Image from Sister Act The Musical in New York.
Image: Jeff Christensen/AP/Press Association Images
Remember that film starring Whoopi Goldberg about a pretend nun in Harlem whose former life involved a mobster boyfriend and a Las Vegas singing career? Just this week, a nun has claimed that the movie is actually based on her 1987 autobiography, reports the Hollywood Reporter.
Nearly 20 years after the film Sister Act premiered in cinemas across the world, Delois Blakely has decided to sue Walt Disney Co. and Sony Pictures for basically stealing her book and using it as inspiration for the film.
After the autobiography was published, the Harlem nun brought it to a bunch of producers in the hopes of seeing her life transformed for the silver screen. Describing herself as a “young, Black, singing nun serving the street people and youths of Harlem”, she filed suit stating she first pitched the idea to Tri-Star Pictures. According to Business Insider, Tri-Star Pictures expressed interest in the rights. However, Scott Rudin then took the project to Disney and the film was made without the nun’s involvement.
As far as we can tell, there was no mention of a proposal for Sister Act 2 in her lawsuit. However, there are some similarities other than the black, singing nun in Harlem description. Goldberg’s character in Sister Act was called Deloris – just one letter off Delois…hmmm.
She is kind of bad-ass as well - currently, she is heading up the Occupy Harlem protests and has been named the community mayor of the borough. Despite those facts, we must question whether the woman who was profiled in the New York Times as Harlem’s Queen Mother in 2003 had a murderous (and married) boyfriend or such a love-hate relationship with a mother superior (that bares a resemblence to Maggie Smith).
Here at TheJournal.ie, we also doubt that Blakely ever did this:
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