Today in news that social media had a field day with, British actor Ralph Fiennes has been cast to play Michael Jackson in an upcoming drama. The film, which also stars Stockard Channing, and Brian Cox, centers around a rumored road trip that Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando took together in the days after 9/11 when air travel wasn’t possible. The trio allegedly drove from New York to Ohio, after meeting at Madison Square Garden.
etails of the improbable trip emerged in 2011 when it was reported in Vanity Fair. The story goes that Jackson invited the pair to his concert at Madison Square Garden. Following the 9/11 attacks, when air travel to and from New York was cancelled, the trio rented a car and began their quest back to California. “They actually got as far as Ohio – all three of them, in a car they drove themselves,” claimed a former employee of Jackson. Brando apparently insisted on stopping off at various fast food restaurants en route.
However, it may be a shaggy-dog story. One of Taylor’s assistants told Vanity Fair that the actor stayed behind in New York, visiting Ground Zero and praying in a church.
Naturally the casting announcement has raised some eyebrows. Despite his eccentricities and the dramatic, to say the least, changes in his experience, Jackson was a black man. Specifically, he was a black man who championed black causes, and struggled with a chronic skin condition. Since all three of the celebrities depicted in this movie are now dead, here’s to hoping that someone’s estate puts a stop to this one.
