The Fox News announcement of a new podcast series on Jesus Christ has turned into a bizarre holiday tale in Hollywood, as several actors attached to massive, 52-episode project claim their recordings date back 15 years and are being released without their prior knowledge.

But reps for Bell claim that the actor was blindsided by the announcement, as she had recorded the audio 15 years ago. She only learned that Fox planned to release a podcast with her name attached the day before the announcement, when her team received an invitation to appear on Fox & Friends the following day, her reps told Rolling Stone. Her team added that she never gave permission for the original audiobook – The Truth and Life Dramatized Audio Bible, released in 2010 and acquired by Fox News Media via a licensing deal with a company called Gulfstream Studios – to be repurposed into a new podcast.

Reps for Cox, McDowell and Rhys-Davies confirmed to Rolling Stone that they were similarly shocked by the news, with some only learning of the new podcast as news of Bell’s confusion circulated on Thursday. “Brian recorded audio for a project over a decade ago,” a rep for Cox said in a statement. “He was unaware that the audio would be repurposed for a new podcast series in 2025. Brian only became aware of the podcast today.”

Rolling Stone also obtained a note from a producer associated with the new podcast at Fox, in which they requested a celebrity cast member “not mention that this audio New Testament Bible was produced years ago, we’d like it to feel like something that was produced more recently”.