Queen Latifah

Actress and rapper Queen Latifah was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol early Wednesday, a California Highway Patrol official said. The hip-hop star was driving on the Ventura Freeway in North Hollywood when she was stopped about 3:15 a.m. for making an unsafe lane change, Officer Alex Delgadillo said. She failed a sobriety test, he said.

There is no one compelling reason to remake Robert Harling's 1989 weeper "Steel Magnolias" with an all black cast, but there are six pretty good ones. The doomed but determined young woman plotline seems hopelessly (and medically) retro and the original tagline ("I'd rather have 30 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special") sentimentally absurd (if your doctor advises you to not get pregnant, honey, don't get pregnant). But in a world where roles for black women are few and far between, "Steel Magnolias" does offer the chance for half a dozen of our finest actors to work together without donning maids uniforms or the native garb of the "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

Hip-hop artist and Oscar-nominated actress Queen Latifah has been chosen by the Recording Academy to host its 47th annual Grammy Awards bash. Latifah, also a Grammy nominee this year for her first jazz vocal recording, "The Dana Owens Album," will perform at the event, which takes place at Staples Center and will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Feb. 13 on CBS.

A new batch of Disney theme park celebrity advertisements from photographer Annie Leibovitz stars model-actress Olivia Wilde, TV star Alec Baldwin , singer-actress Queen Latifah as well as Oscar-winners Jeff Bridges and Penelope Cruz . Photo gallery : Celebrities play Disney characters Who plays what in the latest advertising campaign:     Olivia Wilde is the Evil Queen from...

Q ueen Latifah has been proclaimed the monarch of female rap ever since the 1989 release of her first album, " All Hail the Queen, " which some consider a feminist manifesto. Selling nearly 500,000 copies primarily to rap's hard-core audience, it has been one of the most influential rap collections of recent years and inspired many women to try rap.

Rap artist Queen Latifah, whose debut album addresses everything from homelessness and poverty to apartheid and racism, says censoring music only sets a bad precedent in the recording industry. "As far as censorship is concerned, I can't even agree with that because today they'll ban 2 Live Crew for explicit lyrics, but tomorrow they'll tell me that I'm too black . . . ," the 20-year-old Latifah said.

Queen Latifah sure has lightened up. A few years ago, this 23-year-old New Jersey rapper, who performed at the Palace on Thursday, was caught up in being regal and stoically Afrocentric. Her concerts weren't really fun, but more like classes where fans were instructed, to a hip-hop beat, how to be a good, proud African American. Now her show really is fun--at the Palace, the Queen was not behaving regally at all.

Queen Latifah, who co-starred with Steve Martin in the comedy film "Bringing Down the House" and was nominated this year for an Oscar for her supporting role as the prison matron in the movie-musical "Chicago," has leased a Hollywood Hills home for about $10,000 a month for a year. The actress-rap singer, named entertainer of the year at the Essence Awards in June, had been living primarily on the East Coast. She was born and raised in New Jersey.

Queen Latifah has revealed a traumatic chapter of her personal life: The singer-actress was sexually abused as a child. In the latest issue of Essence magazine, Latifah says the abuse occurred over a period of time, and at the hands of a teenager charged with watching her. The 39-year-old entertainer, whose new album "Persona" arrives in July, said she eventually told her parents and has gone through therapy to come to terms with what happened....

"Hey, Dana! How've you been?" Queen Latifah walks through the doors of Intermezzo, her favorite Melrose dinery, and warmly hugs Scotty Weber, the Italian restaurant's chef. Waiters and busboys also call her by her given name. "They spoil me here," she says with a wide smile. When the pressure's on and her stomach growls, Latifah often stops here, a place that offers her more than her favorite Caesar salad in Los Angeles.

BET's new series "Let's Stay Together" fits squarely within the formula of TV romantic comedies in many ways. The cast is young and attractive, every problem can be fixed in about 22 minutes, and there is lots and lots of talk about sex. But "Let's Stay Together" is instantly distinctive from the cookie-cutter rom-com. For one thing, the cast is all black, a rarity on prime-time TV. Half of a comedy block to be launched on Jan. 11, "Let's Stay Together" is a positive response to what observers of BET have been demanding for years: original scripted programming for its primarily African American audience.

Sunday Fireworks reggae-style Where: Mandalay Beach (Mandalay Bay) Highlights: Celebrate Independence Day to the blast of fireworks and the beat of Mystic Roots Band. Info: (702) 632-7580, http://www.mandalaybay.com Friday Lilith Fair Where: Mandalay Bay Events Center Highlights: Billed as a celebration of women in music, the headliners include Sara McLachlan, Miranda Lambert, the Bangles and Queen Latifah. Info: (702)

Invictus Warner Bros, $28.98; Blu-ray, $35.99 Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon plays rugby captain Francois Pienaar in director Clint Eastwood's moving, well-observed "Invictus," based on the true story of how the 1995 World Cup helped alleviate some of South Africa's racial strife in the wake of apartheid. The movie doesn't make any bold new stands with its "sport unites us"/"racism is bad" message, but neither does Eastwood overwork the material, and Anthony Peckham's script smartly emphasizes the formal gestures that lead to reconciliation, showing how going through the motions can help achieve a desired outcome.

In the music world, rapper and hip-hop artist Common has already proven himself. He's released eight albums, earned five Grammy award nominations and has worked alongside the likes of Kanye West. But as an actor, Common (born Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr.) is still fighting to be taken seriously. "No matter what you accomplish in the music world, that is still not going to secure you a role in a quality movie. Some casting agents and directors and producers will say, 'We don't want a rapper in the role,' " said Common by telephone from New York this week, where he was promoting his latest film, "Just Wright."

At the Louis Vuitton dinner to celebrate "Glamour's Most Glamorous," it seemed as if there were as many definitions for the word "glamour" as there were guests. "Glamour used to be something you put together in a very Hollywood way," said Cindi Leive, the magazine's editor in chief, speaking at the Beverly Hills Louis Vuitton boutique. "Now we see it as a sense of style and confidence, of having that indefinable quality that makes people want to turn around and look at you." Amanda Seyfried and Zoe Saldana were among those who topped the list in April's "50 most glam women of 2010" issue.

The long lineup of celebrities with fragrance deals resembles the invitation list for the People's Choice Awards. There are film stars, TV personalities, pop singers and socialites, all with a marketable image and, presumably, a thirsty fan base that will lap up every last drop of what these public figures bottle and sell. Linda Newman, who recently waited in line at Macy's in Lakewood to meet rapper 50 Cent and sample his new fragrance, Power by 50 Cent, announced to the crowd: "I already sprayed it on me."

When De La Soul dazzled the rap scene with its freewheeling, madcap approach last year, the swirl of media attention all but obscured some equally talented peers who were emerging as the East Coast's latest caste of rap royalty. With this cool collection of rhythm and rhyme, Queen Latifah takes her place in that court as the first lady of rap--a liberating slap at male hip-hop hegemony.

Yo-Yo doesn't strike one on first glance as a young woman who would swap insults with hard-core rapper Ice Cube on his volatile "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted" album. The former Los Angeles school bus driver seems more like a cheerful, easygoing teen-age member of, say, the Whitney Houston fan club than an associate of one of America's most controversial pop figures. "Forget how I seem now," the 19-year-old said when she stopped by her manager's Crenshaw District office on a recent morning.

Arctic Monkeys "Humbug" Domino 1/2 The Arctic Monkeys didn't bother to knock in 2005 when they came busting through the door into instant pop fame in England. Creating a huge following through Internet file-swapping and live gigs, the teenage quartet became the fastest-selling band in United Kingdom history when it finally debuted with the album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" in 2006 and its inescapable single, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor."

Queen Latifah was staying at a swank hotel in New York City under a hilarious historical pseudonym when we phoned her the day after Michael Jackson's death. She voices one of the characters in the animated family film "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," in theaters, and her ninth album, "Persona," is due out later this summer. -- I'm still reeling about Michael Jackson. Seems everyone is! It's pretty shocking. -- I'm about your age; that all came out at such an important time for us.