CHRISTOPHER STEVENS A credulous cop who believes in the paranormal? dailymail.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymail.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Soma Ghosh
, February 26th, 2021 11:26
Lee Daniels gorgeous star-spangled biopic of Billie Holiday honours the incomparable artist, but risks reducing her to a shiny, heroic emblem more than the harsh-throated contradiction she was, finds Soma Ghosh
Norman Granz writes on the liner of
Songs For Distingué Lovers (1957) that Billie Holiday “happened to some songs”. From the moment she happened, mainstream culture has tried to explain away the transgressions that make Billie the seminal godmother of RnB queens and punks alike.
This 1959 obituary by Time magazine sums up the Establishment’s begrudging awe:
Died. Billie Holiday, 44, Negro blues singer, whose husky, melancholy voice reflected the tragedy of her own life. Born of indigent teenagers, schooled in a Baltimore brothel, she stubbornly nursed her resentment ….
21 shares Don t you know who this is? asks Lyonne, who plays movie star and Billie s lover Tallulah Bankhead, as she and Day s Billie Holiday pour over a selection of jewels. She was thinking of something more special, Lyonne adds, as Day sells her portrayal with an adjustment of her fur shawl and a perfectly strung out delivery: I m downright flashy, you know?
Civil Rights icon: The 36-year-old stars as the titular jazz singer in the untold story of her 1939 song Strange Fruit, which protested the lynchings of Black Americans, making her a target of the FBI
Talented ensemble: She stars alongside Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund and Natasha Lyonne in the film, which premieres February 26 on the streaming platform
The Butler, the director has had major success with TV series like
Star and our own namesake,
Empire – but for 2021 he’s coming back to the big-screen with a story about an American icon.
The United States Vs. Billie Holiday tells the story of the legendary jazz singer, and the relationship she struck up with Jimmy Fletcher – a Black FBI agent who was sent to arrest her as the bureau pursued her on drug charges.
“When he got to understand who Billie was and what he was doing, he was sort of a double agent,” the director tells
Empire in the upcoming