Docs Back Jacko's Attack

The medical community agrees: Michael Jackson worked himself into a real tizzy.

After skipping out on a court date last month in Indianapolis, complaining depositions gave him the vapors, the judge asked the pooped-out pop oddity to provide medical proof of his "Bad" condition.

And it looks like proof is what the judge got.

The emergency room doctor who treated Jackson at Indianapolis' Methodist Hospital on May 21 declared, in documents filed in federal court, that the 44-year-old entertainer required intravenous fluids and a tranquilizer during a two-hour stay for dizziness, dehydration and general weakness, reports said Friday.

The diagnosis, per a second medical expert: Jacko had an anxiety attack.

Dr. Richard Feldman, of Indiana's St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers, said, according to the Indianapolis Star, it "all makes sense" that Jackson would have been advised to not return to court, especially after receiving the tranquilizer, described in the newspaper as a "Valium-like medication."

Jackson didn't come close to chancing it. After checking out of Methodist, he hopped on a private jet, bound for Neverland.

At issue in the court matter is a copyright lawsuit that alleges Jackson and fellow members of the Jackson 5 ripped off the work of a 1960s-era Gary, Indiana, group, Ripples & Waves, on the sibling supergroup's 1996 album, Pre-History: The Lost Steeltown Recordings.

According to the Indianapolis Star, Judge Philip Simon has not yet officially accepted Jackson's sick-day excuse.

If the magistrate needs further evidence, he may simply want to review the moonwalker's track record. According to his attorney, Brian Oxman, the "Smooth Criminal" gets so rattled on days he's to appear in court that he doesn't eat.

And even on the occasions when he does eat, why, there's always a chance a spider will get him.

"He doesn't like lawsuits," Oxman explained to the Associated Press last month.

Unfortunately, for Jackson, he's much more in demand in the courtroom these days than he is on the charts.

In addition to the copyright case, he's facing a $12 million breach-of-contract lawsuit from an ex-financial advisor. A Los Angeles judge is to rule next week if the potentially embarrassing case--rife with allegations that the world-famous icon is "a ticking financial time bomb waiting to explode"--will go to trial.

Jackson has countersued the advisor accusing him of cheating him out of money.

He's also suing his old Jackson 5 home, Motown, now part of the Universal Music Group, accusing the label of cheating him out of money.

The King of Litigation only recently resolved two other cases: A suit brought against him by Sotheby's auction house for non-payment of two paintings (he settled); and, a lawsuit filed by a concert promoter who complained Jackson cost him millions by backing out of two planned millennium concerts (jurors returned a $5.3 million verdict against Jacko in that one).

More trouble looms: The judge in the Indiana case has threatened to fine Jackson $1,000 a day for every day he fails to do the deposition. He has set a June 13 deadline for the singer to return to his native Indiana and get the thing done.

If it'll ease Jackson's mind, perhaps he should be informed there's a Taco Bell only about a mile away from the federal courthouse in Indianapolis.

Jackson made news last month for appearing in a Spider-Man mask at the district office of Congressman Elton Gallegly in Solvang, California, and inquiring as to the whereabouts of the nearest Taco Bell.

He was directed to the neighboring town of Buellton, where he ordered two cheese pizzas and three chicken soft tacos from a Taco Bell/Pizza Hut drive-through, per reports.

Jackson may not like lawsuits, but, as he told the congressman's staffers, "I love Taco Bell."