{"id":83924,"date":"2026-04-26T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/?p=83924"},"modified":"2026-04-25T20:22:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:22:02","slug":"what-michael-gets-right-and-wrong-about-michael-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/what-michael-gets-right-and-wrong-about-michael-jackson\/","title":{"rendered":"What ‘Michael’ gets right and wrong about Michael Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"What<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMichael,\u201d the new biopic about Michael Jackson\u2019s triumphant but traumatized life, underwent costly reshoots when Jackson\u2019s estate discovered a legal agreement from the \u201990s preventing the film from depicting a child who had alleged the star sexually abused him at the time. Instead, the movie\u2019s central conflict is between the Jackson 5 patriarch, Joseph Jackson, and the family group he drove to superstardom, particularly Michael, its dynamic frontman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this version of the story, what does the film fictionalize and what does it get right? Here is the fact check, based in part on research for my book \u201cMJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Joseph Jackson beat Michael with a belt when he was a little boy \u2014 and call him \u201cBig Nose\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, the beatings did occur, according to both of the Jacksons. Michael accused his father (played by Colman Domingo) of abuse from belts and \u201ciron cords.\u201d Joseph told the BBC, \u201cI whipped him with a switch and a belt. I never beat him \u2014 you beat somebody with a stick.\u201d In the film, Michael\u2019s mother, Katherine, confronts Joseph: \u201cWhat are you going to do, beat him? You gonna whup him?\u201d But in a 2013 CNN interview, Katherine Jackson defended her husband: \u201cI didn\u2019t think he was too tough,\u201d and added, \u201cIf you did something wrong, you got a scolding for it, and you also got a licking for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for \u201cBig Nose,\u201d it was Michael\u2019s brothers who gave him this cruel childhood nickname, according to J. Randy Taraborrelli\u2019s book \u201cMichael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, The Whole Story 1958-2009.\u201d Although The Guardian and other publications suggested Joseph Jackson called him this name, too, Michael\u2019s father denied it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Michael Jackson broker a truce between Los Angeles gangs?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, in a way. He wanted a \u201cWest Side Story\u201d dance concept for his \u201cBeat It\u201d short film, and instructed his manager at the time, Ron Weisner, to meet in downtown Los Angeles with Crips and Bloods \u2014 with security present. The gangs agreed to participate, then arrived at the rehearsal warehouse in two buses. The dancer Popin Pete has recalled, \u201cThese people switched to the nicest people ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Walter Yetnikoff, head of Jackson\u2019s label, CBS Records, make a threatening phone call to MTV that resulted in the artist\u2019s videos being played on the channel within hours?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depends on whom you ask. In his autobiography, \u201cHowling at the Moon,\u201d Yetnikoff, who died in 2021, said he made such threats, with the support of the producer Quincy Jones. Executives at the CBS-owned Epic Records from that time agree: He called Bob Pittman, then the MTV Networks chief executive, and, referencing other CBS acts, said, \u201c\u2018You know all those Bruce Springsteen and Cheap Trick and Charlie Daniels videos that you guys are playing over there?\u2019\u201d Ron McCarrell, a label marketing executive, has recalled. \u201c\u2018Pack \u2019em all up, put \u2019em in a box and send \u2019em back.\u2019\u201d But MTV executives from that era dispute this account. \u201cIt never happened,\u201d Les Garland, a network executive at the time, has said. \u201cFolklore, man, folklore.\u201d Either way, Jackson\u2019s smash \u201cBillie Jean\u201d premiered on the influential cable channel in March 1983 and integrated what had been almost exclusively a format for white rock artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Michael Jackson fire his manager \u2014 his father, Joseph \u2014 by fax?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. Joseph said he hired Michael\u2019s early-\u201980s co-managers, Weisner and Freddy DeMann, and told them: \u201cWe don\u2019t really get what we need out of the record company, so I need some white guys to help me out.\u201d (This prompted an exchange in Billboard magazine in which Joseph referred to Weisner and DeMann as the \u201cwhite help,\u201d and Michael said his father\u2019s statement \u201cturns my stomach.\u201d) In March 1983, just as \u201cThriller\u201d was taking off, both management deals expired, and Michael turned to Frank DiLeo, his friend and promotion man at Epic Records, to manage him until the early \u201990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Jackson\u2019s hair catch fire during the filming of his 1984 Pepsi commercial video with his brothers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. The \u201cMichael\u201d rendition of this event is largely accurate, as shown in a video of the incident posted by Us Weekly in 2009, including crew members extinguishing the flames from the top of his head. \u201cHe was literally standing in a ball of flames,\u201d a member of the lighting crew said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film depicts Jackson and his lawyer, John Branca (Miles Teller), discussing a seven-figure settlement with PepsiCo, which Jackson demands be donated to a burn center. The real-life number was $1.5 million, according to People magazine and other reports, and established the Michael Jackson Burn Center at what was then called the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, Calif. The center closed in 1987, and the medical center is today the Southern California Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the film doesn\u2019t show: After Jackson left the hospital, he began to take painkillers, which, he said in a statement later, led to dependency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Joseph Jackson say that without revenue from what became the 1984 Victory Tour starring Michael and his brothers, \u201cwe lose everything\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not exactly. But just as Michael\u2019s solo career was taking off, Joseph and the Jackson brothers were in financial trouble. Joseph met with concert promoters without Michael\u2019s knowledge, and wound up working with the boxing impresario Don King (played by Deon Cole), who guaranteed $3 million to the family, far higher than other promoters were offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Jackson live with his parents at their family home, on Hayvenhurst Drive in the Encino section of Los Angeles, even after \u201cThriller\u201d took off?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. Although Branca helped Jackson buy a three-bedroom condo in Encino in the early \u201980s, the King of Pop could not bring himself to leave his mother, so he remained at the family home until buying Neverland Ranch, in Los Olivos, Calif., in 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Jackson keep exotic animals, including Bubbles the chimpanzee and a giraffe, at the Hayvenhurst home?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. The Jackson family accumulated peacocks, tigers, lions, ostriches, dogs and a parrot, as well as Bubbles, who wore OshKosh B\u2019Gosh overalls and learned how to fetch H\u00e4agen-Dazs ice cream from the freezer. As for the giraffe, The Los Angeles Times reported that California game officials removed the six-month-old animal, who lacked a permit, from the Jacksons\u2019 home in 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Joseph Jackson intercept his son at home, after Michael\u2019s face was bandaged from his first nose job, and say, \u201cOh, my God, Michael\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. In his 2011 autobiography \u201cYou Are Not Alone: Michael Through a Brother\u2019s Eyes,\u201d Jermaine Jackson says it was him, not Joseph, who intercepted Michael. \u201cWhat in the hell happened to you?\u201d Jermaine recalled asking. While Michael didn\u2019t respond (or say it was for his sinuses, as he does in the movie), Jermaine was later told his brother required rhinoplasty after falling in their family home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film makes Quincy Jones\u2019s role in producing \u201cThriller\u201d seem minimal. Accurate?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. A prolific producer and bandleader, Jones was a crucial Jackson collaborator for his first three post-Motown solo albums, \u201cOff the Wall,\u201d \u201cThriller\u201d and \u201cBad.\u201d Although Jackson wrote \u201cBeat It,\u201d \u201cBillie Jean\u201d and other songs with the help of his \u201cB-Team\u201d of studio pros who worked with him at the Hayvenhurst home, Jones\u2019s \u201cA-Team,\u201d including the \u201cThriller\u201d songwriter Rod Temperton, members of the rock group Toto and the bass player Louis Johnson, were instrumental in creating the sound and blueprint of all three albums. Jones and Jackson worked closely for the first two albums and didn\u2019t begin to drift apart until they made \u201cBad\u201d (1987).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Michael come up with the title for \u201cThriller\u201d after a horror-movie binge?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. Temperton, the \u201cOff the Wall\u201d writer, had been working on a song called \u201cStarlight,\u201d then woke up in his hotel room with the word \u201cthriller\u201d in his head. Although Michael loved horror movies, and later came up with the idea for the \u201cThriller\u201d video because he wanted to portray a monster, Jackson and Jones settled on the album\u2019s title track after Temperton rewrote the lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n