Michael Jackson's family isn't happy with the depiction of the late icon in the forthcoming British TV special Urban Myths.

The special, which fictionalizes a road trip Jackson allegedly took with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando in the immediate wake of 9/11, stars Joseph Fiennes underneath a few pounds of makeup apparently intended to make him resemble the singer.

Jackson, for the uninitiated, was famously black. Fiennes, meanwhile, is notably white.

The decision to cast a white man as Jackson may have been informed in part by the fact that Jackson had vitiligo, a condition that causes a person's skin to lose its pigment. Jackson repeatedly denied persistent rumors that he had bleached his skin to change his appearance, saying in interviews that he was a "proud black man."

The announcement of Fiennes's casting sparked outrage on social media, and now Jackson's own relatives have weighed in on the issue.

"I'm so incredibly offended by it, as I'm sure plenty of people are as well," Jackson's daughter, Paris, wrote on Twitter. "It honestly makes me want to vomit."

Michael's nephew, Taj, also expressed his disappointment. "Unfortunately this is what my family has to deal with. No words could express the blatant disrespect," he tweeted.

Last year, Fiennes defended his decision to accept the role in an AP interview. "I deal in imagination, so I don't think imagination should have rules stamped on them," he said. "I went with the mind that this was a positive light-hearted comedy."

The half-hour special will air on January 19.