UPDATE Jan 13: SKY ARTS IS PULLING THIS EPISODE
“We set out to take a light-hearted look at reportedly true events & never intended to cause any offence,” Sky Arts tweeted.
“Joseph Fiennes fully supports our decision.”
We didn’t believe it til we saw it. That is Shakespeare in Love actor Joseph Fiennes playing Jesus Juice-peddler Jackson. Are you freaked out yet?
Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson, and then it gets more odd
The Sky channel anthology series “Urban Myths” is going to recount the “I swear it is true, I know someone who knows a guy who…” story of a road trip that may have, nay, should have happened. Apparently after the 9/11 attacks on New York City (never forget) a distraught Jacko, his bestie Liz Taylor, and Native American spokesperson Marlon Brando – sure, why not – fled from Manhattan by the only means available – a rental car from their local Enterprise.
As we know, following the attacks on the World Trade Center, all internal flights were grounded, so Jackson, Taylor and Brando are said to have hired a car and driven over 500 miles to Ohio, where, who knows, Liza Minnelli, David Gest and either Seigfried or Roy met them in a hot air balloon and flew them back to the Neverland Ranch. Don’t lose focus sweating the details.
Allegedly – which also would have been a good name for this series – it was Tim Mendelson, Elizabeth Taylor’s former personal assistant, that first told pals that this once-in-a-Lifetime TV movie event happened when Jackson invited the Academy Award winners to join him at a show at Madison Square Garden. Then, planes changed, plans changed, and away the threesome went, with nothing but a map, change for the tolls and Taylor in charge of the tunes.
Sky Arts brings you more Urban Myths
Details on the other stories being told in the series are not as well known, but we will learn more about Hitler (Game of Thrones’ Iwan Rheon) and the inventor of LSD, Dr. Timothy Leary (Game of Thrones’ Aidan Gillen), among other notables.
We will keep you posted on an airdate for this, and you can search for the full trailer online. Did we mention Stockard Channing plays Elizabeth Taylor and Brian Cox rides the backseat as Brando? It is going to be good. Or, you know, really really bad.
More PCB: see the Game of Thrones actors in more familiar roles
A former ABC National, Dallas and Atlanta radio personality, Martina O'Boyle is now making movies and covering culture in London, Dublin, and as far in Europe as the cheapie flights will take her, for Pop Culture Beast.