CANCELLED! Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson: “Like a Noel Fielding puppet rescued from a fire”
Update: Sky said on Friday it had cancelled this programme after Paris Jackson said it made her want to “vomit”.”We never intended to cause any offence,” they said.
It’s the least likely casting decision since America voted Donald Trump president. Michael Jackson played by … Shakespeare In Love star Joseph Fiennes.
The first look images from the Sky Arts series Urban Myths prompted outrage and ridicule in almost equal measure. That measure being: “a lot”.
First, the ridicule.
Honestly I’m wheezing at Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson he looks like a historical battle reenactment fan who also owns a metal detector pic.twitter.com/gFwr4TyKNU
— (@QueerDiscOx) January 11, 2017
Okay? But why does Joseph Fiennes as MJ look like the scarecrow you’d find at the edge of a pumpkin patch!? pic.twitter.com/OxFjP5SZQs — Rosalina Watson † (@AboutRosalina) January 11, 2017
Can I pls unsee Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson
— ree (@riannaej) January 11, 2017
He does look kinda familiar though. You remember, that guy off Never Mind the Buzzcocks?
Wait this is real?? Christ. Looks like a Jim Henson puppet of Noel Fielding that’s been rescued from a house fire https://t.co/Oeqkbtlp4j
— Hywel Roberts (@HywelRoberts2) January 11, 2017
Now, the outrage. Fiennes’ casting was criticised as another example of TV “whitewashing” black people, and on Thursday the late singer’s daughter Paris Jackson weighed in.
@TheMJCast i’m so incredibly offended by it, as i’m sure plenty of people are as well, and it honestly makes me want to vomit. — Paris-Michael K. J. (@ParisJackson) January 11, 2017
@TheMJCast it angers me to see how obviously intentional it was for them to be this insulting, not just towards my father, but my godmother liz as well
— Paris-Michael K. J. (@ParisJackson) January 11, 2017
@TheMJCast where is the respect? they worked through blood sweat and tears for ages to create such profound and remarkable legacies. shameful portrayal — Paris-Michael K. J. (@ParisJackson) January 11, 2017
Here’s a trailer for the show, in which Jackson takes a possibly fictional road trip in 2001 with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando after 9/11. It’s even weirder than you thought.
For comparison purposes, here’s what Jackson looked like in 2001, rocking your world for the last time.
You might remember Fiennes from films such as Shakespeare in Love.
He was also in the worst film ever made, Killing Me Softly.
It’s bad.