December 08, 2004

And the angel Gabriel Kylie said unto Mary Posh: My goodness, but this is the tackiest Nativity Scene I've ever come across. Madame Tussauds dress the Beckhams as Mary and Joseph in their Christmas display, which, according to the Vatican, may well be blasphemous.

With a supporting cast including Tony Blair, George Bush and The Duke of Edinburgh as the three Wise Men, I think we can probably all agree this is hideously tasteless, but is it any more blasphemous than, say, a random village nativity play starring snotty kids and the local mayor? Or more blasphemous than this? Or this, or this? And if so, why? (more pics of the waxworks here)

posted by mothninja 20 years ago
  • I hope Larry Flynt plays Baby Jesus.
  • WWJD? WWLFD?
  • I guess to answer that I would have to believe in the medieval concept of blasphemy. As I see it, someone made a diorama with celebrities and it got on the news for some reason.
  • "There is a tradition in which each generation tries to re-enact the nativity, but oh deary me." We don't cotton to that sort of rough language around here, vicar!
  • Blasphe-you, maybe, but it's not blasphe-me. The Vatican can be quiet for a bit, frankly, and wander through their own museums. Half of the great religious art of the renaissance sets biblical scenes in contemporary settings, in contemporary dress. It's only that people don't generally know the difference between a fifteenth century Florentine tunic and a 1st century Palestinian fishing smock, that we don't realise this immediately. If modern day religious art actually followed the same artistic forms as the stuff in the Vatican Museum, early Jesus would be wearing bum-crack revealing jeans, and a baseball cap like any other carpenter, and Apostles would be in suits. Whoever paid for the painting would be painted right into the foreground, and his enemies would appear at the back with an obvious skin disease painted in for good measure. So, blasphemy? No more than Michelangelo. Tacky as all hell? Yes indeed.
  • So, Posh would be the Virgin, right? Is this some of that post-modern irony I keep hearing about?
  • You say blashphemy like it's a bad thing.
  • this explains so much about the "christianity" thing I keep hearing about!
  • Ooh, I'm going to derail my own thread for a moment - I've just realised the potential here for novelty pun-tastic Christmas carols: (altogether now!) We three kings of government are... Away-strip in a manger... Oh little town of Beckham, how still we see thee lie... any more?
  • Come to think of it, Dangerismymiddlename, didn't medieval and renaissance patrons often pay to get their likenesses rendered into sacred scenes they had commissioned?
  • Actors Hugh Grant, Samuel L Jackson and comedian Graham Norton play shepherds "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night" —Ezekiel 25:17
  • Makes me think of a Jeff Koonz sculpture.
  • Vitalorgnz, yes, exactly. The Medici did it all the time, for example. Take The Procession of the Magi. It's a huge fresco of the arrival of the three wise men to visit the new born Jesus. We all know the story, right? Well, pretty much everyone important looking in this complete masterpiece of a work is either a member of the Medici family or one of their friends. The silly red hats? Contemporary Florentine fashion. The countryside? Typical Tuscany. It's only because you and I don't recognise these people that we can look at it cleanly. At the time, it would have a totally different viewing experience, with a totally different meaning. It gets worse. Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi has Cosimo de Medici actually playing the part of one of the kings. He's the one laying his hands on the Baby J. And see the guy on the far right, looking out at us? That's Botticelli himself. Sorry to go on, but I love this stuff.
  • heh. so does this trump my idea to do a front lawn nativity in pink flamingos???
  • I'm not religious but this strikes me as so wrong that I do believe it is blasphemous. C'mon Posh as mary, c'mon. I couldn't care whether this was also the rage in ancient times. It still jars.
  • Having looked at the pics in more detail. I can say however that i'm digging Kylie.
  • First moderately interesting Madame Tussauds does in a century and they get threatened with the excommunicationhammer? Harsh. Bit of a larf, nothing more. Having said that, having heard their spokespeople trying to defend this on the radio all day, they did a lot worse job than most people here - didn't even try to put it in a historical context, basically said "we didn't put the slightest thought into this, and now we're scared because we've accidentally done something that people pay attention to".
  • People get worked up about the silliest things.
  • It's slightly disturbing that they cast Bush and Blair as two of the wise men, although there is some satisfaction from seeing Bush in a turban. Really. I wouldn't hire either of them to clean stables, since they seem totally incapable of cleaning up their own mess.
  • DangerIsMyMiddleName - Those are brilliant, thanks.