Montreal publisher starts printing updated Michael Jackson biography
MONTREAL – A Montreal publishing house has started printing an updated biography of Michael Jackson, a week after abruptly stopping the presses following the sudden death of the King of Pop.
Transit Publishing president Pierre Turgeon says author Ian Halperin’s book, “Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson,” went to press Thursday.
The biography, originally titled “Michael Jackson: Return from Exile,” is scheduled to hit Canadian shelves next week.
“I stopped the presses and the author added some material to put the book up to speed,” Turgeon said Thursday.
“Obviously, we had to change the ending.”
The book initially ended with Jackson’s expected return to the stage for 50 shows at London’s O2 Arena, a much-anticipated series that had been scheduled to begin this month.
Turgeon said the final chapter now includes details of Jackson’s death. It also features material Halperin got from a meeting with the pop star, which had been protected by a non-disclosure agreement.
That deal expired after Jackson’s death, the publisher added.
In December, Halperin, who recently released a controversial, unauthorized biography of Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, publicly predicted that Jackson had six months to live.
Turgeon said the printer, Transcontinental, sent the Montreal writer’s book to press around the same time officials confirmed Jackson’s death.
“I was very stressed because everybody from the office at Transcontinental had left for the evening,” said Turgeon, who eventually tracked down the plant’s night foreman.
The book will be released in the United States and the United Kingdom on July 14 and in France on July 17.
Around 300,000 copies will hit stores in the U.S., 100,000 in England, 100,000 in France and 40,000 in Canada.
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