Weeks after unveiling that Zendaya Coleman was set to star as Aaliyah in a Lifetime biopic, the actress has resigned from the project.
“We are sad Zendaya will no longer portray Aaliyah. Production is currently on hold,” Lifetime wrote in a statement posted on its Twitter account on Sunday. A network rep did not comment further.
Zendaya, a Disney Channel star, was cast in the lead role as the R&B singer. The actress and singer was to record four of the songs that would’ve appeared in the movie.
After the announcement by Lifetime of the biopic on June 16, the family of Aaliyah pushed back against the project in multiple reports.
Lifetime “didn’t reach out,” Aaliyah’s cousin Jomo Hankerson told The New York Daily News in a June 24 story. He added that the family was seeing a lawyer about rights issues.
I hate this for her. She’s a new actress being cast in a fairly major role and it seems she was caught in the middle of bad business….However, her resigning was definitely the right thing to do. You don’t don’t to be a part of a biopic that the family is against.
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