The “black Cleopatra” counterattacked. THE Adele James, star of Netflix’s much-talked-about dramatized documentary portraying the legendary Cleopatra has claimed Egyptians’ outrage over her portrayal of the queen is “essentially racist”. Egyptians reacted with fury at the rejection of evidence that the charming queen was of Macedonian descent from the Hellenistic kingdom of the Ptolemies. In fact, an Egyptian lawyer filed a lawsuit with the prosecutor of his country, asking to shut down Netflix.

Appearing on a Channel 4 show on Friday, Adele ‘hit back’ saying: ‘It would be naive of me to say I didn’t expect anything at all, but I didn’t expect this extent. And I think it’s distressing for anyone to receive any level of (expletive) abuse, let alone the extent and nature of what I’ve received, all of which is essentially racist.”

Adele also gushed in support of the Hollywood actress Jada Pinkett Smith, of Will Smith’s wife, who narrates and produces the series. “He was so involved in the casting process, watched all our audition tapes, commented on the scenes when we were in Morocco filming. And he was simply an advocate of the project from the beginning. I mean, he’s her “baby”. She’s an African Queen (…) She’s iconic,” said the British actress.