{"id":581741,"date":"2026-04-13T14:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/581741\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T14:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:21:13","slug":"michael-jackson-biopic-will-shamefully-whitewash-his-controversial-life-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/581741\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson biopic will shamefully whitewash his controversial life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson in <\/p>\n

The directive over at the forthcoming Michael Jackson biopic?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t stop till you cut enough!<\/p>\n

Apparently in recent months, the team behind \u201cMichael\u201d has been slicing and dicing away at their movie, which moonwalks into theaters on April 24.<\/p>\n

\"Jafaar<\/p>\n

Jafaar Jackson will play his uncle Michael Jackson in the new biopic \u201cMichael.\u201d Glen Wilson\/Lionsgate<\/p>\n

Reducing the runtime is a normal part of the production process, of course, but these many edits have been focused on a specific kind of scene.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty sure you can guess what that is, and it ain\u2019t the \u201cThriller\u201d music video.<\/p>\n

According to Variety<\/a>, a discovery by attorneys for the Jackson estate of some old legal fine print has led to the excising of all the material involving allegations that the late singer sexually abused children.<\/p>\n

You know? Those kids as young as 7 who oh so innocently slept in his adult bed and weirdly flew with him on private jets to Paris? That enormous and dramatic chapter in Jackson\u2019s history?<\/p>\n

All of that weirdness has been told to beat it.<\/p>\n

The film, ostensibly meant to tell the story of the man\u2019s whole life, was set to begin out of order with cops descending on his Neverland Ranch home, sources told the trade, and the final third of film dealt extensively with the scandal.<\/p>\n

No longer.<\/p>\n

\"According<\/p>\n

According to Variety, the film has scrapped all mention of Jackson\u2019s alleged child abuse. Courtesy of Lionsgate<\/p>\n

Because the Jackson estate discovered a long-forgotten clause in their settlement agreement with Jordan Chandler, one of Jackson\u2019s accusers in the early 1990s, which forbids them from depicting him or using his name in any movie.\u00a0So they removed all mentions of abuse.<\/p>\n

Hmmm. That the estate has not memorized every minute detail down to the last semicolon of the circumstances surrounding reprehensible events that they routinely deny and have worked tirelessly to get the public to ignore is \u2026 interesting!<\/p>\n

They footed the bill for the reported $15 million of reshoots \u2014 pesos for the $3 billion entity \u2014 and what we\u2019re likely left with is what everybody expected in the first place: a glitzy glorification of Michael Jackson.<\/p>\n

That is also the movie the estate surely dreamt of from the start.<\/p>\n

Pedophilia, needless to say, does not drive ticket sales or boost Spotify streams.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Jackson with 10-year-old James Safechuck on a tour plane in 1988. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Of course, nobody can completely forget that sickening ugliness, which the harrowing documentary \u201cLeaving Neverland\u201d resurfaced in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But \u201cMichael\u201d is banking on that stain being overwhelmed by the public\u2019s nostalgia for songs like \u201cBillie Jean\u201d and \u201cSmooth Criminal\u201d and for Jackson\u2019s peerless performing ability. His nephew Jafaar Jackson \u2014 the 29-year-old son of Jermaine \u2014 is playing him, so there\u2019s some dynastic appeal there too.<\/p>\n

That \u201cMichael\u201d is now scrubbed squeaky clean will make it a simpler watch, yet at the same time a much more guilty one.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s appeal will come down to the enduring hit songs. AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Broadway musical \u201cMJ\u201d <\/a>got away with the same trick by setting the show during rehearsals for the 1992 \u201cDangerous\u201d tour \u2014 before Jackson had been accused of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMJ\u201d was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2022, and leading man Myles Frost won Best Actor for playing Jackson. There are productions all over the world.<\/p>\n

That musical thus came off like a sneaky mind game: It\u2019s OK to have fun because none of that has happened yet.<\/p>\n

And there is a significant audience share that goes to Broadway musicals for singing, dancing and dazzle \u2014 not dark psychological complexity or insight.<\/p>\n

But at a biopic? There is a rightful expectation that a filmed life story will illuminate a famous person\u2019s deeper existence rather than present an obfuscating hagiography. You want to learn more about mysterious and controversial figures, not get a North Korean state TV documentary about them.<\/p>\n

There will not be a single review that doesn\u2019t mention the omission.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cMJ\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMJ\u201d on Broadway became a Tony-winning hit by setting the show before any abuse allegations emerged. Charles Sykes\/Invision\/AP<\/p>\n

Yet the tunes endure, and \u201cMichael\u201d will probably do boffo business at the box office. The model they\u2019ll be looking to is \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d\u2019s global $900 million, not \u201cSpringsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere\u201d\u2019s bombtastic $45 million.\u00a0Focusing on the hits can sell.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a firm believer in separating the artist from the art. Jackson\u2019s music is timeless and excellent.<\/p>\n

Whitewashing the artist\u2019s history, however? Really, really bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson in The directive over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,255026,27355,216],"class_list":["post-581741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-jafaar-jackson","tag-michael-jackson","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581741","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=581741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}