According to The New York Times, there has been a concerted attempt by certain members of the online community to have the 34-year-old actress removed from Simone&rsquo;s role, the Daily Mail reported. <img alt="Zoe Saldana" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2012/sep/Zoe.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 732px; " /> Zoe Saldana. Pic/Santa Banta Tiffani Jones, who runs Coffee Rhetoric, raised the serious issue on her blog: &ldquo;Hollywood and the media have a tendency to whitewash and lightwash a lot of stories, particularly when black actresses are concerned.&rdquo;u00a0&ldquo;When is it going to be OK to not be the delicate looking ideal of what the media considers blackness to be?&rdquo; she wrote. The blog is linked to an online petition run by Change.org, which has nearly 3000 supporters, who are calling for director Cynthia Mott to dismiss the &lsquo;Avatar&rsquo; star from the film and hire another actress whose skin tone is closer to Simone&rsquo;s. Also disapproving Saldana&rsquo;s casting is the late singer&rsquo;s daughter Simone Kelly, who has taken to her Facebook page to voice her concerns, she wrote, &ldquo;Appearance-wise this is not the best choice.&rdquo; Although Kelly went on to say that she had no problem with the star&rsquo;s acting ability, she admitted she would like to see a much darker-skinned actress like Viola Davis or Kimberly Elise take the role and said that her mother would have wanted actress Whoopi Goldberg to play her role.

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Zoe Saldana, who is supposed to play legendary jazz singer Nina Simone in her biopic, is embroiled in a controversy after critics claimed that she was not dark enough for the role.

Zoe Saldana not 'dark-skinned enough' to play jazz legend Nina Simone

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Home / Entertainment / Hollywood News / Article / Zoe Saldana not 'dark-skinned enough' to play jazz legend Nina Simone

Zoe Saldana not 'dark-skinned enough' to play jazz legend Nina Simone

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