Michael Jackson's former backing singer and dancer TATIANA THUMBTZEN (corr) lost her job on tour with the King of Pop after she kissed him passionately onstage.

Jackson was smitten with Thumbtzen when the two met on the set of his THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL video, in which she played the superstar's prey, but when she took their romantic feelings for each other too far she was replaced by Sheryl Crow.

She explains, "I looked into his eyes and he did this really sexy thing - he bit his lip... and just looked at me with this look that was so incredibly sexy.

"I pulled him close and as I was about to kiss him I felt the hand on my hip and before I knew it we were locked into this kiss."

But the dream of dating a pop superstar as she toured the world with him were shattered when Jackson dumped her.

She recalls, "My dates just went by. A friend calls me, Michael's stand-in, and tells me, 'What's going on? I'm really concerned about you.'

"He says, 'You've been replaced. Sheryl Crow is doing your number...' My world was shattered."

But Jackson's publicists insist Thumbtzen's tale, as told to US news show ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, is fiction.

A spokesman says, "This is just someone else out trying to capitalise on Michael Jackson's name."

24/02/2005 04:07