Mary J. Blige has signed on to play civil rights hero Malcolm X's wife in a new TV drama.

The R&B star, who makes her debut as a leading lady on the screen in the upcoming Rock Of Ages, will play Betty Shabazz in Parallel Lives.

She tells WENN, "It's about the lives of Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz, the women in Malcolm X's and Martin Luther King's life (sic). I'm playing Betty and prepping for that now. I've been studying her online and watching her interviews."

Filming will start in September.