QUEEN LATIFAH NEWS, INTERVIEWS & UPDATES



News for 3/29/2005


The Beauty of Queen Latifah

By Mike Szymanski


Queen Latifah commands a room just by walking in with her dangling earrings and long colorful robe-like clothes. She's smiling as she walks in to an interview with Zap2it.com because she happy with her successes, her career and her hair.

"People need to go to the beauty shop," she says. "Someone rubs your head, they wash it, they fix it, and I mean, they're touching on you for a good hour or so once a week. So this is like your therapy."

Not only is she a Grammy-winning rapper, but she has had runaway box office success with her movie with Steve Martin, "Bringing Down the House," and has a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role as Mama Morton in "Chicago." (Read More...)



News for 3/16/2005


The following article appeared in the March 2005 issue of InStyle Magazine





The following article appeared in the March 6, 2005 edition of Parade Magazine





News for 1/22/2005


The following article appeared in the January 2005 issue of Ebony Magazine





News for 1/16/2005


Queen Latifah to preside over Grammys Awards

Singer will also perform during February show

The Associated Press


SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Oscar-nominated actress Queen Latifah is presiding over the music industry’s biggest annual event — the 47th annual Grammy Awards.

She also will perform during CBS’ Feb. 13 broadcast from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences said.

“Queen Latifah is an extraordinary renaissance artist with unparalleled style and substance, and her passion, talent and personality make her an excellent choice as host for our show,” NARAS President Neil Portnow said in a statement Thursday.

Latifah debuted in 1989 with her album, “All Hail the Queen.” Her latest release, “The Dana Owens Album,” is nominated for a Grammy this year in the best jazz vocal album category.

She earned a supporting-actress Oscar nomination for her role in the 2002 film “Chicago.”



News for 10/28/2004


Latifah Was Slated for 'Monster's Ball'


NEW YORK (AP) - Had things worked out differently, it might have been Queen Latifah in "Monster's Ball" instead of Halle Berry.

The rapper-singer-actress says she was slated to play the lead in the movie that netted Berry the Oscar for best actress in 2002. Berry was the first black to ever win an Oscar in that category.

"I actually had that role before Halle. But they couldn't set it up. It would have been me, Sean Penn and Robert De Niro," Latifah told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

Instead, the low-budget drama starred Berry, Heath Ledger and Billy Bob Thornton.

Would Latifah have taken it all off for the role, as did Berry, for the movie's explicit sex scene?

"You wouldn't take that role without knowing what was there already," Latifah cautiously answered. "It was the type of script that was written to be an Oscar winner, and that's the only reason you would take it, because you know it would require so much of you as an actor, that if you don't get a freakin' Oscar for this, you ain't gonna ever get one."

Latifah was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar in 2003 for her role in "Chicago." She stars in the comedy "Taxi" with Jimmy Fallon and recently released "The Dana Owens Album."



News for 10/26/2004


The following article appeared in the October 2004 issue of Premiere Magazine





News for 9/30/2004


Queen Latifah Gets a Little Jazzier


DENVER (AP) - Queen Latifah is getting a little jazzier. Five albums and 15 years after her hard-hitting hip-hop debut "All Hail the Queen," Queen Latifah is poised to release the jazz-obsessed "The Dana Owens Album" in which she sings standards.

"This is definitely not a one-shot deal," the singer, whose real name is Dana Owens, told The Denver Post in Sunday's editions. "Hopefully, with the success of it, I'll be in it till I'm dead. I've always looked at singing as something I can do forever. I don't know if I can rap forever. I don't know that I can stay as hot as the hottest girl in the game."

It was her experience in the 1998 feature film "Living Out Loud," co-starring alongside Holly Hunter and Danny DeVito, that led to her new album. She played nightclub singer Liz Bailey and sang a couple of jazz standards.

"The Dana Owens Album" is released this week.

The new album, where she tackles songs by Al Green and The Mamas & the Papas, is something of a departure for an artist whose last record was "Order in the Court," one of 1998's better efforts at combining R&B and hip-hop.

But she said she has a fully formed and finished hip-hop album in her back pocket just waiting for the right label. "I figured I'd drop this album first," she said. Still, her long-term plans are obvious. "Don't be surprised if I'm 65 and playing Vegas."



News for 5/30/2004


The following article appeared in the May 2004 issue of Glamour Magazine





News for 5/14/2004


A Visit to the Beauty Shop!

Source: Brian Carroll


In any city, there are many places where men can come together and get away from their worries. It could be a local bar, or as seen in MGM's successful urban comedy series, the neighborhood barbershop. But for women, there's only one place to be and that's the beauty parlor. Well, this fall the ladies get their say when MGM releases Beauty Shop, featuring a star-packed cast led by Queen Latifah.

Latifah stars as Gina, a character introduced in Barbershop 2. "She worked at the local beauty shop which was next door to Ice Cube's character's shop in Chicago," explains Latifah. "My sister actually ran that shop, but my daughter got accepted to a performing arts school down in Atlanta, a really good one. So I moved down here." To support her daughter, Gina gets a job at a posh salon called Jorge's. When Jorge (Kevin Bacon) steals her styles and ideas, Gina buys a shop and tries to make a go of it on her own.

Of course, even with multiple plotlines, including a love story between Gina and an electrician played by Djimon Hounsou, director Bille Woodruff insists there will still be plenty of screen time devoted to capturing the personalities of the various employees at the shop, including Alicia Silverstone's Lynn, a shy girl who gets a chance to blossom when Gina gives her a job as a stylist, and Alfre Woodard's Ms. Josephine, who is the voice of wisdom among the staff. However, even though the ladies will let loose on subjects ranging from men to hair waxing to Condoleeza and Omarosa, Woodruff insists they haven't attempted to clone Cedric The Entertainer's outspoken character from Barbershop. "Cedric's the one and only. We would just fail if we tried to create another Cedric." (Read More....)



News for 1/18/2004


UPN Falls for Hudson, Latifah Pilots


LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Fresh off the success of "All of Us," a comedy from Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, UPN is looking at several more comedies with big names behind-the-scenes. The network has given script commitments to new efforts from Kate Hudson ("Almost Famous") and Queen Latifah ("Chicago").

Hudson, who recently gave birth to a baby boy, is executive producing "I Do, I Did, Now What" through her Cosmic Entertainment shingle. The pilot, by Dan Cohen and F.J. Pratt ("Less than Perfect," "Frasier") is based on the bestselling book by Jenny Lee.

Lee's book takes a humorous look at contemporary marriage and the modern realities that couples discover after they survive their weddings. Cohen and Pratt will join Hudson and Shanna Nussbaum as executive producers.

Latifah's shingle Flavor Unit is producing "WHOT" along with HBO Independent Prods. Buddy Sheffield ("In Living Color") and David Sheffield ("Saturday Night Live") are writing the pilot, which focuses on a young Caucasian woman hired as the station manager at a hip-hop radio station.

The Queen, who began the year with the momentum of "Chicago" and also had hits with "Bringing Down the House" and "Scary Movie 3," will join the Sheffields and Shakim Compere as executive producers.

UPN also has projects in the works with high profile executive producers including Samuel L. Jackson and Mel Gibson.



Bille Woodruff to Head Up Latifah's Beauty Shop

Source: Variety


Honey director Bille Woodruff will helm Queen Latifah in Beauty Shop, the MGM comedy that begins shooting in March. The film revolves around the character Latifah plays in Barbershop 2: Back in Business which MGM will release on February 6.

Latifah plays Gina, who moves from Chicago to Atlanta so her daughter can attend a prestigious music school. She becomes a stylist and, when her scamming boss takes credit for her work, opens her own shop, where her uptown clients clash with those from downtown.

Kate Lanier wrote the script, and Norm Vance, who did script work on "Barbershop 2," is doing a quick rewrite before production begins.