In the digital age, Hollywood casting decisions can instantly become fodder for public debate. And when the decision involves race and celebrity, the debate can get heated.

The online media world has been abuzz with criticism over the news that the actress Zoe Saldana would be cast as the singer Nina Simone in the coming film "Nina," based on her life.

Few have attacked Ms. Saldana as an actress. Instead, the reaction has focused on whether Ms. Saldana was cast because she, unlike Simone, is light skinned and therefore a more palatable choice for the Hollywood film than a darker-skinned actress.

"Hollywood and the media have a tendency to whitewash and lightwash a lot of stories, particularly when black actresses are concerned," said Tiffani Jones, the founder of the blog Coffee Rhetoric. Ms. Jones wrote a blog post titled "(Mis)Casting Call: The Erasure of Nina Simone's Image."

"When is it going to be O.K. to not be the delicate looking ideal of what the media considers blackness to be?" Ms. Jones said.

Ms. Jones's post linked to an online petition that calls for Cynthia Mort, the writer and director of the film, and Jimmy Iovine, executive producer, to "replace Zoe Saldana with an actress who actually looks like Nina Simone." The petition gathered thousands of supporters.

The disagreement has resonated in part because of Simone's place in music and social history. In addition to being a classically trained pianist, Simone, who died in 2003 at the age of 70, was a musical powerhouse who combined the styles of folk, jazz and blues with her deep, velvet voice.

She became a major figure in the American civil rights movement of the 1960s and wrote songs that addressed racism facing African-Americans. Simone celebrated her looks, which were unconventional by show-business standards. Her style included tribal-inspired jewelry and hairdos.

"The power of her aesthetics was part of her power," said Yaba Blay, a scholar of African and diaspora studies. "This was a woman who prevailed and triumphed despite her aesthetic."

Ms. Mort, who is white, said the film was not intended to be a strict biography, but instead "a love story about an artist's journey unto herself." She said that she was still in the process of confirming whether Ms. Saldana would play Simone.

The rumors of Ms. Saldana's casting prompted Simone's daughter, Simone Kelly, to write a note to her mother's fans on the official Nina Simone Facebook page. Ms. Kelly said that Simone's estate had not been asked to participate in the film.

"My mother was raised at a time when she was told her nose was too wide, her skin was too dark," Ms. Kelly said. In light of this, Ms. Saldana "is not the best choice."

The New York Times

(China Daily 09/23/2012 page12)