Actress-rapper Queen Latifah arrested in North Hollywood for alleged drunken driving

Thursday, November 21st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Actress-rapper Queen Latifah was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol early Wednesday, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.

The hip-hop star was driving in North Hollywood when she was stopped about 3:15 a.m. for making an unsafe lane change, officer Alex Delgadillo said.

``They found that she was under the influence. It was a routine arrest,'' he said.

The 32-year-old artist, who was driving a 2003 Cadillac Escalade, presented a valid New Jersey driver's license bearing her given name, Dana Owens, and then failed a sobriety test, Delgadillo said.

She was booked and released on $2,500 bail, authorities said. A Dec. 11 court appearance was scheduled.

A message requesting comment was left at the office of her publicist, Amanda Silverman. An employee said a statement was being prepared.

In 1996, Latifah pleaded guilty in Los Angeles to a misdemeanor weapons charge after a California Highway Patrol officer found a loaded gun in her car-door compartment when she was stopped for speeding on a freeway.

The previous year she was the victim of a carjacking in New York City in which a companion was shot.

Latifah rose to prominence as a feminist rapper with her 1989 debut, ``All Hail the Queen.'' She won a Grammy Award in 1995 for best rap solo performance for ``U.N.I.T.Y.''

She branched into acting in 1993 as a cast member on the sitcom ``Living Single,'' which ran for five years. She hosted her own TV talk show, which ran from 1999 to 2001, and appeared in films such as ``Jungle Fever,'' ``House Party 2'' and the recent romantic comedy ``Brown Sugar.''