Lifetime has a movie in the works inspired by the Flint, Mich., water crisis, and singer-actress Cher is slated to be the star.
Don’t roll your eyes yet; we haven’t gotten to the best part.
This is Cher’s first movie in seven years. According to the Hollywood Reporter, she will portray a Flint resident whose family is affected by the water crisis.
Because, the thinking goes, probably no one would care about a Flint movie if it featured a cast of black people, who have actually been disproportionately affected by the lead-contaminated water.
Really, Hollywood? Really, Lifetime? A city with a population of 99,000, nearly 57 percent of whom are black, and Cher is the star of the movie?
The drama is based on the events in Flint including the poor municipal management that led to the water poisoning, as well as the residents who are still suffering through it and have had their voices ignored. The majority of them are black.
Once again, Hollywood is taking a tragedy that is affecting mostly people of color and centering it on whiteness. Why do you keep doing this, Hollywood?
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the movie is inspired by a February 2016 cover story in Time magazine called “The Toxic Tap,” by Josh Sanburn.
This is Cher’s second television movie. In 1996 she starred in HBO’s If These Walls Could Talk. According to the Reporter, she has been actively involved in helping Flint residents, including donating thousands of bottles of water.
“This is a tragedy of staggering proportion and shocking that it’s happening in the middle of our country,” Cher said at the time.
Hey, maybe the movie will provide us with some insight as to just how this water crisis is going to end.
Read more at the Hollywood Reporter.