As the daughter of one of the most polarizing celebrities to ever walk the face of the earth, Paris Jackson is no stranger to controversy. But the latest drama swirling around her has nothing to do with her super famous family — it's all about her playing a role in a new project that has already rubbed many people the wrong way.
The upcoming film Habit stars Bella Thorne as a young woman with a "Jesus fetish" (whatever that means) who narrowly escapes the clutches of a dangerous drug dealer by pretending to be a nun. Gavin Rossdale (leader of rock band Bush and ex-husband of Gwen Stefani) also stars in the movie, and Jackson will round out the trio of famous faces, playing Jesus Christ in the project.
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The outrage from the internet was swift. Upon hearing about the film's premise and Jackson's role in it, a Change.org petition was created soon after, demanding that Habit never be distributed across any platform.
"A new blasphemous Hollywood film is predicted to come out soon depicting Jesus as a lesbian woman," explained the petition's creator. "Let’s please spread awareness and wake people up to the Christianophobic garbage that is spread nowadays, but is somehow accepted and praised by society."
The petition, which specifically calls for Lionsgate and Warner Brothers to block Habit from being released to the public, has already been signed over 300,000 times by people around the world. Comments on the Change.org entry are vehemently opposed to the film, calling it blasphemous and a direct slight to Christians everywhere.
"We are now a society where we try to be sensitive to others beliefs," wrote one signee. "Why is this okay to offend Christians? It's not!"
"All for the almighty dollar," said another. "You should be ashamed."
Thorne reacted to the outrage against the film, which she executive produced, on her Instagram story. "Because Jesus is a woman," she captioned a screenshot of a post discussing the petition. "Wowowowowow."
There's no word yet on whether the overwhelmingly negative public response will have any tangible impact on Habit's distribution. But, for people who are so against the project, they sure are giving it a lot of free promotion — the world probably wouldn't have even known about the film without the petition. Their protest might actually have the opposite outcome to what they were hoping to accomplish.
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