A longtime adviser to first lady Melania Trump and producer of her vanity documentary has responded to claims that the film included music in breach of a composer agreement.
Marc Beckman spoke to conservative outlet Breitbart on Monday about a statement issued by Phantom Thread composer Jonny Greenwood—English rock band Radiohead’s guitarist—and director Paul Thomas Anderson, in which the pair claimed that Melania had used a piece of music from Anderson’s 2017 film without Universal consulting Greenwood.
“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the ‘Melania’ documentary. While Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright in the score, Universal failed to consult Jonny on this third-party use which is a breach of his composer agreement. As a result Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary,” the statement read.
The documentary used an extended excerpt from “Barbara Rose,” a song from Phantom Thread’s Oscar-nominated score. Greenwood is nominated for yet another Academy Award for his score for Anderson’s 2025 hit One Battle After Another.
Beckman told Breitbart that the pair’s claims were “a blatant lie.”
“We have a legal right and permission to use every song and piece of music in the film. We have the legal rights to use it. We’ve done everything the right way. We followed protocol. We respect artists. We compensated everyone for their music.
“We have legally binding, fully executed contracts in place to use every song in Melania,” Beckman continued, adding, “This is just ridiculous.”
Dave Benett/Getty Images
The Daily Beast has contacted representatives for Greenwood, Beckman and Focus Features for comment.
Beckman also claimed that no news outlet that covered the statement contacted him or the Melania team for comment. The Daily Beast contacted both Amazon Studios and the film’s director Brett Ratner for comment.
Beckman also took the time to boast about the film’s success at the box office, telling Breitbart, “We’re very pleased with the film’s performance in its second weekend in theaters.”
“We crossed $13 million in sales and we hit the predicted benchmark for our sales projections for Super Bowl weekend almost exactly with what we predicted.”
The film, which was acquired by Amazon MGM, cost the studio a whopping $75 million, between the initial $40 million purchase price and the inflated $35 million marketing budget. Trump herself made some $28 million from the film.
With $13.4 million in earnings since its release, the film has fallen far short of recouping the bulk of the money spent acquiring and promoting it.
Amazon distribution chief Kevin Wilson praised the film’s “strong theatrical performance” on Saturday and said that the studio hoped to earn some of its money back “when it streams on Prime Video through advertising and Prime signups.”
The controversial film, which the Daily Beast’s own Kevin Fallon called “terrible,” has been the subject of both review-bombing and suspected review-boosting online amid regular pushes from the president himself to encourage audiences to see the film.
The film is screening in over 2,000 theaters nationwide and will eventually be available to watch on Prime Video.
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