Queen Latifah is ready to debut first jazz album

Queen Latifah is readyto debut first jazz album
DENVER -- 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. "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 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. It something of a departure for an artist whose last record was "Order in the Court," one of 1998's better efforts at combining R & amp;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."
Kevin Costner,kChristine Baumgartnermarry at ranch
ASPEN, Colo. -- "Dances with Wolves" star Kevin Costner has wed his girlfriend of five years, Christine Baumgartner, at his Colorado mountain ranch. The afternoon wedding, held Saturday, was attended by 300 of their family and friends. It is the second marriage for Costner, 49, and the first for Baumgartner, 30.
The bride wore a white gown designed by Monique Lhuillier and a beaded lace veil. Costner wore Ralph Lauren.
Sedaris can bring laughs,but she prefers dramas
SAN FRANCISCO -- Amy Sedaris may be best known for triggering laughter, but the actress says she's not a personal fan of comedies.
"I hate going to see comedies and I just love serious, depressing dramas," she told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Maybe because I do so much of it, I would be influenced in a way that I wouldn't want to be. Or, 'Wow, I had that idea five years ago. That's been done?'"
Sedaris, who portrayed Jerri Blank, a 46-year-old ex-junkie turned high school freshman, on Comedy Central's "Strangers With Candy," is reprising the role, once again donning the fat suit and false teeth -- but this time for the big screen.
The film also will have cameos by such actors as Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Allison Janney and Sir Ian Holm. The series originally ran on TV in 1999 and 2000.
Supergrass says fansserenade them in public
BOSTON -- Go ahead and sing to the members of Supergrass when you recognize them on the street. Just make sure it's not the same old song. Ten years after their music hit the British pop charts, the band members tell The Boston Sunday Globe that they can't get around in public without being serenaded by fans. The trouble is the song picked is always "Alright," a paean to hedonistic youth.
"It doesn't feel like it's been 10 years since we started playing together -- anything you really enjoy doing tends to go by really fast," said band member Rob Coombes.
The band's latest album is "Supergrass Is 10: The Best of 94-04," a 21-track overview that surveys the career of one of England's most commercially successful rock bands.
Today's birthdays
Former Illinois Senator Charles Percy is 85. Actress Jayne Meadows is 84. Movie director Arthur Penn is 82. Actress Sada Thompson is 75. Author Barbara Howar is 70. Producer Don Cornelius ("Soul Train") is 68. Singer-musician Randy Bachman (Bachman-Turner Overdrive) is 61. Actress Liz Torres is 57. Actor A Martinez is 56. Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is 54. Singer Shaun Cassidy is 46. Rock singer Stephan Jenkins (Third Eye Blind) is 40. Actor Patrick Muldoon is 36. Singer Mark Calderon is 34. Actress Amanda Detmer is 33. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is 32. Country musician Patrick Bourque (Emerson Drive) is 27. Rock singer Brad Arnold (3 Doors Down) is 26. Rapper Lil' Wayne is 22. Singer Avril Lavigne is 20.