Kristen Bell Will Be Mary Magdalene in a Podcast About Jesus

Update (5:00 p.m.): An earlier version of this story joked about Kristen Bell cashing a paycheck from Fox News. But, while the company purchased the project to turn it into a podcast, the audio was recorded in 2010. This story has been updated to reflect that change. 

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In the latest edition of “If You Had Given Me One Million Guesses, I Wouldn’t Have Guessed This,” Kristen Bell‘s next starring role is not for film, television, Netflix, Disney, or even the Great American Media network.

On Wednesday, Variety reported that Fox News is launching The Life of Jesus Podcast on November 30, a 52-episode series starring our very own Anna from Frozen as Mary Magdalene. Each episode will be introduced by Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt. A fun fact about Ainsley is that when Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes in 2016, Earnhardt publicly defended him, saying, “I want the public to know that this is a man with a really good heart.” Thank god someone was looking out for the public.

But this project was originally recorded in 2010, according to Rolling Stone, writing that Bell was blindsided by the announcement. Which I guess answers my original question from this morning, which was: Does she even know she’s been signed up for this?! Apparently not, so my apologies to Bell.

Bell originally recorded Magdalene for The Truth and Life Dramatized Audio Bible, a New Testament audiobook released in 2010, according to the outlet. “A producer tied to the Bible audiobook has since partnered with Gulfstream Studios, which is licensing The Life of Jesus Podcast to Fox Faith, according to publicly available information,” RS writes. OK then!

The rest of the cast includes Brian Cox as the Voice of God, Sean Astin as Matthew, Malcolm McDowell as Caiaphas, and Neal McDonough as Jesus. If this project were being recorded today, I’d bet Fox could have gotten Sydney Sweeney to voice Mary Magdalene. Seems like the perfect role for a Florida Republican!

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