Queen Latifah

Rapper/talk-show host Queen Latifah will get busy in town Monday. First is a cohosting stint at TV's Good Day Philadelphia from 8 to 9 a.m. on Fox - home of her talk show, picked up for a second season. She will follow that with a short radio stint on WUSL-FM (98.9). Then it's on to a South Philadelphia school (whose location is being kept under wraps because it's a surprise), where she will tell the kiddies how she made it in The Biz. THERE SHE IS . . . MRS. LT. GOV. Miss America plans to become a Mrs. this fall.

QUEEN Latifah returned to her hometown of Newark, N.J., Wednesday night to host a premiere of her latest movie, "Last Holiday. " As she walked along a red carpet in the middle of a parking lot, Latifah said she was happy to be back home. "It just means I don't have to go far to get home from the premiere," said Latifah, who has homes in New Jersey and Los Angeles. "My whole family is here, so it's wonderful. I can celebrate with Jersey for a change. " Mayor Sharpe James gushed about the Newark premiere.

Her friends call her "La" or Dana, but to fans she's the reigning royal of rap, Queen Latifah. She capitalized on the regal theme in her last album, Black Reign, which was nominated for a Grammy and quickly went gold. Latifah is equally well-known as Khadijah, the ambitious young black woman she plays on Living Single, the Thursday night Fox sitcom now in its third successful season. Now, Queen Latifah has found a new world to conquer. After brief appearances in Jungle Fever, Juice and House Party 2, she's tackling her first major film role, as Cleo, a tough-talking lesbian bank robber in the R-rated thriller Set It Off, which opens Wednesday.

When it comes to personal preference, Queen Latifah's taste in animated films runs more along the lines of "Dungeons & Dragons" than "Alvin and the Chipmunks. " One of her all-time favorites is "Heavy Metal," the 1981 sci-fi/fantasy cult favorite known for its sex, loud music, and horror. "It's not quite a kid's movie, but I did see it as a kid and I thought it was pretty cool," the rapper-turned-Oscar-nominated actress recalled. Still, when 20th-Century Fox approached her about taking on the voice of Ellie the Woolly Mammoth in the sequel to the first "Ice Age," she told her agents to make it happen.

By now, Queen Latifah is accustomed to the disbelief of people who hear she's recorded a set of jazz and blues standards, complete with lavish strings and guests such as the Rev. Al Green. The conversations - and there have been dozens, Latifah laughs - typically begin with a stunned "You did what, girl?" After the shock wears off, she politely reminds folks that ever since 1989, when she demonstrated her distinct rhyming style on the grabby "Ladies First," the 34-year-old mogul from Newark, N.J., has confounded an entertainment industry that has consistently underestimated her reach.

"How could I presume to teach anybody?" asks an incredulous Queen Latifah. Just 21 and two years beyond All Hail the Queen, her landmark debut album, Latifah has been anointed rap's primary stateswoman. Characterized as a woman of integrity both in and out of the music business, she's viewed by many as the artist most responsible for elevating rap discourse from the themes of gutter gangsters to questions of black cultural identity. But Latifah (real name: Dana Owens) is a reluctant role model.

In the annals of Noel films so wincingly, gratingly, insultingly bad that a lump of coal would be vastly preferable, The Perfect Holiday ranks alongside Surviving Christmas for sheer unwatchability. Rarely have I worked so hard to suppress the gag reflex. How can a film with dreamy Morris Chestnut, darling Gabrielle Union and those human sparkplugs Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard backfire so badly? Let us count the ways: (1) Sappy script. Union plays Nancy, estranged wife of hip-hop huckster J-Jizzy (Charlie Murphy)

In the annals of Noel films so wincingly, gratingly, insultingly bad that a lump of coal would be vastly preferable, The Perfect Holiday ranks alongside Surviving Christmas for sheer unwatchability. Rarely have I worked so hard to suppress the gag reflex. How can a film with dreamy Morris Chestnut, darling Gabrielle Union and those human sparkplugs Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard backfire so badly? Let us count the ways: (1) Sappy script. Union plays Nancy, estranged wife of hip-hop huckster J-Jizzy (Charlie Murphy)

Hip-hop royalty is invading the talk show circuit. Queen Latifah, who has rapped, acted and entrepreneured her way into being one of the most highly visible black women in America, is coming back to a television screen near you. As with fellow North Jersey diva-in-the-making Lauryn Hill, it's hard to find someone who doesn't like her. The folks at Fox are hoping this translates into high ratings and longevity for "Queen Latifah," which...

Much as I revere Queen Latifah, who swans like the bioengineered love child of Mae West and Whoopi Goldberg, apart from her there's not much to like about Taxi, a pothole-ridden buddy comedy that pairs the Queen with joker Jimmy Fallon. In this adaptation of the 1998 French blockbuster of the same name, Latifah plays Belle, a Manhattan bike messenger who flies from borough to borough, pumping up the r.p.m. by caroming off cars and trucks. Belle, who secretly wants to be a NASCAR driver, has been saving for years to buy her own yellow cab. No sooner does Belle get behind the wheel of her very own turbocharged taxi than Washburn (Fallon)

RONAN FARROW, the biological son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, who was formerly known as Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow, has a new name. Rhodes Scholar. Ronan is among 32 American students who will be awarded scholarships to study at Oxford University. Be it genetics or his messy parental situation, Ronan has turned out to be a bit of a genius. The Rhodes was not the first academic distinction for the soon-to-be 24-year-old - he started at Bard College when he was just 11 and graduated in 2004 at age 15. He began Yale Law School when he was 17 and graduated in 2009.

As Cinderella stories go - and they usually go exactly where you expect - Just Wright, starring Queen Latifah and Common, is surprisingly amiable fare. Sure, we can see the end unfolding practically before the opening titles are over. But while there's plenty of misspent passion and heartbreak along the way, everybody behaves so nicely and politely that you can't help but feel good about the state of humankind. Especially one human who dwells in a Manhattan mansion, pulling down the multimillion-dollar salary of an NBA all-star.

As Cinderella stories go - and they usually go exactly where you expect - Just Wright , starring Queen Latifah and Common, is surprisingly amiable fare. Sure, we can see the end unfolding practically before the opening titles are over. But while there's plenty of misspent passion and heartbreak along the way, everybody behaves so nicely and politely that you can't help but feel good about the state of humankind. Especially one human who dwells in a Manhattan mansion, pulling down the multimillion-dollar salary of an NBA all-star.

The New Jersey Nets reach the NBA conference finals in "Just Wright," so it goes without saying the movie is a ludicrous fantasy. Not one aimed at fans of pro basketball, though. It's meant to appeal to women - "Wright" is the latest variation on the Cinderella story, this one featuring Queen Latifah as a plus-sized Nets fan who falls for a star player (Common), then watches her favored, gold-digging stepsister (Paula Patton) steal him away. "Just Wright" makes no apology for its glass-slipper mentality.

When it comes to personal preference, Queen Latifah's taste in animated films runs more along the lines of "Dungeons & Dragons" than "Alvin and the Chipmunks. " One of her all-time favorites is "Heavy Metal," the 1981 sci-fi/fantasy cult favorite known for its sex, loud music, and horror. "It's not quite a kid's movie, but I did see it as a kid and I thought it was pretty cool," the rapper-turned-Oscar-nominated actress recalled. Still, when 20th-Century Fox approached her about taking on the voice of Ellie the Woolly Mammoth in the sequel to the first "Ice Age," she told her agents to make it happen.

In the annals of Noel films so wincingly, gratingly, insultingly bad that a lump of coal would be vastly preferable, The Perfect Holiday ranks alongside Surviving Christmas for sheer unwatchability. Rarely have I worked so hard to suppress the gag reflex. How can a film with dreamy Morris Chestnut, darling Gabrielle Union and those human sparkplugs Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard backfire so badly? Let us count the ways: (1) Sappy script. Union plays Nancy, estranged wife of hip-hop huckster J-Jizzy (Charlie Murphy)

In the annals of Noel films so wincingly, gratingly, insultingly bad that a lump of coal would be vastly preferable, The Perfect Holiday ranks alongside Surviving Christmas for sheer unwatchability. Rarely have I worked so hard to suppress the gag reflex. How can a film with dreamy Morris Chestnut, darling Gabrielle Union and those human sparkplugs Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard backfire so badly? Let us count the ways: (1) Sappy script. Union plays Nancy, estranged wife of hip-hop huckster J-Jizzy (Charlie Murphy)

QUEEN Latifah returned to her hometown of Newark, N.J., Wednesday night to host a premiere of her latest movie, "Last Holiday. " As she walked along a red carpet in the middle of a parking lot, Latifah said she was happy to be back home. "It just means I don't have to go far to get home from the premiere," said Latifah, who has homes in New Jersey and Los Angeles. "My whole family is here, so it's wonderful. I can celebrate with Jersey for a change. " Mayor Sharpe James gushed about the Newark premiere.

This was music for grown-ups. The Sugar Water Festival attracted young lovers and packs of teens to the Tweeter Center on Saturday night. But these kids gathered alongside mature couples and adult women enjoying a girls' night out. Each of the headliners - Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and Queen Latifah - is in her 30s, and each woman's performance offered a lesson on how to mature gracefully without sacrificing humor or sexiness. The three stars greeted the crowd together, setting a tone of sisterly unity.