Musician’s son calls Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman monsters after biopic release
Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman are riding a wave of awards season hype for their performances in “Song Sung Blue,” but two people with a personal connection to the musical biopic aren’t singing its praises.
Written and directed by Craig Brewer, “Song Sung Blue” stars Jackman and Hudson as Mike “Lightning” and Claire “Thunder” Sardina, a real-life couple from Wisconsin who overcome their personal setbacks while performing as Lightning and Thunder, an acclaimed Neil Diamond tribute band in the mid-1990s. The film is based on the 2008 documentary of the same name.
“Song Sung Blue” premiered last month to near-universal critical acclaim, and Hudson received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. However, in a new interview with the Daily Mail, Michael Sardina Jr., Mike Sardina’s 41-year-old son, claimed that his late father would be “rolling in his grave right now” over the film and is reportedly considering legal action.
“Everyone thinks it’s a wonderful movie, very moving,” he told the outlet. “It’s all lies.”

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Mike Sardina died at age 55 in 2006, two years before the release of the documentary “Song Sung Blue.” His death is also described in the film.
Michael Sardina Jr. did not participate in the documentary and does not appear as a character in the film. Her sister, Angelina Sardina, is played in the film by actor and musician King Princess.
Elsewhere in his interview with the Daily Mail, Michael Sardina Jr. said that both he and his sister were paid consultants, but that he was “intentionally removed” from the finished film. Both brothers reportedly attended the film’s premiere on December 11 in New York.
As for Hudson and Jackman specifically, he said, “They didn’t even try to contact me… They didn’t try to get any more information.”
“Every interview those monsters have been in [on] “National television does not even mention my existence, even though I was the most predominant force in my father’s life, even when I was not in Wisconsin, because I am his only son,” he added.

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Both brothers have said publicly that the film portrays certain events and family dynamics inaccurately. Angelina Sardina, however, offered a slightly more generous view of “Song Sung Blue,” telling the Daily Mail: “The only thing that was true is the love between my father and Claire. It’s a beautiful story, but that’s not how it happened. And I guess that’s what’s upsetting because it’s a lie.”
Representatives for Hudson, Jackman and the film’s distributor, Focus Features, did not respond to News’s request for comment.
Despite Michael Sardina Jr. and Angelina Sardina’s unfavorable performances in “Song Sung Blue,” the film has the full support of their stepmother.
Claire Sardina performed with Hudson and Jackman at the film’s premiere party last month. When asked by “Inside Edition” how her late husband would view the movie, she said, “His dream, initially, was, ‘We’re going to go to Las Vegas, honey, someday.’ Well, that didn’t happen. But this is just as good.”


