Bitten Jackson spends fifth day in court

Pop icon Michael Jackson, still limping from a spider bite, continued testifying in a $21m (€21.009m)) cancelled concerts lawsuit, maskless, gloveless and missing a shoe.

Jackson, in an outfit resembling a boy’s private school uniform, emerged from a van wearing a blue blazer and a gold-striped blue tie featuring a coat of arms. His outfit also included a silky blue armband.

Asked what his armband represented, Jackson shouted, ”Power!” while two security guards sheltered him from the sun with two black umbrellas. Asked if he meant power for him, he replied: “The world. Not for me. Not for me.”

He balanced on a crutch because of the spider bite, which he said caused his left foot to swell.

Reporters peppered the 44-year-old entertainer with questions but he only answered with a faint “Merry Christmas” as he entered the Santa Barbara County courthouse in California.

It was his fifth day on the witness stand and his second after a two-week break, during which he dangled his infant son from a balcony in Germany in a display that caused an international uproar and a demand for a child-abuse investigation by California authorities.

Promoter Marcel Avram filed the lawsuit against Jackson for allegedly backing out of performances in Sydney, Australia, and Honolulu, on December 31, 1999. The singer maintains it was Avram who cancelled the shows over concerns they would not be profitable.

Under questioning from Avram’s lawyer, Louis “Skip” Miller, Jackson said Avram told him the millennium concerts were scrubbed because the promoter could not obtain airspace clearance to fly from one location to the next.

Miller asked which countries prohibited his travel, but Jackson said he could not remember.

Jackson then answered questions from his own lawyer, Zia Modabber, who asked him about two former business managers, Myung-Ho Lee and Wayne Nagin.

Jackson testified about his love for performing in two other charity concerts organised by Avram, and said he did not allow his two former business managers to deduct expenses for those shows from his planned millennium concert pay.

Miller told reporters that he planned to question Jackson’s former business managers in coming days about their involvement in the millennium concerts.

Jackson also testified that he rarely read business contracts and delegated administrative duties.

Jackson left the courthouse waving goodbye to fans. He was due to return today for a sixth day of testimony.