Latest in Michael Jackson

Don’t stop til you get enough. BMI and the Michael Jackson estate have extended their long-term deal for rights to the King of Pop’s catalog. This deal continues the relationship between Jackson and the performance rights group that began in 1979. The estate and BMI most recently renewed the deal in 2014. "Michael…

Broadway’s upcoming Michael Jackson musical MJ has announced additional casting, with Grammy nominee Quentin Earl Darrington, Hamilton‘s Raymond Baynard and The Bridges of Madison County‘s Whitney Bashor among those who’ll join the previously announced Ephraim Sykes in the bio-musical opening this summer. The casting…

The California 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal has revived lawsuits filed by James Safechuck and Wade Robson, the two men at the center of the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, who claimed they were sexually assaulted by Michael Jackson when they were minors. The court was looking at whether the plaintiffs had waited too…

EXCLUSIVE: Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King has secured from the Michael Jackson estate the rights to make a film of the complicated pop icon’s life with access to all of his music, sources say. King’s GK Films has retained three-time Oscar-nominated writer John Logan to pen the script. It is not set up at a…

Broadway has found its Michael Jackson: Tony-nominated Ain’t Too Proud star Ephraim Sykes will take the title role in the upcoming MJ The Musical, producers announced today. The musical, loaded with classic hits by the later King of Pop, will begin preview performances on Monday, July 6, 2020, at the Neil Simon…

The dance-off over Leaving Neverland is far far from over. Less than a month after HBO lost an attempt to get the multimillion-dollar lawsuit from the estate of Michael Jackson against the Emmy-winning documentary tossed out, and saw a federal judge shift the whole matter towards arbitration, the AT&T-owned premium…

Broadway’s MJ The Musical, formerly known as Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, will begin previews at the Neil Simon Theatre on Tuesday, July 6, 2020, with an opening night set for Thursday, August 13, producers announced today. Casting has not been announced. With its confirmed dates and new name – a show spokesman has…

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 23, 8:30 AM: The federal judge in the battle between HBO and the estate of Micheal Jackson over the Emmy winning documentary Leaving Neverland has made his tentative ruling now final. In a decision filed late on September 20 (read it here), Judge George Wu reaffirms his inclination of September 19 to…

Dave Chappelle is stirring up controversy, mincing no words in a critique of Michael Jackson’s accusers featured in HBO’s Leaving Neverland documentary, in his new Netflix comedy special. “I don’t believe those motherf***ers,” Chappelle said in his Sticks & Stones special referring to Wade Robson and James Safechuck…

(UPDATED with Jackson estate statement) With five nominations going into next month's Emmy Awards, Leaving Neverland is hoping to score a final win in court too. Under legal fire from the extremely litigious estate of Michael Jackson, the HBO documentary examining allegations that the Thriller star sexually abused…

Three French Michael Jackson fan clubs are suing the two men featured in HBO/Channel 4 doc Leaving Neverland. The Michael Jackson Community, the MJ Street and On The Line have filed a lawsuit accusing Wade Robson and James Safechuck of "sullying" the reputation of the Bad singer. A court hearing was held in Orleans…

For the second time in recent months, real-world controversy has visited the make-believe world of Broadway musicals. Nicholas Sparks, whose 1996 novel The Notebook is being turned into a Broadway musical by, among others, playwright and This Is Us producer Bekah Brunstetter, was slammed in a Daily Beast article today…