Latest news with #LeavingNeverland
Scottish Sun
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Future of Channel 4's Virgin Island revealed after Ofcom hit with complaints over controversial show
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) IT'S the controversial Channel 4 show that invited 12 people to pop their cherries on telly. And now I can reveal that Virgin Island is ready for its second coming. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 2 I can reveal that Virgin Island is ready for its second coming Credit: Channel 4 2 The Channel 4 relationship show invited 12 virgins to pop their cherries on telly Credit: Channel 4 The broadcaster has begun casting for a new flock of innocents who want the help of show sexperts Danielle Harel and Celeste Hirschman. Virgin Island followed the journey of a dozen young people as they learnt the art of intimacy on a Croatian beach. Working with the therapists and a team of 'surrogate partners' and 'sexological bodyworkers' the aim was to help them overcome their fears and insecurities when it comes to intimacy and sex. But the showraised eyebrows, with controversial scenes including one where Danielle snogged one of the participants, delivery driver Zac. READ MORE TV NEWS PARTY QUEEN Reality TV legend Gemma Collins voted celeb Brits most want to party with It proved to be a big hit with viewers, though, and became Channel 4's most streamed new format since 2023 — especially with that important 16-34 age group. For that younger age group, it was the biggest launch for six years since Michael Jackson factual piece, Leaving Neverland. A source said: 'Virgin Island had a big buzz about it as something which really pushed the boundaries. 'In a market filled with somewhat predictable dating shows, it broke the mould and still had that Channel 4 experimental heart to it. So everyone was thrilled when the ratings seemed to back the broadcaster's punt. 'It felt like a no-brainer to consider a second series.' The more important news, though, is the programme managed to fulfil its central aim and helped a few of the not-so-dirty dozen to shed their V plates. Virgin Island viewers outraged over 'uncomfortable' moment with sex expert as they brand show 'creepy' I told last week how accountant Dave went all the way with surrogate Kat Slade, with a handful following his lead once back in the UK. Let's hope their success inspires another brave lot to come forward for round two.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Leaving Neverland 2 Michael Jackson Documentary Released for Free on YouTube
The post Leaving Neverland 2 Michael Jackson Documentary Released for Free on YouTube appeared first on Consequence. Director Dan Reed has released a second documentary surrounding the Michael Jackson sexual abuse allegations. Titled Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson, the 53-minute film follows the two alleged victims from the first miniseries (Wade Robson and James Safechuck) as they come to terms with their grooming and sexual abuse, begin their decade-long attempt to file lawsuits, and handle the vitriol and support that stemmed from the initial documentary. Both Leaving Neverland projects were directed and produced by Dan Reed. Leaving Neverland was released in 2019 on HBO, which led the Jackson Estate to file a $100 million lawsuit against the network. With HBO choosing not to air the sequel, Leaving Neverland 2 is instead available to stream for free in the US on YouTube.) In Leaving Neverland, Robson and Safechuck both allege they were sexually abused by Jackson as children. The two had previously defended Jackson during his 1993 child molestation allegations, publicly denying any claims of abuse or inappropriate behavior at the time. The sequel follows the same two alleged survivors as they attempt to bring their sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson to trial over 10 years. Throughout the film, the pair recalls each time they were denied legal standing due to time restraints, lack of evidence, and other obstacles. The documentary also includes appearances from the pair's two lawyers, LAPD detectives, prosecutors in Jackson's criminal trial, MJ fans, and podcast hosts. The film concludes by revealing the pair's appeals are finally moving forward to a trial which will likely occur in November 2026. Near the end of the documentary, Robson expresses his belief that going to court will allow him to be transparent in a legal setting. 'If I get the opportunity to return and take the stand, to tell the truth in a way I wasn't able to for decades, that's a win for me.' The Michael Jackson Estate has strongly denied the sexual abuse allegations presented in the 2019 miniseries and has yet to comment on the upcoming sequel film. In 2003, Jackson was the focus of Living with Michael Jackson, a documentary interview conducted by Martin Bashir. This led to the People v. Michael Jackson trial in 2005, where Jackson faced 14 charges, including child molestation and the intoxication of a minor. He was acquitted on all counts. In January, it was revealed that the forthcoming MJ biopic Michael may undergo reshoots after violating an agreement not to feature Jordan Chandler—the child involved in Jackson's 1993 case—or his family. Watch Leaving Neverland 2 here. Note that Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault that may make some users uncomfortable. If you or someone you know needs help, you can contact the RAINN-operated National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673 or chat online at Both are confidential, free, and open 24/7. Leaving Neverland 2 Michael Jackson Documentary Released for Free on YouTube Jaeden Pinder Popular Posts JD Vance Booed at Kennedy Center Dropkick Murphys Make On-Stage Wager with Trump Supporter Over Where His Shirt Was Made Documentary Claims Jim Morrison Is Alive, Living in Syracuse In 2025, Lollapalooza Has Shed Its Rock Past for Good j-hope of BTS Makes Triumphant Return with Solo Tour "Hope on the Stage": Review American Pie Actress Jasmine Mooney Spends Two Weeks in ICE Detention Facility Subscribe to Consequence's email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wade Robson suffered 'terrifying' backlash from Michael Jackson fans
Wade Robson suffered a "terrifying" backlash from Michael Jackson fans following the release of 'Leaving Neverland'. Robson and James Safechuck both claim to have been sexually abused by the late King of Pop when they were children and they detailed their allegations against him in the 2019 documentary - and Robson has now revealed the film sparked a flurry of hate from the singer's devoteees. Speaking in follow-up documentary 'Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson', Robson said of the reaction from Jackson fans: "It's fricking terrifying. "The reaction of the whole world, angry Michael fans and media, a certain amount of them can be extremely vicious." The pair have spent years embroiled in legal action against Jackson's estate - which has consistently denied allegations of sexual abuse that have been levied against the late singer - and the director of the two documentaries, Dan Reed, fears fans of the superstar will never believe he could ever have done anything wrong. He told Variety: "Look, the true believers are always going to be true believers. You could show them a video of Jackson molesting a child and there's no amount of evidence that would suffice to change what's almost a religious view. They're part of a cult. And I really don't expect people to stop listening to Michael Jackson's music." Jackson was acquitted of child molestation charges following a trial in 2005 and he always denied claims of inappropriate behaviour prior to his death in 2009. Representatives of his estate have continued to deny claims of sexual abuse following the singer's passing. 'Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson' premiered in the UK on Tuesday night (18.03.25) and continues to document Robson and Safechuck's story as the battle the Jackson estate through the courts. Jonathan Steinsapir, attorney for the estate of Michael Jackson, told PEOPLE in April 2023: "We remain fully confident that Michael is innocent of these allegations, which are contrary to all credible evidence and independent corroboration, and which were only first made years after Michael's death. "We trust that the truth will ultimately prevail with Michael's vindication yet again. Michael Jackson himself said, 'Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons'."
The Independent
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Can Michael Jackson's music survive the accusations against him? It's complicated
It is now six years since the release of Dan Reed's documentary Leaving Neverland, a film that cast the late megastar Michael Jackson as a serial paedophile. Over four hours, Reed profiled two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who allege Jackson abused them when they were young children. The details were harrowing — the lavishness of their seduction, the closed doors and elaborate warning systems, the spare telling of the acts that took place. The response, among critics and film festival audiences, was commendatory, and the film seemed then part of the wider groundswell that led to the toppling of a number of monolithic men – among them R Kelly, Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby. Their work has duly been tarnished as a result. The fact that the same has not happened to Jackson is intriguing, and certainly attributable to more than the absence of a conviction. But in some fierce quarters, Leaving Neverland was denounced; Jackson's estate called it lurid, outrageous, pathetic. Furious fans rallied outside screenings. Even the less fervent wondered whether perhaps the allegations were rooted in some great misunderstanding. Others accused Robson and Safechuck of being little more than opportunists, in search of fame and fortune. Reed received death threats. That the three would be prepared to re-enter the fray for Leaving Neverland 2 might seem surprising, but this sister documentary, broadcast on Tuesday night, is an important work, one that follows both the men's 10-year legal journey, and the fallout of the original film. It explores how speaking publicly can lead to an almost excavatory trauma, and forces us to question, once again, why we remain so in thrall to Michael Jackson. In the immediate aftermath of the original Leaving Neverland broadcast, data analysts Nielsen Music reported a dip in both streaming and airplay for Jackson's catalogue. But by the end of that year, the singer saw growth again, with 2.1 billion streams compared to 2018's 1.8 billion. He ended 2019 at the top of Forbes' highest-earning dead celebrity list. Again. In the years since, Jackson's streaming has continued to grow – last year, Thriller became his first album to surpass five billion streams. It is worth saying that Jackson has not, to date, ever been convicted of any charge. In 2005, he was acquitted of molestation charges. Lawsuits filed by both Safechuck and Robson were dismissed for technical reasons. The closest admission of anything came in 1993, when the singer reached a financial settlement with an underage boy he was accused of molesting. Still, for the last 15 years of his life, the accusations hovered. They were even addressed, vaguely, in Martin Bashir's famed documentary, Living with Michael Jackson. Jackson shrugged the suggestions off with an innocent question: 'What's wrong with love?' The darkness lay in our minds, he suggested; the impure thoughts were our own. There was an attempt to understand or account for the strangeness of a grown man sharing his time and his bed with young boys: Jackson was such an oddity, a Peter Pan, a preserved child, a product of his own abusive upbringing. He was also a global superstar who had never lived in the normal world. Perhaps the usual rules did not quite apply? Somewhere along the line, we began the intricate process of untangling the art from the artist; of creating a world where we could watch a documentary like Leaving Neverland, but still admire 'Billie Jean'. He was not the only artist who prompted this conundrum and contortion – fans were already attempting similar tricks for Woody Allen and Roman Polanski. But this urge to forget seemed somehow more pronounced in the case of Jackson. A 2016 documentary by Spike Lee explored the artistry of Jackson, but lacked the filmmaker's trademark interrogation, seen in films such as 4 Little Girls or When the Levees Broke, choosing instead to simply bask in a celebration of Jackson's back catalogue. And, of course, in purely technical terms, the music remained immaculate, undimmed, irresistible. As the actor Andy Serkis, discussing cancellation culture in this newspaper, summed it up: 'When Michael Jackson's music starts to come on, I defy anyone not to tap their foot to it… And if your body won't let you cancel it…' In this way, we made it the music's fault; ascribed to ourselves a kind of powerlessness in its presence. When MJ the Musical opened in London's West End in 2022, the world stood unruffled. There is a John Jeremiah Sullivan essay about Jackson that I often revisit. Written in the wake of the singer's death, it is an exceptional and iIlluminating piece of writing; one that attempts to make this global megastar, this cartoon figure, human. Sullivan traces Jackson's lineage back to an Alabama cotton plantation slave named Prince Screws (and so, Prince, the name he gave his oldest son, which we took for a flourish of egotism, becomes understandable). He documents the childhood menageries, the relentless racism that made the singer speak so much more candidly to the black music press. He is victim, genius, 'the greatest work of postmodern American sculpture', and of course, a complicated figure to love. Time, and repeated reading, has made the piece more complicated, too. But at its heart are truths I believe – that hurt people hurt others, that good people do bad things, and bad people make good music. That, above all else, few people are wholly good or wholly bad. We contain multitudes. Sullivan is most tender in his discussion of Jackson's approach to music, detailing how the singer was interested in the 'anatomy' of a song, how he studied the work of his peers, how he recorded in the dark, illuminated only when he drew close to the microphone. It's an image that has long stuck in my head: Jackson, sublime in the act of musical creation, doing who-knows-what in the darkness beyond. I think often of another detail in Sullivan's piece. How, in the early demo for 'Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough', Jackson worked his way into that famed voice, from a relaxed, high-pitched man's voice, through something softer, quieter, and on until he finds 'a full-on girlish peal'. It is conscious artistry, of course; an illustration of his gift. But it is also the reason I find it so hard to listen to his music these days. This is the act of a man who knew how a line, a vocal tone must land for maximum impact. This is a man who, through his music, succeeded in seducing us all.
The Guardian
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson review – the shocking exposé of the megastar is a hard act to follow
Leaving Neverland, Dan Reed's 2019 film, which laid out accusations that the singer Michael Jackson sexually abused children, is among the most impactful and important documentaries of the past 10 years; the view of one of the 20th century's biggest stars irreversibly changed, as rumour and innuendo were replaced by a detailed narrative that was hard for all but Jackson's most committed fans to doubt. As well as altering Jackson's reputation for ever, Leaving Neverland offered a wider look at how abusers groom their victims, why those victims can choose to protect their abuser, and how and why the parents of victims might fail to protect their child. It was also about the extremes of fame. His celebrity allowed Jackson to bewitch young fans, and disarm families who would otherwise have balked at an adult stranger befriending their child. It gave him the drivers, bodyguards, hotel suites and mansions he needed to spend time with young boys. (Nobody denies that a series of children were alone with him for long periods, and shared his bed, although his estate strongly denies all allegations of sexual abuse.) And his fame gave him the power to settle lawsuits. It helped Jackson deflect public suspicion too, since it was just about plausible for his eccentrically childlike persona to include being seen with a string of pre-pubescent companions. The mega-famous can hide in plain sight. Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson is another film about life in the public eye, but this time the world's gaze is on Jackson's two accusers from the original film, Wade Robson and James Safechuck. The story starts in 2013 when Robson appears on US television to make his claims, and extends for the next decade and beyond as Robson and Safechuck seek redress in court, a process made more complicated by the lag between the alleged abuse and the accusation – about 20 years – and by the fact that Jackson died in 2009. The two men have to overcome legal arguments, which are initially successful, that their claims are beyond the statute of limitations and that they cannot be directed at Jackson's estate or at the company that still handles his affairs, MJJ Productions. When Leaving Neverland is released in 2019, they also face a wave of vitriol and misinformation from Jackson supporters and media agitators who know nothing about the facts of the case, but earn a kick or a buck from posing as experts. The reaction to Leaving Neverland forms the most memorable section of Leaving Neverland 2: there is an extraordinary clip of Robson and Safechuck appearing on a show hosted by Oprah Winfrey, herself an abuse survivor, who praises them for their courage while warning them of the negative reaction they are about to endure. The new film, however, struggles to deal with how comprehensive the old one was. Although Safechuck talks movingly here about reconnecting with the younger version of himself, fighting for that boy's interests and wondering what he would say to him, the obvious topics for a film about the aftermath – the difficulty survivors of abuse have with forming adult relationships, the pain of maintaining a relationship with the parents who didn't step in, the lifelong anguish of those parents – were all covered in Leaving Neverland. So we are left with the somewhat dry legal battle. Robson and Safechuck have their case thrown out, so they appeal, helped by the release of Leaving Neverland contributing to a change in the law regarding abuse victims belatedly speaking out. The tale culminates in a recording of a Zoom hearing – luckily a split-screen video call is as visually engaging as courtroom footage would have been – in which the MJJ Productions lawyer is dressed down and tripped up by visibly annoyed judges. But we've gone through a lot of arcane legalities to get to this point. The film's closing caption tells us that the big trial, as opposed to these pernickety preliminaries establishing whether there is a case to answer, will take place in 2026. Leaving Neverland 2, which has arrived six years after the original film, might as well have waited seven. We also feel the absence of the other side of the debate. While Leaving Neverland could be forgiven for setting out the accusers' testimony without peppering it with denials from their more powerful opponent, it would be useful now to hear from MJJ Productions. Reed shows us a letter where he begs them to participate in this new film – he highlights a paragraph where he literally writes: 'I'm begging you.' Their refusal means the question of who knew what within Jackson's staff can't properly be explored. Reed has done fine work in telling us a highly significant story, but at this stage there is not enough more of it to tell. Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson is on Channel 4 now.
