Janet Jackson has been left out in the rain after "Stormy Weather" singer Lena Horne balked at having the younger star play her in a planned television movie.
Horne, 86, reportedly is angry about Jackson's breast-baring stunt at Super Bowl and pressured ABC to drop Jackson from the project, the trade newspaper Variety reported.
Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who also produced bios The Three Stooges, Martin and Lewis and the controversial The Reagans, also quit the project in solidarity with Jackson, Variety added.
ABC executives resisted Horne's demand, but Jackson representatives told the trade newspaper that she left willingly after Horne and her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley, asked that she not take part.
The network wouldn't comment.
In addition to her work as a pop musician, Jackson also has acted in the films Poetic Justice and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. She was recently photographed in makeup designed to mimic Horne in a Vanity Fair photo spread.
The Associated Press
TEMPO HEADLINES
Bound
for the Sky
Literacy
promotion flush with possibility
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Painter
wants you in his show
Riverbend
will get $1.2 million update
BBC
America back in office with drama
Treasures
from the Vatican
Top
10s
PEOPLE
Super
stunt costs Jackson role as Horne
Timberlake
bows out of 'Motown 45' special
Cincinnatian
could be 'Millionaire'
Frampton
bassist dies during tour
Birthdays
PLANNING AHEAD
Get to
it
The
early
word
TV best bets
