Fox News announced a new faith-based podcast starring big time actors like Kristen Bell, but that was news to the Michigan-born star.
The 52-episode “The Life of Jesus Podcast” will debut on Nov. 30 and “bring stories from the New Testament to life through immersive storytelling,” Fox News said.
In addition to introductions by FOX & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt, more than 100 notable actors are voicing characters of the Bible, including Bell as Mary Magdalene.
But according to the Rolling Stone, Bell, of Huntington Woods, was blindsided by the announcement since she had recorded the audio for a separate project 15 years ago.
Originally, Bell voiced Mary Magdalene for The Truth and Life Dramatized Audio Bible, a New Testament audiobook released in 2010.
A producer tied to the Bible audiobook has since partnered with Gulfstream Studios, which is licensing the podcast production, Fox News announced.
Bell’s rep told the Stone that she only learned that Fox Faith had acquired the long-forgotten project after her team received a request for her to appear on Fox & Friends.
Bell never gave permission for the old audiobook to be repurposed into a new podcast series, according to the Rolling Stone.
Bell, who attended Shrine Catholic High School in Royal Oak, opened up about her faith in 2018.
She described her mother, Lorelei, as “very religious” and a “born again Christian” and noted there has been some stress between the two because she doesn’t subscribe to a faith.
“I think it’s hard for her to digest [that I’m not religious], and I don’t really like to talk about it a lot because when I’m talking about it all I feel is that I’m disappointing my mother, which is an awful feeling,” Bell told the WTF with Marc Maron podcast.
Bell also said he mom was upset that she hadn’t baptized her kids.
“From my perspective, I was like, ‘Let me tell you something. My child is not going to heaven or having an afterlife based on some man pouring water over her head,” Bell said on the WTF podcast.
Other big names involved in the project include Sean Astin (Matthew), Neal McDonough (Jesus), Brian Cox (Voice of God), Malcolm McDowell (Caiaphas), John Rhys-Davis (narrator) and Julia Ormond (Mary Mother of God).
The podcast will be introduced in four installments to coincide with notable dates on the Christian calendar including the start of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Palm Sunday. It will be available in audio format on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever podcasts are found.
Bell, received an Emmy nomination for Best Actress in a comedy series for playing Joanne in “Nobody Wants This” in July. She is also known for roles as the voice of Princess Anna in “Frozen,” in TV series like “Veronica Mars” and “The Good Place” and the movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”
She is married to actor Dax Shepard, who is from Milford.
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