R&B singer Mary J. Blige is set to make her film debut. The star will play the role of jazz singer Nina Simone in an biopic, which charts Simone's rise to stardom, and her relationship with her agent, Clifton Henderson. Nina Simone was also an active participant in the civil rights movement in the U.S. in the 1960s, before being exiled to Paris in 1974, where she died in 2003 at the age of 70. It will be Blige's first acting role, although she has worked on film soundtracks including Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Waiting to Exhale. | 
