ASHANTI - ASHANTI: 'ACTING IS HARD'

Singer-turned-actress ASHANTI has hit out at pop rival BEYONCE KNOWLES' claims acting is easy.

The R+B star is poised to make her movie debut playing DOROTHY in a remake of THE WIZARD OF OZ.

Knowles - who has already appeared in AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER and THE FIGHTING TEMPTATIONS and the upcoming PINK PANTHER remake - recently claimed acting is "almost like a vacation".

But Ashanti disagrees: "Oh my God, it's a lot of hard work. It's very different from music.

"Here I work the entire week filming and spend the weekend working on the music, so its flat out, but hopefully the hard work will pay off when people see the movie and hear the record."