BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
A few days after her triumphant role in “The Wiz,” Queen Latifah is on board another TV project.
The singer/actress/rapper/author has been cast in a leading role in Lee Daniels' upcoming music drama, which is still untitled (and working under the named "Untitled Lee Daniels Music Pilot"), though earlier reports had it called "Star."
The show will focus on three young women who form a girl group in the hopes of hitting it big in the music industry. The (fictional) show will be set in Atlanta and production on the Fox Television project begins here this month.
Latifah will play “Carlotta,” the owner of an Atlanta beauty salon who becomes a surrogate mother to the trio, even though she doesn’t approve of their aspirations.
A nationwide search led to the casting of Jude Demorest of Detroit as “Star,” the tough 18-year-old who has been in out of foster homes; Ryan Destiny of Detroit as “Alexandra,” a wealthy 20-year-old who grew up on the Upper East Side of New York and wants to forsake her privileged life to make authentic music; and Brittany O’Grady from Washington D.C. as “Simone,” Star’s younger sister who is hopeful that Star will rescue her from an abusive foster home.
Daniels, of course, helped create another music-based series – the mega-sized Fox hit, “Empire.”
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