Paris Jackson and Janet Jackson were absent from the Los Angeles premiere of the Michael biopic on Monday, 20 April, as the film’s complicated relationship with key members of the Jackson family played out on the red carpet.

Michael’s siblings Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon and Jackie Jackson were all present at the event, as was Paris’s brother Prince, 29. 

The film, which hits cinemas on 24 April, charts the early career of the late King of Pop and stars Jermaine’s son Jaafar Jackson, 29, as Michael, who died in 2009 at the age of 50.

Paris, 28, has been open about her objections to the project since last year. She read an early draft of the script and shared her concerns about its accuracy, but when those weren’t addressed she walked away. 

“Not my monkeys not my circus. God bless and god speed,” she wrote on Instagram Stories in September 2025. 

She described the finished film as “sugarcoated” and accused it of containing “a lot of inaccuracy and there’s a lot of just full-blown lies,” while acknowledging that a certain section of her father’s fanbase would likely be happy with it. 

“Go enjoy it. Do whatever. Leave me out of it,” she wrote.

Janet, 59, has not publicly commented on the film and is not a character in it. 

According to a Page Six report from last month, she clashed with her family after Jermaine privately screened the film for them, expressing reservations about nearly every aspect of the production. 

Jermaine reportedly told his sister she would “miss the wave” if she didn’t get on board. 

Those close to Janet have since disputed the feud reports, with her nephew Austin Brown and her longtime creative director Gil Dudulao claiming the accounts were untrue.

Page Six has reported that Jermaine sees the biopic as an opportunity to restore the Jackson family’s reputation following the multiple allegations of child sexual abuse made against Michael both before and after his death, allegations Michael denied throughout his life and that his family continues to reject. 

“This isn’t just about Michael. It’s about us. It’s about our legacy. It’s about the comeback in store for all of us,” one relative reportedly said after the private screening.

Michael’s youngest son Bigi, 24, was not at the LA premiere, though he had attended the film’s Berlin premiere earlier this month alongside Prince and several of their uncles.

Blake Lively is seeking over $290 million in damages from Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Productions, claiming their alleged smear campaign has devastated her career, her companies and her personal wellbeing, a significant increase from the $161 million she cited in November 2025.

Court documents filed on 17 April reveal the full scale of Lively’s financial claims ahead of the pair’s trial, scheduled for 18 May. 

The Gossip Girl actress alleges that Baldoni’s alleged use of terms like “tone deaf,” “bully” and “mean girl” to damage her reputation cost her between $36.5 and $40.5 million. 

Statements made by Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman during the course of the dispute are claimed to have caused a further $24.3 million in losses, calculated by quantifying the online reach of those statements and their impact.

Her experts estimate lost income, spanning studio films, independent projects and a limited TV series, at between $34.3 million and $87.8 million, with the majority of those losses attributed to missed opportunities between August 2024 and August 2029. 

Her companies Betty Booze and Blake Brown are said to have suffered between $39.6 million and $143.5 million in profit losses as a direct result of the legal battle. 

She is also seeking between $250,000 and $400,000 for the “pain and suffering, physical pain, and humiliation” she allegedly endured.

Baldoni’s legal team pushed back in their own April 17 filing, arguing that descriptions of Lively as a “mean girl” or “difficult to work with” had been circulating long before she began working with Baldoni and Wayfarer, and therefore did not cause additional harm to a reputation that was already under scrutiny.

The case has already seen a federal judge dismiss ten of Lively’s original thirteen claims, including her sexual harassment allegations, on legal and technical grounds. 

The three remaining claims, breach of contract, retaliation and aiding and abetting in retaliation, will go before a jury next month.

Reese Witherspoon has broken her silence following a wave of criticism over her support for artificial intelligence, insisting that she is not being paid to promote the technology. 

Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the Morning Show star addressed the backlash that followed her recent “AI revolution” post, clarifying that her interest stems from being a “curious human” rather than a corporate spokesperson. 

While acknowledging that her original comments certainly got people talking, she noted that her children are already learning about these tools and that she is seeing AI impact every sector of business, from “vibe coding” founders to traditional industries.

The Oscar-winning actress had previously sparked controversy by warning that women were 25 percent less likely to use AI than men, despite their jobs being three times more likely to be automated. 

This prompted a fierce reaction from followers who raised concerns about intellectual property theft, the environmental impact of data centres, and the potential for computers to replace human creativity. 

In her latest response, Witherspoon admitted these concerns are valid, stating she understands the worries regarding job security and the environment. 

She also expressed her own reservations about the rise of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), making it clear she does not believe computers should ever replace humanity.

Despite the pushback, Witherspoon remains committed to her “learn along with me” approach, viewing the technological shift as an inevitability for the future of filmmaking. 

She previously told Glamour that while people can lament the change, it is already here, though she believes physical manual building and human ingenuity will always remain the highest forms of art. 

The actress even shared a few of the specific tools she currently uses, including AI Assistant, the search platform Perplexity, and the shopping agent Vetted AI, as part of her effort to stay educated.