{"id":963,"date":"2026-05-03T22:33:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T22:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/03\/spike-lee-defends-michael-from-criticism-over-child-sexual-abuse-allegations-being-excluded\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T22:33:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T22:33:00","slug":"spike-lee-defends-michael-from-criticism-over-child-sexual-abuse-allegations-being-excluded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/03\/spike-lee-defends-michael-from-criticism-over-child-sexual-abuse-allegations-being-excluded\/","title":{"rendered":"Spike Lee Defends \u2018Michael\u2019 From Criticism Over Child Sexual Abuse Allegations Being Excluded"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tSpike Lee<\/a> is defending Lionsgate\u2019s Michael<\/a>\u00a0Jackson biopic after some criticized the film for excluding the music icon\u2019s child sexual abuse allegations.<\/p>\n

\tThe Oscar-winning filmmaker recently sat down with CNN<\/a><\/em>, where he shared how much he \u201cloved\u201d Michael<\/em>, noting that he saw the pic \u201ctwice.\u201d During the interview, he also pointed out that allegations wouldn\u2019t \u201cwork in the timeline of the film,\u201d because the biopic covers the first half of Jackson\u2019s life, with the movie concluding in 1988, and the pop legend didn\u2019t face his first accusation until 1993. \t<\/p>\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 explained. \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

\tThe Highest 2 Lowest<\/em> director went on to share his appreciation for the \u201cThriller\u201d singer, who died in 2009, as well as Prince, who died in 2016.<\/p>\n

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

\tAs friends and collaborators, Lee helmed the singer\u2019s music video for his song \u201cThey Don\u2019t Care About Us.\u201d The filmmaker also directed two documentaries about Jackson\u2019s life, including 2012\u2019s Bad 25<\/em> and 2016\u2019s Michael Jackson<\/a>\u2019s Journey From Motown to Off the Wall<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\tDespite Michael <\/em>being panned by critics<\/a>, the film was a massive box office success<\/a> with moviegoers. It\u2019s currently grossed more than $400 million worldwide, becoming one of the top musical biopics ever. \t<\/p>\n

\tThe Hollywood Reporter<\/em> previously reported <\/a>that the biopic underwent a significant overhaul due to an oversight by the Michael Jackson estate, which is backing Michael<\/em>. Jackson\u2019s abuse allegations initially made up much of the third act<\/a>, but a past accuser had reached a settlement with the estate guaranteeing he would never be depicted in any future commercial projects. This resulted in 22 days of additional shooting and the ending being reworked, pushing the film\u2019s release date from April 2025 to April 2026. Filmmakers are also considering a sequel<\/a> to tell more of Jackson\u2019s story.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spike Lee is defending Lionsgate\u2019s Michael\u00a0Jackson biopic after some criticized the film for excluding the music icon\u2019s child sexual abuse allegations. The Oscar-winning filmmaker recently sat down with CNN, where he shared how much he \u201cloved\u201d Michael, noting that he saw the pic \u201ctwice.\u201d During the interview, he also pointed out that allegations wouldn\u2019t \u201cwork in the timeline of the film,\u201d because the biopic covers the first half of Jackson\u2019s life, with the movie concluding in 1988, and the pop legend didn\u2019t face his first accusation until 1993. \u201cFirst of all, if you\u2019re a movie critic, and you\u2019re complaining about the stuff \u2014 all this other stuff \u2014 but the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,84,26,27,60,601],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hollywood","category-michael","category-michael-jackson","category-movie-news","category-movies","category-spike-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}