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Selena Gomez Will Play a Legendary Singer in a Forthcoming Biopic

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Selena Gomez is named after one legendary singer-songwriter—Selena Quintanilla—and she's about to embody another: Linda Ronstadt, whom she will play in an upcoming biopic.

The movie is still in preproduction, reports Rolling Stone, and no other cast details have been made public. All we know is that Ronstadt's manager, John Boylan, and James Keach (who previously produced a 2019 documentary about Ronstadt) are coproducing. (Per IMDb, Keach is also producing an upcoming biopic of Glen Campbell starring Tim McGraw, so maybe he's cornering the singer-as-other-singer market.)

Linda Ronstadt at the 42nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors in 2019

42nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors

Linda Ronstadt at the 42nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors in 2019
Paul Morigi/Getty Images

Gomez seemed to announce the news in her own way on Instagram Stories, posting a picture of Ronstadt's memoir, Simple Dreams.

<h1 class="title">Linda Ronstadt</h1>

Linda Ronstadt

Online, fans immediately noticed the physical similarities between Selena Gomez and Linda Ronstadt, who both have Mexican heritage.

Linda Ronstadt during a performance with the Stone Poneys at Palo Verdo High School in Tucson on May 8, 1968

Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys

Linda Ronstadt during a performance with the Stone Poneys at Palo Verdo High School in Tucson on May 8, 1968
Richard Weize/Getty Images

Ronstadt recorded rock, country, folk, and Latin music during her career and won 11 Grammy Awards. Now 77, the music icon retired from singing in 2011 due to vocal decline and health issues. In 2016 she was given a lifetime achievement award from the Grammys and in 2019 was awarded a Kennedy Center honor.

Now, onto the question on everyone's mind: Is there a role in here for Taylor Swift? Well, maybe a cameo as a young Emmylou Harris. In 2013, Ronstadt looked back on their friendship during a conversation on NPR, reflecting, “Having a singing sister like Emmylou Harris—what a gift in my life. You know, she opened doors for me musically that I never would have been able to open by myself because she was as passionate as I was about offbeat, quirky art song and traditional music. She didn't care whether it was going to be a hit or not, either. She just wanted to sing it. If it really told her story, there was nothing that was going to get away—in the way of her telling her story. So that told it the best. She was going to do that song and do it right. It was like going through the woods with, like, Hansel and Gretel, you know, leaving a little trail of breadcrumbs. We left our little notes behind in hope we could find our way back.”

Sounds like another pair of besties we know….


Originally Appeared on Glamour