Fox News Media just announced a new religious podcast, but the network is already facing a massive legal headache after repurposing audio from over 100 film and TV stars without their permission. The new project, called “The Life of Jesus Podcast,” has completely shocked celebrities like Kristen Bell and Brian Cox, who had absolutely no idea their voices were being used for a Fox News production.
You’d think a network would check with the talent first, especially when one of the stars they stole from is Brian Cox. Remember, Cox has publicly criticized the network before, having literally called Fox News “like, the devil” back in 2021. So, you can imagine how thrilled he is about this unauthorized reuse.
His representative confirmed to Rolling Stone that Brian recorded the audio for a different project over a decade ago. “He was unaware that the audio would be repurposed for a new podcast series in 2025,” the rep stated. He, like many others, didn’t hear about this whole mess until Wednesday.
This seems like a clear-cut case of artists’ rights violation
The network announced this whole situation on November 19 as part of its expansion of Fox Faith. This massive podcast claims to broadcast the “life, teachings, and miracles of Jesus Christ” using audio originally recorded up to 15 years ago for a New Testament audiobook.
Kristen Bell, who voiced Mary Magdalene for the original 2010 project called The Truth and Life Dramatized Audio Bible, was completely blindsided by the news. This is Bell’s second time this year when she has been in the news for reasons unrelated to her work. A representative for The Good Place star confirmed that while she consented to the original audiobook recording, “nobody told her that work would be remixed for something else.”
In a truly unbelievable twist, Bell actually learned about the unauthorized remix on Tuesday when she was invited onto Fox & Friends as a guest to promote the very project she didn’t know existed. Other major names appropriated for the new podcast include Sean Astin, Malcolm McDowell, Neal McDonough, Julia Ormond, and John Rhys-Davies.
This is where things get really sticky for the network. It’s one thing to upset a few actors who recorded something 15 years ago, but it’s another thing entirely when you appropriate the work of the leader of the actors’ union. Sean Astin, whose voice was used for the project, is currently serving as the 4th national president of SAG-AFTRA. Fox is definitely going to find out if “repurposing” all this talent’s work is against union rules, and I’d bet all my money that it is.
This is a massive legal catastrophe waiting to happen, and it couldn’t have picked a worse time to mess with union rules. Fox News gained some public goodwill last month by refusing to sign the Pentagon Press Policy, but I guess all of that is now down the drain.
Published: Nov 24, 2025 06:30 pm