Anonymous wrote:Kids playign patty-cake is not a novel idea.

Plenty of movies use similar plots or techniques to one another. Heck, the entire rom-rom genre is based on 2-3 possible storylines basically. Katherine Heigl would be out of work if they treated it like plagiarism!

The filmmaker says that as well. It's the style, use of color and light, peering in through the doorway, etc. It's more of the subtleties and the stuff a director uses. Malia did not write it, she directed it. It's the way it's directed that is being compared, not the script.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watched both. This is silly - Malia didn't steal from this woman's film. Black girls playing patty cake sitting on the steps is in several films.

Are we talking about this commercial? Because I see kids playing hand games standing on a playground, on a bus, and on a pew.

I would say that the scene in Grace (which is a beautiful film by the way) is much more derivative of the scene in Color Purple than the commercial is derivative of the scene in Grace.

Can you link the scene in Color Purple you are referring to? One article linked to one and Grace and the Nike ad were way more similar. I agree that Grace is a beautiful film.

Anonymous wrote:I watched both. This is silly - Malia didn't steal from this woman's film. Black girls playing patty cake sitting on the steps is in several films.

Are we talking about this commercial? Because I see kids playing hand games standing on a playground, on a bus, and on a pew.

I would say that the scene in Grace (which is a beautiful film by the way) is much more derivative of the scene in Color Purple than the commercial is derivative of the scene in Grace.

I watched both. This is silly - Malia didn't steal from this woman's film. Black girls playing patty cake sitting on the steps is in several films.

Kids playign patty-cake is not a novel idea.

Plenty of movies use similar plots or techniques to one another. Heck, the entire rom-rom genre is based on 2-3 possible storylines basically. Katherine Heigl would be out of work if they treated it like plagiarism!

I think the Obamas can find a way to spin this to work for everyone if they get the right advice. Give the woman credit for inspiring the scene and promote her career. Heck maybe Nike will hire her. Talk openly about the blurry line between inspiration and taking someone's ideas. Have Malia apologize for not giving this woman credit from the start in some way. I think it's also fine to say you do not feel that this crossed into plagiarism, but you regret not giving this woman the acolades she deserves. Make it clear your family values are about accountability and raising people up. Be humble about parenting and stop giving out advice. If anything, commiserate with us all. We are all trying to do right by our kids and sometimes when they fall, even as adults we do help pick them up and sometimes, we do try to prevent them from failing and parenting is complicated.

Obvious plagiarism. She was literally at the event where this was screened.

The Business Insider interview with Harris about my she makes the accusation is worth a read. You can get to it using a paywall blocker.

I remember when Michelle Obama started giving parenting advice publicly, I thought of what a friend said to me when I asked my friend for advice. The moment she got smug and thought she was some sort of expert because her kids were doing well, she started giving advice and within a few months her kids were making her look like a fool for thinking she was some sort of expert. That said, I agree with Michelle Obama that we need to allow our kids some failure and resilience is important, but I think any actual advice to the masses needs to come from experts who cite research studies. There is the potential to do harm when you have that big an audience. I have no doubt if her daughter did actually commit plagiarism, the Obamas will throw big money at the best lawyer out there and not simply let her fall.

https://nypost.com/2025/05/17/media/michelle-obama-says-the-ultimate-job-for-a-parent-is-to-let-kids-fail-and-build-resilience/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've watched the clips and the filmmaker is being ridiculous. Both films use a couple very common filmmaking tropes (kids playing patty cake), that's about it.

Idk. I saw clips laid out on top of each other and there is definitely a striking similarity, and I’m usually very skeptical of claims like this. It would not make me comfortable if I was the filmmaker.

Caveat is that I saw the clips side by side from a person who assembled them on Twitter and you can’t believe anything there any more. So, idk.

I agree! The scenes are strikingly similar and you could write a short paper about all the similarities in cinematic style/technique/etc how do you know where the line is? Perhaps she saw the film and it just stuck with her and she didn't even know her ideas were coming from there or not. I have not heard of other lawsuits like this. I have with music. Do different industries define plagiarism differently?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've watched the clips and the filmmaker is being ridiculous. Both films use a couple very common filmmaking tropes (kids playing patty cake), that's about it.

Idk. I saw clips laid out on top of each other and there is definitely a striking similarity, and I’m usually very skeptical of claims like this. It would not make me comfortable if I was the filmmaker.

Caveat is that I saw the clips side by side from a person who assembled them on Twitter and you can’t believe anything there any more. So, idk.

They're both very small portions of the overall film as well and the coloring is very different.

It's also important to understand that basic concepts like kids playing a game and washed out color gradients are also not considered protectable ideas, for very good reason.

It is incredibly easy to come up with a similar idea to someone else's, in any form of art, because in essence everything has already been thought of. And with the volume of content being created, it's impossible to check one's work against every single existing piece of work.

Hence why there will always be accusations of cheating, especially ones targeted towards famous people, because they will be more vulnerable to negative press.

This is a ridiculous charge, given the innocuous similarities; and the target being a President's daughter makes me think it was intentionally fabricated, instead of being merely a good faith accusation.

Anonymous wrote:I've watched the clips and the filmmaker is being ridiculous. Both films use a couple very common filmmaking tropes (kids playing patty cake), that's about it.

Idk. I saw clips laid out on top of each other and there is definitely a striking similarity, and I’m usually very skeptical of claims like this. It would not make me comfortable if I was the filmmaker.

Caveat is that I saw the clips side by side from a person who assembled them on Twitter and you can’t believe anything there any more. So, idk.

From a filmmaker's perspective, I suspect it's more complicated than that.

I've watched the clips and the filmmaker is being ridiculous. Both films use a couple very common filmmaking tropes (kids playing patty cake), that's about it.

I assume this goes in entertainment because it's about an Indie film-maker (Natalie Jasmine Harris) accusing Malia of stealing her idea/technique from from film Grace and using them in a Nike ad. I have seen the clip she finds most egregious and there are absolutely major similarities in the scenes and approach to filming and it's not just about using Pat-a-cake. Both scenes are more similar to eachother than to a scene in The Color Purple people are claiming they both were probably inspired by. It really made me wonder though, was Malia just inspired by Harris and if so, is there a way to give Harris credit (like you would in a work cited list?) How do you decide if inspiration crosses into plagiarism?