Lady Gaga will play Cilla Black in Dionne Warwick biopic
Update: Lady Gaga’s reps have denied she is officially part of the project, despite the news having been announced at a press conference.
Original story below:
Lady Gaga has been cast as late TV and music legend Cilla Black, in a biopic centred on the life of Dionne Warwick.
The upcoming film is based on the of I Say a Little Prayer singer’s autobiography, covering the early period in her career in the 1960s.
Former Destiny’s Child singer LeToya Luckett has signed up to play Warwick – but the casting of Lady Gaga as her music rival Cilla Black is the one that’s taken fans by surprise, surprise.
Black, who passed away last year, had a glittering music career in the ’60s. She shared a record label with Warwick – which led to clashes between the pair as they were frequently working from the same pool of songs.
Warwick accused Black of “whitening up” soul and “stealing my music”, and once said of her: “I honestly believe that if I’d sneezed on my next record, then Cilla would have sneezed on hers too. There was no imagination in her recording.”
Speaking at a Cannes press conference where the casting of Gaga was confirmed, Warwick described the late TV icon as her “nemesis”, but insisted they had repaired their relationship in later life.
She said: “She stole my music, and I was not a very happy camper about that. Over the years, we grew up and understood each other. It all got cleared away. [She won’t be a] villainess in the picture.”
Of the casting of Gaga, she said:”It was just an easy choice and she wanted to do it.”
It is the latest in a string of acting roles for Lady Gaga – who has recently appeared in American Horror Story, and also took up roles in Robert Rodriguez
films ‘Machete Kills’ and ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’.
No release date has been announced for the biopic, titled Dionne.