'Queen Cleopatra' Director Speaks Out Against Critics Of Egyptian Royal's Race in Netflix Mini-Series

Budget? What’s that? The royal family doesn’t know!

Paramount+ has released first-look photos and an official title for Taylor Sheridan’s upcoming espionage thriller Special Ops: Lioness (fka Lioness), starring Nicole Kidman, Zoe Saldaña, Laysla De Oliveira and Morgan Freeman.

Jessie Ware recently revealed to NME why she missed out on the opportunity to open for Prince.Speaking to NME for the latest In Conversation series, Ware shared the reason why she had to pass up on the opportunity to open for the late pop icon on his 2014 ‘Hit & Run’ tour – jokingly blaming having to go to Greece to plan for her wedding.“I was supposed to be opening for him at a Birmingham gig,” she said. “I knew he liked me because he used to do these live streams as a DJ, and he started playing ‘Wildest Moments’.

EXCLUSIVE: Bella Thorne is headed to the 69th edition of Italy’s Taormina Film Festival (June 24 to July 1) after being invited to guest curate one of its gala evenings with a special program of short films including her own directorial debut Paint Her Red.

FKA Twigs apparently wants nothing to do with her ex-fiancé Robert Pattinson – considering she seemingly left a Met Gala after-party early in order to avoid an awkward run-in with him! Yikes…

Shortly after graduating from the esteemed Tante Marie Culinary Academy, Carolyn Robb found herself cooking for none other than King Charles. Following a nerve wracking interview and test run, Carolyn secured a job working as a chef at Kensington Palace where she worked between 1987 and 2000.

“The Daily Show” guest host Dulcé Sloan isn’t buying it.To kick off her week guest-hosting the show, Sloan mocked Egyptian officials for their outrage, after they claimed the ancient queen was actually “fair-skinned” and Greek.“Oh, OK. Egypt is concerned about ‘historical accuracy.’ I didn’t hear you complain when all them ‘Mummy’ movies came out,” Sloan mocked. “What are you talking about? We got mummies coming back from the dead, chasing Brendan Fraser, and y’all don’t have a problem,” she continued.

The controversy over Netflix‘s Queen Cleopatra limited series is getting more dramatic.

Netflix‘s Queen Cleopatra.In the documentary, which is narrated by Jada Pinkett Smith, Cleopatra is portrayed by biracial actress Adele James (Casualty).Her casting has sparked a debate in Egypt, with various figures accusing the docudrama of “blackwashing” the country’s history. One lawyer even filed a lawsuit against Netflix, claiming the project had contradicted and distorted Egyptian history in favour of promoting Afrocentrism.On Thursday (April 27), the antiquities ministry in Egypt weighed in on the debate, saying that Cleopatra had “white skin and Hellenistic characteristics”.“Bas-reliefs and statues of Queen Cleopatra are the best proof,” the ministry’s statement read (via The Independent).Queen Cleopatra, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was born in 69 BC and died in 30 BC in Alexandria.

Egypt’s Supreme Council Of Antiquities (SCA) has added its voice to the row over the portrayal of Cleopatra as a Black woman in Netflix’s upcoming docudrama Queen Cleopatra.

Donald Sutherland has been cast in a key recurring role in Taylor Sheridan’s Lawmen: Bass Reeves (fka Bass Reeves), exec produced by and starring David Oyelowo.

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have gone viral with a video they made in protest of the drag bans happening in the United States.Since the beginning of 2023, dozens of bills have been filed in states across America, targeting drag performances.Last month in Nashville, Tennessee, lawmakers passed a law that bans one class of entertainer: «male and female impersonators,» otherwise known as drag performers. However, a day before the nation's first anti-drag law was set to take effect, a federal judge temporarily blocked it for violating the First Amendment.Now, Bacon and Sedgwick are throwing themselves behind the LGBTQ+ community by dancing to Taylor Swift's «Karma» to raise awareness about the bans on drag queens. The Twitter video starts with the married couple in matching T-shirts standing far away from the camera.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The trailer (below) for “Draw for Change!” – which was named best documentary series at Canneseries this week – has debuted. The feature film version of the first of its six episodes, “Behind the Lines,” will world premiere at Visions du Réel Film Festival on April 28. The series, from creators Guillaume Vandenberghe and Vincent Coen, profiles six female cartoonists working in six geographic areas of the world, in six individual films and broadcast episodes. Female directors with close connections to each of the societies represented were chosen to tell the stories. Autlook Film Sales is handling international sales.

Netflix‘s upcoming docudrama Queen Cleopatra has addressed the backlash over casting a Black actress in the lead role.Casualty star Adele James was announced as the lead of the series in April, but criticism soon followed in Egypt, with many accusing the docudrama of “blackwashing” the country’s history. One lawyer even filed lawsuit against Netflix, claiming the series had contradicted and distorted Egyptian history in favour of promoting Afrocentrism.However, in a new piece for Variety, director Tina Gharayi hit back at critics, arguing “it’s more likely that Cleopatra looked like Adele than Elizabeth Taylor,” who famously portrayed the historical figure in 1963’s Cleopatra.“For me, the idea that people had gotten it so incredibly wrong before — historically, from Theda Bara to Monica Bellucci, and recently, with Angelina Jolie and Gal Gadot in the running to play her — meant we had to get it even more right,” wrote Gharayi.“Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister? And why do some people need Cleopatra to be white? Her proximity to whiteness seems to give her value, and for some Egyptians it seems to really matter.”She continued: “After much hang-wringing and countless auditions, we found in Adele James an actor who could convey not only Cleopatra’s beauty but also her strength.

The director of “Queen Cleopatra” is addressing critics.

Actors’ Equity Association has filed an amicus brief in Tennessee opposing that state’s new law – the first in the nation – intended to limit or ban some drag shows.

Michel Dimopoulos, former director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, has died. He was 74.

Tina Gharavi Guest Contributor Last summer, I was living in Venice Beach and had decided, due to a friend’s persistence, to visit a fortune teller. Me, ever the sceptic but game for a laugh, agreed to go along. What the fortune teller said made me roll my eyes: “I am not saying you are Cleopatra but somehow you share her story and are connected.” Less than a month later, I got a call from a production company making Jada Pinkett Smith’s “African Queens” and was subsequently hired to direct four episodes of a drama-documentary on the life of the controversial leader. The joke was on me. I remember as a kid seeing Elizabeth Taylor play Cleopatra. I was captivated, but even then, I felt the image was not right. Was her skin really that white? With this new production, could I find the answers about Cleopatra’s heritage and release her from the stranglehold that Hollywood had placed on her image?

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Netflix’s upcoming docudrama “Queen Cleopatra” in which Britain’s Adele James, who is of mixed heritage, plays the first-century Egyptian ruler as a queen with African roots is sparking an uproar in Egypt. Egyptian academics are claiming that Cleopatra, who was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in 69 BC and belonged to a Greek-speaking dynasty, was of European descent and not Black. An Egyptian lawyer has reportedly filed a complaint demanding that legal measures are taken to block Netflix outright in Egypt, to prevent the show from airing. They claim the docudrama, which drops May 10, violates the country’s media laws. Netflix did not immediately comment.

previously explained that she wanted to be involved in the project because she “really wanted to represent Black women.”But Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, who previously served as the nation’s antiquities minister, is not happy with the “completely fake” portrayal of the famous queen, who he claims was wholly Greek — and “not black.” He’s accused Netflix of “trying to provoke confusion by spreading false and deceptive facts that the origin of the Egyptian civilization is black.”“Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was light-skinned, not black,” the archaeologist told the Al-Masry al-Youm newspaper, per a BBC report on Wednesday.In addition, lawyer Mahmoud al-Semary filed a complaint Sunday with the country’s public prosecutor to demand that Netflix be blocked in Egypt, claiming they are trying to “promote the Afrocentric thinking … which includes slogans and writings aimed at distorting and erasing the Egyptian identity.”A petition titled “Cancel Netflix’s ‘Queen Cleopatra'” has more than 3,200 signatures on Change.org. Another petition for the cause that allegedly garnered 85,000 signatures was meanwhile removed from Change.org.