Photo: Still
A TV show depicting a failed roadtrip between 'Beat It' and 'Thriller' star Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando will no longer air on TV following family complaints.
The show featured Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson and was scheduled to be a part of a new upcoming anthology series called Urban Myths which will air on Sky Arts in the U.K only.
The Jackson episode is a satire based on a 2011 Vanity Fair article which alleged that the King of Pop took a road trip with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando following the September 11 attacks in 2001.
But after seeing the caricaturing of their father in the trailer (which has now been taken down), his family became enraged and demanded it be pulled.
Paris Jackson said on Twitter that the trailer "made her want to vomit [..] It angers me to see how obviously intentional it was for them to be this insulting, not just towards my father, but my godmother [Elizabeth Taylor] as well."
@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
Jackson's cousin, Taj echoed Paris' view as he said on Twitter: "Unfortunately this is what my family has to deal with. No words could express the blatant disrespect.”
Sky Arts obliged to the idea of taking it down when receiving strong backlash: "We have taken the decision not to broadcast Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon, a half-hour episode from the Sky Arts Urban Myths series, in light of the concerns expressed by Michael Jackson's immediate family.
"We set out to take a light-hearted look at reportedly true events and never intended to cause any offence. Joseph Fiennes fully supports our decision."
In a statement Sky Arts added it is "not in the habit of pulling programmes but we felt that this was the right decision to take.
“Sky Arts puts the integrity of the creative vision at the heart of all of its original commissions, and casting decisions are made within the overall diversity framework which we have set.”
Before this show was pulled Fiennes spoke with Hollywood Reporter and spoke highly of the it: “I felt this was a wonderful challenge, I read the script and it’s very funny," said Fiennes.
He added: “It’s a satire, it’s just a 20-minute satire. It’s a sketch about a story that could have been a legend or could have been true. So we’ll see what the audience make of it.”
Well, it seems they didn't make much of it after all.
Stockard Channing played Elizabeth Taylor while Brian Cox played Brando in this now defunct production.
