History Channel Denies Satan in 'The Bible' Series Cast To Resemble Obama - Wall Street Journal (blog)

By WSJ Staff

Was the Satan character in History's hit miniseries "The Bible" cast to resemble President Barack Obama? After charges surfaced in the media suggesting just that, the History channel saw fit to issue a denial of the allegation and a defense of its casting.

In that statement, "The Bible" Executive Producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey called the notion that they cast an actor that resembled Obama "utter nonsense."

On March 10, Speakeasy asked Burnett and Downey about the casting of Satan in their miniseries. Burnett answered: ""Mohamen Mehdi Ouazanni is a great Moroccan actor. Probably half the cast are Moroccan because we're in Morocco, just in terms of budgeting, to fly people in from other countries is expensive. People have said to me there's no way you spent less than $150 million. I'm telling you it's less than $22 million."

Here's the entire History statement that was issued today:

"HISTORY channel has the highest respect for President Obama. The series was produced with an international and diverse cast of respected actors. It's unfortunate that anyone made this false connection. HISTORY's 'The Bible' is meant to enlighten people on its rich stories and deep history."

From "The Bible" Executive Producers, Mark Burnett & Roma Downey:

"This is utter nonsense. The actor who played Satan, Mehdi Ouzaani, is a highly acclaimed Moroccan actor.  He has previously played parts in several Biblical epics– including Satanic characters long before Barack Obama was elected as our President."

Executive Producer, Roma Downey added, "Both Mark and I have nothing but respect and love our President, who is a fellow Christian.  False statements such as these are just designed as a foolish distraction to try and discredit the beauty of the story of The Bible."