Eight years ago when Paris Jackson spoke at her dad Michael Jackson's funeral, the world listened. On Wednesday, when the now 18-year-old spoke out about her displeasure of the casting choice to play her father in an upcoming TV series everyone listened again, everyone including the network executives and the episode has now been axed.
USA Today reported that Sky Arts, which is the U.K. broadcaster behind the series Urban Myths, decided to pull the plug on the episode titled "Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon."
When the trailer for the episode was released on Jan. 11, it was met with tons of criticism from social media users including Paris Jackson, who called the choice to cast white actor Joseph Finennes as her father a "shameful portrayal."
Paris also criticized the casting for her godmother Elizabeth Taylor.
@TheMJCast it angers me to see how obviously intentional it was for them to be this insulting, not just towards my father, but my godmother liz as well
— Paris-Michael K. J. (@ParisJackson) January 11, 2017
Sky Arts delivered it's response to all the backlash via Twitter on Friday.
“We have taken the decision not to broadcast ‘Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon,’ a 30 minute episode from the Sky Arts Urban Myths series,” the tweets read. “This decision was taken 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 & never intended to cause any offense. Joseph Fiennes fully supports our decision.”
@SkyArts 1/4 We have taken the decision not to broadcast Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon, a 30min episode from the Sky Arts Urban Myths series.
— Sky Arts (@SkyArts) January 13, 2017
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