{"id":394185,"date":"2026-04-23T19:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/394185\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:08:08","slug":"michael-jacksons-nephews-defend-michael-ahead-of-movies-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/394185\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson’s Nephews Defend ‘Michael’ Ahead of Movie’s Release"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Michael Jackson<\/a> biopic, Michael, hasn\u2019t even opened in theaters yet and the late singer\u2019s family is already defending it against criticism from the media.<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo of Jackson\u2019s nephews, TJ and Taj Jackson, both sons of Tito Jackson<\/a> who perform together in the group 3T, posted messages to social media on supporting the film, which hits theaters on Friday, against a negative reception from critics. Critics have blasted the film for skipping Jackson\u2019s controversies<\/a> and failing to address the many sexual abuse allegations against Jackson<\/a>, and ending the timeline of the film in 1988. The film stars Jaafar Jackson, Jermaine Jackson<\/a>\u2018s son, as his uncle.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSorry media, u don\u2019t get to control the narrative anymore of who Michael Jackson truly was,\u201d Taj, Tito Jackson\u2019s eldest son, posted in a tweet thread<\/a> on Tuesday. \u201cThe public gets to watch this movie\u2026they will decide for themselves. And you can\u2019t handle that. Can\u2019t wait till some critics have to eat crow. And yes I will be that petty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m going to the theater in a few hours to see a movie I\u2019ve seen several times. Why? Because I\u2019m proud,\u201d TJ Jackson, Tito\u2019s youngest son, wrote in his own post<\/a>. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t miss this opportunity to be masked in the electrifying energy that will be in that theater for nothing. My uncle deserves this, my cousin earned this and his loyal supporters are owed this. The world will be reminded or learn who MJ truly was and I can\u2019t wait! #michaelmovie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tIn another post<\/a>, TJ praised the film. \u201cI am excited for the world to see it,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMy uncle\u2019s essence is captured and Jaafar is \ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRolling Stone\u2019s critic, David Fear, described the film<\/a>, which was years in the making<\/a>, as an unbelievable hagiography, right down to a scene where Jackson\u2019s lawyer says he believes the singer will be the greatest. \u201cThis isn\u2019t really a biopic,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis is the Passion of St. Michael, rendered with great fidelity to and emphasis on both Jackson\u2019s undeniable suffering and equally undeniable talent. \u2026 To paraphrase a Jackson song: Please stop. We\u2019ve had enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, hasn\u2019t even opened in theaters yet and the late singer\u2019s family is already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,156372,6455,157,111,139,69,156376],"class_list":["post-394185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-jermaine-jackson","tag-michael-jackson","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tito-jackson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}