One mogul missing at Melania Trump‘s sneak peek White House screening of her new film on Saturday night was Jeff Bezos. (Among the guests, as we reported, were CEOs of Apple, Zoom and Advanced Micro Devices — as well as Amazon execs Andy Jassy and Mike Hopkins.)
We previously reported that the screening included custom-made popcorn buckets, framed screening tickets and a military band playing a tune from the film called, “Melania’s Waltz.”
Melania Trump, seen here with husband Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago’s New Year’s 2025 bash, screened her new film “Melania” at the White House Saturday. AFP via Getty Images
Trump’s team insists that billionaire Bezos wasn’t involved in her whopping $40 million Amazon MGM movie deal after he and Lauren Sanchez had visited Mar-A-Lago last year.
Marc Beckman — a producer on the film and Melania’s exclusive senior advisor — says Melania’s only mention of the film to Bezos during the meal was after other Amazon execs were already pitched the project.
“Bezos wasn’t involved in the contract negotiations at all, ever… He never had a conversation with me about anything surrounding the film — ever,” Beckman told us days before the film’s debut.
Reports have said that Melania pitched Bezos directly on the project last year.
“Here’s what actually happened,” Beckman said. “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.
Bezos did not attend the White House screening of the first lady’s documentary. Regina Voronina / BACKGRID
The documentary focuses on the first lady’s journey leading up to Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration. REUTERS
“[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 says, adding “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.”
The Melania doc follows her in the 20 days leading up to last year’s Presidential Inauguration.