| April 25, 2026 
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The biggest conversations this week were about one of the biggest pop stars of all time: Michael Jackson. The biopic “Michael” arrived, which like the Broadway show “MJ” (both made with Jackson’s estate), ends its narrative before Jackson was first accused of child sexual abuse. That was not always the plan, as Brooks Barnes explained in his story about the film’s convoluted path to the big screen. Steve Knopper helped us divide what’s fact from fiction in the project, and our movie critic Alissa Wilkinson weighed in with her review. The week’s bombshell was a new interview with four siblings from the Cascio family, which had been extremely close to Jackson and long defended him — but now, in a new lawsuit, detail years of abuse. Matt Stevens met with the siblings, who were “deprogrammed,” their lawsuit says, after seeing “Leaving Neverland,” the 2019 HBO documentary in which two men accused Jackson of abuse. His story is here. Despite the years of accusations, Jackson’s music has proved durable: As Ben Sisario reports, even after the “Leaving Neverland” impact, Jackson’s songs were too big to be canceled. Our other focus this week was the state of the American music festival. In the lead up to Stagecoach, which started on Friday, David Malitz looked at its evolution from “country Coachella” to a new home for ’90s alt-rock bands and their fans. I wrote about how after years without a firm identity, Coachella has found a new one as a (largely social media-driven) event where pop stars make news. And Elena Bergeron interviewed Nate Smith, the new artistic director of the Newport Jazz Festival, about his devotion to live collaboration and hopes for his tenure. |
