A Michael Jackson juror writing a book on the star's child abuse trial has been accused of plagiarism.
An extract from upcoming exposé 'The Deliberator' by Ray Hultman, published by a US newspaper earlier this week, is allegedly a word-for-word copy of part of an article by Vanity Fair magazine.
Respected journalist Maureen Orth claims the excerpt - which described Jackson's shocking appearance - came straight from a report she wrote for the magazine in April 2003.
The snippet read: "Up close, Michael Jackson's appearance is amazing. He wears a black pageboy wig, and his face is caked with white makeup, which conceals a prosthesis that serves as the tip of his nose. One person, who has seen him without the device, says he resembles a mummy with nostril holes."
Orth told America's New York Post newspaper: "This is just another indication of how thoroughly flawed that process was and how deeply celebrity affects a jury."
However, Larry Garrison - a film producer, who is promoting Hultman's book - claims the writer that wrote those lines for the book's proposal has since been sacked from Hultman's writing team.
He said: "The person who wrote that part has since been fired from the project. That was an older version of the proposal."
(c) BANG Media International
