The executors of Michael Jackson’s estate say Paris Jackson doesn’t have any reason to complain about their spending on the long-anticipated biopic Michael, arguing that objections lodged by the late King of Pop’s daughter “betray a complete lack of understanding about how the motion picture industry works.”
Paris is fighting over finances with lawyer John Branca and A&R executive John McClain, co-executors who’ve overseen Michael’s fortune since his death in 2009. The estate is still in Los Angeles probate court, where a retired judge has been appointed to referee disputes like this one with the star’s 27-year-old daughter.
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After losing an earlier challenge to the executors’ spending, Paris’ attorneys filed an objection this fall focused on the estate’s 2021 account statements. This objection accused Branca and McClain of aiming to “enrich and aggrandize” themselves and criticized their roles as producers on the upcoming Michael biopic, including Branca’s casting of Miles Teller to play a younger version of himself.
Branca and McClain have now filed their own document saying there’s zero validity to Paris’ complaints: “These meritless objections are a profound waste of the court’s time and, ironically, the estate’s money,” reads the executors’ Thursday (March 19) response in probate court.
The co-executors said their work has generated billions of dollars for Michael’s estate, $65 million of which has already gone to Paris. Much of that revenue has come from entertainment projects produced by Branca and McClain, including the Broadway show MJ The Musical and the 2009 documentary Michael Jackson’s This Is It.
Branca and McClain say this experience made them uniquely qualified to produce the Michael biopic, and Paris’ claims to the contrary “just cannot be taken seriously.” The filing notes that This Is It is the highest-grossing concert documentary in history, even beating out Taylor Swift’s 2023 The Eras Tour theatrical release.
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“Paris and her attorneys also betray a complete lack of understanding about how the motion picture industry works and the role of producers in it,” writes attorney Jonathan Steinsapir on behalf of Branca and McClain. “The objections complain about the executors’ qualifications to act as producers but seem to be wholly ignorant of the fact that the executors have produced several projects involving Michael Jackson. Those efforts have been wildly successful.”
The executors say there’s similarly no merit to Paris complaining about their 2021 financial settlement with Michael’s producing partner Quincy Jones, arguing that the deal was a prudent business decision made “to effectively guarantee peace with Quincy Jones and his heirs forever.” The same goes for Paris’ complaints about the estate’s failure to invest its money in stocks and bonds in 2021; according to Branca and McClain, the IRS required them to keep their cash in escrow during that time due to tax litigation over the sale of Michael’s stake in Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
“The executors recognize that they are, by definition, the ‘grown-ups’ here — that is the whole point of a fiduciary,” reads the response filing. “Because of that, the executors must refrain from responding to most of the irrelevant and highly incendiary, personal attacks on them. No payment made by this estate, in its 16 year history, has been disallowed. The executors are human of course and not beyond error, but they have been meticulous and conscientious in their management of the estate.”
In a statement sent to Billboard on Tuesday (March 24), Steinsapir said, “Ms. Jackson and her attorneys are once again abusing the courts and the legal system by making a series of false allegations as part of a media campaign to distract from their legal setbacks and the inherent weakness of their case.”
A source close to Paris, meanwhile, told Billboard on Tuesday, “It’s a shame the executors are lobbing personal attacks against a beneficiary instead of providing basic transparency and accountability. If the estate is interested in clarifying the facts, they could just release all the years of financial records Paris has been requesting. Without them, Paris and the rest of the Jackson family are totally in the dark.”
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