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Never send a girl to do a woman's job – especially on film

 

Gillian Orr
Wednesday 25 April 2012 10:08 BST
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Taylor Swift, pictured, will play the legendary Joni Mitchell
Taylor Swift, pictured, will play the legendary Joni Mitchell (AP)

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Country-pop princess Taylor Swift is in talks to play legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in a forthcoming adaptation of Sheila Weller's acclaimed – and brilliant – book Girls Like Us, about the lives of Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carole King. Fans of the acclaimed Mitchell, who is consistently heralded as one of the greatest songwriters in history, are less than pleased at the idea of such a comparatively lightweight artist portraying their complex idol (rumours that Justin Bieber, currently causing mayhem across London, is interested in the role of Jackson Browne remain unfounded).

But Mitchell's fan base is not the only one unhappy with the choice of actress set to play their hero. Spare a thought for followers of Whitney Houston, whose biopic is reportedly coming to the big screen with another pop star, this time Rihanna, portraying the late singer. No one could argue that Rihanna isn't a formidable artist in her own right, but her sole experience in films has been "kicking ass" as a weapons expert in the universally panned adaptation of the board game Battleship, which didn't exactly demonstrate the emotional range required to tell a story as sad as Whitney's.

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