Queen Latifah, who has a new voice as a jazz singer, is taking black Americans to task for not acting sooner against misogynist, violent and vulgar rap lyrics.
"It's a little late to say: 'Stop saying nigger,'" she said in an interview, in which she discussed the firing of radio personality Don Imus for racial comments and black protests over an assault case in Louisiana.
"I believe what just happened in Jena, Louisiana, was one of the most exciting things in a long time and it just kind of showed how we really do have a voice and that voice should be used for positive means," Latifah said.
PHOTO: AFP
Black Americans marched there this month after six black teenagers were charged with attempted murder in an assault on a white student. The case has not been resolved, but following the protests over what some regarded as excessive charges, one suspect was released on bail.
Latifah, 37, whose new album, Trav'lin' Light, features her big voice on jazz standards and ballads, contrasted that action with what happened when Imus was fired in April by CBS for derogatory comments aimed at a black women's basketball team.
"The whole Imus thing was a big sandbag in a way because he's not saying anything he didn't say a long time ago that other shock jocks on the radio, who might even be black, aren't saying," she said.
PHOTO: AFP
"What about rap, what about the things that they say?" she asked. "Well, you could have stepped up and done something about that a long time ago if you have any problem with saying it on TV every day and hearing it on the radio."
Meanwhile, Kiefer Sutherland, who portrays the ultimate terrorist-fighting agent Jack Bauer in the hit television series 24, faces possible prison after he was formally charged Friday with drunk driving.
Sutherland, 40, risks a year and a half in jail for two charges for driving while intoxicated, according to the office of the Los Angeles city attorney.
PHOTO: AP
Sutherland was stopped overnight Monday in West Hollywood, favored by the area's wealthy night-owls, after making an illegal u-turn. Police tests showed his blood-alcohol level was over the California legal limit for driving.
The son of veteran movie star Donald Sutherland was already on five year's probation for a 2004 misdemeanor drunk driving offence. The city attorney said he will be asking for the probation to be withdrawn, meaning Sutherland could be sent to prison for the earlier offense.
No doubt, fallen pop princess Britney Spears has been a real piece of work. Now, she is more than 50 pieces of art at a Hollywood gallery.
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbatos - makers of the documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye about former US televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker Messner as well as other films exploring fame - gathered paintings, sculpture and other work for Just Britney, which opened at their gallery on Friday.
Pieces range from a portrait of the 25-year-old singer, Gum Blond XLVIII by Jason Kronenwald, made of chewed bubble gum, to the 1.8m by 3m Snake Charmer by Jamie Boling, based on a paparazzi photo of Britney exiting a car with her skirt hiked up and no panties on.
Spears rose to fame as a child star on the Disney Channel and a member of the New Mickey Mouse Club. As a teenager, she released chart-topping pop tunes like Baby One More Time and Oops! ... I Did It Again.
But as a young adult, Spears has been through two marriages and is in a custody battle over the two children she had with ex-husband Kevin Federline.
She has dealt with substance abuse, fired her staff, shaved her head and shed clothes for an ocean dip in front of paparazzi. Her performance of a new song, Gimme More, while dressed as a stripper at the MTV awards, earned harsh criticism.
"She personifies our obsession with celebrity culture, and it's an obsession that won't die down no matter how far she goes off the rail," said Steven Corfe, a co-curator of the show. "We love to put people up on a pillar and we love even more to shoot them down."
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