Joe Jackson and MGM Mirage disavowed an Internet report Thursday that Michael Jackson was launching a tour June 10 at the Luxor.

“He’s not doing nothing like that, and I was with him this morning,” said Joe Jackson, Michael Jackson’s father.

Jenn Michaels, vice president of corporate relations for MGM Mirage, said the Luxor “has nothing scheduled with Michael Jackson on that date or any date for that matter.” In addition, she said, the Luxor Theatre will be undergoing renovation and will not be available.

The Hollywood-based gossip Web site TMZ.com ran a copy of what appeared to be an invitation to the Jackson tour kickoff event at the Luxor.

The event includes the show, dinner and a two-hour meet-and-greet, according to the invitation.

“Join the Luxor in celebrating the ‘Live Forever’ tour,” said the invitation, wording that raised eyebrows and the possibility that it was a hoax.

TMZ.com said the invitation was “first obtained by” Michael Politz, a Las Vegas food and beverage publisher who co-writes a weekly blog about local happenings and celebrities.

Politz, reached by telephone, said he received the invitation from someone involved in designing it. He said he passed it along to TMZ.com before posting it on his own site because “I wanted to get more traffic to my site.”

Politz said he was “nervous” about the validity of the invitation but, six hours later, still had not received any complaints about the TMZ.com report that named him.

He acknowledged he didn’t call Luxor executives for comment. “They know how to reach me. I knew if I called (Luxor President) Felix (Rappaport), he would deny it, so I decided what’s the point.”

The invitation asked that guest responses be made to event coordinator Arial Martinez and listed a Luxor Internet address. The Web site appeared to be connected to the Luxor, but the requested page could not be found.

Asked if he had any involvement in the event, Politz said no, but he added, “Wouldn’t that be awesome?”

Earlier in the day, Fox News columnist Roger Friedman reported that Michael Jackson was hospitalized with pneumonia. Jackson’s publicist, Raymone K. Bain, told The Associated Press that the pop singer was “under the weather” but was “not in the hospital, and he has not been in the hospital.”

Source: Las Vegas Review Journal

Category: Rumours