Kristen Bell was as surprised as her fans by the news that she will be the voice of Mary Magdalene on the Life of Jesus Podcast from Fox News.
The conservative broadcaster has licensed sound footage that Bell recorded in 2010 for a star-studded audiobook of the New Testament.
Entitled The Truth and Life Dramatized Audio Bible, the 2010 project included such celebrities as Succession star Brian Cox, The Lord of the Rings actors Sean Astin and John Rhys-Davies and A Clockwork Orange lead Malcolm MacDowell.
Now the old audiobook has been recut into a 52-episode podcast about Christ, to be released on the first day of Advent by Fox News Audio.
A spokesperson for Fox News stated: ‘Gulfstream Studios produced the Life of Jesus Podcast from The Truth and Life Dramatized Audio Bible, which was licensed by Fox News Audio, with full cooperation and participation by all the actors involved.’
However a representative for Bell has now insisted the actress had no idea about the podcast until the day before it was announced, and ‘never gave permission for the old audiobook to be repurposed into a new podcast series,’ via Rolling Stone.
Kristen Bell was as surprised as her fans by the news that she will be the voice of Mary Magdalene on the Life of Jesus Podcast from Fox News;
The Life of Jesus Podcast is slated to premiere on November 30 – the Sunday after Thanksgiving – as part of Fox Faith, according to Deadline.
With new introductions by Fox and Friends hostess Ainsley Earhardt, the episodes will contain recycled audio of the cast of the old 2010 New Testament audiobook.
Among the stars are Brian Cox as God, Neal McDonough as Jesus, Sean Astin as Matthew, Malcolm MacDowell as Caiaphas and Julia Ormond as the Virgin Mary.
John Rhys-Davies, known to The Lord of the Rings fans as Gimli the Dwarf, is the narrator, with Cabaret actor Michael York as Luke.
A representative for MacDowell expressed surprise at the project, saying: ‘We had no knowledge these recordings were being redistributed as a podcast until this week. This was long ago forgotten about,’ according to Entertainment Weekly.
Cox’ representative has also shared that the Scottish actor was unaware his voice on the old audiobook was ultimately going to be reused for a Fox News product.
However one report claims a producer on the Fox News podcast contacted one of the audiobook actors whose voice will appear on the new show.
The producer allegedly sent an email asking that the actor in question ‘not mention that this audio New Testament Bible was produced years ago, we’d like it to feel like something that was produced more recently,’ according to Rolling Stone.
Bell’s latest showbiz news comes after she faced a deluge of backlash over a post celebrating her 12th wedding anniversary to Dax Shepard
Bell’s latest showbiz news comes after she faced a deluge of backlash over a post celebrating her 12th wedding anniversary to Dax Shepard.
‘Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who once said to me: “I would never kill you. A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I’m heavily incentivized to kill you, I never would,”‘ she wrote with a heart emoji.
Commenters flew into a frenzy of outrage, slating her for the ‘offensive’ and ‘insensitive’ joke and noting it was Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
‘How can any self respecting woman stay with a man who “jokes” like that?’ one Instagram user demanded. ‘I’m not even a very serious person, but that would have me leaving so fast your head would spin.’
