Talk:Lorne Michaels

Significant Biographical Errors
I was surprised to discover that facts concerning Lorne's place of birth are disputed, and decided to investigate how this happened (and if there's a clear answer). From what I can tell, the dispute around his place of birth appears to be a combination of citogenesis and a joke. I also discovered a bunch of other biographical errors that nobody seems to have noticed (the origin of these mistakes is unclear), but these should be corrected as well.

Given the sheer number of errors in his biography across numerous sources, it is likely that portions of this page will devolve into an edit war or otherwise keep getting reverted. Unless you have a primary source more reliable than 60-80 year old newspaper scans, it is basically guaranteed that any newer secondary sources are incorrect.

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1 contains a birth announcement for a Mr. and Mrs. A. Lipowitz (née Florence Becker) concerning a birth on November 17th, 1944 in Toronto. This should indisputably prove his place and date of birth, father's initials, and mother's name. Other sources backing up his place of birth include:


 * Kennedy Center
 * GGPAA
 * Canada's Walk of Fame

Given that those additional three citations are from significant award ceremonies physically featuring the man himself (including one directly from the Government of Canada), it is improbable that all of these collectively are wrong.

contains a Bar Mitzvah announcement on November 16th, 1957 with his first and middle names, siblings, and his father's first name. also confirms his initials. Some sources list Michael or Michaels as a middle name, but no primary sources exist for this that I could find, which suggests these are errors. claims he was born on November 17th, 1946 (two years later), but this is almost certainly a typo considering the lack of any other sources corroborating 1946, zero citations, and the Bar Mitzvah announcement precisely 13 years later from 1944.

I also found, using his mother's maiden name. This again lists the date and location of his birth, but also includes his father's name (and career) beyond one initial. It also mentions his marriage to Rosie Shuster (albeit spelled incorrectly as Schuster) in 1967 instead of 1971. Photos from the wedding exist online from two different newspapers confirming the date, so all references to 1971 should be corrected. provides a divorce date of approximately 1980, which existing sources seem to agree on.

Almost all web sources for Rosalind (Rosie) Shuster claim she was born in 1950. However, this sounded exceedingly implausible - assuming is accurate, two people would likely not be collaborating together in high school, college, and summer camp with an age difference of 5 years and 7 months (assuming 5 years to complete high school and 4 years of undergraduate university, there would be no overlap). Lorne's high school (Forest Hill Collegiate Institute) is literally a collegiate institute, and would not have offered anything other than secondary education. Digging deeper, says that she was 14 and he was 16, which suggests she was probably born in 1946. It also says Lorne's father died when he was 14 (more on this later). confirms 1946 for Shuster, but doesn't give a month and day.

The first wedding photo contains one of the only uses of "Lorne David Michaels" I encountered. The heading suggests this image is of Lorne and his wife, but the caption completely disagrees with this, and it isn't clear when each part was written. However, I ended up looking into "Lorne David Michaels" as a result. also came up (which is presumably slightly more legitimate than a random article), but there is otherwise no way to verify this information.

The Windsor Daily Star article on May 15th, 1959 (page 59, ) also confirms his father's name and career. However, there is likely a typo in the date of death, as Lorne would not have been 14 at the time if he died on January 27th 1958 (he'd be 13 years and 2 months old) - this is likely a typo of 1959 considering the conflicting earlier information and the blurb's contents. Neither source makes any reference to the name Henry. Barring the existence of evidence proving otherwise, it is likely that "Henry" Abraham Lipowitz is incorrect, and all references should be corrected to Abraham Lipowitz.

Almost all references to being born on a kibbutz in Palestine seem to have been published after April 2012, with the earliest instance being by Paul Simon (who says in the article he's been friends with Lorne for more than 37 years). That article also claims that Michaels was attacked by a shark, which is almost certainly fictional. It is quite likely that subsequent claims of being born in Palestine are simply from people failing to detect the original article's humour and citing something that sounds plausibly true as factual. Considering how that article was written by a friend of Lorne's, I suspect it accidentally spiralled into an elaborate practical joke.

--209.171.85.59 (talk) 04:56, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Pertaining to the Image used in the info box
While I am not sure, and I am by no means an expert at deducing and identifying altered images on the internet, it would appear to my untrained eye that the primary image used to identify mister Micheals is edited. Specifically, it would appear that someone has increased or "streched" the length of his mouth, lips pursed, to visually ridiculous levels. I am aware of some inside jokes that occur here on Wikipedia, such as increasing the size of various states little by little so as to not draw attention to the ruse. It is for this reason that I must ask: am I mistaken? Is Lorne Micheals in fact represented accurately here?

192.77.12.11 (talk) 11:33, 25 April 2022 (UTC)
 * This is, in fact, an accurate image of Lorne Michaels. As he was one of the honorees the night this photo was taken, there are a number of similar photos available from the Library of Congress (1, 2) and UPI (1), as well as the Kennedy Center itself (1). There are also photos from other events (1, 2, 3) where he looks similar. As you will note in these photos, his mouth does seem wider than most people might expect, but that is simply how his mouth looks. -Etoile ✩ (talk) 21:40, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

Lipowitz > Michaels?
(12 years later) I can't seem to find in the article any mention of when/why (why may be obvious, but still) he changed his name from Lipowitz to Michaels. This would likely be worthwhile information--and help to make this article more properly encyclopedic. 173.88.246.138 (talk) 06:31, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

Horatio Sanz Lawsuit
There should be a section added mentioning he was added as a defendant alleging the enabling of Horatio Sanz's sexual abuse of a minor. MisfitBlitz (talk) 03:10, 3 May 2023 (UTC)


 * The controversy section should be readded as being listed as a defendant is not peripheral and settling out of court does not equal innocence. MisfitBlitz (talk) 07:05, 31 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Removed again. Micheals was part of a shotgun accusation against multiple people with minor involvement. The case was "dismissed with prejudice" after being settled by the main defendant. Meters (talk) 07:08, 31 May 2023 (UTC)