Spike Lee, who attended Michael Jackson’s memorial service Tuesday, says watching the late pop star’s 11-year-old daughter Paris take to the stage and talk about her father was brutal.
“How can you even comprehend a young daughter bemoaning the loss of their dear father, their daddy,” says the celebrated film director, 52, who knew Jackson for more than a decade. “We know Michael the entertainer, but to her, that’s just Daddy.”
In 1996, Lee traveled to Brazil to direct Jackson in his music video, They Don’t Care About Us. Lee says he has never known another entertainer with Jackson’s global appeal.
“I’m not trying to disrespect anybody, Elvis or Frank Sinatra, but what Michael did globally – there wasn’t anybody in the world who did not love Michael Jackson,” says Lee.
At the tribute, Jennifer Hudson might have sung and Smokey Robinson might have praised Jackson’s talents, but it was Paris’s tearful moment that held everyone riveted.
“That was raw. Raw emotion,” lauds Lee. “Nobody had a dry eye. That was a killer.”
