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The Michael Jackson Movie Wants to Change Your Mind

michael jackson
The new movie is basically the first major piece of estate-approved entertainment that directly engages with the allegations against Jackson. Photo: Kevin Mazur via Lionsgate
Matthew Belloni
March 7, 2024

Back when he was alive, the attorney Howard Weitzman and I used to chat from time to time about Michael Jackson. Howard was one of the many lawyers that represented Michael over the years. And after Jackson died in 2009, Weitzman managed the many, many litigation matters for the Jackson estate, a massive client that his old firm still represents today, three years after his own death.

Howard was a true believer in Michael’s innocence—or at least he always said he was a true believer—despite all the bad optics of paid-off accusers, a criminal trial over seven counts of alleged child molestation, and, in 2019, the incendiary documentary Leaving Neverland, in which Wade Robson and James Safechuck described in explicit detail being groomed and molested as children by the so-called King of Pop.