Aaliyah Movie Gets Official Air Date on Lifetime
The Lifetime network movie about the life and tragic death of entertainer Aaliyah Haughton officially has an air date this November.
"Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B," starring Alexandra Shipp, will make its two-hour premiere on Lifetime Networks Saturday, Nov. 15, at 8pm ET. The television movie executive produced by Howard Braunstein, Debra Martin Chase and Wendy Williams, is based on the best selling book Aaliyah: More Than a Woman.
After Aaliyah's family publicly spoke out against the small screen film, actress Zendaya Coleman backed out of starring in it. Her replacement, Shipp, 23, is an actress and singer who starred in Nickelodeon's show "House of Anubis" along with other programs such as "Victorious," "Switched At Birth" and "Awkward." While she is gearing up to star in Nick Cannon's "Drumline 2: A New Beat," it seems the entertainer has spent little time on social media since news broke that she would star in the film.
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Shipp was forced to face the anger of fans of the late singer who believe she is not honoring the Aaliyah's memory. Last summer, Shipp took to Twitter to ask God for help in the situation.
"God, blind me to negativity," she tweeted. "Give me strength to overcome the obstacles ahead and do what you put me on this planet to do: illuminate."
While Shipp received threatening replies to her prayer, 17-year-old Zendaya is no stranger to the treatment when she previously agreed to portray Aaliyah before backing out of the role. After Zendaya backed out of portraying Aaliyah last June, she took to Instagram in a video clip that explained her reason for doing so.
"The reason why I chose not to do the Aaliyah movie had nothing to do with the haters...the main reason is that the production value wasn't there, there were complications with the music rights, and I just felt like it wasn't being handled delicately considering the situation," Zendaya said on Instagram. "And I tried my best to reach out to the family on my own, and I wrote a letter, but I was unable to do so; therefore, I felt not really morally OK with moving forward with the project."
