Trivia / Michael

Trivia for the 1996 film

• Method Acting: John Travolta took five hundred hours of Spanish lessons in preparation for this film. When asked why, he said "just in case."
• What Could Have Been:
  • Frank Oz was attached to direct at one point before Nora Ephron was brought on.
  • Nora Ephron originally offered Tom Hanks the lead role. She briefly considered Gérard Depardieu and Jack Nicholson was also considered.

Trivia for the Michael Jackson album:

• Bury Your Art: In 2022, the three "Cascio tracks", infamous for allegations by both fans and Jackson's family members of being recorded by soundalike Jason Malachi rather than Jackson himself, were pulled from digital releases and CD reissues. A spokesperson for the Jackson Estate stated:
  The Estate and Sony Music believe the continuing conversation about the tracks is distracting the fan community and casual Michael Jackson listeners from focusing their attention where it should be — on Michael's legendary and deep music catalog.
• Creator Backlash: Teddy Riley has openly disowned the tracks he remixed, and publicly apologized for working on the album. In an interview released a month after the class-action lawsuit over the album was settled in 2022, Riley admitted he didn't think the vocals on the "Casico tracks" were genuine, but indicated that he was forced to say they were, both due to pressure from executives and the fact that he had already done too much work on the album to back out.
• Creator-Driven Successor: Both "Breaking News" and "Monster" continue Michael's commentary on the tabloids from "Tabloid Junkie" and "Privacy".
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: As of 2022, Sony removed the three "Cascio tracks" from the album on all music services, though Jackson's estate denied it was because of inauthenticity. The only way to legally hear the original album configuration now is if you have a pre-2022 copy of the album.
• Screwed by the Lawyers:
  • "Behind The Mask" was left off of Thriller due to a miscommunication with original songwriter Ryuichi Sakamoto. Specifically, as stated in a 2013 interview with Red Bull Music Academy, Sakamoto requested to hear Jackson's version in order to determine the royalty shares for it. However, Epic Records (Sakamoto's US label and Jackson's worldwide label) were unable to send him a copy, leading Sakamoto to turn the cover down. In the same interview, Sakamoto joked that "If we said 'yes,' probably I would have ten different houses all over the world."
  • This is likely the case with will.i.am. as well, as he recorded and produced several songs for MJ, and refused to let the estate release them.
• What Could Have Been: Dave Grohl was hired to perform drum overdubs on the album, but his parts ultimately went unused. Despite this, he's still credited in the liner notes.

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