Report: Michael Jackson Has Six Months to Live

The National Enquirer has been right before.

Isaiah Washington did make gay slurs about Grey's Anatomy co-star T.R. Knight, Rielle Hunter was in fact sleeping with John Edwards, and Jamie Lynn Spears was pregnant ... albeit a few months after the celeb gossip tabloid said. Still, how prophetic!

This story, though? We have our doubts.

The Enquirer claims Michael Jackson is dying - and has only six months to live.

The supposedly desperately ill star is bedridden much of the time, and his electrifying stage performances are a thing of the past, sources reveal.

Reports first surfaced in late December that Jackson is dying slowly thanks to a rare genetic disorder that will require a lung transplant or else.

Michael Jackson looks terrifying in this picture, even by his standards.

Although the singer denied these reports, The Enquirer says his health is deteriorating rapidly because of addiction to painkillers and alcohol.

A source close to the star divulged: "It's tragic. His condition is just so far gone, I'd be surprised if he lasts six months.

"Painkillers and booze have caught up with him. The only way he was able to cope with the stress of sex scandals and his roller-coaster life was to mask the pain with substance abuse. But the end result is an addiction that will kill him."

Jacko's dependency on drugs "dates back to when his hair was burned making a Pepsi commercial," said the close source.

Twenty-five years later, "the drugs simply have ravaged him."

Michael Jackson is in "really, really bad shape," claims the family friend. "He's been sick for six to eight months and he just keeps getting worse.

"His muscles and lungs are deteriorating, and he's bedridden much of the time. He can walk, but not for very long. On good days, Michael is able to take his kids to a bookstore. But he's never out for more than an hour. He has very little strength... It's ultimately in God's hands."

Jackson, who was too weak to stand trial in November, has a rare genetic condition called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency that can cause lung and liver disease, according to Ian Halperin, author of a new Jackson biography.

Medical experts warn the reclusive singer's longtime addiction to morphine and the painkiller Demerol can make the condition devastatingly destructive.

Halperin said a friend of the star told him: "Michael wants to have the lung transplant, but because of other illnesses he's fighting, he's too weak to undergo such a major procedure. He's taking one painkiller after another."

Halperin claims that Jackson, a nonsmoker, is also battling emphysema, and is even suffering from chronic gastrointestinal bleeding.

"It's the bleeding that could kill him," said the Canadian writer.

A spokesman for Jackson denies the star is ill, saying: "Mr. Jackson is in fine health" and is in negotiations for a concert tour and TV projects.

Pulmonary specialist Dr. Len Horovitz, who treated Michael for dehydration in 1999 at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital, has been following accounts of his lung problems.

"If Michael Jackson has alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, he needs to be very careful," Dr. Len Horovitz told The Enquirer.

"The disease produces an early-onset emphysema, and the liver can also be affected. If Jackson has the disorder, he also has to be very careful about taking sedatives and narcotics - such as morphine or pain pills - because they can greatly aggravate the problem.

"They don't actually cause the condition, but because they can depress breathing, they can be very dangerous.

"In advanced stages, a lung transplant may be necessary. But if Jackson needs a lung transplant, it means he's had so much damage he's not even a candidate for preserving what's left."

"Michael's fighting for his life," the close source concluded.

"And it doesn't look good."