Jacko's false nose

Michael Jackson's nose has been so badly damaged by plastic surgery that he has to wear a false tip, it has been claimed.

Vanity Fair magazine reports in its latest issue that the singer wears a prosthetic end to his nose and quotes a source close to Jackson who says that the singer would otherwise resemble "a mummy with two nostril holes".

Last year Jackson shocked fans when he appeared in public in a court in California with skin peeling and what appeared to be a sticking plaster over his nostrils.

The magazine also reports that the 44- year- old star once paid £100,000 for a voodoo curse to kill film director Steven Spielberg.

The singer reportedly fell out with Spielberg after the director refused to give him the part of Peter Pan in his Hollywood blockbuster Hook.

He is said to have attended a voodoo ceremony in Switzerland where a witch doctor promised him that Spielberg and a list of 25 enemies, including record tycoon David Geffen, would suffer illfortune.

The report claims Jackson underwent a "blood bath" as part of the ceremony and later ordered his business adviser Myung-Ho Lee to wire the money to a witch doctor in Mali named Baba, who is said to have sacrificed 42 cows for the ceremony.

Vanity Fair also says that Jackson, who it claims wears a page boy wig and has artificially whitened his skin, is deeply in debt.

It claims that his declining record sales and extravagant lifestyle have left him about £175 million in the red.

His Neverland Ranch costs at least £2.5 million a year to run, with his private amusement park in its ground nearly repossessed in April 2001 for late payments.

He is also said to owe more than £500,000 on the payroll for his staff from a three-month period in 2000.

The magazine says he has borrowed millions to cover his expenses and will only be able to repay a £125 million loan due in the near future if he sells his most valuable asset, the Beatles' song catalogue. The singer acquired the Beatles' publishing company 18 years ago for £32 million, selling half of it to Sony in 1995 for £60 million.

However, Sony guaranteed Jackson's multi-million-pound loans and the company has the sole right to buy the singer's share should he ever default on a loan.

He is currently being sued by a German concert promoter for around £15 million and the auction house Sotheby's for more than £1 million.

On Friday, Granada TV agreed to keep unused tape from its Martin Bashir documentary under lock and key until a dispute with the singer is resolved in court.

Jackson originally co-operated with the programme, but later claimed he had been "betrayed" over an agreement that two of his children, Prince Michael and daughter Paris, would not be filmed. Jackson was also seen shopping in Las Vegas, where he spent several million dollars on gaudy urns and paintings - although it was later claimed most of the items were returned.

In the documentary, the singer, who was accused of child sex abuse in 1993, admitted that he shared beds with children, including Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin and his brother Keiran.

But he insisted that there was nothing wrong, saying: "It's not sexual. We're going to sleep. I tuck them in. It's very charming. it's very sweet.''

The magazine report alleges that there were fears of numerous claims of sexual abuse and that the singer "purchased" silence of at least one boy.

A member of the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, which investigated Jackson when the first allegations emerged in 1993, told Vanity Fair: "We had a ' special friend' identified every year for 10 or 12 years.

"They were generally cute boys, along the lines of the Macaulay Culkin variety.

"Some refused to talk to us; others lied when they did. Ultimately we needed people to come forward."

Jackson's management and publicists have so far not replied to the claims.