{"id":621628,"date":"2026-05-03T20:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T20:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/621628\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T20:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T20:17:08","slug":"spike-lee-defends-michael-from-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/621628\/","title":{"rendered":"Spike Lee Defends ‘Michael’ From Critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDuring a recent interview with CNN<\/a>, Spike Lee<\/a> defended Lionsgate\u2019s Michael<\/a> Jackson biopic \u201cMichael\u201d from critics who think the pop legend\u2019s allegation of child sexual abuse should\u2019ve been included in the film. Lee, who saw the movie \u201ctwice\u201d and \u201cloved it,\u201d said that since \u201cMichael\u201d ends in \u201888, before the first accusation hit in \u201893, it\u2019s pointless to complain about the omission since that part of Jackson\u2019s life \u201cdoesn\u2019t work in the timeline of the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFirst of all, if you\u2019re a movie critic, and you\u2019re complaining about the stuff\u2014 all this other stuff\u2014 but the movie ends at \u201888,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThe stuff you\u2019re talking about, accusations, happen [later]. So you\u2019re critiquing the film on something that you want in, but it doesn\u2019t work in the timeline of the film. But people showed up. Worldwide, people showed their love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added, \u201cI miss Mike. I miss Prince. I mean, these are my brothers. I worked with both of them. Both beautiful, beautiful people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile some critics are complaining that \u201cMichael\u201d chose not to cover Jackson\u2019s infamous scandal, the decision was largely out of the filmmakers\u2019 hands. Variety reported in early April<\/a> that, originally, much of the movie\u2019s third act was devoted to Jackson navigating the fallout of his first sexual abuse allegation. However, the Jackson estate discovered a clause in the settlement with Jordan Chandler, one of Jackson\u2019s accusers, that barred the depiction or mention of him in any film projects. The filmmakers had to completely rework the ending and recenter the story\u2019s dramatic tension around Jackson\u2019s relationship with his controlling father.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs noted by Lee, fans remain unbothered by the rework. \u201cMichael\u201d debuted to $97.5 million domestically on April 24. Through two weekends in theaters, the biopic has grossed $183.8 million in North America and $423 million globally.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tLee and the King of Pop were long-time friends as well as collaborators. Lee directed Jackson\u2019s 1996 music video \u201cThey Don\u2019t Care About Us.\u201d The Oscar winner also directed two documentaries about Jackson\u2019s life and career: 2012\u2019s \u201cBad 25\u201d and 2016\u2019s \u201cMichael Jackson\u2019s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a recent interview with CNN, Spike Lee defended Lionsgate\u2019s Michael Jackson biopic \u201cMichael\u201d from critics who think…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,27354,57088],"class_list":["post-621628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-michael","tag-spike-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621628","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=621628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}