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Hollywood loves telling the stories of music icons, movie stars, and pop culture legends, but not every biographical project gets the blessing of those left behind. Join us as we spotlight the celeb films and series that moved forward without estate approval, from scandalous TV dramatizations to music biopics that faced fierce backlash and creative hurdles.
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00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at the most notable biographical films and series that went ahead without
00:06the blessing, cooperation, or authorization of the subject or their estate.
00:30Would you do me the insane honor of being my wife?
00:36Back in 1995, actress Pamela Anderson and her then-husband Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee made headlines when their private
00:44home videos were stolen and sold as sex tapes.
00:47Hulu's Pam and Tommy dramatized that saga, including Anderson's marriage, the tape's theft, and the media frenzy that followed.
00:55I mean, how many copies of this are out there? I mean, there could be dozens, hundreds!
01:00What is this?
01:02What is what?
01:05This, HTTP...
01:06That's a website, they're making one for barbed wire.
01:09This is how he's selling this?
01:11Anderson said she was never consulted about the series, and in her 2023 documentary, Pamela, A Love Story, described the
01:18whole thing as, quote, really crushing.
01:20She also called the producers certain unsavory terms and said they owed her a public apology.
01:26I have no desire to watch it.
01:28I'm not going to watch it.
01:29Never watch the tape.
01:29I'm not going to watch this.
01:31Who knows how they're going to portray it?
01:33Nobody really knows what we were going through at that time.
01:36They should have had to have my permission.
01:38Still, Anderson separated the actors from the production, saying Lily James was, quote, just doing her job.
01:45In fact, she even invited James to the premiere of her documentary.
01:48That part of the lake was empty.
01:51Would it have been possible, while engaged in sexual intercourse, for another boat to have come into view?
01:55No.
01:56We'd have heard a motor.
01:57But it would have been possible.
01:59Yes.
02:01House of Versace.
02:04Everybody, everybody, to our darling Gianni, a true genius, what would we do without you?
02:13You'll never know.
02:13After Gianni Versace's tragic murder, Donatella Versace inherited enormous pressure along with the family fashion empire.
02:22Lifetime's House of Versace dramatized that turbulent period, portraying her experience dealing with grief, substance use disorder, rehab, and rebuilding
02:31the brand.
02:32Donatella looks like a boiled lobster after its shell has cracked.
02:37You've become a joke.
02:39Gianni wouldn't recognize you now.
02:41Such brotherly love.
02:43You have no idea what this is like for me.
02:47No idea.
02:47The real Versace camp, however, wanted nothing to do with it.
02:52The company issued a statement saying it had neither authorized nor been involved with the television movie.
02:57It also emphasized that Deborah Ball's book, on which the film was based, was unauthorized by Versace as well.
03:04She asked for my help finding an advisor.
03:06And you went behind my back.
03:08I don't need your permission, and neither does she.
03:11Do you know how hard this is for her?
03:13She hates this business, but she knows that everything rests in her 18-year-old hands.
03:18She's too fragile.
03:20She's stronger than you.
03:21The fashion house went further, warning viewers that the movie should be considered fiction.
03:25It wouldn't be the first or last time Lifetime would let a little thing like permission get in their way.
03:31Have you heard from her?
03:32No.
03:33I've never met her.
03:34We have really good mutual friends, and I'm surprised we've never met her.
03:35Don't you want to know what she thinks of this?
03:38Send her a little screener?
03:39Come on.
03:39She'd probably be like, oh, you should have been better.
03:42I mean, who knows?
03:43Brittany Murphy's story.
03:44I have two more speeches prepared.
03:46We've heard enough.
03:51I could play it straight, more heartfelt.
03:54Well, earnest.
03:56Oh, that won't be necessary.
03:58Speaking of Lifetime, just five years after Brittany Murphy's death,
04:02the cable channel turned the actress's life in troubled final years into the Brittany Murphy story.
04:08Amanda Fuller portrayed Murphy as the film revisited her rise through Clueless
04:12and her relationship with Simon Monjack before her death at 32.
04:17Murphy's parents were not consulted during production,
04:19and her father, Angelo Bertolotti, publicly condemned the movie as, quote,
04:24hideous, unauthorized, and completely untrue.
04:27I am going to get you through this, okay?
04:30I am strong, okay?
04:32And I don't want you putting your career on hold.
04:35I don't have a career until I know that you are well again.
04:39The production was also remarkably fast,
04:42reportedly taking only 16 days to complete.
04:45That speed became part of the controversy,
04:48especially given how recently Murphy had died.
04:50Whatever Lifetime hoped to capture,
04:53her father clearly believed the filmmakers had missed the real woman's story entirely.
05:12Hollywood may tell an incomplete story, but at Miss Mojo, we've got the full tea.
05:17Scan the QR code on screen to join our 24-7 livestream for verified celebrity facts, stories, and scandals.
05:24You're so much more than blonde hair and eyelashes.
05:28I'm not quite sure how to take that.
05:30This is how I get noticed.
05:33Mike, boxing legend or complicated figure?
05:36Hulu's 2022 miniseries Mike tackled both sides of Mike Tyson's extraordinary life,
05:42from his troubled childhood to his championship reign and very public downfall.
05:47Trusting Don King was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
05:51Not preparing for that Buster Douglas fight with the other.
05:56That that meant everything to me.
05:59Without it, who was I?
06:00The problem?
06:02Tyson himself wasn't consulted, compensated, or involved in any way.
06:06He took to social media to call out Hulu directly,
06:10accusing the streamer of, quote, stealing his life story and comparing them to, quote, slave masters.
06:16The show that they made, Mike, from Hulu, I have nothing to do with it.
06:21They never offered me any money.
06:23They never came to me to offer me anything to be involved with the movie.
06:28And they just stole my story and ran.
06:31He was particularly incensed that UFC president Dana White
06:35was reportedly offered millions to promote the series while he received nothing.
06:39The announcement during Black History Month only deepened his anger,
06:43which he framed as corporate greed and cultural exploitation.
06:47I can't even explain.
06:49It's just really disgusting stuff that you can do this professionally
06:52and steal somebody's story and he had nothing, nothing to say
06:56and nothing to defend himself with in a situation like this.
06:59Showrunner Karen Gist acknowledged the unauthorized nature,
07:03but said the series aims to challenge public perception of Tyson.
07:06Are you saying what it sounds like, Mike, Iron Mike, is retiring?
07:10I said I don't think I have it no more.
07:13I've been doing this for 20 years.
07:15I'm basically just fighting to pay my bills.
07:17I'm not hard no more.
07:19I'm done.
07:20Britney Ever After
07:22Lifetime really does have a type, doesn't it?
07:25The network's 2017 telefilm sets its sights on pop icon Britney Spears,
07:29covering her rise to superstardom and her very public personal struggles.
07:35Where are you?
07:36All you kids look pretty abruptly.
07:37You had us really worried.
07:38We're in Vegas, baby.
07:40But don't worry about me.
07:41I'm good.
07:42I'm better than good.
07:43I'm actually the best I've ever been.
07:46You wanna know why?
07:48Why?
07:50Cuz I'm married!
07:51Spears' team was crystal clear from the start.
07:54During production, her representative told the press that she would, quote,
07:58not be contributing in any way, shape, or form,
08:01and that the movie did not have her blessing.
08:04And the result?
08:05Critics absolutely savaged it.
08:07The film was panned for its inaccuracies, wooden performances,
08:10and a screenplay that felt more like a tabloid summary than a genuine portrait.
08:15I don't want you around Sean Preston and Jayden James, got it?
08:18Please, Jamie Lynn's on set. Let's talk.
08:20Oh, everything I have to say to you is in that letter.
08:22If you wanna talk, maybe you should call up Kevin?
08:25You two are tight now, I hear.
08:26It's one thing to make an unauthorized biopic.
08:29It's another to make a terrible one.
08:32Britney Ever After managed both simultaneously.
08:35I can't wear this.
08:41I'm gonna wear this.
08:44I'm wearing this.
08:46I play Rocky.
08:47What did you think about Anthony Ippolito, who this young actor-
08:51It was really uncanny, yeah.
08:52Someone had just sent me the video, and I thought it was,
08:55where'd you get footage of me?
08:57Wow.
08:57And then I asked my daughters, who are, you know,
08:59they are the tower of truth, whether you wanna hear it or not.
09:03They go, that guy, it's unbelievable though.
09:06Sometimes you only find out a movie's being made about you by reading the news.
09:10That's exactly what happened to Sylvester Stallone when he learned about
09:14I Play Rocky, the 2026 biographical drama about him.
09:18Yeah, I know I don't look like Einstein, but I got a brain.
09:22The only way ever we get to show people is I'm gonna have to write a script for myself.
09:25Yeah, so do that.
09:27Write a script.
09:31And give yourself the best part.
09:33Written by Peter Gamble and directed by Peter Farrelly,
09:36the film chronicles the behind the scenes story of how the original Rocky came to life in 1976.
09:42Stallone confirmed publicly that nobody had reached out to him during development.
09:46He discovered the project the same way everyone else did.
09:50To his credit, Stallone didn't slam the door entirely, expressing openness to serving as a consultant.
09:57And then I said, do I really talk like that?
09:59And he goes, yeah, you do.
10:00I said, no wonder we're so hard to make it.
10:03Still, finding out a film is dramatizing one of the most personal chapters of your career through a news article
10:09is quite a way to get the memo.
10:11This movie is about having to believe in yourself.
10:14It's about going the distance.
10:18I put my heart and soul on the page.
10:21If I'm not willing to live up to what I wrote, then what's the point?
10:27Aaliyah, the princess of R&B.
10:29When the family of a beloved artist refuses to cooperate with your biopic, maybe reconsider.
10:35I have no experience in the studio.
10:39What if I mess up?
10:41Stop worrying.
10:42You're gonna be fine.
10:44And hey, if things don't work out, you'll make my life a whole lot easier.
10:47How's that?
10:48By being a normal teenager like me again.
10:50In June 2014, Lifetime announced their biopic about Aaliyah, the R&B icon who tragically died in a plane crash
10:58in 2001.
10:59Her family was openly critical, expressing some serious doubts that Lifetime was an appropriate home for her story
11:05and withholding their approval entirely.
11:08The production moved ahead anyway, with Alexandra Shipp eventually playing Aaliyah after Zendaya departed.
11:14I decided not to do it basically because I feel like it was being rushed and I feel like production
11:20just wasn't there.
11:21And I feel like I have too much respect and love for Aaliyah as a person to do anything less
11:26than for her.
11:27Aaliyah's recordings were controlled by Blackround Records run by her uncle and cousin Barry and Jomo Hankerson.
11:34They withheld the masters from the production, forcing them to use cover versions instead.
11:39Move your body, ooh, baby, and dance all night.
11:46Do the groove and feel alright.
11:53A biopic about one of R&B's most distinctive voices, made without her voice? That says everything.
11:59I go off on people when they do something stupid. That's what I do.
12:03I mean, you're known for it, but Damon, a lion doesn't have to roar to be a lion.
12:10Even when he purrs, the whole jungle knows that he's the king.
12:14Jimmy all by my side.
12:16So, you don't play in any of the R&B clubs in Harlem?
12:19No, man, those cats are way too strict up there. They don't do cats stretching the blues out up there.
12:24I don't know what's going on with them.
12:26Making a film about one of the greatest guitarists in music history without being allowed to use a single note
12:32of his music is a staggering creative challenge.
12:35That's precisely the situation writer-director John Ridley faced with this film, which followed Jimi Hendrix's early career arc.
12:42From his arrival in London to forming the Jimi Hendrix experience and building momentum before Monterey.
12:48I did a recording with Curtis Knight, and I had to sign something. I mean, it was just, I was
12:54doing background work, but I had to sign something.
12:55It's a couple of contracts, and technically, he still signed on with these blogs.
12:59Yeah, and I got one with this cat. I was just doing session work, and really, it's nothing you need
13:05to worry about at all.
13:05The Hendrix estate refused permission entirely, blocking both likeness rights and music licensing.
13:12Ridley deliberately worked around the refusal, constructing the film's sonic landscape from other artists' songs Hendrix had covered during that
13:20period.
13:20It's such a perfect flow, your heart's not bad. We hope you will enjoy the show.
13:28Andre Benjamin delivered a critically noted performance as Hendrix, but hearing Jimi Hendrix's story without his music made for a
13:36strange, hollow experience.
13:38It's art to me. You know, and with art, it's just showing something that you've never seen before, or even
13:43if it's something that you see every day, just showing it in a new way.
13:47Stardust.
13:48Johnny Flynn stepped into David Bowie's shoes for Stardust, a film set during Bowie's 1971 American tour when he was
13:55beginning to develop the persona that would become Ziggy Stardust.
13:59In the port of Amsterdam, there's a sailor who dies full of beer, full of cries.
14:06It's totally breaking my heart.
14:09Yeah? You'll need both.
14:11There was just one problem. Bowie's family had not approved the project.
14:15His son, filmmaker Duncan Jones, publicly said the family had not been consulted and that the movie would not have
14:22Bowie's music.
14:23The filmmakers confirmed that they were deliberately using songs Bowie had covered rather than his original recordings.
14:30My death waits like a bible truth at the funeral of my youth.
14:42That meant Stardust could portray Bowie performing, but could not actually play Bowie's songs.
14:49It's a creative workaround, certainly, but imagine watching a Beatles biopic scored entirely with other bands' material.
14:56That's essentially Stardust.
15:07Stardust.
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15:36Nina.
15:36After Juilliard, I was denied entrance into the Curtis Institute because I was black.
15:44I'd hoped to continue studying, playing classical music, but I was not allowed to.
15:51Few casting decisions in recent memory have generated controversy quite like Zoe Saldana being chosen to portray Nina Simone.
15:58The 2016 biographical film dramatizes chapters from the life of the legendary musician and civil rights activist.
16:05But the project was deeply troubled from the start.
16:09To be young, gifted and black, open your heart to what I mean.
16:19Simone's estate refused to endorse it, and her daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, was openly critical.
16:25Much of the backlash centered on Saldana's appearance being altered with prosthetics and darker makeup to more closely resemble Simone.
16:45Critics were equally unsparing about the film's overall quality.
16:49A woman as culturally towering and fiercely uncompromising as Nina Simone deserved better than a production her own family wouldn't
16:56stand behind.
16:57The estate's silence was arguably the loudest review of all.
17:01I'm not saying no.
17:02I'm saying show me that you give a s***.
17:04Show me that you're not gonna knife someone.
17:06That you can handle it.
17:08I can handle it!
17:10Okay, okay.
17:11When do you want to play?
17:13Did we miss a biopic that had absolutely no business being made?
17:17Let us know in the comments below.
17:18Let us know in the comments below.
17:19Let us know in the comments below.