Lifetime‘s eagerly-anticipated true-life trash pile Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B premiered over the weekend, and it did not go over well, with critics and fans alike jeering at its questionable casting and its “tasteless” and “soap operatic” qualities.
Aaliyah Dana Haughton was taken from us #toosoon in a plane crash in the Bahamas, aged 22, but she led a turbulent public life before that, beginning when she married mentor-slash-creepy as fuck dude R Kelly when she was 15 and he was 27.
The movie was probably doomed from the start – it was made without the cooperation of Aaliyah’s family, who were reportedly not very happy, and its original star Zendaya Coleman dropped out, citing “poor production values”.
Fans were not impressed, but the movie’s harshest critic was Aaliyah’s friend and frequent collaborator Timbaland, who took to Instagram to tear the “bullshit” biopic a new one and share outraged fan reactions.
Fans took issue with the casting of various key roles, especially that of Aaliyah herself, and Missy Elliot, who wrote and produced many of the singer’s biggest hits alongside Timbo.
Safe to say, those who watched would probably like to forget the whole thing.
Yeah, Timbaland was really rather pleased with himself by the end.
The only person who could reasonably come out of this expecting to look good is Lindsay Lohan, who can now take comfort in the fact that Liz & Dick is only the second-most infamous Lifetime movie disaster in recent memory.
Image via Lifetime
