Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed is leveling new claims against the late pop star Michael Jackson amid the new biopic, aptly named Michael.
“I think clearly some of the press is sucking up to the Jackson machine because: A, the estate and the fan base has always ensured that the price of criticizing Michael is years of invective and smears and what have you,” Reed claimed to The Hollywood Reporter in an extensive interview published on Wednesday, April 22.
“And B, there’s a ton of money to be made by any kind of association with the Jackson IP,” he continued. “If you can get on board and be part of the success of this movie, then that’s going to be good for you. So a lot of people, I think, will kind of swallow any misgivings they may have and just sort of say, ‘Oh well, it’s a great jukebox movie’ and just completely ignore the fact that this guy was worse than Jeffrey Epstein.”
(Epstein, a convicted sex offender and known pedophile, died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex charges. He was 66.)
Leaving Neverland, a four-hour documentary which premiered on HBO in 2019, detailed Wade Robson and James Safechuck’s detailed allegations of child sexual abuse against Jackson, who died in 2009 of an accidental overdose. The film, which won an Emmy, was described by the Jackson Estate as “a complete fiction” that was “completely one-sided.”
According to Reed, Jackson’s estate sued HBO, arguing that a 1992 contract with the network for a concert in Budapest included a non-disparagement clause that made it illegal for the platform to air or house “anything nasty about Michael” in perpetuity.
HBO settled out of court and quietly removed Leaving Neverland from its platform.
Us Weekly has reached out to the Jackson estate for comment regarding the lawsuit and Reed’s additional claims about the pop star.
Jackson was accused of child sex abuse for years before his untimely death. He consistently maintained his innocence. After the Los Angeles Police Department launched an investigation into Jackson in 1993, he settled a $30 million lawsuit out of court, agreeing to pay alleged victim Jordan Chandler $15 million via a trust to be accessible when he turned 18. The alleged victim’s parents, June and Evan Chandler, each received $1.5 million. A grand jury ultimately declined to indict Jackson.
In 2003, the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney’s office renewed their investigation into Jackson, and on December 18, 2003, he was formally charged with partaking in lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14.
On June 14, 2004, after deliberating for 32 hours over seven days, the jury found Jackson not guilty on all charges.
In 2020, the Financial Times reported that the Jackson estate quietly agreed to pay a $16.5 million settlement to a group of accusers who threatened to come forward with new allegations of child sex abuse against Jackson in 2019. The Jackson estate reportedly brought an arbitration claim against one of the accusers, claiming he was fabricating allegations to secure an additional $213 million settlement.
Just this February, the Cascio family sued Jackson’s estate, claiming Jackson was a “serial child predator who, over the course of more than a decade, drugs, raped, and sexually assaulted each of the plaintiffs, beginning when some were as young as seven or eight.”
The Jackson estate disputed the claims, calling the lawsuit a “desperate money grab” and “a transparent forum-shopping tactic in their scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars from Michaels’ estate and companies.” On March 4, a judge granted the Jackson estate’s motion to force the dispute over the Cascio family settlement into arbitration.
“I learned that Michael Jackson f***ed little boys,” Reed told The Hollywood Reporter of what he learned while making Leaving Neverland. “That’s what I learned. I don’t make documentaries about celebrities or pop music or any kind of music. I make documentaries about terror attacks and war and stuff. And so as a filmmaker, this was off my usual beat, but I saw it as a chance to make something about child sexual abuse, which I had actually touched on in a previous film.”
He continued, “How can you tell an authentic story about Michael Jackson without ever mentioning the fact that he was seriously accused of being a child molester? I just don’t really see it. If anyone’s making money, it’s Michael Jackson’s estate and the people who worked on this biographical picture. Wade and James, the protagonists of Leaving Neverland, have never made a cent from their accusations. People don’t seem to understand: If you bring a lawsuit, you don’t get any money until you win in court. And when you win in court, that means you’ve proved your case, right?”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
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