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"The folks behind the upcoming Nina Simone biopic, Nina, are moving forward with their leading lady pick, despite the controversy surrounding their choice.\r\nOn Friday, onlookers got a glimpse at the film&amp;apos;s star, Zoe Saldana, who debuted her big screen makeover during some downtime on set in Los Angeles.\r\n\r\nThough she had yet to change into costume, Saldana, 34, channeled the late singer with a little help from some facial prosthetics, fake teeth and an afro wig.\r\n\r\nWriter/director Cynthia Mort&amp;apos;s decision to cast Saldana as Simone has been a point of contention for pop culture critics ever since it was announced this summer. A number of bloggers have slammed the filmmaker&amp;apos;s pick, asserting that Saldana is too light-skinned for the part, and that the casting choice is another example of Hollywood&amp;apos;s tendency to whitewash African American history.\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;When is it going to be O.K. to not be the delicate looking ideal of what the media considers blackness to be?&amp;quot; blogger Tiffani Jones of Coffee Rhetoric wrote (via The New York Times), linking to a petition on Change.org, whose mission is to convince filmmakers to &amp;quot;replace Zoe Saldana with an actress who actually looks like Nina Simone.&amp;quot;\r\nTell Us: Do you think Zoe is the right actress to portray Nina?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/picture-see-zoe-saldana-dressed-as-legendary-soul-singer-nina-simone-20122310>