Filmmaker David O. Russell has been tapped to direct the upcoming film, which will star Selena Gomez as Ronstadt, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The confirmation comes after Selena Gomez teased the project by posting a picture of Ronstadt’s 2013 memoir, ‘Simple Dreams’, onto social media.
Both Selena Gomez and Linda Ronstadt are of Mexican descent. Ronstadt has enjoyed a lengthy and successful career spanning five decades, including 11 Grammy wins, and has been received Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Recording Academy and the Latin Recording Academy.
As she releases her memoir, Feels Like Home, the singer whose voice defined the 70s talks about the illness that ended her career, America’s attitude to immigrants, and Dolly Parton’s fried green tomatoes
‘I didn’t believe in religion from the time I was six, I thought, that’s bullshit’
She has mobility problems, speaks with a strained voice and is “very hard of hearing”,
In 2012, she was diagnosed as having Parkinson’s disease. A re-evaluation in late 2019 changed her diagnosis to the similar but rare brain disorder progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), Recently she saw Emmylou Harris in concert, performing alongside Steve Earle, Elvis Costello and Jackson Browne. “I could tell they were good songs, but I could not understand a word they sang – not one word.”
Some of their ancestors emigrated from Hanover, Germany, in the 1840s and took root in the Rio Sonora region of Mexico. The book includes a heart-wrenching letter by her great-grandmother Margarita.
Her grandfather Fred later moved to Tucson, Arizona, which is why her life is something of a both-sides-of-the-border story.
“We spent a lot of time with family in Mexico, visiting Guaymas, a fishing town on the Sea of Cortés, every summer. It was much cooler there. My dad, mum, sister Suzy and brothers Peter and Mike all sang harmonies in the car. It was before we had air conditioning, so you needed something to distract you from the heat,” Inews.co.uk
“There’s been prejudice against Mexico ever since the United States stole it in 1846,” says Linda Ronstadt. “We forget that Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, California, they were all parts of Mexico. It’s a huge swath of land, and it was taken unfairly by the Americans. So, the Mexicans who stayed didn't migrate—the border migrated.”
Before retiring in 2009 after she was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare and incurable brain disorder similar to Parkinson’s, Ronstadt sang everything from new wave and rock to country ballads, opera and rancheras — a popular Mexican folk music genre.
In 1987, despite her music label’s disapproval, Ronstadt released her ultimate passion project, “Canciones de Mi Padre,” as a tribute to the songs she learned from her father and to her Mexican American heritage.
“I learned a lot of my singing from Lola Beltrán,” she previously told NBC News, speaking about one of Mexico’s most acclaimed ranchera singers. “Mexican music was a tremendous influence on my singing style."
Linda Ronstadt, after all, is a singer whose career was defined by restlessness and genre-hopping; a rock ‘n’ roll sex symbol whose upper lip alone launched thousands of crushes but who was always far smarter than even her fans gave her credit for being; a perfectionist who knew what she wanted but had trouble believing she was good enough to give it; and a private woman in a public game.
She wasn’t easily summed up when she first came to Los Angeles more than five decades also, and she isn’t easily summed up now. the fact that she has Parkinson’s disease, which has prevented her from singing in public since 2009 – is dealt with quietly, with a minimum of drama. (thewrap.com)
The 75-year-old singer performed her final concert in 2009, several years after suffering the first symptoms of the incurable illness. Last year, she began to appear at spoken-word events, talking about her career and how her lifestyle has changed in the past decade.
“You have to have a life, but I have to be very selective about what I do,” Ronstadt told the San Francisco Chronicle in a new interview, noting that she was phasing out the medication she’d been given because of its side effects.
