If you haven't watched the Michael Jackson documentary yet - firstly, where have you been? And secondly, watch it.
In the highly controversial film, Wade Robson and James Safechuck make a host of serious sexual abuse allegations against the King of Pop - and have received both outpourings of support from fellow abuse victims and a serious backlash from MJ fans. Whatever side of the fence you sit on, I think we can all agree that it's an engrossing watch from start to finish.
In the wake of the HBO doc, multiple radio stations have distanced themselves from Jackson's music, while the world of television has also been rocked by the allegations. Last week, after Leaving Neverland aired, The Simpsons creators pulled an episode titled 'Stark Raving Dad' which featured Michael Jackson voicing a character called Leon Kompowsky.
Now, to add further fuel to an already dangerous inferno, a Simpsons showrunner has come out and made fresh claims about the disgraced star.
Al Jean told The Daily Beast he believes the ultimate decision to remove the episode is “appropriate”, but that he now firmly believes Jackson appearing in the episode itself served a “false purpose”.
“I think it was part of what he used to groom boys,”
“I really don’t know, and I should be very careful because this is not something I know personally, but as far as what I think, that’s what I think. And that makes me very, very sad.”
Jean explained that after watching the documentary himself and coming to his own conclusions, he felt the removal of the episode was the only course of action the show could take.
”It wasn’t something that makes me happy. It’s something I agree with completely,” Jean said of the removal.
“What saddens me is, if you watch that documentary—which I did, and several of us here did—and you watch that episode, honestly, it looks like the episode was used by Michael Jackson for something other than what we’d intended it.
“It wasn’t just a comedy to him, it was something that was used as a tool. And I strongly believe that.”
For those who haven't seen the documentary yet, Leaving Neverland premiered on 3 and 4 March in the US and on 6 and 7 March in the UK.
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