Media|The Life of Jesus podcast is adapted from a 15-year-old audiobook. Kristen Bell, Brian Cox and many other actors say that they were not asked for permission to use the old recordings.
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US conservative news channel Fox publishes a podcast about the life of Jesus, but many of the star performers who appear on it say they were not asked for permission.
The actors’ voices come from a 15-year-old audiobook, and according to Fox, the podcast was produced in collaboration with the actors.
Actor Malcolm McDowell would have refused if he had been asked, says the US magazine Rolling Stone.
Actor Brian Cox has previously called Fox the devil and leans politically to the left.
Kristen Bell, Brian Cox, Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davies and many others The actors were surprised to hear that they were participating in a new podcast published by the American Fox news channel The Life of Jesus Podcast.
Fox News Audio, part of Fox News Media, publishes the podcast in its Fox Faith series of religious publications. It will be available not only on Fox’s own service but also on other podcast services.
The actors the reactions are told by an American Rolling Stone magazine. Kristen Bell’s representative told Rolling Stone that Bell heard about it a day before the announcement, when she was asked to be a guest on the Fox News TV show Fox & Friends. Representatives for Brian Cox, Malcolm McDowell and John Rhys-Davies said they only heard about the podcast when news of the podcast began to spread. The 52-episode series was announced on Wednesday, November 19, and the first episodes are scheduled to air on November 30.
Series in the press release it was noted to feature over 100 notable actors.
The actors the sounds come from the one recorded in 2010 The Truth and Life Dramatized Audio Bible – from the audio book, that is The New Testament of the dramatized version, in which Kristen Bell played the role of Mary Magdalene. Sean Astin played the role of Matthew, Neal McDonough was jesus Julia Ormond was the Virgin Mary, Brian Cox the voice of God and John Rhys-Davies the narrator.
The recordings have ended up on Fox’s podcast thanks to the producer who was in the audio book project. This has started in collaboration with Gulfstream Studios, a production company that has licensed the podcast to Fox.
Several The actors tell Rolling Stone that they were not asked for permission to use the audiobook materials in the new podcast, and no negotiations have taken place. For example, Malcolm McDowell would not have given permission if he had been asked, Rolling Stone says.
A Fox News spokesperson, on the other hand, says that the podcast was produced “in collaboration with all actors involved.”
For contracts and in addition to ambiguities related to copyright, the podcast’s controversy is increased by its publication in connection with the conservative Fox news channel, i.e. Fox News Channel (FNC). Like Fox News Audio, which publishes the podcast, FNC is part of Fox News Media. In the highly polarized culture of the United States, Fox has lined up between the Republicans and the president Donald Trump’s as a supporter.
Fox News Channel is the most watched cable television channel in the United States and was founded in the 1990s Rupert Murdoch. Actor Brian Cox’s character Logan Roy in the popular Succession-television series has often been compared to Murdoch, as well as his family to the Murdoch family.
Actor Brian Cox himself said in an interview with CNBC in 2021 that he leans to the left in his political opinions and described Fox as “the devil”. So maybe Cox wouldn’t have voted for Fox either if he had been asked.