Melania producer Marc Beckman shares 'what exactly happened' between Melania Trump and Jeff Bezos about the movie

Amazon MGM Studios producer Marc Beckman has dismissed reports that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was involved in the US First Lady Melania Trump's documentary deal with the company. With this clarification, he addressed rumours that the US First Lady had pitched the project directly to the billionaire during a visit to Mar-a-Lago last year. Beckman, who serves as a producer on the film and is also Melania's exclusive senior advisor, says Melania's only mention of “Melania” to Bezos during the meal came after other Amazon executives had already pitched the project. Trump's team insists that Bezos wasn't involved in the Amazon MGM movie deal after he and Lauren Sanchez visited Mar-a-Lago last year.

Bezos's Amazon MGM Studios acquired the rights to the feature-length documentary about Melania Trump for a whooping $40 million and spent a further $35 million on a global marketing push. The film, directed by Brett Ratner, follows Melania in the 20 days leading up to last year's US presidential inauguration. The documentary was screened at a recent White House promotional event attended by what the Hollywood Reporter describes as “70 assorted VIPs,” including Amazon's Andy Jassy, Apple's Tim Cook, and former boxer Mike Tyson.




However, one notable absence from the “Melania” sneak peek White House screening was Bezos himself. Among the guests were Apple CEO Tim Cook and AMD CEO Lisa Su, as well as Amazon executives Andy Jassy and Mike Hopkins. The screening included custom-made popcorn buckets, framed screening tickets and a military band playing a tune from the film called "Melania's Waltz".

What ‘Melania’ producer said about Jeff Bezos’ involvement in the movie

In a statement to Page Six, Melania producer Marc Beckman said, “Bezos wasn’t involved in the contract negotiations at all, ever… He never had a conversation with me about anything surrounding the film — ever.

Here’s what actually happened. The only interaction during that family meal between Melania and Jeff — with regards to the film — was that when Melania commented to Jeff that I was in talks with Amazon’s executive leadership, Bezos had no idea about the film or the contract negotiation. He wasn’t aware that I was already in talks with his team, and didn’t know about the film itself. It was a friendly meal with family members present, and definitely not a setting for a contract negotiation.

[The] first person I reached out to at Amazon was in its executive leadership … I never interacted with Jeff — not an email, a text, he was never involved.”

Beckman also added that “during the process, I became very impressed with Amazon’s team, their vision, and experience in the film industry. It was definitely one of the key determining factors in making the deal.”