Queen Latifah always seemed like the type of woman who has a good head on her shoulders. There’s just something about her energy I really liked. Unfortunately I might have been off – it seems the Queen has some financial issues. Specifically in terms of paying her employees their salaries. According to two lawsuits that have been filed, Latifah owes her stylist $300,000 and her cosmetologist $700,000 in back pay.

The people who kept Queen Latifah pretty are making some ugly accusations about the CoverGirl spokeswoman. Cosmetologist Roxanna Floyd and stylist Susan Moses say they’ve been stiffed out of $1 million for their work on Queen Latifah’s CoverGirl ad campaign, as well as the star’s “Curvations” line of intimate apparel.

The Brooklyn women filed separate breach of contract suits yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court against the “Bringing Down the House” star, whose real name is Dana Owens. Moses says Latifah promised her a $50,000-a-year salary when she went to work on the Curvations line in 2005, and is due $300,000.

“Despite such demands and assurances as well as expressions of remorse for having stiffed plaintiff … defendants have completely failed to pay plaintiff for her services and …. expenses relating to Curvations,” Moses’ lawyer Carmen Giordano wrote.

Latifah spokeswoman Amanda Silverman called the suits “without merit,” but declined to discuss them further.

Floyd, known as Roxie, has used her powder puff to touch up the likes of Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston and Mary J. Blige. She says she’s owed $700,000. Until last year, she was a consultant for the CoverGirl line of cosmetic products known as the “Queen Collection,” the suit says.

[From the Daily News]

This case actually seems relatively straight-forward to me. If Queen Latifah did in fact pay her employees, she’d have records of that. If the claims are “without merit,” show the records and it’ll all be dismissed. Easy, right? I suppose the only defense the Queen can take is that the women never worked for her. Though presumably both Roxanna Floyd and Susan Moses have some sort of evidence of work product.

Somehow I’m disappointed in Queen Latifah. I know we haven’t heard her side of things, but it seems unlikely that two employees would both file lawsuits saying they didn’t get paid when they did. I know she’s a busy woman, but that’s a lot of money to a non-celeb, and they deserve to get paid.

Here’s Queen Latifah (performing with ‘Yoyo’ Yolanda Whitaker) at her birthday Party at SIR in Los Angeles on Saturday. Images thanks to WENN .

Queen Latifah is taking the same attitude as a lot of celebs whose sexual orientation has been questioned: she says it’s nobody’s damn business. Which is totally true. Latifah says she doesn’t owe anyone an explanation of her life, and she’s not going to give them one – even if it’s the New York Times.

Get it straight: Queen Latifah is not answering your questions about her sexuality.

“I don’t have a problem discussing the topic of somebody being gay, but I do have a problem discussing my personal life,” Latifah, 38, told Sunday’s New York Times magazine.

“You don’t get that part of me. Sorry,” she added. “We’re not discussing it in our meetings, we’re not discussing it at Cover Girl…nobody gets that.

“I don’t feel like I need to share my personal life, and I don’t care if people think I’m gay or not,” she said. “Assume whatever you want. You do it anyway.”

Latifah had been linked to her longtime personal trainer. Last December, she denied rumors that they were getting married.

“People will make up all sorts of things that are not true,” she told the Chicago Sun-Times. “There ain’t gonna’ be no wedding.”

[From Us Weekly]

I would never want anyone – famous or otherwise – to feel pressured to reveal things about themselves that they don’t want to. And even celebrities have the right to choose to keep things private. I do kind of wish Queen Latifah would come out if she were gay, simply because I think she’d be an exceptionally good role model. She’s smart, she’s business savvy, she’s had success in both music and acting, and she doesn’t fit the traditional Hollywood mold of what a woman “should” look like. And she’s always had this confidence about her, which still seeming down to earth.

Queen Latifah just has a ton of qualities I really respect, and I think if she were ever to feel comfortable and want to talk about her orientation, she could really do a lot of good. But she’s right – her private life is her business, and she’s always been that way and has every right to make that choice.

Here’s Queen Latifah with Will Smith, Tristan Wilds, and Jada Pinkett Smith at the premiere of ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ in Beverly Hills yesterday. Images thanks to Bauer-Griffin and WENN.

Queen Latifah and her longtime partner Jeanette Jenkins are planning on adopting a baby in the very near future, according to friends. The not-officially-out-of-the-closet couple has been hoping to have children for a while now. They’re also in the process of possibly getting married now that it’s legal in California, though that’s not their immediate priority right now.

It’s top secret right now, but they are hoping to have a little one by Christmas,” a longtime pal told The Enquirer. “They’re trying to keep it quiet because they don’t want to jinx the whole thing.” Latifah’s sister, who works in New Jersey’s Division of Youth and Family Services, is helping guide her through the red tape, said the source.

Unlike Madonna and Angelina Jolie, Latifah is making a point of adopting a child from the United States. “I can understand why people go outside the U.S. You can adopt someone here, and the birth parents have three years to come back and get that child. That’s terrifying,” said the Oscar-nominated “Chicago” star. But she says poor American children “can use just as much assistance as someone from around the world. I want to do something here.”

Adoption has been on her mind for a long time. The “Mad Money” star told a reporter last year, “I’ve always wanted to have [babies] and adopt. When I was little, I remember seeing TV shows and a child would be adopted and be happy. I just always felt like there are so many kids out there who need a parent.”

[From the National Enquirer, Sept. 8 2008, print ed.]

There is just something about Queen Latifah that says she’d be a great mother. I think it’s the way you can tell she’s both firm and loving. She has a maternal quality without being cutesy or overbearing. Since she’s never been really out and open about her relationship with girlfriend Jeanette it’s hard to say for sure how long the couple has been together, but pretty much every article refers to them as “longtime partners.” Not a lot is known about the two, but they seem very committed to each other and happy in their life together, and like they’re more than ready to move on to the next step.

Here’s Queen Latifah and Jeanette in older pictures after she had knee surgery in 2005. Images thanks to Fame.

Credit: WENN
Jennifer Love Hewitt isn’t the only celebrity to lose weight recently – Queen Latifah, spokeswoman for Jenny Craig, has lost 20 pounds since January. She isn’t planning to lose any more, as this is enough to help her stay healthy.

“I’m not caught up in how big or small I am,” the actress/singer, 38, tells In Touch of her weight-loss strategy, “Some people say they’re a skinny person trapped in a big girl’s body and I’ve never seen myself like that. I just feel like I could get a little healthier, so why not?” she says. Queen was inspired to diet by a sobering statistic. “I had read that if you lost 5 percent of your body weight, you could cut your chances of things like heart disease in half. Jenny Craig mentioned the same statistic to me, so we connected on a health level.”

In Touch

Queen Latifah says she is happiest at around 195-210 pounds, but declines to say what she weighs now. It’s so great she is doing it for her health and not just to look good in a bikini. For most people losing only a small percentage of your body weight is what a doctor recommends as it is sustainable. Yo-yo dieting can be very damaging to your health.

She’s only lost 2-3 pounds a months, which seems like a sensible rate of weight loss. She doesn’t mention any exercise as part of the program, although I’ve seen pictures of her working out, and her presumed partner is a trainer. She always looks so beautiful and glowing, and she looks much slimmer than she did in the film Chicago. Congratulations Queen Latifah!

Photos below – Credit: PRPhotos

This week’s National Enquirer states that Queen Latifah plans to marry her partner of five years, personal trainer Jeannette Jenkins, after the groundbreaking ruling in California that legalized same-sex marriages. Latifah has been notoriously tight-lipped about her relationship with Jenkins, and told Ebony Magazine that she was not going to comment on the rumor that Jenkins was her girlfriend. She didn’t deny it, she just got annoyed that someone even asked her the question:

“No comment on that at all. I’m done commenting on all that … It’s ridiculous, I know me and that’s all I need to know.

“And if the readers don’t know me, then that’s one part they aren’t going to get to know. Those are my people but they don’t sleep with me,” she says in a very even tone that is very consistent with her relaxed mood. “It feels so invasive. It’s the one thing I don’t think people need to know about.”

[From Ebony, October 2007 via Jasmyne Cannick]

And she told Essence in September, 2006 ” “If I’m not going to tell you what guy I’m dating, I sure wouldn’t tell you I’m dating a girl.”

So if this is true, it’s a big step for Latifah, who’s never even mentioned Jeannette. She has a lot of high-profile endorsement contracts as well as her movie career, so maybe she fears a backlash if she comes out or just doesn’t think it’s anyone’s business. The Enquirer points out that Jeanette isn’t out, either, and that she “previously denied being gay and once claimed to be engaged to a man.”

In September of last year, Latifah bought Jeannette a new car, a Range Rover she had delivered to surprise her at a restaurant where they were having lunch.

The two are said to be “planning an intimate ceremony with close family and friends,” according to The Enquirer. Latifah has said she would like to adopt a child, particular an American baby, and this may be the first step toward showing her commitment to Jeannette and to providing a stable home life. Congratulations to Latifah and Jeanette if this is true.

Valerie Bertinelli and Kirstie Alley have shilled for diet company Jenny Craig, and now their newest spokesperson will be plus-sized actress Queen Latifah. The company says it wants to focus on a healthy lifestyle with Latifah’s ad campaign rather than go for a traditional weight-loss oriented campaign.

“We officially confirm that Queen Latifah will join the Jenny Craig program in January,” Scott Parker, Jenny Craig’s vice president of marketing, tells PEOPLE. “We are thrilled to have Queen Latifah support our mission of improving health by taking her first step toward achieving a more healthful lifestyle.”

Parker adds: “Queen Latifah joins forces with Jenny Craig to communicate the importance of how small lifestyle changes, in the areas of diet and exercise, can have positive effects on overall health.”

The Hairspray star, who has consistently celebrated her plus-size figure over the years (including a recent PEOPLE cover story), will have a “very different campaign, focused on a healthier lifestyle, not on getting onto a specific dress size,” says Parker.

[From People.com]

It sounds like they are embracing a positive body image and that’s excellent. Queen Latifah has always come across as a confident woman and if you don’t think too hard about it she’s a very good choice for a diet company spokesperson because she seems so normal and down to earth while she’s also able to be glamorous. The thing is, she also did voice-over ads for Pizza Hut in which she told us to “Gather round the good stuff” and stuff our faces, not go for a walk or eat a salad.

There was also a story last year that she attended the opening of a “Fat Burger” restaurant in Miami and sung the fast food chain’s praises, saying “That was part of my Los Angeles education. On Sundays in California everybody would come out in all these low-riders. FatBurger was, like, the centerpiece for it all.”

There’s nothing wrong with liking fast food or becoming a spokesperson for a pizza chain, but are people going to forget Latifah’s Pizza Hut commercials when she’s shilling for Jenny Craig? Maybe admitting you need a diet plan is just a natural extension of too much junk food.

Here’s one of Queen Latifah’s Pizza Hut ads. She’s the voice at the end.

Queen Latifah is shown at the American Music Awards on 11/18/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

I’m pretty sure that Queen Latifah is the coolest lady in Hollywood. The rapper/sing/actress gave an interview where she talked about the changing bodies in Hollywood, noting that the definition of beauty is expanding and diversifying.

“Beauty is not just a white girl. It’s so many different flavors and shades,” the 37-year-old rapper-actress tells People magazine in its latest issue. “It’s good for regular girls because the meter (for beauty) has been a slim white girl. (In Hollywood) we’ve definitely gotten better with body type,” she says. “It used to be just me! Now with Jennifer Hudson’s success and America Ferrera, I got some successors to take the reins on this whole bodylicious thing.” Latifah describes herself as being voluptuous – “definitely curvaceous. I think I’m normal compared to the statistics,” she says. “This is a big country nowadays.”

[From the Associated Press]

I think Queen Latifah is gorgeous, and definitely knows how to work what she’s got. She’s right – America is a big country nowadays, though that’s not really a good thing, health-wise. But it’s good that Hollywood is a little more accepting of different sized people. Latifah also talked about having a breast reduction in 2003 after she lost 25 pounds but her boobs stayed the same size.

The star of “Chicago” and other films says she had elective breast-reduction surgery in 2003 to alleviate years of back and shoulder pain. “I didn’t want to get it. But I had lost 25 pounds and my breasts didn’t go anywhere! I was still carrying that load,” she tells the magazine. However, “I didn’t quite want them to be this small,” she laughs. Before surgery, Latifah says she was “an E or an F cup. I was pretty big. Now I’m like a DD. I wanted to be a triple. They took one D too many! So that was hard to deal with. … I missed my old look.” Latifah says she isn’t interested in more surgery. “There are people who love (plastic surgery) and want to cut and chop anything. I’m like, `Y’all are crazy!’”

[From the Associated Press]

I don’t know that I’ve heard many women complaining that their DDs are too small, but everyone has their own ideas. I would think that DDs could still cause a significant amount of back pain – though they’re probably a big improvement on Fs. I love what a positive attitude Queen Latifah has. She’s pretty succinct, but in a fun way. People that are always hacking at their bodies are a little crazy. It seems like she’s one of the most likely Hollywood women not to give into pressure.

I love Queen Latifah. She’s just got such a positive energy to her, even if she does pick some crappy movies (ahem, “Taxi” and “Bringing Down the House.” For shame, Queen Latifah, for shame). Queen Latifah has finished filming “Mad Money,” a comedy about three women bank robbers with Katie Holmes and Diane Keaton. Yeah, doesn’t exactly sound like a winner. It’s Holmes’ first role since hooking up with Tom Cruise. Way to choose wisely. Turns out the Queen became pretty protective of Katie and baby Suri.

“Queen Latifah didn’t exactly turn into a ragin’ Cajun while in Louisiana shooting Mad Money, but she wasn’t thrilled with the overzealous paparazzi on the hunt for pics of her costar Katie Holmes and baby Suri. ‘There would be photographers trying to get real close, so you just sort of get protective, especially when someone has a baby,’ Latifah says of their time shooting in Shreveport. ‘I don’t know if it’s a woman thing, but we watched out for her.’

“Mad Money, a comedy about three women (Latifah, Holmes and Diane Keaton) who plot to rob the Federal Reserve Bank, is Holmes’ first acting gig since hooking up with Tom Cruise. It’s due to hit theaters in January. Despite being one of the most photographed women in the world, Latifah says Holmes couldn’t have been more real: ‘She’s cool. She’s really down to earth.’”

[From E! News]

Somehow that movie just seems like a bad idea for all involved. I really can’t even begin to figure out how Diane Keaton figures into it. Latifah was awesome in “Chicago” but seems to have more bad films lined up – she’s remaking “All of Me,” originally starring Lily Tomlin as a dying woman who accidentally transfers her soul to her lawyer, Steve Martin. Seems fraught with dumb humor, but who knows. If nothing else, Latifah is good at putting her own spin on things. She’s currently traveling, promoting her new album “Trav’lin Light.” Asked what she misses most about being away from home, she said she missed riding her motorcycle, which she can’t bring on tour. And apparently, she’s not worried about being followed by the paparazzi. “‘They can’t keep up with me. I lose them in a couple of minutes.’”

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s Queen Latifah performing with the cast of “Hairspray” on July 20th. Inset of Katie Holmes with Suri in Berlin this past summer. Images thanks to PR Photos.

When I first saw this photo set, I though “oh that’s great that Queen Latifah got a star on the walk of fame,” and I assumed it was in Hollywood since she’s an accomplished singer/actress and all and it seems like she deserves one. Then I saw the actual star and realized it wasn’t your typical cookie-cutter sidewalk tribute. It turns out that her star is in Newark, NJ as part of their performing arts center walk of fame. Queen Latifah is from Newark so it all makes sense to me now.

The thing is, Queen Latifah already got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year, and she looked a lot more enthusiastic at that event. Maybe she’s just tired from all the promotion work for Hairspray.

Queen Latifah’s young costars from Hairspray were on hand to support her at the NJ ceremony. Amanda Bynes, Nikki Blonski, Elijah Kelley, and Zac Efron also attended.

Queen Latifah is going to open a franchise of Fat Burger, a fast food restaurant. She says “That was part of my Los Angeles education. On Sundays in California everybody would come out in all these low-riders. FatBurger was, like, the centerpiece for it all.” Queen Latifah’s Fat Burger will be located in Miami. Is this a decent burger joint and have any of you eaten there? I’ve never heard of it, although I lived on the East Coast all my life before moving to Europe and it sounds like a California thing.

Thanks to PR Photos for these pictures.

John Travolta is starring in the remake of “Hairspray,” which opens this Friday. This is his first musical since “Grease” in 1978… and Travolta looks nearly the same. Except that he’s thirty years older and one hundred pounds heavier. And has breasts. So he’s a fat old woman. He plays agoraphobic mother Edna Turnblad, played by transvestite Divine in the original film and Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway version. Apparently Travolta had some serious complaints about the wardrobe… but the fat suit, breasts, and dresses were not the problem.

John Travolta knows a lot about women’s footwear. In fact, when he talks about the shoes he wore in the new movie Hairspray, Travolta reveals more than knowledge – he betrays a sense of passion for the world of footwear fashion.

“It was tough dancing in high heels, but we did change the heels to more of a dance shoe – like a Capezio,” said Travolta during a recent press engagement for the movie, which hits theatres Friday.

“You know, they kept giving me these skinny high heels and it’s, like, ‘OK, I understand those. My mother wore those.’ However, when I was growing up and I saw girls in the chorus, they had a thicker heel and it was a dance shoe and I kept telling them to find these shoes. I knew they existed, and finally, they brought out a shoe and I said, ‘That’s the shoe! Now make it in many colors.’”

[From the Halifax Daily News]

I can imagine it’d be pretty hard to dance well on a thin heel, especially wearing a lot of extra padding. Back in the day I used to tap dance, and it can be a challenge even on a sturdy Capezio shoe. That’s right, I’m hardcore like that. So don’t mess. It’s kind of funny that John Travolta has such an interest in shoes. I’m just saying. Travolta also talked about what it was like to be a woman. “’I was so flirted with, so groped,” he said. “I was convinced I’d have been a slut had I been born a woman. It was like, ‘Go ahead, touch me. I don’t care.’” He also told the New York Daily News “’I love big boobs on a woman… so I wanted Edna to have them. My boobs and butt got a lot of attention on the set. The whole crew kept coming over and groping me. The scary thing is, I liked it.’”

The gay rumors have followed John Travolta around throughout the last few years almost as diligently as they’ve followed Tom Cruise. Travolta just doesn’t seem to sue over them as often. There were a few photos of him kissing a man on the mouth as he boarded a plane a few months ago… but who are we to judge? Women do that and it’s considered fine, so I’m not going to use that as evidence. I’m just saying he’s a friendly fellow. And he has his own plane, so I don’t want to ruin my plan to become his best friend and steal his plane by saying anything defamatory. Anyhoo, I know they said Travolta wore a fat suit, but anyone who has seen him lately probably wonders just how much padding he was really wearing versus how much was natural. I’m sure he was just really getting into character. And there’s no better way to do that than to eat a lot of bacon. Can you imagine if we all had to eat bacon for our jobs? That’s a pretty sweet deal.

I am so excited for “Hairspray.” I’ve been trying to bring musicals back since I first saw the “Sound of Music” as a kid. It seems like my efforts have finally been rewarded, and musicals are here to stay… for now. Ever since Moulin Rouge (I think that was the first recent one, correct me if I’m wrong) brought singing and dancing back into style, there’s been no stopping those buffalo-flapping dancers from breaking out in the movies. I think that dance fashion should take off, just like aerobic fashion took off in the ‘80s. Who doesn’t want to have shoes that click, bright lipstick, and sequined clothing?

Picture note by Celebitchy: Here are photos from the movie Hairspray, thanks to Allmoviephoto. John Travolta does make a fabulous woman. Also shown are Allison Janney, Nikki Blonsky, Amanda Bynes, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Marsden, Christopher Walken, Brittany Snow, Elijah Kelley, Taylor Parks, Tabitha Lupien, Hayley Podschun, and Kelly Fletcher.