Lady Gaga Will Not Portray Cilla Black In New Film
Well, it’s official. Lady Gaga is not Cilla Black, at least on screen, that is.
According to Vulture, R&B legend Dionne Warwick announced on Friday at the Cannes Film Festival that the “Born This Way” singer would star in a biopic where she would portray the late English singer Cilla Black, whom Warwick considered a “nemesis,” because Black’s version of “Anyone Who Had a Heart” charted higher than her original.
“It was just an easy choice and she wanted to do it,” said Warwick, who even showed off a poster of the film that featured Gaga’s name.
However, only a few hours after the announcement was made, the singer’s PR representatives denied that she was starring in the project.
“Lady Gaga is not attached and will not appear in the project,” said her publicist in a statement. “Reports of Gaga starring in the project are false.”
In the meantime, the rumor made headlines worldwide. Warwick spoke to Variety, describing what happened as “a glitch,” but assured that the statement was true.
Apparently, Gaga was unaware of the project’s existence, but Warwick would later blame the eccentric singer’s PR representatives for the debacle.
Warwick continued, “It’s like everything else. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. It becomes a problem. When they start talking to each other, it’s going to make a difference.”
Before the statement was made, a spokesperson for Cilla Black’s estate had approved of the casting choice, telling BBC News, “We think Lady Gaga is fabulous! She’s a great actress and we really look forward to seeing her portrayal.”
Variety reported that the film titled Dionne is set to start filming in October and will focus on the early years of Warwick’s career from 1962 to 1968 when she recorded hits like “I Say a Little Prayer” and “Alfie.” The film will be adapted from Warwick’s biography My Life, As I See It: An Autobiography.
Actors that have been confirmed include LeToya Luckett (formerly of Destiny’s Child) as Warwick, Danny Glover as Warwick’s father Mansel and Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis as Marlene Dietrich, who was a mentor to Warwick.
Daniel Martin of The Guardian speculated how Lady Gaga, who has recently won a Golden Globe for her work on American Horror Story, would go about approaching the role of the Liverpudlian singer, whom Dionne Warwick didn’t want to portray as “a villainess” in the film.
Martin questioned whether an A-list American celebrity could accurately do a “Scouse” accent that’s synonymous with Liverpool.
Martin continued, “To master the accent, Gaga (or anyone else) must consult the bible: Frank Shaw’s Lern Yerself Scouse: how to Talk Proper in Liverpool.”
Despite now adding acting to her resume, Lady Gaga is sticking to what she does best and that’s music. It was reported by Tech Times that Gaga is working on a new studio album titled LG5.
Gaga is collaborating with RedOne who co-wrote “Poker Face” and “Bad Romance” along with producer Mark Ronson. Ronson said that this new album will be a “very honest, authentic, kind of analog record,” which will be different from her 2013 album Artpop. Gaga is also taking on a new task, playing the guitar.
“She’s the happiest when she’s sitting at a piano, barking orders at a drummer,” said Ronson, during an interview on Charlie Rose. “That side of her, I don’t think a lot of the world has seen.”
To cap off a busy week, Lady Gaga had the honor of having several species of ferns named after her by biologist Kathleen Pryer of Duke University. Some of the ferns were said to resemble Gaga’s over the top stage outfits.
“We wanted to name this genus for Lady Gaga because of her fervent defense of equality and individual expression,” said Pryer.
[Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]
