• Lionsgate chairman Adam Fogelson said it’s important to tell Michael Jackson’s story authentically.
• He said he would support a “Michael” sequel that examines Jackson’s child sexual-abuse allegations.
• “Michael” originally dramatized allegations from 13-year-old Jordan Chandler, but the storyline was cut.

Though “Michael” doesn’t examine the darker chapters of Michael Jackson’s life, that doesn’t mean a potential sequel won’t.

The biopic on the King of Pop, which premieres in theaters on April 24, has had a complicated journey to screen. Its release was delayed several times: first due to the 2023 strikes, and then due to reshoots that were required after the filmmakers learned some scenes violated the terms of a $20 million settlement with the family of then-13-year-old Jordan Chandler, who accused Jackson of sexual abuse in 1993.

Jackson and his estate have consistently denied all allegations.

As a result of the reshoots, the movie’s framing and scope changed. Now, “Michael” largely focuses on Jackson’s meteoric rise to superstardom, starting with the Jackson 5 and ending when Jackson (played by his real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson) is about to start making his hit solo album, “Bad.” The only abuse examined in the movie is scenes that depict Jackson’s father, Joe (Colman Domingo), whipping him when he was a child.

Since the film now covers only a portion of what the original movie would have, a potential sequel seems on the table: Not for nothing, the movie ends with a title card that reads, “His Story Continues.”

A potential part two of “Michael” could spotlight not just more of Jackson’s career highlights, but the superstar’s fall from grace, which came in the form of child sexual abuse allegations and a 2005 criminal trial involving another child, Gavin Arvizo.

Jackson was acquitted on all counts after a highly publicized three month trial. He died in 2009 of acute propofol intoxication after his personal physician administered the sedative.

Do the allegations against Jackson need to be addressed in a potential sequel to tell the full story of Michael Jackson?

Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson supports it if director Antione Fuqua and writer John Logan decide to go down that road.

“From my perspective, it’s important to try to give the audience an authentic understanding of who Michael Jackson was,” Fogelson told Business Insider. “So I think that can be done with or without some of what was in the third act that had to be scrapped.”

“Michael,” which was made with the support of Jackson’s estate, initially depicted the police raid of Jackson’s Neverland Ranch following allegations of sexual abuse by 13-year-old Jordan Chandler. The filmmakers discovered after shooting that there was a clause in Chandler’s settlement barring any depiction of his case in a movie. According to Variety, reshoots cost the Jackson estate around $15 million, as the Neverland Ranch raid had bookended the original film.

“There has been so much energy and ink with people speculating,” Fogelson continued. “Speaking for myself, I think when you watch this movie you are given a window into the extraordinarily unusual circumstances that impacted Michael Jackson from a very young age. This movie isn’t afraid to reflect the wildly unusual circumstances of his life. But we believe more story can and hopefully will be told, and that’s going to come down to not only the performance of the film but the audience telling us they want more, and we believe based on the response we’ve gotten that’s what they are going to say.”

Despite the movie currently holding a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, “Michael” seems to be critic-proof. The film is tracking to earn north of $100 million at the worldwide box office in its opening weekend, including $70 million-plus domestically, which would best past hit music biopics like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Straight Outta Compton.”

• “Sinceerly” is a Chrome plugin that rewrites your perfectly worded emails to add typos.
• You can select “Subtle,” “Human,” or “CEO” modes for maximum brevity and typos.
• In a time when AI writing is common, typos are a status symbol showing you hand-wrote an email (or not).

Not so long ago, writing an email with perfect grammar and spelling was a sign of professionalism, thoughtfulness and care, of education and intelligence, of a sharp and agile mind.

Now, it just means we assume you’re a lazy jerk who used ChatGPT or some other AI tool.

The pendulum has finally swung, and after several centuries of the English language, good writing in private communication is no longer a prized thing. Now we are entering a terrifying and chaotic period in which typos are good, and all-lower-case missives connote power.

The era of keyboard chaos is upon us.

Typos are increasingly a status symbol showing you hand-crafted an email instead of using AI. If your email is too perfect, it might scream “AI!” So, of course, there’s an AI tool that adds typos back into your AI-written emails.

Sinceerly is a Chrome plugin created by Ben Horwitz that will rewrite your emails to add back mistakes, making them look more human.

There are three modes:

“Subtle,” which will streamline the text by knocking out filler words and turning things into contractions when it can. Then there’s “Human,” which adds an even more conversational tone — both Subtle and Human typically add a typo in the first sentence.

Here is a sample email I wrote to my boss to tell him about my lunch plan:

Here’s that same email, turned into “CEO” mode:

And finally, there’s “CEO,” which goes all lowercase and injects intense brevity. If there’s no signature in your email, sometimes it adds a “sent from my iPhone” (lol).

CEOs indeed do have a really specific email style that is often very fast in response time and short, which can reflect the power differential between the boss and the person they’re corresponding with.

Horwitz, who is about to graduate from Harvard Business School in May, told me he made Sinceerly using Claude and was inspired by his own experience.

“I am a terrible typist, naturally, and lightly dyslexic,” he said. “It would take me so long in my first job straight out of college to write emails and make sure there were no typos and everything. When Grammarly came around, it was like, ‘Oh, OK, this is pretty good for me.’ But now my email inbox is filled with AI slop.”

Horwitz told me he made the plugin just for fun, as a goof, and doesn’t necessarily expect a lot of people to pay for it (after a few free test runs, it asks you to pay $4.99 to keep using it). Horwitz isn’t really in it for the money; he likes making playful pranks about business life (he previously made a collection of stitched baseball hats you could buy with titles like “product,” “engineering,” and “gtm” for founders who, uh, wear a lot of hats).

I don’t think the ink is yet dry on the status of typos in emails; AI in digital communication is still so new, and the norms around it are still evolving.

As a terrible typist myself, I am pro-typo and believe that we should let our messy human fingers speak for us. If we’re asking someone to take the time to read our emails, we should take the time to write them — even if that includes a few mistakes.

• Instagram launched a new app in Italy and Spain this week called “Instants.”
• A hodgepodge of apps like Snapchat, Locket, and BeReal, the app is meant to be “low-pressure.”
• Meta did not share more details about its plans to roll out the app in the US.

Meta is welcoming a new app to the family.

Instagram launched a new app called “Instants” in Italy and Spain on Thursday, but it’s not live elsewhere yet, a Meta spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.

Instants lets users share disappearing photos with their friends. These photos last 24 hours and can’t be viewed more than once. The app’s slogan, per the current app listing: “Real life, real quick.”

The app sounds like a Frankenstein of social apps like Locket, BeReal, and, of course, Snapchat.

The app is intended to “give people low-pressure ways to connect with friends,” the spokesperson added.

Users can take photos (or short videos) with the app’s camera and add text, but cannot edit the content further. They can then share that content with a limited audience, specifically mutual followers and close friends.

“We’re exploring multiple versions of Instants to see what people like, and will listen to our community,” the spokesperson said.

Expanding Meta’s portfolio of social apps has become commonplace for the tech giant. Instagram has Threads and Edits under its umbrella, and Meta also has the AI-focused Meta AI app.

Meta did not share when, or whether, the company will roll out the Instants app in the US.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at sbradley@businessinsider.com or Signal at sydneykbradley.123. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.

• Up to 7% of Microsoft’s US workforce, or about 8,750 people, could qualify for voluntary buyouts.
• Microsoft says the program is about giving people more options if they want to retire.
• The buyouts provide a way to trim its workforce without needing to conduct layoffs.

Microsoft is offering one-time buyouts to long-serving employees in the US, according to an email obtained by Business Insider.

The move could affect up to 7% of its US workforce of 125,000 people, or about 8,750 people, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The tech giant says it’ll provide buyouts to people who want to retire and whose years of service, plus their age, add up to 70 or more. For example, a 58-year-old who has worked 12 years at Microsoft would qualify.

That amounts to “a small percentage of our US employees,” Microsoft’s chief people officer Amy Coleman wrote in the email. The program excludes some very high-ranking employees and some who work in sales.

The buyouts allow the company to trim its workforce without needing to conduct high-profile layoffs. Microsoft has undergone several rounds of layoffs in recent years.

Tech companies are under pressure to reduce their head count because of AI. The fintech company Block cut 40% of its entire workforce in February, citing AI. Meta is also laying off 10% of its staff next month.

Microsoft’s email did not mention AI, saying that the company is offering more options for people who may want to retire.

Microsoft is also overhauling its pay and rewards system to better recognize high performers and make expectations clearer, the email said. The company is moving away from tying stock awards to bonuses, giving managers more flexibility to reward top staff.

Microsoft has been pouring billions into AI to compete with other tech giants like Google and is set to spend close to $100 billion in capital expenditures this year, according to a Business Insider analysis.

Microsoft declined to comment.

• Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders signed off on the Paramount Skydance merger.
• Paramount CEO David Ellison celebrated the news in a memo to employees.
• Read Ellison’s full memo to Paramount staffers.

David Ellison is celebrating a major milestone in Paramount Skydance’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

WBD shareholders voted for the Paramount deal in a special meeting on Thursday morning, prompting the Paramount CEO to take a victory lap.

“We are grateful for the trust and confidence shareholders have placed in our leadership team and in our plan to combine our organizations to build a next-generation media and entertainment company — one that better serves both the creative community and consumers around the world,” Ellison said in a memo to employees, which was obtained by Business Insider.

Ellison also thanked Paramount staffers for “the exceptional work happening across our teams,” highlighting the success of the “Scream 7” horror movie in theaters as well as viewership of shows like “Landman” and sports on CBS.

“These achievements reflect not only the strength of our portfolio, but the talent, creativity and commitment of our people,” Ellison told employees.

The Paramount-WBD mega-merger still requires regulatory approval, and while analysts widely expect the process to be smooth in the US, the deal could face challenges abroad or from state attorneys general.

Some top Hollywood stars are against the Paramount-WBD deal, including “The Pitt” star Noah Wyle and “The Sopranos” creator David Chase. More than 4,000 people signed a letter saying that this deal “would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape” and lead to “fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences” in the US and abroad.

Read the full memo from Ellison here:

Dear Team,

This morning, Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted to approve our acquisition of the company. This marks another important milestone in the process, and we are grateful for the trust and confidence shareholders have placed in our leadership team and in our plan to combine our organizations to build a next-generation media and entertainment company — one that better serves both the creative community and consumers around the world.

On the regulatory front, we continue to engage constructively with regulators and we’re making progress towards securing the approvals needed to close the transaction. At the same time, our Integration Management Office (IMO), led by Tony Driscoll, is working around the clock, and in close collaboration with counterparts at WBD, to ensure we have the systems, processes and plans in place to ensure a smooth transition on day one and beyond.

I also want to take a moment to recognize the exceptional work happening across our teams. This has been an incredibly busy period, and your focus, resilience and execution have made a real difference. From Scream 7 becoming the highest-grossing installment in the iconic franchise’s 30-year history, surpassing $200 million globally; to Landman becoming the most-watched series in Paramount history; to the continued exceptional performance of CBS, which now has 13 of the top 20 primetime series, excluding sports — more than all other broadcast networks combined — and the standout performance of CBS Sports during March Madness and The Masters Tournament; to the launch of our new in-house publishing imprint, Paramount Global Publishing — these are real, tangible examples of progress.

And just in the last week alone, our new Paramount Pictures team delivered an outstanding first-ever CinemaCon presentation, while our Ad Sales team continues to build strong momentum highlighting our strategy of great storytelling fueled by innovation during their Upfront dinners.

Collectively, these achievements reflect not only the strength of our portfolio, but the talent, creativity and commitment of our people. The months ahead will be both busy and exciting as we work to close the transaction and launch the combined company. I am deeply grateful for everything you are doing and proud of what we are building together.

Let’s go!

David

• A former MrBeast employee sued the YouTuber’s company, alleging retaliation.
• Lorrayne Mavromatis’ suit says she was demoted and fired after she filed a complaint and took maternity leave.
• A spokesperson for MrBeast broadly denied the allegations.

A former MrBeast employee has sued the famous YouTuber’s company, alleging it violated the Family and Medical Leave Act and retaliated against her after she reported sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.

Lorrayne Mavromatis joined the company, founded by 27-year-old Jimmy Donaldson, in 2022 as head of Instagram and worked in social media roles until leaving in 2025.

Her complaint, filed Wednesday in federal court in North Carolina, says that she experienced a workplace in which sexual harassment and hostile treatment of female employees were common.

A MrBeast spokesperson broadly denied the allegations.

“This clout-chasing complaint is built on deliberate misrepresentations and categorically false statements, and we have the receipts to prove it,” they said in a statement. “There is extensive evidence — including Slack and WhatsApp messages, company documents, and witness testimony — that unequivocally refutes her claims. We will not submit to opportunistic lawyers looking to manufacture a payday from us.”

Mavromatis’ suit alleges that in November 2023, she complained of sexual harassment and hostile work conditions to then-human resources head Sue Parisher (who is Donaldson’s mother) and then-CEO James Warren’s aunt. The suit says Mavromatis was told two months later that her claims were “unsubstantiated.”

The suit says she was then demoted to a midlevel management position in a division that employees referred to as a place “careers go to die.” The MrBeast spokesperson said Mavromatis was not demoted but moved into a role she requested, and her salary didn’t change.

The suit alleges that MrBeast’s company never sent Mavromatis information about her FMLA rights before she took maternity leave in early 2025. The complaint says the company terminated her less than three weeks after she returned from leave, telling her that she was “too high caliber” for her role.

The MrBeast spokesperson shared a screenshot of Mavromatis’ signature acknowledging receipt of the employee handbook, which they said showed she was aware of the FMLA policy.

Mavromatis’ suit alleges that she feared retaliation for not working during her pregnancy leave, and says she was on a work conference call while in the labor and delivery room.

The MrBeast spokesperson shared a screenshot that they said showed a Slack exchange between Mavromatis and a coworker. In the exchange, Mavromatis said she needed to postpone a meeting because she was in labor, to which the coworker responded in all caps, “BUT OF COURSE.”

The suit alleged that a few weeks after giving birth, the company asked Mavromatis to work, including on the production of a video in Brazil with the Brazilian soccer star Neymar.

The company shared a screenshot that it said showed Mavromatis offering to go to Brazil for the Neymar shoot, despite being on maternity leave, citing the value of having her as a Brazilian citizen on the ground.

The suit says MrBeast’s company was a hostile environment for women

The suit makes a series of claims about the workplace environment and Donaldson.

It alleges that Warren, a cousin of Donaldson, made her meet him in his home for one-on-one meetings and told her that her appearance had a “certain sexual effect on Jimmy.”

The suit says that when Mavromatis asked Warren why Donaldson would not meet with her on certain projects, Warren told her, “Jimmy gets really awkward around beautiful women. Let’s just say that when you’re around and he goes to the restroom, he’s not actually using the restroom.”

The MrBeast spokesperson said Donaldson has an eye condition and Crohn’s disease, both of which he’s been open about, which explains his lack of eye contact with Mavromatis and his trips to the bathroom.

Mavromatis’ suit alleged Donaldson once asked her to fetch him a beer — something she never saw him ask a male employee to do — and when she brought it to him, he took one swig and tossed it on the ground.

The suit also says that “executives’ demeaning treatment towards women was publicly displayed at MrBeast headquarters when male executives laughed and made jokes at the office about female contestants of BeastGames who complained they did not have access to feminine hygiene products and clean underwear while participating in the show.”

The company has faced workplace controversies

MrBeast has previously faced workplace-related controversies.

In 2024, Donaldson cut ties with an employee and friend who was accused of sending inappropriate messages to a minor. Around the same time, Donaldson gave a statement apologizing for using racist and homophobic language earlier in his career after some of the comments resurfaced online. That year, the company shared plans to hire an HR officer and implement companywide sensitivity training as part of an assessment of its internal culture.

On the set of his “Beast Games” Amazon show, a worker was hit by a collapsing tower and spent eight days in the hospital, Business Insider previously reported.

More recently, Donaldson said he’s worked 15-hour days and has an unhealthy work-life balance.

Some of the years of Mavromatis’ employment coincide with a time when MrBeast’s company was run largely by Donaldson and family members. The company has since hired several outside professionals, including current CEO Jeff Housenbold, as it seeks to improve profitability and prepare for an eventual IPO.