Paquin to play Irena Sendler in TV movie

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Canadian-born actress Anna Paquin has signed on to star in the television movie "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler," CBS announced.

Paquin won an Oscar as a child for her work in "The Piano" and later had a supporting role in the "X-Men" movie trilogy. She is co-starring on the vampire TV series "True Blood," for which she recently earned a Golden Globe.

CBS said Paquin has been cast in a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie based on the true story of 2007 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker who is credited with saving the lives of 2,500 Jewish children during World War II. Sendler died May 12, 2008, at the age of 98.

Also starring Marcia Gay Harden, Nathaniel Parker and Goran Visnjic, the TV movie is to air April 19 on CBS. It is based on the 2005 authorized biography, "Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Irena Sendler Story," by Anna Mieszkowska.