An almost 20-year-old Madame Tussauds nativity scene has gone viral – and for good reason.
The 2004 creation is quite possibly the weirdest thing we’ve ever seen at the waxwork tourist hotspot – , circa 2023. You’re welcome.
The nativity scene includes – wait for it – Victoria and as Mary and Joseph, and Kylie Minogue as a levitating angel, yes, with wings.
But it doesn’t end there. Enter , Hugh Grant and Samuel L Jackson as shepherds (naturally), and ex Prime Minister , the late Duke of Edinburgh and George W Bush as three wise men. Yikes.
The images have now resurfaced on X, formerly Twitter, as Kylie fanpage @MinogueUpdates shared the photo and captioned it: ‘madame tussauds london christmas nativity scene featuring kylie minogue as the angel and david & victoria beckham as joseph & mary.’
The nostalgic image quickly did the rounds, with people commenting with fresh shock 20 years later.
‘That’s creepy,’ said one user called CJ, while @hilaryrough simply commented: ‘HELP.’
The unlikely scene was unveiled way back when McFly were at number one, and was dubbed controversial at the time with church figures taking offence at the unconventional nativity display.
It was displayed in the Divas hall in the VIP corner, alongside the likes of J-Lo and Queen Bey, as dancers bopped to Britney Spears songs in the background, according to a report by at the time.
The Vatican, however, thought the scene was ‘worse than bad taste’ branding it ‘cheap’ as an official source told Reuters in Rome at the time.
‘You cannot use contemporary personalities as the central figures in the Nativity … And it becomes worse, if that were possible, if the people may be of questionable moral standing,’ he said.
That same year, as we all recently re-learnt in the new Netflix documentary titled Beckham, Posh and Becks were in the news for the ex Manchester United player’s alleged– the same year as the nativity scene.
While he denied it, the controversy was major news at the time.
Others at the time condemned the nativity scene for its political connotations, rather than its religious ones.
‘I didn’t like George Bush as one of the three wisemen,’ a tourist told NBC at the time.
The attraction chose who would be starring as Mary and Joseph via a poll of 300 visitors through its doors in October that year, and the famous couple came out on top.
The Beckhams were not aware of the museums’s plans to depict them in the scene, according to a spokesman for the couple.
‘Posh and Becks are incredibly famous. They’re the couple of the moment in this day, like Mary and Joseph were the couple of that moment,’ said Diana Moon of Madame Tussauds at the time.
She continued to say the museum had respected tradition, using a plastic doll in the manger.
‘We’re sorry if we have offended people,’ she added, saying it was intended in a spirit of fun.
