Egypt

Angelina as Cleopatra causes backlash

I was waiting for this. It is a highly emotive topic. These are just a small sample of what's landing in my inbox.

Deadbolt News

Although Angelina Jolie has amassed millions of fans and is up for the role of Cleopatra in an upcoming film about the classic Cleopatra, not everyone is onboard with Jolie possibly playing the Queen of the Nile.

According to Mail Online, some members of the African American community are questioning the move of Angelina Jolie to play Cleopatra. Instead of Jolie, some claim Cleopatra should be given to a black actress instead. An Essence Magazine online report asks the question, 'Another White Actress to Play Cleopatra?' The last non-black actress to make the Cleopatra role famous was Elizabeth Taylor in 1963.

CNN (Lisa Respers France)

The latest example is the controversy surrounding the news that Angelina Jolie has been tapped to play the Queen of the Nile in a planned film based on the forthcoming biography "Cleopatra: A Life."

A posting about the backlash on CNN's Marquee blog drew more than a thousand responses as varied as from those who argued Cleopatra was Greek and not dark-skinned to those who noted Hollywood productions are often not historically accurate.

"I believe everyone is overlooking the obvious: Cleo was NOT Egyptian, she was of Greek descent," wrote a commenter named Daniel. "Cleo was a Ptolemy and they were Greek descendents of one of Alexander's generals; they married within their own family almost to the point of inbreeding and stayed that way until Cleo's death."

A visitor to the site named Gregory took a different tack.

eurweb.com (Shirea L. Carroll)

Jolie, a Hollywood A-lister, will do her best in bringing the story of the famed Egyptian queen to life, and it appears no one doubts she can do it… including Pulitzer prize-winning author Stacy Schiff, who penned the biography, “Cleopatra: A Life,” a book that won’t be on shelves until the fall.

Schiff already heavily endorses Jolie, stating, “I think she’d be perfect for it and I can see a possible Oscar in her future. Physically, she’s got the perfect look.”

Gasp, the nerve! “She’s got the perfect look?” Honestly, I don’t care how full Angelina Jolie’s lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film, I firmly believe this role should have gone to a Black woman.

- The Search For Cleopatra
National Geographic (Chip Brown) Where, oh where is Cleopatra? She's everywhere, of course—her name immortalized by slot machines, board games, dry cleaners, exotic dancers, and even a Mediterranean pollution-monitoring project. She is orbiting...

- Cleopatra’s True Racial Background (and Does It Really Matter?)
Oxford University Press blog (Duane W. Roller) Racial profiling and manipulation have been around for a very long time. It has become an issue in contemporary politics, and over 2500 years ago the Greek historian Herodotos wrote that ethnicity was regularly...

- Review: Schiff's Cleopatra
Voice of America (David Byrd) A new biography by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff tackles the life, death and legacy of Cleopatra. Schiff's work challenges some of the assumptions long held about Egypt's last queen. It has been said...

- Book Review: Cleopatra, Last Queen Of Egypt
JS Online (Allen Barra) Cleopatra, Last Queen of Egypt. By Joyce Tyldesley. Basic Books. Cleopatra has generated more fame - in the form of poems, paintings, books, plays and films - per known fact than any woman in history. Advertisement As Joyce Tyldesley...

- Was Cleopatra Black?
http://www.thewestsidegazette.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=64481&sID=4"Watching a local television program recently, I heard Spike Lee express his belief that Queen Cleopatra of Egypt was Black. The African American hostess of the TV show agreed...

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