For those who live in the tabloid cross hairs, the fake name is essential. Privacy-seeking celebrities have standard pseudonyms for checking into hotels, booking spa appointments, reserving restaurant tables, advertising for help and setting up visits to the doctor's office.
But when those attempts at anonymity make their way beyond the exam room door and onto a prescription pad, a Hollywood convenience becomes a crime.
State and federal laws designed to curb prescription drug abuse make it illegal for doctors to prescribe drugs in the name of anyone but the intended user, and physicians found using pseudonyms have lost their medical licenses and faced criminal charges.
The prohibition on fake names may become a key issue in the investigation into Michael Jackson's death.
Sources close to the investigation told The Times that the performer had been prescribed drugs in the name "Omar Arnold" shortly before his death June 25.
The probe has focused on Jackson's use of drugs, and investigators are looking closely at the conduct of at least five doctors who wrote prescriptions for him.
Jackson had long used aliases in health matters, according to associates.
One person who worked closely with Jackson in the 1980s and '90s said Jackson's physicians filed his medical records under pseudonyms, including Omar Arnold, Joseph Scruz and Bill Bray, and used those names to schedule appointments and order tests.
Another longtime associate said Jackson's staff regularly picked up prescriptions for the performer under different names.
Employing false names on prescription pads is a violation of federal Drug Enforcement Administration rules and of multiple state regulations, including the Business and Professions Code and the Health and Safety Code. Health and Safety Code Section 11173 states that "no person shall make a false statement in any prescription, order, report or record."
Dr. H. Westley Clark, the director of the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, said fake names flout mechanisms put in place by states and pharmacy chains to flag people potentially abusing drugs.
"It makes it difficult to track behavior of patients who might be doctor-shopping or who may be receiving large doses of controlled substances that might cause some concern," said Clark, who is licensed as both a lawyer and doctor.
Jackson's is hardly the first instance of a celebrity using false names to fill prescriptions.
