Beyoncs role as a pop diva in a sixties group is seemingly a supreme match for unique talents, but acting isnt every singers destiny

One of the major releases of last year, which opened on the Oscar-friendly date of late December, was Dreamgirls, the movie version of the Broadway musical about a 1960s girl group loosely modelled on the Supremes. It stars Beyonc Knowles as the lead singer, the Diana Ross character, who left the group for a solo career just as Beyonc branched out from her musical group, Destinys Child and took on a second career as an actor much like Beyonc is doing in this, her breakthrough film role.

All in all, it sounds as if Dreamgirls and Beyonc are a match made in heaven, one of those coincidences in which Hollywood specializes when it has a rising star to celebrate. It could be the start of superstardom for the latest movie hyphenate, a pop diva-actor who has the voice and the look to become a major force in cinema.

On the other hand, what have you heard from Diana Ross lately?

Movies didnt always have hyphenates, but they always had singer-actors. Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby comfortably succeeded in both media without one career crashing into the other. Doris Day was a band singer before she became the star of a series of fresh-faced romantic comedies. Dick Powell was a singer-dancer who was instantly accepted as a tough-guy private eye in film.