“Leaving Neverland,” a new documentary focused on the child sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson, has already stirred some controversy at the Sundance Film Festival, and now that backlash has hit its IMDb page.
On Friday afternoon at about 1:20 p.m. PT, the IMDb page for the documentary read “Liar, Liar 2: The Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck Story.” Robson and Safechuck are two Jackson accusers who appear in the documentary. It was fixed by about 2:05 p.m. PT.
CREDIT: IMDb screenshot
It would appear that angry Jackson fans vandalized the page. Those with a registered IMDb account are able to make edits on films’ pages, similar to Wikipedia. IMDb did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
At Sundance, the documentary had been generating controversy and even spawned a small protest by Jackson fans outside the Egyptian Theatre, where it had its world premiere on Friday. The police ended up outnumbering the protesters, however.
Jackson’s fans who are critical of the documentary have been targeting IMDb, as well as other companies, for sponsoring Sundance.
On Friday during a Q&A following “Leaving Neverland’s” premiere, Robson responded to the protest and online backlash, saying about the angry fans, “I don’t feel like there’s anything I need to say to them except that I understand that it’s really hard for them to believe.”
“We can only accept and understand something when we’re ready, maybe we’ll never be ready, maybe we will,” he went on. “That’s their journey. “