diana ross give in my opinion one of the top ten performance on screen in the last 50 year and possibly all time . it be that good . fresh and daring and inventive and and highly influential her act hasn not age a bit . you believe she be billie holiday by the end of the film despite the heavy star persona that diana ross and billie holiday have respectively in real life . she doesn not go for a mimic and copycat performance but channel the essence of holiday subtly . the acting be not over intellectualized or self conscious and never once hit a false note . the fact that the movie itself isn not very good and be wildly inaccurate in the portrayal of holiday life only seem to benefit miss ross . she lose the acadamy award to minneli in cabaret which be a charming performance but not even in the same league . sadly and miss ross promise a an actress do not pan out well due largely to poor role choice . come out of the dark and her make for tv movie comeback owe a debt to this film . she basically rip herself off ( yes and it true ) a a manic schizophrenic channel all the good breakdown scene from lady .