Alicia Keys to Play Lena Horne in New Oprah Movie, Janet Dropped
Oprah Winfrey is reported to have cast R&B singer Alicia Keys in the lead role in her forthcoming biopic on jazz star Lena Horne. "We're going to start filming next year, and we've got Alicia," Oprah reportedly told the New York Post column during an interview for her film "The Great Debaters." Singer Janet Jackson is reportedly devastated by the news, as she had actively pursued the role of Horne for years - and was in talks to play the music legend when the project was earmarked for a TV special. Horne reportedly dropped the bomb on Jackson following her role in the Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction." Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (born June 30, 1917 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York) is a popular singer of African-American, Native American and European American descent. She has recorded and performed extensively with jazz musicians (notably Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson), Billy Strayhorn, and Duke Ellington. She currently lives in New York City. She might be best-known for her version of the song "Stormy Weather", which was a hit in the 1940s.