{"id":267980,"date":"2019-02-21T15:03:06","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T22:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b1003698"},"modified":"2019-02-21T15:03:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T22:03:06","slug":"michael-jackson-estate-sues-hbo-over-leaving-neverland-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/michael-jackson-estate-sues-hbo-over-leaving-neverland-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson Estate Sues HBO Over Leaving Neverland Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Michael<\/p>\n

Ilpo Musto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

UPDATE: Michael Jackson<\/strong>‘s estate\u00a0is suing HBO and parent company Time Warner for allegedly\u00a0breaching\u00a0a non-disparagement clause in a contract from 1999.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0complaint filed in a Los Angeles Superior Court,\u00a0Optimum Productions and the two co-executors of the Jackson Estate said, “Michael Jackson is innocent. Period.\u00a0In 2005, Michael Jackson was subjected to a trial \u2014 where rules of evidence and law were applied before a neutral judge and jury and where both sides were heard \u2014 and he was exonerated by a sophisticated jury. Ten years after his passing, there are still those out to profit from his enormous worldwide success and take advantage of his eccentricities. Michael is an easy target because he is not here to defend himself, and the law does not protect the deceased from defamation, no matter how extreme the lies are.”<\/p>\n

According to the complaint, the Jackson Estate\u00a0seeks\u00a0“all damages proximately caused by HBO’s reprehensible disparagement of Michael Jackson, which could exceed $100 million should HBO succeed in the damage it is intending to cause to the legacy of Michael Jackson.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

In response HBO issued<\/a> a statement to The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0<\/em>that reads, “Despite the desperate lengths taken to undermine the film, our plans remain unchanged.\u00a0HBO will move forward with the airing of\u00a0Leaving Neverland,<\/em>\u00a0the two-part documentary, on March 3rd and 4th. This will allow everyone the opportunity to assess the film and the claims in it for themselves.”<\/p>\n

_______<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Jackson’s estate is\u00a0criticizing a new documentary preparing to make its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

The acclaimed festival\u00a0announced on Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0that they added a new documentary called\u00a0Leaving Neverland<\/em>\u00a0to their lineup in the “special events category.” The site’s description for\u00a0Leaving Neverland<\/em>\u00a0reads, “At the height of his stardom Michael Jackson began long-running relationships with two boys, aged 7 and 10, and their families. Now in their 30s, they tell the story of how they were sexually abused by Jackson, and how they came to terms with it years later.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Michael<\/p>\n

Amanda Edwards\/Getty Images, Pool Photographer\/WireImage.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Jackson’s estate denounced the claims against the prolific singer and the documentary as a whole. “This is yet another lurid production in an outrageous and pathetic attempt to exploit and cash in on Michael Jackson,” the estate said in a statement to E! News. “Wade Robson<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0James Safechuck<\/strong>\u00a0have both testified under oath that Michael never did anything inappropriate toward them.\u00a0Safechuck and Robson, the latter a self-proclaimed ‘master of deception’, \u00a0filed lawsuits against Michael’s Estate, asking for millions of dollars. Both lawsuits were dismissed.<\/p>\n

The comments continued, “This so called ‘documentary’ is just another rehash of dated and discredited allegations. It’s baffling why any credible filmmaker would involve himself with this project.”<\/p>\n

Neither Robson nor Safechuck was explicitly mentioned by name on the Sundance website’s synopsis for the film. It appears that they have not made any public statements about the documentary yet.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

We round out the 2019 #Sundance<\/a> program with additions to the Documentary Premieres and Special Events sections!<\/p>\n

\u2014 SundanceFilmFestival (@sundancefest) January 9, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The film is produced and directed by Dan Reed, who has worked on a number of TV documentaries including HBO’s\u00a0Terror<\/em>\u00a0series (Moscow, Mumbai, the Charlie Hebdo attacks) as well as BAFTA winner\u00a0The Paedophile Hunter.<\/em><\/p>\n

In December 2017, a\u00a0judge dismissed Robson’s case<\/a>\u00a0against two of the singer’s companies, MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures.\u00a0The choreographer\u00a0filed negligence claims<\/a>\u00a0against the companies in 2016. His attorney Vince Finaldi wrote in the complaint, “The thinly-veiled, covert second purpose of these businesses was to operate as a child sexual abuse operation, specifically designed to locate, attract, lure and seduce child sexual abuse victims.” Robson claims he was abused from the time he was 7-years-old until he was 14.<\/p>\n

Robson filed a\u00a0child molestation claim against Jackson’s estate<\/a>\u00a0in 2013, 8 years after he testified in defense of Jackson during his 2005 trial. That claim was\u00a0dismissed in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The film runs at nearly four hours long (236 minutes to be exact) and will be screened at the festival in two parts.\u00a0According to Sundance’s website, the synopsis for\u00a0Leaving Neverland<\/em><\/a> states, “As one of the world’s most celebrated icons, Michael Jackson represents many things to many people\u2014a pop star, a humanitarian, a beloved idol. When allegations of sexual abuse by Jackson involving young boys surfaced in 1993, many found it hard to believe that the King of Pop could be guilty of such unspeakable acts.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

It continues, “In separate but parallel stories that echo one another, two boys were each befriended by Jackson, who invited them into his singular and wondrous world. Seduced by the singer’s fairy-tale existence and enthralled by their relationship with him, both boys’ families were blind to the manipulation and abuse that he would ultimately subject them to.”<\/p>\n

The description concludes, “Through gut-wrenching interviews with the now-adult men and their families,\u00a0Leaving Neverland<\/em>\u00a0crafts a portrait of sustained exploitation and deception, documenting the power of celebrity that allowed a revered figure to infiltrate the lives of starstruck children and their parents.”<\/p>\n

The “King of Pop” died on June 25, 2009.<\/p>\n

(This story was originally published on\u00a0Wed., Jan 9, 2019 at 8:41 p.m. PST.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Don’t miss E! News<\/em> every weeknight at 7, only on E!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ilpo Musto\/Shutterstock UPDATE: Michael Jackson‘s estate\u00a0is suing HBO and parent company Time Warner for allegedly\u00a0breaching\u00a0a non-disparagement clause in a contract from 1999.\u00a0 In the\u00a0complaint filed in a Los Angeles Superior Court,\u00a0Optimum Productions and the two co-executors of the Jackson Estate said, “Michael Jackson is innocent. Period.\u00a0In 2005, Michael Jackson was subjected to a trial \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-267980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 04:50:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIDN - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}