Cher to join Christina Aguilera in Burlesque movie

She may not be set to play Catwoman, as tabloid rumours suggested last year, but Cher is to make a return to the movies, with her first starring role in more than a decade.

The Oscar-winning actor will appear opposite Christina Aguilera in the musical Burlesque, which is being set up as star vehicle for the Genie in a Bottle singer. Cher will play a former dancer, Tess, who now runs an ailing "neo-burlesque" club. Aguilera is a small-town Iowa girl with a big voice, who thrives under Tess's mentorship.

Both actors will be singing on screen, Cher for the first time in a film in which she also stars. It will be Aguilera's first star turn in front of the cameras in a movie.

"[Cher] brings a soulfulness and gravitas to this character that will ground the story," said Clint Culpepper of Screen Gems, the firm which is backing the film. "The only person who was more excited than I am is Christina."

Culpepper said he lobbied personally for the singer and actor to break off from a busy schedule of appearances in Las Vegas to take the role in Burlesque, which starts shooting in November with first time writer-director Steven Antin at the helm.

The movie will mark Cher's first on-screen role since the Farrelly brothers' comedy Stuck on You in 2003, in which she played a version of herself in a cameo. Her last role proper was in Franco Zeffirelli's 1999 wartime drama Tea with Mussolini.