Queen Latifah

The Source, which was in financial trouble last year, is relaunching with a 20th-anniversary issue and a new focus -- a direction that its co-publisher says will restore the magazine, once known as hip-hop's bible, to prominence. "It's a very seminal period, an opportunity to both celebrate 20 years of content and the fact that the Source was a leader in chronicling the culture of hip-hop," said L. Londell McMillan, a media and entertainment lawyer who, along with investment banker Jeffery Scott, purchased the Source this year.

What can you say about an event billed as a jazz concert at which the most authentic jazz was the recorded music played before and between the live sets? It probably wasn't a good idea to program Ella Fitzgerald songs in the open spots at the Queen Latifah/Goapele appearance Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl. The comparison -- especially when the entrancing Fitzgerald numbers were in direct association with the onstage performances -- was pretty much a slam dunk for tradition.

In her second brush with the law in a week, Grammy-winning rapper and sitcom star Queen Latifah was accused by a photographer of assault for allegedly twisting his arm and taking his film after he photographed her in a restaurant, police said Tuesday. Saturday, Latifah, who lives in Toluca Lake, was arrested on suspicion of carrying a loaded pistol and possession of marijuana after a California Highway Patrol officer pulled her over for allegedly traveling 75 mph on the Santa Monica Freeway.

When the first ladies of rap emerged in the late 1980s, they dressed pretty much like male rappers--in androgynous, street-tough fashion--to proclaim they were ready to compete on the men's turf. Now, as they command a growing audience with their explicit raps about sexual politics, women's power, self-respect and independence, they're out to scratch the copycat image. The groundbreaking women rappers--among them, L.A.

The Scene: There was a screen showing music videos for every sight line at the celebrity-rich, pre-Grammy party at the Palace in Hollywood on Tuesday evening. The occasion was MTV's annual benefit for Rock the Vote, an independent, nonprofit organization whose purpose is to motivate the nation's youth to become involved in the political process. The fete also functioned as a presentation ceremony for the Patrick Lippert Award, which went to musical artists Queen Latifah and Pearl Jam.

"I can't wait for this movie to come out, it's funny as hell," says Dana Owens, settling into a corner banquette in a midtown Manhattan restaurant to talk about "Taxi," in which she stars opposite Jimmy Fallon of "Saturday Night Live." "I love my performance in it, and I'm not saying that to be vain." No, she's not, she's simply stating the way things are. After all, this is Queen Latifah, a.k.a. Dana Elaine Owens from Newark, N.J.

Queen Latifah, a Grammy Award-winning rapper and star of the TV series "Living Single," was arrested Saturday on charges of carrying a loaded pistol and possession of marijuana, police said. The entertainer, whose real name is Dana Owens, was pulled over for speeding about 6:30 a.m. as she drove west on the Santa Monica Freeway in West Los Angeles, said Officer Garry Goldenberg of the California Highway Patrol. The CHP officer who made the stop smelled marijuana on Latifah, 25, Goldenberg said.

One of the main characters in the new Queen Latifah comedy, "Last Holiday," isn't a person but a hotel -- the 300-year-old Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. In the movie, which opens Friday, Queen Latifah plays a shy, plain New Orleans department store employee who learns she has three weeks to live. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, she liquidates her assets and travels to the Grandhotel Pupp.

The Scene: What a racket. Hollywood Boulevard was chock-a-block with shrieking fans as a line of early '60s, low-riding Chevy Malibus wound their way to Mann's Chinese Theater on Monday night, each one jettisoning another handful of celebrities. The occasion for the high-decibel hoopla was the premiere of New Line's "Set It Off," a lead-splattered romp about a female posse who set off on a bank-robbing spree.

If only she were singing "Having My Baby." A tremendously pregnant Catherine Zeta-Jones has agreed to perform in Sunday's Academy Awards, joining Queen Latifah in singing "Chicago's" nominated song, "I Move On." The John Kander and Fred Ebb tune had been performed in the movie musical by Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger, but Zellweger declined to perform in front of the Oscars' global television audience.