So this is really fucking awkward.

In a month when high profile black actors and actresses rightly boycott the Oscars in protest over Hollywood’s lack of diversity, a white European actor has now been cast to play the role of one of the most famous Black American singers in history.

Apparently Joseph Fiennes has been cast as Michael Jackson in a British film about an alleged road trip he took with Marlon Brando, and Elizabeth Taylor directly after 9/11. The story goes the trio wanted to get out of New York so they hired a car and drove to Ohio.

Really? What’s next? Stephen Fry cast as Little Richard? Hugh Laurie to play Nat King Cole? The only way this production can redeem itself in the diversity stakes will be if Caitlyn Jenner plays Elizabeth Taylor and Morgan Freeman is cast as Brando.