What's wrong with Michael Jackson? There may be a number of answers to that question. Pneumonia, however, isn't one of them.
Despite reports to the contrary, Jackson's rep has confirmed to E! News that the now waning King of Pop has not been hospitalized with that or any other illness.
"In response to media inquiries, Mr. Michael Jackson is not currently in the hospital nor has he been hospitalized with pneumonia," Raymone K. Bain said.
The rumor, just one of several Bain has been forced to debunk in recent months, first surfaced Thursday when Fox News' 411 made the bedridden claim, maintaining that Jackson contracted a "severe flu" from his kids Paris and Prince while traveling in Japan and had subsequently checked into a hospital near his new home base of Las Vegas.
Bain did confirm that Jackson felt "a little bit under the weather" after returning from his trip, but that she didn't know "how the doctors have diagnosed it."
Meanwhile, just a month after issuing a laundry list denial of all the activities her star client is not involved in—appearing on American Idol, taking over for Céline Dion in Sin City and reuniting with the Jackson 5 were among the gigs absent from his slate—Bain is back on the rebuffing track, putting the kibosh on yet more rumored transactions Jackson is not involved in.
Last week, Bain denied to Extra that the 48-year-old entertainer was looking to hawk the Beatles catalogue, something he acquired in 1985 for $47.5 million and which has since grown in value to nearly half a billion dollars, to pay off increasing debts.
"There is no truth to the rumor that Michael Jackson will be selling his Beatles catalogue...period...not to Paul McCartney, or any other individual or entity. He has no intention, or interest, in selling his catalogue."
Something else Jackson has no intention of doing: kicking off a Live Forever tour in Las Vegas.
The Vegas Eye Website was the first to report that the "Thriller" singer would launch a worldwide Live Forever tour at the Luxor hotel on June 10, and that the night's concert and reception would be capped off with a meet and greet—unlike in Japan, a free one—for particularly fervent fans.
An official-looking invitation for the night even made the internet rounds Thursday, but Bain denied the event to TMZ, calling the whole thing a "fraud."
What Jackson is actually up to—when not holding fake concerts or not admitting himself to the hospital—is working on his long-awaited comeback album. The pop star has teamed up with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am for the untitled disc, due out later this year.