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Escape from New York: When Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor Took a 9/11 Road Trip

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the King of Pop and the two Oscar-winning actors piled into a rental car and drove across America. At least, that’s the urban legend that’s very much up for debate

In our summer-long series, “Highway to MEL,” we’re exploring all the twists and turns of a perfect getaway. Stick with us as we roll through all-American tales of great escapes down endless highways, and prove once and for all that there is nothing more liberating than the open road. Read all the stories here .

In the last decades of her life, Elizabeth Taylor struck up an intense friendship with Michael Jackson . The kind of friendship that involved gift elephants, diamond necklaces and extravagant weddings . Taylor also defended Jackson against the allegations of child molestation that surfaced against him in the 1990s and 2000s. And before she died, Taylor left instructions that she was to be buried next to her dear friend Michael at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery, so she could spend eternity by his side.

While their obsessive, lavish friendship was well-known and documented, there’s one iconic story about a mythical road trip the two friends took along with Marlon Brando that’s still mostly the stuff of Hollywood legend.

In 2011, when Osama bin Laden was located and killed, stories from the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks resurfaced in the media and cultural zeitgeist. But there was one story that defied imaginations. That year, Vanity Fair published the story of Jackson, Taylor and Brando munching on Burger King and KFC as they drove across America together in the days just after 9/11.

In 2001, Jackson was in New York City to perform two concerts at Madison Square Garden on September 7th and 10th to mark the 30th anniversary of his career as a solo artist, and he invited his best friend Taylor to join him. Other stars in attendance were Eminem, Yoko Ono and Whitney Houston , and Jackson took special care to invite his good friend Brando, too.

The show opened with Brando , who sat on stage in a leather chair while he fiddled with his watch. Eventually, he looked up at the crowd and told them about the children being massacred overseas and credited his friend Jackson with saving them. When he was done, a heckler shouted, “Hey, Stella!” After that, Jackson graced the stage and “sat like a Roman emperor in a lit booth near the side of the stage and air-kissed the performers,” with Taylor and Macaulay Culkin at his side.

The day after his second concert, the planes hit and the Twin Towers collapsed. Like millions of others, the three megastars found themselves trapped in New York and terrified of what could come next. Their answer was to take a road trip across America.

Tim Mendelson, who was Taylor’s assistant for 25 years, told Vanity Fair that Jackson received a call from friends in Saudi Arabia, warning him that the U.S. was under attack. He told everyone with him in his hotel, including Brando, to leave as quickly as they could. But Taylor was staying at another hotel a few blocks away, and throngs of fans surrounded them as they tried to get over to her. Corey Feldman , a friend of Jackson’s, recalled in the Vanity Fair story , “Michael was trying to get Elizabeth out! He was at first looking for a private jet. He wanted permission to fly out — but everything was surreal. I didn’t go with him.”

Another eyewitness was a former employee of Jackson’s, who credited his boss with coordinating the three megastars’ road-trip travel arrangements, saying that Jackson guided Taylor and Brando to a spot in New Jersey where they could hole up before the long cross-country trek. Once they secured a rental car, they hit the road. The former employee told Vanity Fair, “They actually got as far as Ohio — all three of them, in a car they drove themselves!”

He went on to claim that Brando even “annoyed his traveling companions by insisting on stopping at nearly every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway.”

Yet, in the same Vanity Fair story, a second unnamed assistant remembered things very differently . “Elizabeth stayed behind, where she went to a church to pray, and she went to an armory where people were who couldn’t get home or who’d stayed behind to look for the missing. She also went down to Ground Zero, where she met with first responders. Eventually, the airports opened and she flew home.”

This version of events was later confirmed by a second person, Stacy Brown, a Jackson biographer and close friend of the family. To clear things up, Brown wrote her own version of events in an article for the New York Post , in which she explained how she helped Jackson’s family return to California after the attacks. “On Tuesday, September 11th, they awoke at their Plaza hotel suites to find chaos. Jackson had been up early, about 4:30 a.m., searching newspapers and scouring the television for the first reviews of his shows,” she wrote. “As the catastrophe unfolded, Brando refused to leave his room. But Taylor took off to meet Debbie Reynolds, who had attended the concerts but needed to be back on the West Coast for an engagement. Taylor called her ex-husband, Virginia Senator John Warner, to ask for help. Knowing that Taylor and Brando were okay, Jacko checked in on his mother, Katherine, and his brothers, who were staying across town at the W Hotel.”

Once Jackson was convinced his family was safe, he made plans with Brown to get the hell out of New York City. Knowing that she was a local from Queens, Jackson asked her the best way to flee. “I helped them book two RVs — each fit 18 passengers and were driven by their security guards,” she explained.

However, Jackson wasn’t with his family in the RVs. Instead, he switched hotels and “moved into the Trump International and sent his spokesman, Bob Jones, to check on Brando.” True to form, Brando was being difficult. Jackson’s team was informed that, “‘Brando doesn’t want to talk to anybody. He said he’s not going to come out of his room until the world ends.’” (When the world continued on, Brando did eventually leave his hotel room.)

Two days after the Towers fell, Jackson finally did drive out of New York. But he wasn’t behind the wheel, and it wasn’t Taylor and Brando who were with him but his children. The first stop was a hotel within view of Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands. Jackson, his kids and his team waited for the skies to reopen so they could fly home. In the meantime, per Brown, Jackson looked after his fans. He instructed his tour bus to head back to Manhattan and provide rides to anyone who was still stuck in the city after camping outside Madison Square Garden waiting for his show.

Brown wrote about what was on Jackson’s mind at the time, recalling he said, “I’ve got to make sure they’re okay. What would they think if I’m safe and they’re left hanging out there with nowhere to go? They came from England, they came from France and they came from Japan. How are they getting along?”

There were about three dozen Jackson fans who were indeed stuck in a devastated Manhattan after the concerts. Jackson paid for them to stay in hotels in New Jersey and got them tickets to movies and trips to fast-food spots.

That’s apparently what really happened. The story of the road trip, though, is the better tale, which is also why it’s such an enduring one. In fact, the British show Urban Myths planned to cover it in a 2017 episode starring Stockard Channing as Taylor, Brian Cox as Brando, Carrie Fisher as herself and Joseph Fiennes as Jackson. The Jackson casting, however, is the reason the episode never aired , as Fiennes, star of Shakespeare in Love , is white, an egregious insult even for a forgettable television series.

In the early press for the show, Fiennes was eager to discuss his casting as Jackson. “I got the script the other day. It’s a challenge,” he told media outlets . “It’s a fun, lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek road trip of what celebrity of that kind is like. But also, it’s rather beautiful and poignant about their relationships as well.” He would later add, “So the three of them got in a car and drove 500 miles [ sic ] to Los Angeles. It took them a while because they had to stop at a lot of Burger Kings for Marlon; but they got out!”

It got much, much worse before the project was rightfully shelved, with Fiennes at one point reasoning to Entertainment Tonight , “[Jackson] was probably closer to my color than his original color.”

Luckily, this isn’t the only rendition of the infamous American road trip that never happened. Around the same time, the New Yorker published a short story on the imagined escapade by Zadie Smith . In her version, the three megastars cross America in a Toyota Camry, eating fast food and arguing about the state of America, celebrity and humanity. “It was the sixth or seventh go-round. They were almost in Harrisburg, having been considerably slowed by two stops at Burger King, one at McDonald’s , and three separate visits to KFC. ‘If you play that song one more time,’ Marlon said, eating a bucket of wings , ‘I’m going to kill you myself,’” Smith wrote.

“The sun was setting on the deep-orange polyvinyl-chloride blinds in their booth, and Michael felt strongly that his new role as the Decider must also include some aspect of spiritual guidance,” Smith continued. “To that end, he passed Marlon the maple syrup and said, in his high-pitched but newly determined tones, ‘You know, guys, we’ve driven six hours already, and, well, we haven’t talked at all about what happened back there.’”

Smith’s retelling was completely fictional (and satirical), of course. But for the first time, nothing more needed to be said about this legendary tale.

Zaron Burnett III

Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL.

The Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor Story Gets Even Crazier Thanks to Casting

The story is irresistible: on 9/11, unable to fly, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, and Marlon Brando jumped in a car together—the three of them, no entourage—and made it as far as Ohio in an attempt to escape New York City. The story was first revealed in a 2011 Vanity Fair story by Sam Kashner — with the caveat that Taylor’s representative insists she remained in New York City, which makes it possible the whole thing never happened. The story has now made the next inevitable step in evolution: it’s becoming a movie.

A British TV movie, to be specific, which means it may not be all that easy to watch in America. Given one of the casting choices, that may be for the best; Joseph Fiennes , the brother of Ralph best known for his role in Shakespeare in Love , has been cast to play Jackson. It’s inspired the expected round of “WTF?” headlines, and especially amid an uproar about the Oscars and recognition for black actors, isn’t necessarily the best look for an industry still trying to prove that it offers opportunity for actors of color. Then again . . . Michael Jackson’s appearance had changed pretty dramatically by 2001. It doesn’t eliminate the question of race, but it does make the role a mighty challenge to cast no matter who you choose.

As Kashner himself points out, via e-mail, “I think the casting is inspired, actually. Sometimes life isn't just stranger than fiction, it's fiction’s muse!” And the author of the original story about Liz, Michael, and Marlon’s escape isn’t surprised at all to see it taking on new life. “There's something just so irresistible about simply the image of this holy trinity in the car together. It's a kind of comic misrule flight out of Egypt story, and a tale told out of the celebrity Bible that should go on forever.”

Fiennes, speaking to WENN , agrees that the film is a “challenge,” and describes the story as “a fun, light-hearted tongue in cheek road trip of what celebrity of that kind is like. But also it’s rather beautiful and poignant about their relationships as well.” With Stockard Channing set to play Taylor and Brian Cox as Brando, the film will provide an opportunity to see three fascinating characters step into three even more fascinating, larger-than-life personalities. But will the tricky race issue make it harder to enjoy this celebrity story on screen than in print?

Michael Jackson in His Own Words

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Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando’s Post-9/11 Road Trip

Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, and Michael Jackson road-tripped to Ohio together as they fled New York after September 11. Well, probably not, but: What a terrific story! Jackson had performed at Madison Square Garden on September 10, and his BFFs Taylor and Brando had joined him in town. In the aftermath of the attacks, the King of Pop tried valiantly to shuttle his friends away from the city, but when his attempts to charter a private jet were foiled, he did what anyone would do: jumped in the car with two aging legends and drove west. To … Ohio.

A former employee of Michael Jackson’s says that Michael, like General Washington, led his entourage to a temporary safe haven in New Jersey, before the three superstars took to the open road. “They actually got as far as Ohio — all three of them, in a car they drove themselves!” he recalls. Brando allegedly annoyed his traveling companions by insisting on stopping at nearly every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway. One can only imagine the shock their appearance caused at gas stations and rest stops across America.

Oh, boy, can one imagine it. An associate of Elizabeth Taylor’s denies the story, because of course she does, but it barely matters.

Hollywood, make this movie right now. Stop working on the Three Stooges movie, stop making a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean , and stop trying to make another Superman: Make this movie instead . America!

Liz Taylor, Michael Jackson, and Marlon Brando Star in … Escape from New York! [Daily/VF]

elizabeth taylor
marlon brando
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What michael jackson, elizabeth taylor and marlon brando really did after 9/11.

It’s an irresistible story: Three of the world’s most iconic superstars, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando, jumped in a car together to flee New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Liz, the ever-bejeweled dame of classic Hollywood; Brando, the greatest actor of his generation; and Jacko, the King of Pop, terrified, crammed into one car, grabbing KFC takeout and making pit stops at gas stations.

And so Sky Arts Television’s “Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon” was born. The British TV production is expected to hit the airwaves this year, and it’s already stirring controversy with the casting of a white actor, Joseph Fiennes, to play Jackson.

Unfortunately, it never really happened.

I know, because I helped Jackson’s family return to California after the 9/11 terror attacks.

The three legends — who never spoke publicly about their 9/11 experience before their deaths, fueling the urban legend that was first printed in Vanity Fair — were in New York to participate in Jacko’s two concerts at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Sept. 7, and Monday, Sept. 10.

On Tuesday, Sept. 11, they awoke at their Plaza hotel suites to find chaos. Jackson had been up early, about 4:30 a.m., searching newspapers and scouring the television for the first reviews of his shows.

As the catastrophe unfolded, Brando refused to leave his room. But Taylor took off to meet Debbie Reynolds, who had attended the concerts but needed to be back on the West Coast for an engagement. Taylor called her ex-husband, Virginia Sen. John Warner, to ask for help.

Knowing that Taylor and Brando were OK, Jacko checked in on his mother, Katherine, and his brothers (they had performed with him for the first time in 17 years), who were staying across town at the W Hotel.

I was friends with Jermaine, and since I was a longtime Queens resident, he asked for my help getting out of the city.

I helped them book two RVs — each fit 18 passengers and were driven by their security guards.

But Jacko was not with them. He had moved into the Trump International and sent his spokesman, Bob Jones, to check on Brando.

“Brando doesn’t want to talk to anybody. He said he’s not going to come out of his room until the world ends,” Jones said.

Jackson actually made his escape from New York in his tour bus two days after the attacks. Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando were not with him — but his young children Prince and Paris, friend Frank Cascio, Cascio’s brother Aldo and father, Dominick, and two security guards were.

After learning that the Lincoln Tunnel had reopened, Jacko headed to the Meadowlands, stopping at a hotel near Giants Stadium before deciding to bunk at Cascio’s home in Franklin Lakes, NJ. Planes were still grounded.

But something kept nagging at him — the fate of the dozens of fans who had camped outside The Plaza all week. He ordered the tour bus to return to Manhattan on Thursday and Friday to offer rides out of the city to anyone who needed them.

“I’ve got to make sure they’re OK,” Jackson told me by telephone that Friday. “What would they think if I’m safe and they’re left hanging out there with nowhere to go? They came from England, they came from France and they came from Japan. How are they getting along?”

Jackson wound up footing the bill for nearly three dozen fans to stay in New Jersey. He even treated them to fast food and movie outings.

“We should get that in the newspapers,” Jones told Jacko.

“No,” the singer protested. “The people in those buildings [the World Trade Center], the paramedics, firefighters, the police, the mayor. They should be in the newspapers.”

Jackson stayed in the New York City area until late December, when he finally returned to Los Angeles.

Stacy Brown is a freelance journalist and Michael Jackson biographer who for years had a close relationship with the Jackson family.

Michael Jackson and The Infamous Road Trip. Did It Really Happen?

Actor Joseph Fiennes became a household name after starring as William Shakespeare in the Oscar-winning film Shakespeare in Love. Now, production company Sky Arts features the actor in a British comedy drama. The story centers on a road trip taken in 2001 featuring Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, and Michael Jackson. In the 30-minute comedy special, actress Stockard Channing will play Elizabeth Taylor, actor Brian Cox will play Marlon Brandon, and actor Joseph Fiennes will play Michael Jackson. This announcement started an Internet frenzy and could not have come at a worse time, as Hollywood is receiving such negative attention due to #Oscarsowhite and the Oscar Boycott. There is outrage among Hollywood actors and the public because there is not enough opportunity for actors of color. When there are situations where a white actor plays Michael Jackson (who is Black) are taking roles that should feature actors of color, this casting just reinforces the idea that there are systemic problems from the top down.

But Joseph Fiennes doesn’t seem to see the problem with his casting. He made some comments about it the casting that made the public even angrier by telling ET that he is just as shocked about the role as the public. His justification for taking the role is since Michael Jackson had a light complexion, the public should go with the flow because he and Michael look alike anyway.

“It’s my face as a child in the commercial,” Jackson said. “Me when I was little. Why would I want a white child to play me? I’m a black American. I’m a black American. I’m proud to be a black American. I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am. That’s like you [Oprah] wanting an oriental person to play you as a child. Does that make sense? Please people stop believing these horrifying stories.”

“It’s offensive to me and my family for my uncle Michael to be portrayed in a comedy taking place around 9/11,” TJ told Entertainment Tonight in a statement. “Like everyone else, he was distraught, saddened and trying to process what had just happened. Following the events of 9/11, my uncle, Michael, stayed with a family friend in New Jersey for a week before flying back. The rest of our family immediately took buses back to Los Angeles as planes were grounded. There was no road trip with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando”

This is a bombshell! So the road trip never happened? There is no way to truly confirm the story because Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando are all deceased. But TJ Jackson’s explanation makes sense. How could anyone function in all that chaos? How does one find comedy in such a crisis? Things were so hectic in New York City during the 9/11 tragedy, the idea of the three icons communicating enough to get together and travel outside of the city sounds like the stuff of fantasy than reality. Michael Jackson was a compassionate individual, so its impossible to see him having fun in such chaos.

[Photo by Vince Bucci / Getty Images]

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Wild Ride: Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando and Michael Jackson Took Epic Road Trip After 9/11

Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson attend the 20th Annual American Music Awards on January 25, 1993 in Los Angeles, California.

Unable to get a flight out of New York after the attacks, the trio hopped in a rental car and fled to Ohio. No, we’re serious.

It feels like a tale straight from Hunter S. Thompson. Three of Hollywood’s biggest stars crammed in a car together, driving across the country. We wish we could make up a story this crazy.

PHOTOS: See the iconic Elizabeth Taylor

In this month’s Vanity Fair , Elizabeth Taylor’s friends and colleagues sounded off about her life and legacy after Taylor passed away in late March. And fortunately this gem of a story emerged – perhaps the ultimate proof of Liz Taylor’s eccentricity.

As the tale goes , Taylor and Marlon Brando were visiting New York City for Michael Jackson’s concert tour that rolled through Madison Square Garden on Sept. 10, 2001. When the terrorists struck the next day, the three pop culture icons looked to flee the chaos that descended upon the city, perhaps fearing they’d be targeted as well. But with a strict ground order for all planes, even the elite couldn’t take off. And that’s when they decided to hit the road.

PHOTOS: See the devastation of Sept. 11, 2001

Michael Jackson led the group across the Hudson into New Jersey, where they snagged a rental car and began their 500-mile odyssey westward. Jackson’s former assistant says that Michael and Marlon split the driving duties, with Elizabeth taking the backseat. Brando annoyed his travel companions by stopping at every KFC and Burger King along the way — so that explains his rather portly appearance in his later years. Eventually they reached a mystery destination in Ohio, where they presumably were able to get a flight.

NewsFeed can’t imagine the heads that turned when the three celebs strolled into truck stops along Route 80. This has all the drippings of a Hollywood rendition. Scriptwriters, the ball is in your court.

( More on TIME.com : See the greatest movie car chases )

clock This article was published more than 8 years ago

The mystery of that Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando post-9/11 road trip

Terrorists have attacked New York City. So Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando pile into a car and get the heck out of there, stopping at fast food joints as they trek across the country.

This is not a Mad Lib. This reported account will be depicted in an upcoming Sky Arts movie called “Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon.” Michael Jackson — arguably the most famous black musician of all time — will be played by white British actor Joseph Fiennes, for some reason.

White man is playing Michael Jackson in a TV movie, and the Internet is angry

Whether this 9/11 escape road trip actually happened has been the subject of rumor and debate ever since Vanity Fair published the account in 2011 .

Here’s what we do know: Michael Jackson played Madison Square Garden on Sept. 7 and 10 in 2001 for 30th-anniversary concerts. A lot of very famous people in Jackson’s orbit were around for the star-studded events, including Whitney Houston, Eminem, Yoko Ono, Liza Minnelli, and yes, Taylor and Brando.

Five minutes into the first concert, “the darkened stage was lit to reveal Marlon Brando, sitting in silence on a leather chair, wearing dark glasses and a suit and fiddling with his watch, apparently oblivious to some 20,000 fans,” The Washington Post reported at the time. “When the actor finally spoke, he delivered a grumpy, half-comprehensible lecture about the ‘hundreds, if not thousands of children’ being starved and hacked to death in some foreign land. Michael Jackson, he gravely intoned, is one of the few souls out there trying to help.”

“It was a harangue that might merely have seemed inappropriately timed if it were audible. All cheer in the room vanished, replaced first by startled quiet, followed shortly by anger and a hail of boos. ‘Stella!’ hooted a wag.”

During a series of tributes, “Michael sat like a Roman emperor in a lit booth near the side of the stage and air-kissed the performers,” The Post relayed. Taylor and Macaulay Culkin flanked him.

The morning after the final Jackson concert, the twin towers fell. Chaos gripped Manhattan. Planes were grounded. And, according to Sam Kashner’s Vanity Fair piece “Elizabeth Taylor’s Closing Act,” Jackson “hollered down the hallway of his hotel for everyone in his entourage, and for Brando, to leave immediately;” Taylor was staying in a nearby hotel.

From the Vanity Fair piece:

Now here’s where the story gets complicated. In one version, these three towering icons of American pop culture planned their escape, afraid that they would be the next target. Michael and Brando had trouble leaving their hotel garage because fans kept banging on the car windows, following them down the street, screaming. Unable to fly, they drove out of the city.

Former child star Corey Feldman told Kashner that he had gotten into an argument with his friend, Jackson, the night before, and that on Sept. 11 the pop megastar was “trying to get Elizabeth out! He was looking for a private jet.” The piece continues:

A former employee of Michael Jackson’s says that Michael, like General Washington, led his entourage to a temporary safe haven in New Jersey, before the three superstars took to the open road. “They actually got as far as Ohio — all three of them, in a car they drove themselves!” he recalls. Brando allegedly annoyed his traveling companions by insisting on stopping at nearly every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway. One can only imagine the shock their appearance caused at gas stations and rest stops across America.

But this account was debunked by another anonymous source, one of Taylor’s “close friends and assistants” who insisted to Kashner that she remained in New York City, “went to a church to pray, and she went to an armory where people were who couldn’t get home or who’d stayed behind to look for the missing. She also went down to Ground Zero, where she met with first responders. Eventually, the airports opened and she flew home.”

As Kashner notes, nothing bubbled up in any news accounts at the time about Taylor tending to the stranded or visiting at Ground Zero.

Unfortunately, all three protagonists are no longer around to confirm or deny this entire episode.

Michael Jackson died five years ago. Here’s how his death played in print.

If you’re thinking, “Man, this would make for a great premise for a piece of fiction,” you’re too late! Zadie Smith beat you to it last year with her short story “ Escape from New York .” In the piece, Brando says to Jackson, “I hear you drive like a maniac.” It continues:

“I do go fast, Marlon, but I also stay in control. You can trust me, Marlon. I promise I will get us out of here.” Michael felt really sad seeing Marlon like that, eating a cheeseburger on the sidewalk. He was so fat, and his little chair was under a lot of strain. The whole situation looked very precarious. This was also the moment when he noticed that Marlon wasn’t wearing any shoes. “Have you seen Liz?” Michael asked. “What is that hunk of junk, anyway?” Marlon asked. Michael had forgotten. He leaned over and took the manual out of the glove compartment. “A Toyota Camry. It’s all they had.” He was about to add “with a roomy back seat” but thought better of it.

Fiennes, speaking to WENN , described the upcoming movie as “a story, possibly an urban legend whereby Michael, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor were all together the day before 9/11 doing a concert. Airspace was shut down and they couldn’t get out and Michael had the bright idea to go to hire a car and drive.”

He continued: “So the three of them got in a car and drove 500 miles to Los Angeles. It took them a while because they had to stop at a lot of Burger Kings for Marlon; but they got out!”

Oh, and it’ll be a comedy.

Cast & crew

Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon

Unaired episode. A road trip that takes place after the 9/11 attacks, taking Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando from New York City to Los Angeles, California. Unaired episode. A road trip that takes place after the 9/11 attacks, taking Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando from New York City to Los Angeles, California. Unaired episode. A road trip that takes place after the 9/11 attacks, taking Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando from New York City to Los Angeles, California.

Neil Forsyth
Stockard Channing
Carrie Fisher

Marlon Brando

Elizabeth Taylor

Michael Jackson
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

Trivia After widespread criticism over the casting of White-British Joseph Fiennes as African-American Michael Jackson, the episode was pulled from broadcast indefinitely.
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A Bizarre Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor Road Trip

After 9/11 the trio drove from New York to Ohio, according to Vanity Fair

The death of Osama bin Laden has brought about a rash where-were-you-on-9/11 reminiscences, none as compelling as Sam Kashner's Vanity Fair account of how Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando, and Elizabeth Taylor found a way out of Manhattan after the twin towers fell.

Jackson was in town for two concerts on the 7th and 10th, and had invited old friends Brando and Taylor as his guests. On the morning of the eleventh, writes Kashner, Jackson got "a call from friends in Saudi Arabia who warned that America was under attack." Depending on which version of the story you believe, the three stars then "planned their escape, afraid that they would be the next target," and drove out of town, even though fans kept mobbing their car looking for autographs. The trio eventually drove as far as Ohio, with "Brando allegedly annoyed his traveling companions by insisting on stopping at nearly every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway."

Taylor's associates insist the actress never went along on the road trip, and that she stayed behind in New York, "where she went to a church to pray, and she went to an armory where people were who couldn’t get home or who’d stayed behind to look for the missing." When the airports reopened, she went home to Los Angeles.

We're OK with either version, since they both involve Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando driving halfway across the country in a (presumably) rented car.

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What Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando really did after 9/11

IT’S AN irresistible story about three of the world’s most iconic superstars, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando. But is it true?

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IT’S AN irresistible story: Three of the world’s most iconic superstars, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando, jumped in a car together to flee New York City after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Liz, the ever-bejewelled dame of classic Hollywood; Brando, the greatest actor of his generation; and Jacko, the King of Pop, terrified, crammed into one car, grabbing KFC takeout and making pit stops at gas stations.

And so Sky Arts Television’s Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon was born. The British TV production is expected to hit the airwaves this year, and it’s already stirring controversy with the casting of a white actor, Joseph Fiennes, to play Jackson.

Unfortunately, it never really happened.

I know, because I helped Jackson’s family return to California after the 9/11 terror attacks.

The three legends — who never spoke publicly about their 9/11 experience before their deaths, fuelling the urban legend that was first printed in Vanity Fair — were in New York to participate in Jacko’s two concerts at Madison Square Garden on Friday, September 7, and Monday, September 10.

Marlon Brando addresses the audience during Michael Jackson's 30th Anniversary Celebration.

On Tuesday, September 11, they woke at their Plaza hotel suites to find chaos. Jackson had been up early, about 4:30am, searching newspapers and scouring the television for the first reviews of his shows.

I was friends with Jermaine, and since I was a longtime Queens resident, he asked for my help getting out of the city.

I helped them book two RVs — each fit 18 passengers and were driven by their security guards.

But Jacko was not with them. He had moved into the Trump International and sent his spokesman, Bob Jones, to check on Brando.

“Brando doesn’t want to talk to anybody. He said he’s not going to come out of his room until the world ends,” Jones said.

Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor at the Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Square Garden on September 7, 2001.

Jackson wound up footing the bill for nearly three dozen fans to stay in New Jersey. He even treated them to fast food and movie outings.

“We should get that in the newspapers,” Jones told Jacko.

“No,” the singer protested. “The people in those buildings [the World Trade Center], the paramedics, firefighters, the police, the mayor. They should be in the newspapers.”

Jackson stayed in the New York City area until late December, when he finally returned to Los Angeles.

Stacy Brown is a freelance journalist and Michael Jackson biographer who for years had a close relationship with the Jackson family.

This article was originally published in the New York Post .

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This May Have Been The Strangest Road Trip Ever – If It Indeed Happened Like They Say It Did

On September 11, 2001 , terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, thousands of people lost their lives, and three of the world's biggest celebrities supposedly fled. In what's now called the Michael Jackson 9/11 road trip, the King of Pop allegedly teamed up with his close friends Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando, rented a car, and drove everyone out of New York City. Is this the most bizarre road trip ever, or just an urban legend fueled by the celebrities' public personas? After all, Brando's weird behavior , Taylor's love of husbands , and Jackson's eccentric collections are hardly secret.

The story first came to light in 2011, with accounts coming from former assistants and friends of the trio. Unfortunately, Jackson, Taylor, and Brando have all passed on and can neither confirm nor deny this rumor. We'll probably never know the truth, but several people have tried their best to imagine this trip, publishing a short story in The New Yorker and releasing an urban legend-centered television series episode named "Elizabeth, Marlon, and Michael." Whether or not this story is true, these three eccentric celebrities would have truly made great road trip companions.

Georges Biard
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CC BY-SA 3.0

The Story Begins With Jackson In An On-Stage Booth, And Only Gets Weirder From There

The only solid facts about this story are as follows: on September 7 and 10, 2001, Michael Jackson played New York City's famed Madison Square Garden, where he was celebrating his 30th anniversary as a solo artist. A huge roster of stars were in attendance, including Eminem and Whitney Houston, as well as Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando, both good friends of Jackson. Taylor and Jackson become close after she walked out of one of his 1980s concerts and he called her to find out why; they wound up bonding over their shared experiences of becoming stars at a young age. As for Brando, according to his son Miko, Brando spent a lot of time at Neverland with Jackson.

The celebration included several tribute performances, allowing Jackson to watch from a booth placed on stage, accompanied by Taylor and Macaulay Culkin. At one point, a spotlight was lit on Brando, who had taken a seat on stage and mumbled praise for Jackson, claiming he was "one of the few souls out there trying to help" children who were starving and being "hacked to death in some foreign land."

Butterfield 8

Taylor, Brando, And Jackson Allegedly Wound Up 500 Miles Away In Ohio

Following the September 11 attacks, the three superstars were reportedly looking for a way out of New York City. Tim Mendelson, a former assistant of Elizabeth Taylor's, claimed Michael Jackson, Taylor, and Marlon Brando rented a modest car and decided to drive to the west coast by themselves. He told Vanity Fair the trio took turns driving like any considerate road trip companions, allegedly driving more than 500 miles from New York.

A former employee of Jackson was impressed enough to comment , "They actually got as far as Ohio – all three of them, in a car they drove themselves!" Why they stopped there is never explained in any rendition of the story.

The Island Of Dr. Moreau
New Line Cinema

Brando Apparently Slowed The Group Down With Constant Stops At Burger King And KFC

True story or not, there's little detail about what happened on the trip itself. Fictional accounts most likely took some creative liberty, and there are a million imaginative ideas of what three mega-stars would do while cooped up in a rental car for 500+ miles.

Sam Kashner did make one solid claim in his Vanity Fair article: that Marlon Brando was constantly hungry. "Brando allegedly annoyed his traveling companions by insisting on stopping at nearly every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway," Kashner wrote. "One can only imagine the shock their appearance caused at gas stations and rest stops across America." Truthfully, who wouldn't want to witness such a sight?

A TV Series Used The Concept, But It Was Never Broadcast Due To Problematic Casting

Even if this unusual story isn't true, it would regardless make an amazing screenplay, ripe with comedic possibilities. It's no surprise, then, that when Sky Arts began filming a new British television show wherein each episode told the story of an urban myth involving famous people, the Jackson-Brando-Taylor road trip naturally became a storyline. The show nailed casting Stockard Channing as Elizabeth Taylor and Brian Cox as Marlon Brando, but their choice for Michael Jackson completely doomed the episode.

White British actor Joseph Fiennes was hired to play the King of Pop, accepting the role because "he was probably closer to my color than his original color." The backlash was immediate, not only for whitewashing the role but also for doing so to the man many consider to be the biggest music icon to have ever lived. After members of the Jackson family voiced enough concern, Sky Arts decided not to show the episode . The only evidence it ever existed are stories about the controversy and a few shots in the series' season one trailer.

These Old Broads

Taylor May Have Stayed In New York And Hung Out With Debbie Reynolds Instead

After the controversy over the television depiction of the alleged events, another story of what Elizabeth Taylor may have done following the September 11 attacks came out. Tim Mendelson, a close friend of Taylor, claimed he was with her around the time of the attack and that the road trip never actually happened. He checked on Taylor at her hotel and later called another friend, Carrie Fisher, who informed him she was doing fine but her mother, Debbie Reynolds, was in New York City and all alone.

Taylor and Reynolds had clashed in the past after Reynolds's then-husband Eddie Fisher had an affair with Taylor. The two ladies had apparently put the affair behind them; Taylor wanted to help Reynolds, telling Mendelson, "Oh my God, get her over here immediately, and take care of her. Have her be part of our group!" Mendelson also claimed Taylor went to church and the Armory, where a policeman invited her to Ground Zero.

A Reporter Claims Jackson Transported Fans Who Needed Help On His Tour Bus

An alleged friend of Jermaine Jackson told the New York Post in 2016 that the road trip never happened . According to her story, Jermaine was in town to perform in his brother's show and was staying at the hotel across the street. After the attack, Marlon Brando refused to leave his room and Elizabeth Taylor was busy with other plans, so Jermaine decided to help his brother and mother and leave the city.

The writer claimed Jermaine contacted her and she assisted the family in renting two RVs that would hold 18 people each, with their security guards acting as drivers. Jackson stayed behind and left New York City two days later on his tour bus with neither Taylor nor Brando. He went to a friend's home in New Jersey, and then sent his bus back to the hotel to pick up any fans that were still hanging around and needed help. The Post story claims Jackson treated the people to another hotel stay, movie tickets, and food. He supposedly refused media attention for his acts because the firefighters and emergency responders were the real heroes.

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One Of Taylor's Assistants Said She Stayed To Help Others, And Visited Ground Zero

In the same Vanity Fair article in which Sam Kashner recounted the road trip story, Kashner also shared a conflicting story from another assistant of Elizabeth Taylor's who claimed the trip never took place. This second assistant wanted to remain anonymous, but insisted that Taylor stayed in New York City and gave a detailed itinerary of what she did following the September 11 attacks.

According to his story, Taylor attended church and then "went to an armory where people were who couldn't get home or who'd stayed behind to look for the missing. She also went down to Ground Zero, where she met with first responders." Taylor may very well have done some of these noble deeds, but no media outlets ever reported on them.

White House Photo Office

Even Corey Feldman Had Something To Say On The Matter

There are several different explanations for the alleged road trip story, and they differ according to different witnesses. In the original Vanity Fair piece, Sam Kashner claimed the three stars were concerned they'd be next after the September 11 attacks and wanted to get as far away from New York City as they could. Strangely enough, that assertion was backed up by none other than Corey Feldman.

As a good friend to Michael Jackson, Feldman was also in attendance at the show. He remembered the pop star's concern over making sure Elizabeth Taylor made it out of the city alive after the attack. Feldman told Vanity Fair that Jackson was trying to find a private jet to save his friends, and also mentioned he decided not to join them.

It's also possible the trio simply needed to return to the west coast , but because all flights were grounded after the attack, no one could fly anywhere. Either way, the story claimed the group decided their only option was to rent a car and drive themselves out of New York City.

On The Waterfront
Columbia Pictures

Jackson And Brando Allegedly Grabbed Taylor And Escaped To New Jersey

In his Vanity Fair piece, author Sam Kashner mentioned that Marlon Brando and Michael Jackson ran into trouble long before they hit the road. Despite the chaos and more important concerns going on in New York City that day, Kashner claims the two men kept running into groups of screaming fans who stopped their car from exiting the hotel's parking garage and driving down the street.

A former employee of Jackson's continued the story, adding that Jackson and Brando made it to the nearby hotel where Elizabeth Taylor was staying, picked her up, and drove to a safe spot in New Jersey where they regrouped and planned their escape.

Jackson Reportedly Took Command And Organized Their Escape

According to the accounts of Michael Jackson's and Elizabeth Taylor's assistants, the King of Pop took his role as a leader quite seriously. He allegedly heard from friends in Saudi Arabia that the chaos outside his hotel on September 11 was indeed a terrorist attack. According to the Vanity Fair article, Jackson immediately began looking out for his companions and organizing people in order to keep them safe. Writer Sam Kashner notes Jackson "hollered down the hallway of his hotel for everyone in his entourage, and for [Marlon] Brando, to leave immediately."

One of Jackson's former assistants compared Jackson to George Washington, bravely finding a vehicle and leading his group out of danger in New York City and away to New Jersey.

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf
Warner Bros.

Zadie Smith Turned The Rumored Road Trip Into A Short Story For 'The New Yorker'

If you're disappointed the Urban Legends episode isn't available to be seen, fear not. One writer made sure this story came to life – at least on paper, that is. In 2015, Zadie Smith turned the alleged Jackson-Brando-Taylor road trip into a short story for The New Yorker , entitled "Escape From New York."

In Smith's version of the road trip, after a three-way conference call discussing car rental companies such as "Hurts," Michael Jackson rents a Toyota Camry. A barefoot Marlon Brando with a box of cheeseburgers and a jewelry-laden Elizabeth Taylor climb in. Throughout the story, Jackson remains the collected leader while Taylor freaks out in fear and Brando oozes a mix of zen calm and apathy while eating the emergency Twinkies. The trio wonders if their fame might make them the next target, but they find relief in the fact the world is turning its attention to something other than them.

Apocalypse Now
United Artists

Unfortunately, The Truth About This Story May Never Be Known

Considering this story was never heard until 2011 and appeared in Vanity Fair not long after Elizabeth Taylor died, its credibility isn't the greatest. On top of that, neither Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando, nor Taylor ever spoke about it, and neither confirmed nor denied it ever happened. Only a handful of publications published the story and only cite a few former assistants and close friends of the stars involved. For every story about what happened, there is another to conflict with it.

Unfortunately, since Taylor is gone, Brando died in 2004, and Jackson passed away in 2009, no one will ever know the truth. But whether the road trip really took place or not, almost everyone can agree it's an amazing and wonderfully bizarre tale.

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Joseph Fiennes plays Michael Jackson in British TV 'road-trip' comedy

Joseph Fiennes in January 2015, in Park City, Utah.

Gobsmacking news out of London Wednesday: British actor Joseph Fiennes plays the late Michael Jackson in a forthcoming British TV comedy about a story involving Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando widely considered an urban myth in the USA.

Fiennes, 45, is a well-regarded actor, a BAFTA winner and a SAG nominee, and best remembered as Shakespeare in Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love . But he was born 12 years after Jackson and is way more pale than Jackson was even at the height of his vitigilo skin-blotching condition.

And in case you missed it earlier, another white British actor, Charlie Hunnam (TV's Sons of Anarchy ), has been cast to play a real-life Mexican-American drug lord in a movie called American Drug Lord .

So, what's up with these casting choices? Are they just cases of really bad timing in light of the current hand-wringing over the lack of diversity in Oscar nominations and Hollywood in general?

Fiennes was cast and the project was filmed before talk of an Oscar boycott blew up this month. But the project is being held up as emblematic of the diversity problem by critics of the entertainment industry's standard practices.

Abigail Tye, a spokeswoman for Sky Arts, which is making Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon , confirmed Wednesday what had been reported in London the night before: Fiennes plays Jackson in a "lighthearted look at a reportedly true event" to be broadcast on Sky later in 2016.

What event? Allegedly, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Taylor, Brando and Jackson were stuck in New York and wanted to go home but all flights were grounded. So the trio hopped in a car and took to the road, getting as far as Ohio after frequent stops so that Brando could feast on fast food.

So, a wacky road-trip story involving real people, all now dead and unable to defend themselves.

Although this story has been debunked, it's still kicking around thanks to attention from the likes of Vanity Fair and other media.

"I think the casting is inspired, actually," enthused Sam Kashner, the writer of the 2011 Vanity Fair story about the alleged road trip, according to an email he to sent to the magazine Wednesday. "Sometimes life isn't just stranger than fiction, it's fiction’s muse!”

Kashner believes the Liz-and-Marlon-and-Michael tale is too good for producers, or British producers anyway, to ignore.

“There's something just so irresistible about simply the image of this holy trinity in the car together," he said in his email "It's a kind of comic misrule flight-out-of-Egypt story, and a tale told out of the celebrity Bible that should go on forever.”

Fiennes told The Guardian in London that the story might be urban myth but if it did happen, it might have gone something like this.

“It’s a fun, lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek road trip of what celebrity of that kind is like," he said. "But also it’s rather beautiful and poignant about their relationships.”

Even if it's bogus? No matter, according to Sky Arts.

The half-hour "one-off" comedy will be "part of a series of comedies about unlikely stories from arts and cultural history," Tye said. "Sky Arts gives producers the creative freedom to cast roles as they wish, within the diversity framework which we have set."

Unlikely, indeed. For some observers, it's unbelievable for other reasons, especially now.

"This news is not coming from The Onion . I repeat: This is really happening," huffed Yesha Callahan on The Root , the website that covers black news, culture and politics.

"Kanye West once sang, 'She got a light-skinned friend, look like Michael Jackson,' but this is just ridiculous," their headline read.

"But who cares about the story, right? Why in the world is a white man playing Michael Jackson? Did they also cast a black man as Marlon Brando? Or an Asian woman as Elizabeth Taylor? Of course not," Callahan wrote.

Scottish actor Brian Cox, 69, will play Brando and American Stockard Channing, 71, will play Taylor.

"While the premise of the film sounds like it could give a rare and fascinating glimpse into Jackson’s private life, one can’t help but be stuck on the fact that one of the greatest African-American musicians of all time will be played by a white man," reported another black-oriented website, The Grio . "We are truly at a loss for words."

The reaction on Twitter was similarly skeptical, sometimes funny, sometimes profane.

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This Week in Fiction: Zadie Smith

“E_ scape from New York ,” your story in this week’s Summer Fiction Issue, is set on September 11, 2001, and features three characters, Michael, Marlon, and Liz, whom we come to realize are Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando, and Elizabeth Taylor. What inspired the story?_

I can’t remember exactly when I first read the putative “news story” about Jackson, Brando, and Taylor escaping New York together by car on September 11th—it was many years ago, anyway. I guess it’s just an urban myth, but it has some textual support: the Guardian ran a few versions of it, although the story was explicitly denied by Marlon Brando’s people, I think. If it is purely an urban myth, I love the weird details, especially the fast-food runs. It’s wonderful that we, the people, as a collective, can generate such complex fictions.

The story combines the real and the fictional. You draw on biographical details, for example, but you’re also constructing a fictional account of the movements of Jackson, Brando, and Taylor on September 11th. How did you decide what would be based on fact and what would be pure invention?

I feel like once you’ve put these three in a car together you have a lot of license. They were all so fictional in texture even when they were real and alive on this earth. Also, the writing of the story came about in a strange way, which determined its form: it’s the only story I’ve ever written to avoid writing something else. I was in the middle of writing a long Profile for this very magazine, which I was finding very difficult to structure, and every day I approached my desk with a heavy heart, desperate to find something to do that wasn’t that Profile. I started writing “Escape from New York” at exactly the moment where the deadline for the other thing was getting punishingly close, and the more anxious I became about the deadline the more I cheated on it with a story that nobody had asked for. The joy of “Escape from New York,” for me, was exactly that I didn’t need to do the hours of fact-checking and biographical accuracy the Profile required: I could just work like a fiction writer again. This involved asking myself totally irresponsible questions like, “Well, what do you imagine Brando was like?” And then answering such questions to my own satisfaction. That seemed such a wonderful freedom when compared to: “Using biographical evidence and quotes from transcribed interviews, what kind of person is the subject of this profile?” I was playing hooky!

The story opens with a tragedy, the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, yet it’s a comic story in many ways. How did you meld the tragic and comic elements of the story?

One clear connection between the tragic and the comic is narcissism. A deep and poisonous form of narcissism will allow a man to feel he is justified in killing innocent people in the service of his beliefs—and that’s a tragedy. But narcissism takes many forms, some of which are comic. Fame is a comic expression of narcissism. I think the story describes some points on the arc of narcissism, some relatively benign, others utterly deadly.

“Escape from New York” is told from Michael Jackson’s perspective. He’s the man with the plan. In the course of the road trip, we become increasingly aware of his sense of freedom—that this represents a kind of liberation from the burden of being Michael Jackson. Did he ever surprise you as you were writing? Was this the Jackson you expected to discover when you first thought of the story?

Unfortunately, Michael Jackson has always occupied an unhealthily large space in my subconscious—I’m not proud of it. I have a feeling he’s mentioned somewhere in every novel I’ve written, and he’s in the one I’m writing now. So I wasn’t that surprised to find him turn up here again, this time in a sort of “existential hero” form. I think my thing with Michael is that as a very small child I had a lot of contradictory feelings for him, one after the other: first love, then hatred and shame, and then deep pity. I think a lot of black kids of my generation had this experience. It had nothing to do with the pedophile stuff—that all happened when I was grown and didn’t care any more. It had to do with what he did before that, to himself. Everyone’s burdened with a self, with questions concerning freedom and slavery, as they occur within a self, but Jackson dramatized that burden so publically, so brutally. I can remember thinking, as a kid, I wish he could just get some peace. I like that in this story he’s finally found some peace. He’s the Prince of Peace!

Would this be your ideal road trip? If you could put any three people in a car and ride along with them, who would they be?

No, not my ideal road trip. I think it’s a vision of hell. I’m going to squeeze one extra into the back seat and go with a mixture of real and fiction, comedy and wisdom, friendship and eye candy: Zora Neale Hurston—she’s driving—Louis C.K., Virginia Woolf, Jon Snow.

A White Actor Will Play Michael Jackson In The Weirdest Road Trip Comedy Of All Time

National Reporter, HuffPost

Stop me if you've heard this one before. Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor road-trip to Ohio after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

No, that's not the setup for the world's worst joke. It's an actual plot, for an actual one-off half hour comedy, based on what's rumored to be a true story .

But wait, it gets weirder. In news unlikely to sit well with those protesting the lack of diversity at the Oscars (and Hollywood in general), The Guardian reports Michael Jackson will be played by Joseph Fiennes , a white man.

Fiennes, who starred in "Shakespeare in Love" and "American Horror Story" (the source of the above gif) will play alongside Brian Cox, who has been cast as Brando, and Stockard Channing, of "Grease" fame, as Liz Taylor.

"I got the script the other day,” Fiennes told WENN . “It’s a challenge. It’s a comedy. It doesn’t poke mean fun, but it’s a story, possibly urban legend, whereby Michael, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor were all together the day before 9/11 doing a concert. Airspace was shut down and they couldn’t get out and Michael had the bright idea to go to hire a car and drive."

Fiennes hinted at humorous moments built around Brando's incessant desire for fast food along the journey, but suggested it wouldn't all be fun and happy meals.

"It’s a fun, lighthearted tongue-in-cheek road trip of what celebrity of that kind is like," he said. "But also it’s rather beautiful and poignant about their relationships as well.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this post mischaracterized the project as a movie.

Also on HuffPost:

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'Urban Myths' Pulls Controversial Michael Jackson Episode, But Why Did It Even Get This Far To Begin With?

Just a few days ago, Sky Arts served up the first trailer for Urban Myths , a comedy series dramatizing legends about famous people. While the show features lots of interesting casting, including Ramsay Bolton from Game of Thrones as Hitler and Eddie Marsan as Bob Dylan, the one that got the most attention was Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson . Predictably, people were pissed .

Predictably, that is, to everyone except for the people involved with that production. Following social media backlash, multiple petitions, and very harsh words from the late musician's daughter, Paris Jackson , Sky has finally realized that maybe casting a white Englishman to play a black American wasn't such a hot idea after all and announced that they're pulling the episode altogether.

The Urban Myths Michael Jackson episode was to follow Jackson on a road trip with Elizabeth Taylor ( Stockard Channing ) and Marlon Brando ( Brian Cox ) in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Fiennes' casting was first announced a year ago and immediately attracted widespread criticism. But the Urban Myths team apparently paid the controversy no mind and went on with making the episode. It wasn't until this week that they finally got the message.

Sky released the following statement (via THR ) announcing that they'd decided to pull the episode:

We have taken the decision not to broadcast Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon , a half-hour episode from the Sky Arts Urban Myths series, in light of the concerns expressed by Michael Jackson's immediate family. We set out to take a lighthearted look at reportedly true events and never intended to cause any offense. Joseph Fiennes fully supports our decision.

The original Urban Myths trailer showing Fiennes as Jackson appears to have been yanked from official channels replaced with a version that omits any mention of the "Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon" episode. (You can watch the Fiennes-free version of the trailer here .)

Paris Jackson's Thoughts

Earlier this week, Paris Jackson had made her feelings on the trailer crystal clear.

Why Did It Even Get This Far to Begin With?

It's a good thing Sky decided to pull the episode. But it's baffling and frankly infuriating that this controversy has somehow taken them by surprise. First, because it should be obvious by now that casting a white guy as a black person will get you into trouble . This isn't something someone should have to have explained to them in the year 2017. (Or 2016, when the project was first announced.)

And second, because even if they didn't know better to begin with — and clearly they didn't — plenty of people have tried to explain it to them over the past several months . That includes those who covered the story ( like our own Ethan Anderton ) and those who started petitions. Keep in mind, too, that this isn't just a slip-up made by an especially oblivious person. Multiple people had to sign off on this casting over the course of several months in order to make it a reality.

Naturally, there have been attempts to defend the casting. Director Ben Palmer told The Guardian , "We were casting Michael Jackson in 2001, and that obviously is a challenge in terms of the physical resemblance." And, besides, he continued, Fiennes is really good in it:

"We were really looking for the performance that could unlock the spirit, and we really think Joe Fiennes has done that. He's given a really sweet, nuanced, characterful performance. It's a really lovely, sweet film. I'm really looking forward to seeing how people react once they've actually seen it."

It's true that Jackson had pale skin due to vitiligo, a condition that causes skin to lose its pigment. But there's more to race than skin color, and there's more to casting than finding someone who matches a foundation shade, and whether or not Fiennes is talented is beside the point. While the Urban Myths controversy is its own thing, the tone-deaf rationale and weak excuses are frustratingly familiar by now.

The "physical resemblance" explanation was trotted out when Emma Stone was cast as a part-Asian woman in Aloha , and given an obnoxious new twist when studios tried to figure out how to make Scarlett Johansson look more Asian for Ghost in the Shell . Speaking of Ghost in the Shell , the "it's a really good performance, you'll see" defense was also put out by producers of that film, again about Johansson. I'd bet if we let the Urban Myths team talk long enough, they'd get to "it was the only way to get funding" and "he was just the best person for the job" eventually.

But by casting a white man to play Jackson, they're erasing his race from his legacy and distorting his lived experiences. As outlined here , Jackson was proudly, unequivocally black. And as shown here , Jackson was adamant that he would not want a white actor to play him, calling the notion "horrifying." I'm glad that Sky was eventually able to see the error of their ways, and reversed their decision to release this episode. But I remain deeply disappointed it got this far, to begin with. At the very least, here's hoping that everyone involved has learned from their mistakes and won't be making the same ones again.

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Joseph Fiennes Responds to Controversy Over Playing Michael Jackson in 9/11 Road Trip Movie: 'I Think Outrage Is Good'

Joseph Fiennes opens up about the reaction to his playing Michael Jackson in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter

Joseph Fiennes is responding to criticism over his casting as Michael Jackson in an upcoming film, and welcoming a conversation on its implications.

“I think outrage is good, as long as it doesn’t get into a violent shouting match,” Fiennes recently told The Hollywood Reporter . “These conversations are really important and they shape our industry. It’s vital to have them. I kind of welcome it. You can’t do this and not welcome it.”

The half-hour TV special, titled Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon , follows a fictional road trip taken by Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York.

After noting that, as a white actor, he wrestled with the implications of playing the African-American pop star before taking the part, Fiennes explained why he feels color blind casting is healthy in film.

“It’s important because all actors bring something fresh and new. We’re looking for imagination and interpretation, and it doesn’t steal anything away from the true identity of that person. It might offer something new and fresh and funny; as long as it doesn’t become disenfranchising, racial or rude or stereotypical,” he said.

VIDEO: Joseph Fiennes Is Set to Play Michael Jackson in 9/11 Movie

Fiennes also said that he believes the reaction to his casting would have been different if minority actors were offered the same opportunities as their white counterparts.

“The thing is, the playing field is not fair right now, and that’s absolutely evident,” Fiennes admitted. “This is quite right, why people are up in arms. I’m a full believer in making the playing field fair. When it is fair, we can have a conversation about this project and it wouldn’t cause outrage.”

But given the current debate on diversity in Hollywood, Fiennes said he feels the conversation is especially pertinent.

“The reaction is important – I’d never shy away from that. I share this industry with my brothers and sisters right across the board, and I only want a level playing field.”

The Shakespeare in Love actor stressed that Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon is not attempting to tell Jackson’s life’s story.

“It’s not a biopic, and it’s not Michael in his younger days,” Fiennes clarified. “It’s Michael in his last days when, I have to say, he did look quite frankly rather differently than when we grew up with him in the ’80s or earlier. So it’s as Michael as we last remembered him and how he looks.”

The comedy will be broadcast in the U.K. by Sky Arts, who defended the casting in a statement to PEOPLE. “It is part of a series of comedies about unlikely stories from arts and cultural history,” a rep said. “Sky Arts gives producers the creative freedom to cast roles as they wish, within the diversity framework which we have set.”

The Mystery Of That Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando Post-9/11 Road Trip

Whether this 9/11 escape road trip actually happened has been the subject of rumor and debate ever since Vanity Fair published the account in 2011.

Here’s what we do know: Michael Jackson played Madison Square Garden on Sept. 7 and 10, 2011, for 30th-anniversary concerts. A lot of very famous people in Jackson’s orbit were around for the star-studded events, including Whitney Houston, Eminem, Yoko Ono, Liza Minnelli, and yes, Taylor and Brando.

Five minutes into the first concert “the darkened stage was lit to reveal Marlon Brando, sitting in silence on a leather chair, wearing dark glasses and a suit and fiddling with his watch, apparently oblivious to some 20,000 fans,” The Washington Post reported at the time. “When the actor finally spoke, he delivered a grumpy, half-comprehensible lecture about the ‘hundreds, if not thousands of children’ being starved and hacked to death in some foreign land. Michael Jackson, he gravely intoned, is one of the few souls out there trying to help.”

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During a series of tributes, “Michael sat like a Roman emperor in a lit booth near the side of the stage and air-kissed the performers,” The Post relayed. Taylor and Macaulay Culkin flanked him.

The morning after the final Jackson concert, the Twin Towers fell. Chaos gripped Manhattan. Planes were grounded. And, according to Sam Kashner’s Vanity Fair piece “Elizabeth Taylor’s Closing Act,” Jackson “hollered down the hallway of his hotel for everyone in his entourage, and for Brando, to leave immediately;” Taylor was staying in a nearby hotel.

From the Vanity Fair piece:

“Now here’s where the story gets complicated. In one version, these three towering icons of American pop culture planned their escape, afraid that they would be the next target. Michael and Brando had trouble leaving their hotel garage because fans kept banging on the car windows, following them down the street, screaming. Unable to fly, they drove out of the city.”

“A former employee of Michael Jackson’s says that Michael, like General Washington, led his entourage to a temporary safe haven in New Jersey, before the three superstars took to the open road. ‘They actually got as far as Ohio — all three of them, in a car they drove themselves!’ he recalls. Brando allegedly annoyed his traveling companions by insisting on stopping at nearly every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway. One can only imagine the shock their appearance caused at gas stations and rest stops across America.”

As Kashner notes, nothing bubbled up in any news accounts at the time about Taylor tending to the stranded or visiting at Ground Zero.

Unfortunately, all three protagonists are no longer around to confirm or deny this entire episode.

If you’re thinking, “Man, this would make for a great premise for a piece of fiction,” you’re too late. Zadie Smith beat you to it last year with her short story “Escape from New York.” In the piece, Brando says to Jackson, “I hear you drive like a maniac.” It continues:

“I do go fast, Marlon, but I also stay in control. You can trust me, Marlon. I promise I will get us out of here.”

Fiennes, speaking to WENN, described the upcoming movie as “a story, possibly an urban legend whereby Michael, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor were all together the day before 9/11 doing a concert. Airspace was shut down, and they couldn’t get out, and Michael had the bright idea to go to hire a car and drive.”

He continued: “So the three of them got in a car and drove 500 miles to Los Angeles. It took them a while because they had to stop at a lot of Burger Kings for Marlon; but they got out!”

Oh, and it’ll be a comedy.

Tourist in Oregon claims he only drove drunk to get away from gun-toting landowner

A Washington man who was charged with drunken driving while on an Oregon road trip offered a highly unusual defense during trial: He only got behind the wheel to flee from an angry, gun-toting Oregonian who wanted the man off his rural property.

Michael Robert Ray Jackson, then 60, testified he had parked his van on a pullout by the side of a Grant County road, had a few beers because he’d planned to camp there for the night and then abruptly left when confronted by the armed man who lived there and had used expletives to demand that he leave. In other words, Jackson’s defense attorney argued, Jackson was faced with a nearly impossible dilemma: stay and face the wrath of the man or drive off.

Grant County Circuit Judge Robert Raschio, however, brushed aside that “choice of evils” defense by declining to instruct jurors during a December 2023 trial that it was a legitimate defense that they could consider. And jurors ended up finding Jackson guilty.

The Oregon Court of Appeals, however, overturned Jackson’s conviction this week by ruling the judge erred.

Among the 14,000 to 15,000 people cited for DUII in Oregon each year, Jackson and the circumstances leading up to his conviction stand out. Some defendants contest their charges by claiming someone else was driving. Others contend police had no lawful reason to stop them. And some argue the prosecution can’t prove they were intoxicated because they refused to submit to a breath or drug tests and they only failed field sobriety tests due to balance problems or other pre-existing medical issues.

But none of that was at play in Jackson’s case.

Jackson, a 60-year-old retiree from Gig Harbor, testified he was traveling the rural roads of Oregon solo in June 2022. Because he was on a budget and wanted to avoid campground fees, he said that he slept in his van on U.S. Forest Service roads or roadside pullouts that were on public land. He said on the night that he parked along U.S. 395 in Grant County, near Canyon City and about 400 miles from home, he checked for “No Trespassing” signs. Having seen none, he said he settled in for the night. He said by 8 p.m. he’d downed just over two beers when a “much younger” man who announced he lived on the property “zoomed up” next to him in a truck, exclaimed “Who the hell are you?” and “You need to F-ing leave now.”

Jackson testified that he has back problems, he was aware that many rural residents own guns and he didn’t want to get hurt. He said he felt “OK” to drive. So he left.

For his part, the man who confronted Jackson testified that he indeed did have a gun, which he walked back to his truck and retrieved.

But Jackson didn’t stick around to see what might have happened next. He said he drove off and kept driving, fearing that a vehicle he spotted traveling behind him was the angry man. Jackson said he saw no other places to pull over. And even if he did, he was afraid the man might pull up beside him and hurt him.

It was about five minutes into his “panicked” drive, Jackson said, that the speed dropped to 30 mph. An Oregon State Police trooper pulled him over going 40 mph.

His blood alcohol registered 0.11%, which is above the legal limit of 0.08%. He was charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants.

Now that the Court of Appeals has thrown out Jackson’s conviction, he could be retried. But whether he will be is unclear because District Attorney Jim Carpenter didn’t respond to a question from The Oregonian/OregonLive about whether he’ll pursue a new trial.

Jackson already has completed most or parts of his sentence, which included a one-year driver license suspension, listening to a panel of victims talk about how intoxicated driving has devastated their lives, a $1,000 fine and 18 months of probation, during which he is forbidden from drinking alcohol and entering bars.

— Aimee Green covers breaking news and the justice system. Reach her at 503-294-5119, [email protected] or @o_aimee .

Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.

WWII vet -- nearing 100th birthday -- wows with anthem performance

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Every baseball game in the United States seemingly starts with the same national anthem, but not all renditions strike the same chord -- no pun intended. That was evident in Comstock Park, Mich., on Saturday, when -- ahead of that evening's matchup between the High-A West Michigan Whitecaps and Lake

Every baseball game in the United States seemingly starts with the same national anthem, but not all renditions strike the same chord -- no pun intended.

That was evident in Comstock Park, Mich., on Saturday, when -- ahead of that evening's matchup between the High-A West Michigan Whitecaps and Lake County Captains -- the anthem was delivered by World War II veteran John Pylman.

Pylman isn't new to this particular gig -- he's been a regular at LMCU Ballpark in recent seasons, even having one of his previous performances go viral back in 2021 -- but his latest appearance is especially notable, as it comes just three months shy of his 100th birthday.

The Mystery Of That Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor And Marlon Brando Post-9/11 Road Trip

Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor at an event. (File Photo)

New Book Reveals What Queen Elizabeth Thought About Donald Trump

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IMAGES

Michael Jackson Takes A Road Trip in "Jacko's Wild Ride"
Joseph Fiennes To Play Michael Jackson In Road Trip Film
Did Michael Jackson's 9/11 Road Trip Actually Happen?
Joseph Fiennes to portray Michael Jackson in road trip movie
Michael Jackson
Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson, Stockard Channing as Liz Taylor in 9

COMMENTS

Escape from New York: When Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth
Escape from New York: When Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor Took a 9/11 Road Trip. In the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the King of Pop and the two Oscar-winning actors piled into a rental car and drove across America. At least, that's the urban legend that's very much up for debate.
Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando's Rumored 9/11 Road
Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando's Rumored 9/11 Road Trip: The Truth Behind the Myth ... "On Sept. 11, Elizabeth was in New York City to attend Michael Jackson's two ...
The Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor Story Gets Even
The story is irresistible: on 9/11, unable to fly, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, and Marlon Brando jumped in a car together—the three of them, no entourage—and made it as far as Ohio in ...
Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando's Post-9/11 Road Trip
Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, and Michael Jackson road-tripped to Ohio together as they fled New York after September 11. Well, probably not, but: What a terrific story! Jackson had performed ...
What Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando really did
It's an irresistible story: Three of the world's most iconic superstars, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando, jumped in a car together to flee New York City after the Sept. 11 ...
Michael Jackson and The Infamous Road Trip. Did It Really Happen?
TJ Jackson, who is currently the co-legal guardian of Michael Jackson's three children, spoke out to EiT on this comedy film road trip. "It's offensive to me and my family for my uncle Michael to be portrayed in a comedy taking place around 9/11," TJ told Entertainment Tonight in a statement. "Like everyone else, he was distraught ...
Wild Ride: Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando and Michael Jackson Took
And that's when they decided to hit the road. PHOTOS: See the devastation of Sept. 11, 2001. Michael Jackson led the group across the Hudson into New Jersey, where they snagged a rental car and began their 500-mile odyssey westward. Jackson's former assistant says that Michael and Marlon split the driving duties, with Elizabeth taking the ...
The mystery of that Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando
Whether this 9/11 escape road trip actually happened has been the subject of rumor and debate ever since Vanity Fair published the account in 2011. ... Michael Jackson, he gravely intoned, is one ...
"Urban Myths" Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon (TV Episode)
Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon: Directed by Ben Palmer. With Brian Cox, Stockard Channing, Carrie Fisher, Joseph Fiennes. Unaired episode. A road trip that takes place after the 9/11 attacks, taking Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando from New York City to Los Angeles, California.
A Bizarre Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor Road Trip
A Bizarre Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor Road Trip. After 9/11 the trio drove from New York to Ohio, according to Vanity Fair. By Ray Gustini. May 5, 2011. Share.
Michael Jackson movie: Road trip never happened, insider reveals
Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor at the Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Square Garden on September 7, 2001. Jackson actually made his escape from New York in his tour ...
The Strange Road Trip Involving Jackson, Taylor, and Brando
On September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, thousands of people lost their lives, and three of the world's biggest celebrities supposedly fled.In what's now called the Michael Jackson 9/11 road trip, the King of Pop allegedly teamed up with his close friends Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando, rented a car, and drove everyone out of New York City.
Marlon Brando, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor drive cross-country
We're dipping into one of the weirdest stories we've ever heard featuring Michael Jackson, Marlon Brandon and Elizabeth Taylor on a cross-country escape attempt. In what has to be the most outlandish story we've heard in a very long while, we're taking a look back at what might well be the most mysterious road trip of all time.
Did That Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson Post-9/11
Did That Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson Post-9/11 Road Trip Really Happen? Craig Hlavaty September 11, 2012 1:30PM
Did Michael Jackson really take a road trip with Liz Taylor and Marlon
A road-trip between Brando, Taylor and Jackson, driving out of Manhattan in a cheap rental car during the panic following the 9/11 attacks. How true is it? Possibly true.
Joseph Fiennes plays Michael Jackson in British TV 'road-trip' comedy
0:03. 2:33. Gobsmacking news out of London Wednesday: British actor Joseph Fiennes plays the late Michael Jackson in a forthcoming British TV comedy about a story involving Elizabeth Taylor and ...
This Week in Fiction: Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith discusses Michael Jackson, her ideal road-trip companions, and her story in this week's issue, "Escape from New York."
A White Actor Will Play Michael Jackson In The Weirdest Road Trip
Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor road-trip to Ohio after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. No, that's not the setup for the world's worst joke. It's an actual plot, for an actual one-off half hour comedy, based on what's rumored to be a true story. Advertisement.
Didn't Happen: Michael Jackson, Brando, Liz Taylor Road Trip
The "road trip" Michael Jackson supposedly took after the World Trade Center tragedies never happened. Various outlets are suddenly reporting that Michael gathered up Liz Taylor and Marlon ...
'Urban Myths' Pulls Controversial Michael Jackson Episode, But ...
The Urban Myths Michael Jackson episode was to follow Jackson on a road trip with Elizabeth Taylor (Stockard Channing) and Marlon Brando (Brian Cox) in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Joseph Fiennes Talks Michael Jackson Controversy Over 9/11 Road Trip Movie
The half-hour TV special, titled Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon, follows a fictional road trip taken by Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks ...
The Mystery Of That Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando
Michael Jackson — arguably the most famous black musician of all time — will be played by white British actor Joseph Fiennes, for some reason. Whether this 9/11 escape road trip actually happened has been the subject of rumor and debate ever since Vanity Fair published the account in 2011.
In novel DUII defense, tourist says he drove drunk to get away ...
Michael Robert Ray Jackson, then 60, testified he had parked his van on a pullout by the side of a Grant County road, had a few beers because he'd planned to camp there for the night and then ...
World War II veteran John Pylman sings national anthem for West
The Official Site of Minor League Baseball web site includes features, news, rosters, statistics, schedules, teams, live game radio broadcasts, and video clips.
The Mystery Of That Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor And Marlon Brando
"A former employee of Michael Jackson's says that Michael, like General Washington, led his entourage to a temporary safe haven in New Jersey, before the three superstars took to the open road.