Jackson rehearsals caught on tape

By Elizabeth Guider

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Was Michael Jackson really on the comeback trail? That tantalizing possibility may be answered more definitively than many of the more lurid questions surrounding his death because rehearsal tapes were duly recorded and have been recovered.

AEG Live, the company producing Jackson's ill-fated 50-concert London tour, filmed all the rehearsals. The company apparently retrieved and amassed 100 hours of film on Jackson and his practice run-throughs, including last Wednesday's session at the Staples Center the night before Jackson died.

The hours of video could be a telling indication of just how healthy the King of Pop was in the last two months of his life -- fit and energized as his backers (and insurers) contend or frail, out of step and tentative, as many of his friends and acquaintances have maintained since his death.

Even if not fully the old Jacko of "Thriller" or "Bad," the tapes apparently do include enough audio to fill not one but two live albums worth of material. Since Jackson never released a live album during his career, these recordings could turn out to be a gold mine -- or be a more limited, and slightly creepy, collectors item indicating just how off his game the singer was weeks before his scheduled first concert at the O2 Arena in London.

"AEG spent $30 million putting this together," a source told the Hollywood Reporter. "The video, the lighting, the staging -- it's all extraordinary. They're the first to use a new 3D projection that will blow people's minds."

Certainly, the company will need to salvage whatever it can from the aborted tour extravaganza, which would have meted the singer alone some $300 million.

But first, there will be refunds.

AEG said Monday that the 750,000 fans who paid to attend could get a reimbursement -- or choose to receive the actual tickets, which it said feature graphics inspired and designed by Jackson himself. Fans have until August 14 to take the ticket offer. For those opting for a refund, all service charges paid to authorized ticket sellers will be included.