\u201cIt has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the \u2018Melania\u2019 documentary. While Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright in the score, Universal failed to consult Jonny on this third-party use which is a breach of his composer agreement. As a result Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
The documentary used an extended excerpt from \u201cBarbara Rose,\u201d a song from Phantom Thread\u2019s Oscar-nominated score. Greenwood is nominated for yet another Academy Award for his score for Anderson\u2019s 2025 hit One Battle After Another. <\/p>\n
Beckman told Breitbart that the pair\u2019s claims were \u201ca blatant lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a legal right and permission to use every song and piece of music in the film. We have the legal rights to use it. We\u2019ve done everything the right way. We followed protocol. We respect artists. We compensated everyone for their music.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have legally binding, fully executed contracts in place to use every song in Melania,\u201d Beckman continued, adding, \u201cThis is just ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SDBCBMVCBRCTROBIDHLX2HN4LY.jpg\")
Jonny Greenwood and Paul Thomas Anderson called for the \u2018Melania\u2019 documentary to remove a song Greenwood wrote for the 2017 film \u2018Phantom Thread.\u2019
\n Dave Benett\/Getty Images <\/p>\n
The Daily Beast has contacted representatives for Greenwood, Beckman and Focus Features for comment.<\/p>\n
Beckman also claimed that no news outlet that covered the statement contacted him or the Melania team for comment. The Daily Beast contacted<\/a> both Amazon Studios and the film\u2019s director Brett Ratner<\/a> for comment.<\/p>\n Beckman also took the time to boast about the film\u2019s success at the box office, telling Breitbart, \u201cWe\u2019re very pleased with the film\u2019s performance in its second weekend in theaters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe crossed $13 million in sales and we hit the predicted benchmark for our sales projections for Super Bowl weekend almost exactly with what we predicted.\u201d<\/p>\n The film, which was acquired by Amazon MGM, cost the studio a whopping $75 million, between the initial $40 million purchase price and the inflated $35 million marketing budget. Trump herself made some $28 million<\/a> from the film.<\/p>\n With $13.4 million in earnings since its release, the film has fallen far short<\/a> of recouping the bulk of the money spent acquiring and promoting it. <\/p>\n Amazon distribution chief Kevin Wilson praised<\/a> the film\u2019s \u201cstrong theatrical performance\u201d on Saturday and said that the studio hoped to earn some of its money back \u201cwhen it streams on Prime Video through advertising and Prime signups.\u201d<\/p>\n The controversial film, which the Daily Beast\u2019s own Kevin Fallon<\/a> called \u201cterrible,\u201d has been the subject of both review-bombing<\/a> and suspected review-boosting<\/a> online amid regular<\/a> pushes<\/a> from the president himself to encourage audiences to see the film.<\/p>\n The film is screening in over 2,000 theaters nationwide and will eventually be available to watch on Prime Video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A longtime adviser to first lady Melania Trump and producer of her vanity documentary has responded to claims…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,163617,7182,48428],"class_list":["post-460667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-melania","tag-melania-trump","tag-universal-studios"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Brett](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/JB7MSBQYQ5BIREB4KSLX74YRAM.jpg\")
Brett Ratner and Marc Beckman attend Amazon MGM’s “Melania” World Premiere at The Trump Kennedy Center on January 29, 2026 in Washington, DC. Dimitrios Kambouris\/Getty Images <\/p>\n