Jolie under fire for role as murdered reporter's wife

Angelina Jolie

She may have donated $100,000 to the Daniel Pearl Foundation but actress Angelina Jolie has come under fire for her role as Marianne Pearl in the film A Mighty Heart.

The sultry star is in Pune, India, this week filming the biopic about Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan, in February 2002.

Jolie's role as Pearl's widow Mariane - who is mixed race - has upset some black rights groups, who claim the casting is a "whitewash", reported British newspaper The Daily Mail.

One blogger on the blacklooks.org website wrote: "It is 2006 and I had assumed that the days when white actors took on roles of black people had long passed away."

Jolie, together with actor boyfriend Brad Pitt, gifted US$100,000 (NZ$151,000) to the foundation yesterday, which would have been Pearl's 43rd birthday.

Pearl died while investigating links between Al Qaeda and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.

Though some people are less-than-pleased with Jolie's casting, Mrs Pearl said she was delighted with the decision, adding that she deeply admired the actress' work.

Mrs Pearl wrote the book, A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl , on which the film is based.

The film is being produced by Pitt's production company Plan B, originally set up with his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston.

Aniston was set to play the role of Pearl but, following the couple's divorce, the part was passed on to Pitt's current beau, Jolie.

- NZHERALD STAFF