Jolie 'Cleopatra' casting sparks race row

The producers of the forthcoming Cleopatra film have been criticised for casting Angelina Jolie in the title role.

An article by Shirea L. Carroll on website Essence.com blasted Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin and the makers of the historical epic for selecting Jolie to play an African queen.

She wrote: "Honestly, I don't care how full Angelina Jolie's lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film, I firmly believe this role should have gone to a Black woman."

Carroll suggested that Vanessa Williams, Halle Berry and Thandie Newton would have been better choices for the part, and lambasted Hollywood for previously casting white women Claudette Colbert, Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor as the Egyptian queen.

Stacy Schiff, author of the biography Queen Of The Nile, Cleopatra: A Life on which the movie will be based, previously endorsed Jolie, saying that she had "the perfect look" for the role. Schiff has also suggested Jolie's partner Brad Pitt to play Cleopatra's lover Marc Anthony.