Max Landis, John Landis, Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy

Well, that took about two seconds.

One article and that was it. He's such an obvious scumbag. No one doubts that he's guilty of everything. They were reluctant to say it without something in the mainstream press to back it up, but once the article was published, no one questioned it. There isn't the slightest doubt that it was all true. No questions about the motivations of the victims or why they waited to speak out or why they ever went near that subhuman to begin with. There were comments online from people who said they had been against the whole #MeToo movement who wanted Landis to pay for his crimes.

That doesn't sound like I'm defending Landis against the unquestioning mob, does it, because I'm not. They're right. He's the scum of the earth.

Michael Jackson did everything in his power to convince the world that he was a pedophile. He was practically bragging about it. But there are still people who defend him.

Not so with Max Landis who did the same thing---bragged about what he did to women.

The Landis Family and Michael Jackson

I had serious doubts about Michael Jackson's love for all the children of the world when he hired John Landis to direct one of his videos.


John Landis is Max Landis's father and is best known for having murdered three people including two small children on the set of the The Twilight Zone movie. He was charged with manslaughter but, as celebrities tend to do, got away with it.

There's an interesting article here about a bit of a feud between Eddie Murphy and John Landis.

Landis's career suffered a slight setback after he murdered the two first graders. Murphy took pity on him and hired him to direct Coming to America.

The article quotes an interview Murphy gave to Playboy magazine. I took these quotes from the article linked above, so you might want to just read that:

MURPHY: I wanted to help out [the director, John] Landis. I figured I’d give this guy a shot because his career was fucked. But he wound up fucking me.

PLAYBOY: What happened?

MURPHY: As it turned out, John always resented that I hadn’t gone to his Twilight Zone trial. I never knew that; I though we were cool. But he’d been harboring it for a year. Every now and then, he would make little remarks, like, “You didn’t help me out; you don’t realize how close I was to going to jail.” I never paid any mind.

PLAYBOY: Did you think he was guilty?

MURPHY: I don’t want to say who was guilty or who was innocent. [Pauses] But if you’re directing a movie and two kids get their heads chopped off at fucking twelve o’clock at night when there ain’t supposed to be kids working, and you said, “Action!” then you have some sort of responsibility. So my principles wouldn’t let me go down there and sit in court. That’s just the way I am. If somebody in my family was guilty of something, I wouldn’t sit there for them in a courtroom and say, “You’ve got my support.” Fuck that. The most it would be is, “Hey, you go work that out. I still love ya; I’m still your friend.”

...

PLAYBOY: Was he grateful?

MURPHY: He came in demanding lots of money. Paramount was saying, “Hey, come on, Eddie, we’re getting fucked here,” but I made them pay his money. They bent over backward. But after he got the job, he brought along an attitude. He came in with this “I’m a director” shit. I was thinking, Wait a second, I fucking hired you, and now you’re running around, going, “You have to remember: I’m the boss, I’m the director.”

One of his favorite things was to tell me, “When I worked with Michael Jackson, everyone was afraid of Michael, but I’m the only one who would tell Michael, ‘Fuck you.’ And I’m not afraid to tell you, ‘Fuck you.’” And sure enough, he was always telling me, “Fuck you, Eddie. Everybody at Paramount is afraid on you.”

...

PLAYBOY: Did you confront him?

MURPHY: I kind of ignored it. But every day, it was a new “I told Michael, ‘Fuck you’” story.

Then, one day, I had these two writers who did the screenplay for Coming to America with me. They were writing a TV show called What’s Alan Watching? that my company was producing. They were at our location in New York, and Landis was asking them, “Why are you guys here?” They said, “We’re working on something for Eddie.” And he said [strongly], “The production’s not picking that up.” And they said, “No, we’re working through Eddie’s company. Right now, we’re waiting for the deal to go through.” And Landis said, “So you’re not being paid yet? That company should be paying you! Don’t come to New York unless you’re being paid.”

The whole crew was standing around—extras and actors—and Landis started screaming. “Don’t be afraid to ask Eddie Murphy for his money. You go up and ask for your fucking money!” I walked in and he said, “Eddie! Your company is fucking these guys out of their money! Guys, don’t be afraid to go up to Eddie and say, ‘Fuck you!’” He’s screaming about my deal making in front of the cast.

PLAYBOY: What did you do?

MURPHY: I playfully grabbed him around the throat, put my arm around him and I said to Fruity, one of my guys, “What happens when people put my business in the street?” And Fruity said, “they get fucked up.” I was kind of half joking. Landis reached down to grab my balls, like he also thought it was a joke—and I cut his wind off. He fell down, his face turned red, his eyes watered up like a bitch and he ran off the set. Fuckin’ punk.

PLAYBOY: Did you go after him?

MURPHY: Nah. He came to my trailer later and made this big speech. His voice was trembling. And it all came out: that he didn’t think I was talented, that the only reason he did Coming to America was for money, that he didn’t respect me since I hadn’t gone to his trial and all this bullshit. All this fucked-up shit. Called me ignorant, an asshole.

PLAYBOY: How did you take it?

MURPHY: I’m sitting there shattered; I’m thinking, This fucking guy. I bent over fucking backward to get this guy a job. He probably won’t even acknowledge what happened. He didn’t realize that his fucking career was washed up. So I told him, “The next time you fuck around with me, I’m gonna whip your ass.” His Hollywood shit came out then: “What do you mean, ‘whip my ass’? That’s not in our deal.” So I said, “You’re gonna have to give me either some fear or some respect. I want one of them, because this is my shit and you’re working here. If the only way you can fear me is knowing that the next time you fuck up, you’re gonna get your ass whipped, fine.” But Landis was fucked up: “Is that a net or a true-gross ass whipping I’m gonna get? What kind of ass whipping is it?”

PLAYBOY: Would you have whipped his ass?

MURPHY: If he had fucked up again, I would have beat the shit out of him.

You have to admire that in a way.