Michael Peterson Is Pissed At The Documentary Filmmaker Who Sold His Archives To HBO For “The Staircase”

June 10, 2022 / Posted by:

The HBO limited series The Staircase wrapped up this week but the case of Michael Peterson vs The Staircase is far from closed. Michael, played in the series by Colin Firth, served 8 years in prison for the death of his wife Kathleen Peterson, played by Toni Colette. Michael claims he found Kathlee bloodied and barely breathing at the bottom of a staircase in the couple’s home in 2001. The HBO show was based on a documentary of the same name by French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, who was given unfettered access to Micahel’s personal life, family and trial. While Michael had previously said he wasn’t going to watch the HBO show, Jean-Xavier apparently did since he sold his archives to HBO for the series. Michael’s pissed at Jean-Xaiver, claiming he “pimped” him and his family out and that “Jean should have known that when you sell your ass/property, you assume the risk of getting fucked/betrayed, every hooker knows this.” Look, I’m still on the fence about whether or not Michael is innocent in his wife’s death, but he’s definitely guilty of 3rd degree sick burns.

Last month, Jean-Xavier spoke to Vanity Fair about how he believed that HBO showrunner Antonio Campos had unfairly portrayed him and his editor Sophie Brunet, who, incidentally, had a years long relationship with Michael, claiming that Campos maligned them “by suggesting that they purposefully tipped the scales to manipulate audiences” in Michael’s favor. And now, in an email to Variety, Micheal says, and I’m paraphrasing here, boo-fucking-hoo, you greedy bastard. Serves you right. Variety reports:

Peterson’s wife Kathleen was found dead at the bottom of the staircase of their North Carolina home in 2001. Authorities discovered that Peterson, who identifies as bisexual, was having sexual relationships with men. He was charged with murdering his wife and convicted in 2003. He’s now free, after the charges were reduced to manslaughter in a retrial.

Peterson allowed a camera crew to film him and his family as he awaited trial, which became an extended documentary series that premiered in 2004 (it’s streaming on Netflix). While Peterson isn’t happy with Campos’ HBO series, he’s livid with de Lestrade.

“I have read about Jean de Lestrade’s sense of betrayal by Antonio Campos and HBO Max’s presentation of ‘The Staircase,’ but what has been forgotten or overlooked or simply ignored is his betrayal of me and my family,” he says. “We feel that Jean pimped us out — sold OUR story to Campos for money — what word other than pimped describes what he did?”

Uh, I don’t know. Souteneur, perhaps? Everything sounds classier in French. Variety adds that Jean was made aware that Michael and his case were in the public domain and that Jean received a fee (the amount of which is in dispute) and an executive-producer credit for the HBO series in exchange for handing over his documentary archives, but had no hand in the ultimate production. Jean never even asked to see a script and didn’t know what the show would depict until it aired. Michael claims that Jean never even told him he had sold his materials to HBO.

“Jean should have known that when you sell your ass/property, you assume the risk of getting fucked/betrayed,” Peterson says. “Every hooker knows this. So he got betrayed/fucked. Why should he be surprised? He was compensated — paid off. But we didn’t sell our story to Campos — were never even consulted or informed that Jean had done this. We are the ones who were betrayed, falsely depicted as fighting among ourselves (which NEVER happened), and with made up story lines that denigrate all of us in the eyes of millions.”

“He is the individual responsible for what happened to us, and while I am sorely pissed at Campos for all the liberties he took with the truth (and for stealing from my book “Behind the Staircase” — the only source for his prison scenes, and for which I of course was not compensated), I am angrier at Jean who should have had our interests in mind when he sold our story. I have no sympathy for him, any more than I would for a hooker who contracted an STD after peddling her ass. Sounds harsh—but look at the result to our family for what he did.”

Rich coming from an admitted connoisseur of peddled ass. Poor Kathleen is the only person in this story who has the right to be pissed. Well, Kathleen and Nicole Kidman’s wig, because with all this controversy, it probably won’t get the chance to win an Emmy playing the owl in The Staircase 2: Owl Be Back.

Pic: HBO

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