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Joseph Fiennes To Play MJ In 9/11 Programme

I just don't buy it......like why won't he name these actors who turned it down.......I think this is just damage control on their part.
 
haha-Brian Cox is saying that the writer wanted a WOMAN to play Michael first?? To emphasize the satire? That's NOT satire and he knows it-that's mockery. Why would they go to all this trouble to make him and Stockard Channing to look and sound like Marlon and Elizabeth and then cast a woman as Michael?

And he mocks Marlon in that trailer-he's using that "mumble mouth" that Brando used in the Godfather-as his normal speaking voice-he says something about "Prince (the singer) and the monkey" and I played it about 10 times to try to figure out what he was saying until I realized I was adding to the views. Forget that.
 
Read that piece. So the writer wanted a woman to play him...I'd say that goes beyond mockery. Disgusting.
 
it is sad. And the producers and Sky Arts knew this all along, still went along with it and now say they didn't want to offend anyone. Sure they didn't....
 
SmoothGangsta said:
Fans wrote in to sky in their droves, they effectively wanted the show to be censored and not shown. That's what happened.
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Interesting. I heard (probably here) that there was a petition around, but those aren't usually effective. Wonder why fans didn't write in droves about the Autopsy show, or the Reelz channel show that implied Michael bought off the judge.
 
SmoothGangsta said:
Fans wrote in to sky in their droves, they effectively wanted the show to be censored and not shown. That's what happened.
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Interesting. I heard (probably here) that there was a petition around, but those aren't usually effective. Wonder why fans didn't write in droves about the Autopsy show, or the Reelz channel show that implied Michael bought off the judge.

You can't defame the dead and you can parody anybody-living or dead-so I'm surprised fans had that much sway.
 
free speech

SmoothGangsta said:
So much for free speech eh.
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Free speech has to do with the government. A private company can censor anything they want. Like a mod who runs a website site can delete comments, or a person who has a Youtube page can delete comments they don't like or have the comments cut off.
 
Saw a tweet in the sidebar on MJJC, asking why the Estate never spoke up.

From what I've gathered over the years, the Estate very rarely comment on controversial matters like these because they feel doing so would draw even more attention to the negative work, adding fuel to the fire. It's a position I understand, even though I have disagreed on this position a couple of times (like last year when those fake/manipulated police reporters were released and the Estate said very little, for example).
 
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Sky may have not literally 'asked' for a backlash but left themselves stupidly open for it..
 
There's an interesting 'alternative' story here....that the Jackson's actually asked for someone else to portray MJ in this production....but this impersonator turned it down. Seems to be a rather contradictory story in many ways ie that the family knew the nature and content of the production, but were still happy for it to be made with their choice of lead actor.

Looks like 2017 will be the 'year of the MJ impersonator' as we already know about 2 other biopics being made, one with Navi (the bodyguards story) and one with Earnest Valentino.

I would like to announce that Earnest Valentino will be starring in an up coming T.V. movie as Michael Jackson. (A Documentary)

The film is produced by UK`s biggest film company ITV, and was directed by Ben Mole. It will be airing next year (2017) on channel 5, and in America.

Title, Date & Time: TBA (From EV FB Page)
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Michael Jackson impersonator says he turned down Joseph Fiennes' role

A Michael Jackson "tribute artist" performing in Melbourne says he was approached to perform in a British comedy show that had an episode cancelled this week amid controversy over Anglo actor JosephFiennes' portrayal of the late singer.

Damian Brantley, part of the Las Vegas show Legends in Concert at The Palms at Crown, said he had been offered a role in the Sky Arts comedy Urban Myths but turned it down because he "didn't like what the storyline was portraying".

Brantley said his name had been put forward by Jackson's family for the episode of Urban Myths.

"This is a rough one because people hate to hear the real [sic], but it's the truth: the family would more than likely prefer someone of their – at least partial – ethnic background portraying their son," Brantley told Fairfax Media.

Brantley has a white mother and black father, who was also a musician and performer, touring with BB King and starring in a Little Richard tribute show in Vegas.

"They [Jackson's family] asked for me personally because they knew me ... I'd known them for a long time.

"There were several people in the running. For them [the show's producers] to pick the gentleman that was fully caucasian – I mean, that's a director's choice, it's their project, but I'm sure that the family's not happy with it."

Brantley said he respected Fiennes' decision to take the opportunity but that he wasn't the best man for the role.

"You're talking about someone who does it [impersonates] probably almost never," he said. "We know the talent, we know who the top five [Michael Jackson impersonators] in the world are, and while I mean no disrespect to this gentleman, he's definitely not in the top five. He's not even close."

Sky Arts and the Michael Jackson Estate have been contacted for comment.

Brantley has been performing his tribute act for more than 20 years, with audiences regularly astounded by his moon walking skills. The dimples are natural, but he does change the shape of his nose with a nick of tape, and contoured make-up.

He and many of his co-stars in the Legends in Concert franchise – which has, astoundingly, been running in Las Vegas and around the world since 1983, last visiting Melbourne 15 years ago – have had the honour of meeting their tributes in person

Both he and David Brighton, who plays David Bowie, had honed their acts long before the men they portrayed died.

Brantley said he met Jackson on several occasions, and that Jackson and his family had come to see him perform.

While their passing was heartbreaking they said demand for their acts skyrocketed in the wake of the stars' deaths.

"It exploded to the point where we couldn't keep up with it and it got very overwhelming, like a little flood," said Brighton in his thick Californian accent.

Brighton filmed an ad with Bowie in 2003, playing various incarnations of the singer with the real Bowie as himself.

Other acts on the bill include Adele, Elvis, Madonna and Prince.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment...down-joseph-fiennes-role-20170118-gttxqc.html
 
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whatever the case, it came out looking like sh**... whoever they tried to get (if that is true) they went with this.. and for me it's not even the fact Joseph is white that put me over the edge... It's the horrible mockery of him and the way he looked.. there is no way they took it seriously (comedy or not)
 
W

I don't like or watch this show (Wendy Williams), but I'm somewhere where it is on and I have no choice but to hear it. She showed a clip. Apparently Wendy really wants to see this program. She is reporting it like the road trip actually happened and not made up. So I guess its going to be spread by some of her audience & TV viewers that the program is based on a true story. Also she asked her studio audience if they were offended by the actor being white, and it sounded like only 1 or 2 people were and Wendy said she wasn't offended because Mike was "special". Whenever I see Wendy (and TMZ), I always think of this Method Man interview (contains profanity, NSFW).
 
Joseph Fiennes Still Thinks His Michael Jackson Portrayal Should Be Seen

I’m sure there comes a time in an actor’s life when he has a role he regrets. For example, I’m sure John Travolta regrets Face Off. And Jamie Foxx regrets the black version of Taken. I fully understand the concept of “a check is a check.” But in the case of Joseph Fiennes and a role we’ll never get to see, he still wishes people could see the short movie in which he played Michael Jackson.

For what, though?

In an interview with Vulture about his role in Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Fiennes discussed his part earlier this year in Sky TV’s Urban Myths. Fiennes played Jackson in the urban legend about a road trip the late pop star took with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando after 9/11.

But remember, no matter how light Jackson was because of vitiligo, he wasn’t a white man like Fiennes. The casting caused an uproar, because most people felt there was no way he should portray Jackson. And would they have even thought about casting a black woman as Taylor—because after all, it’s just satire, right?

In the interview, Fiennes spoke about why he took on the role of Jackson:

Well, it’s a satire, so we have to look at it through that lens. The depiction of the three characters is very satirical, comic, lighthearted, to examine the disconnect of iconic celebrity. But it’s good that people stand up for [what they believe], and I’m all for that. I’m all for that discussion, and it means a lot to me and my fellow actors to talk about casting, getting it right, getting it wrong, and then if there’s a mistake, to examine that mistake and talk about it. Maybe the controversy is good if it brings about discussion. But it is satire. It’s a 20-minute sketch, and it’s lighthearted.
Fortunately for most of us, Fiennes’ episode will never be aired, but he still doesn’t seem to get why.

“Should we shut down the arts and directors and writers based on that, which has happened?” Fiennes said. “If you don’t like the comedian, don’t go see him, but do you shut him and his satirical material down? Do you become a totalitarian state where you go, ‘That’s offensive’?”

The writer went on to explain the history of blackface to Fiennes, and he seemed to come to his senses a little. And kinda, sorta apologized if he offended anyone:

If it comes anywhere near that criminal and hateful sensibility, then I’m deeply regretful and embarrassed, but there’s a part of me that would love people to see it and get into a discussion. I’d love to sit down and examine that as a subject. But that is abhorrent, and if it treads anywhere near that, then it’s good that it’s shut down.
And before you jump up and down and say, “Well, Michael wanted to be white!” here’s his interview with Oprah from 1993, in which he said that he didn’t want anyone white playing him because he’s black. Jackson went on to discuss his vitiligo:

It’s my face as a child in the commercial. Me when I was little. Why would I want a white child to play me? I’m a black American. I’m a black American. I’m proud to be a black American. I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am. That’s like you [Oprah] wanting an Oriental person to play you as a child. Does that make sense?

http://thegrapevine.theroot.com/joseph-fiennes-still-thinks-his-michael-jackson-portray-1794710488
 
He can hide behind words like 'satire', 'lighthearted'... whatever filter you put on it, it's distasteful!


There are plenty of ways to make comedy about someone, even make fun of someone and not be disrespectful.. You take someone that was chastised his whole life for the way he looks and come out mocking him looking like someone straight out of whoville.. I'm pretty open when it comes to jokes. I've laughed at both SNL and MadTV skits of Michael (not all).. what I've seen of this is a disrespectful mockery..
 
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