, Katherine Jackson, against AEG Live. (Nick Ut / Associated Press)

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Television crews report live outside Los Angeles County Superior Court in downtown Los Angeles on the first day of the trial in the wrongful-death lawsuit. (Joe Klamar / AFP/Getty Images)

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In this file photo dated Sept. 27, 2011, Michael Jackson’s mother Katherine Jackson arrives outside Los Angeles County Superior Court to hear opening statement in the involuntary manslaughter trial of pop superstar Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray. Murray was convicted and sentenced to prison. (Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

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Singer Janet Jackson, left, Paris Katherine Jackson, Prince Michael Jackson II and LaToya Jackson are seen on stage during the memorial service for Michael Jackson at Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, 2009. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

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Entertainer Michael Jackson announces on March 5, 2009, that he will play a series of comeback concerts at the London O2 Arena in July. Jackson died before the concerts could be held. (Joel Ryan / Associated Press)

By Jeff Gottlieb

May 30, 2013 2:03 PM PT

About six weeks after Michael Jackson’s death, an AEG executive told a producer for the “This Is It” documentary to delete footage of the singer looking too “skeletal.”

Witnesses in the Jackson family’s wrongful-death suit have testified that they were worried about the singer’s health and dramatic weight loss in the day before his scheduled comeback tour and had expressed concerns to tour officials.

The paramedic who came to Jackson’s Holmby Hills home after the 911 call on June 25, 2009, testified that the singer was so emaciated that he thought Jackson was an end-stage cancer patient who had come home to die.

FULL COVERAGE: AEG wrongful death trial

“Make sure we take out the shots of MJ in that red leather jacket at the sound stage where the mini-movies were being filmed,” AEG Live president and co-chief executive Randy Phillips wrote.

“He looks way too think (sic) and skeletal.”

Phillips sent the email to Paul Gongaware, who was back on the witness stand Thursday for his third straight day of testimony. Gongaware, co-chief executive of AEG Live, was a producer of the documentary.

PHOTOS: Michael Jackson | 1958-2009

Gongaware replied to Phillips, his boss, “ok will have a look when it comes on screen.”

In another email, Gongaware wrote, “We are ok with the band, singers and dancers doing inteviews now. The only thing we ask is that they keep it positive and stress that MJ was active, engaged and not the emaciated person some want to paint him as being.”

Answering questions from Jackson family attorney Brian Panish, Gongaware said he was not trying to control the film’s message. “We’re asking them to keep it positive,” he said.

Gongaware said nothing was taken out of the documentary, which included rehearsals for the scheduled 50 concerts in London.

Gongaware’s testimony again emphasized the contrast between the answers he gave during his deposition under oath in December 2012 and his responses in the courtroom.

In testimony Wednesday, he agreed that Phillips meant “thin” in his email, instead of the word he typed, “think.”

Asked during the deposition what Phillips meant, he replied, ”I don’t know what he meant.”

The wrongful death case was brought by Jackson’s mother and three children against AEG, the promoter and producer of the London concerts.

The family contends that AEG negligently hired and supervised Conrad Murray, the doctor who gave Jackson the fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol. AEG says that the doctor worked for Jackson, and that any money the company was supposed to pay Murray were advances to the singer.

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