Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | November 20, 2025
Yesterday, someone dropped a link into our Slack to a story with a strange mix of names: Fox News, Ainsley Earhardt, Kristen Bell, Brian Cox, FOX Faith, and podcast. Specifically, a Fox News press release announced that it would air “The Life of Jesus Podcast,” featuring Kristen Bell (Mary Magdalene), Sean Astin (Matthew), Neal McDonough (Jesus), Brian Cox (Voice of God), Malcolm McDowell (Caiaphas), John Rhys-Davies (narrator), Julia Ormond (Mary, Mother of God), and Ainsley Earhardt as the narrator.
Huh.
But before you worry that Kristen Bell has gone to the dark side for money, Rolling Stone reports that the announcement was basically the first Bell (and several of the other actors) had heard about it. As it turns out, Kristen Bell did do a recording as Mary Magdalene, but it was for a separate audiobook project she recorded 15 years ago. Bell only learned about this the day before the announcement, when Fox News’ morning show Fox & Friends asked her to appear on the show to discuss it.
The original project was a New Testament audiobook, The Truth and Life Dramatized Audio Bible. The fact that Bell didn’t appear on Fox & Friends and had her rep release this information likely went against the wishes of Fox News, which reportedly had one producer ask an actor involved not to mention that it was recorded 15 years ago.
The project is still coming. It was originally a 23-hour audiobook. Now it’s a podcast arriving in four installments of 13 episodes from November to March. Pass.
I was going to see if Bell had posted about this on her Instagram, but she has apparently blocked us. Thanks, Kayleigh! I still love Nobody Wants This and Veronica Mars all the same, and Scrubs is still my all-time favorite comedy even though Zach Braff has blocked us, too. See how we don’t hold a grudge? It’s called … journalism.
