Michael Jackson: The King of Pop

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Kimberly Potts on Aug 18, 2009 at 8:17PM

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Look at All These Rumors

With his international stardom at a peak, Jackson's reputation would take a hit the next year, when a tabloid story reported that he slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber that helped him slow the aging process. The story was even accompanied by a photo of Jackson lying down in a glass box. Weirdest of all: The star is the one who fed the (untrue) story to the tabloid, as a prank. The gag backfired, though, as tabloid media began to print more and increasingly wacky stories about Jackson, including that he'd bought the remains of The Elephant Man. Also an untrue story, but the gossip began to take hold, and Jackson's reputation as an odd duck grew.