Celia Cruz Biopic

Latest Updates on: Celia Cruz Biopic

Celia Cruz Biopic Updated:

Monday 28th July 2003: Celia Cruz Biopic Update:
Whoopi Goldberg has reportedly upset fans of the celebrated salsa queen
Celia Cruz after revealing she plans to play the Cuban singer in a new film.
The Oscar-winning actress is said to have angered leading figures in the
city's Cuban community because she is black, while Cruz was Latina. Radio
host Celines Toribio of the Latinomix station told reporters: "Whoopi
doesn't sing and she's not Latina. For you to portray a life like Celia
Cruz, you have to have that Latina flavour." More than 140,000 people
attended the singer's funeral last week, with many partaking in a two-day
wake, and the news of the Goldberg film so soon after her death seems to
have struck an ill chord with her fans. Many callers to Toribio's morning
show agreed that Goldberg was the wrong choice for the role. However it is
the 48-year-old actress who owns the rights to the Cruz story, having
negotiated with the singer herself on behalf of her own film company, One Ho
productions. Said Goldberg: "To see a rich, dark, chocolate woman in command
of thousands of people with her voice and her energy helped me believe that
anything is possible." Samuel Jackson is slated to play the Salsa queen's
husband, Pedro Knight.

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