Janet Jackson was once signed on with ABC and the late, great Lena Horne to star as Lena in her biopic. Ms. Horne was originally very pleased that Janet was going to play her, she thought very highly of Ms. Jackson if you’re nasty. Needless to say our girl, Janet was equalled thrilled after landing the part of such a huge icon that she grew up admiring.
ABC got the ball rolling and things were about to get started with production…Janet had even paid homage to Lena by wearing vintage makeup up that was similar to Lena Horne’s style on the cover of Vanity Fair back in the day. So what was the problem? How did it go from major anticipation to Ms. Horne giving a resounding “Hell no!” to Janet (well, maybe not in those exact words, but from the way it went down, it seems like that’s what she probably would have wanted to say). See how this hold thing unraveled faster than you could say “Stormy Weather” (for our younger old schoolers, that’s a classic Lena Horne song)…