The Secret Life of Bees (2008)

Lily (Dakota Fanning) carries around a heavy burden.  One night years ago, her mother Deborah (Hilarie Burton) attempted to leave her dad T. Ray (Paul Bettany).  Deborah pulled a gun, which was knocked out of her hand by T. Ray.  Lily, who was a toddler then, picked up the gun.  It went off, killing Deborah.

It's the summer of 1964, and Lily shares a home with her sullen, distant dad.  Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson) is the housekeeper along with being Lily's friend.  Rosaleen has a run-in with the town's bigots when they attempt to stop her from registering to vote.  Lily takes one too many punishments from her dad.  Lily sneaks Rosaleen out of the hospital -- where she's being held after being beaten by the bigots -- and they run out of town.  Lily has a memento of her mother's with the name of a town on it.  Upon arriving there, Lily is drawn to the house of three sisters who run a honey-making business. 

August (Queen Latifah) is the oldest, and she along with sister May (Sophie Okenado) agree to take Lily and Rosaleen in.  Their sister June (Alicia Keys), a music teacher with a pursuant suitor named Neil (Nate Parker), doesn't think it's a good idea.  Both Lily and Rosaleen find peace at the sisters' home.  Lily makes a friend in Zach (Tristan Wilds), a young man who helps out in the honey business.  But outside forces -- prevalent racism, changing racial politics, family secrets -- intrude on the peace. 

Dakota Fanning is a fantastic actress.  So is Sophie Okenado, who plays the child-like, sensitive May.  The film is based on the novel by Sue Monk Kidd.  It was written and directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood, who wrote the screenplay for Love and Basketball (2000).

Beauty Shop (2005)

So-so comedy about Gina (Queen Latifah) a single mom who works in an upscale beauty shop for an extremely arrogant stylist named Jorge (Kevin Bacon). Fed up with his ways, she walks out and starts her own beauty shop. A helpful handman (Dimjon Housou) helps her fix the place up, and after a few fits and starts, she's in business. Jorge feels threatened by her shop, especially when some of his best customers defect over to her place. He plays dirty trikcs in an attempt to shut her down.

The Queen is likeable in this film, but despite her and some other cast members (Alicia Silverstone, Alfre Woodard, Laura Hayes, Della Reese), the story is routine. Keisha Knight Pulliam, who played Rudy on "The Cosby Show" is featured as a fast tail relative of Latifah's character who is too busy dating the wrong man to watch her step. LisaRaye, an actress from Chicago who is currently on the TV series "All Of Us" has a small part, as does Golden Brooks, who is a cast member on TV's "Girlfriends". Kimora Lee, ex-wife of mogul Russell Simmons, appears as a hard to please customer. Andie MacDowell (Four Weddings and A Funeral) plays a ditzy Southern belle.

"Livin' Single" (1993-1998)

Funny sitcom about a group of African-American friends living in New York City. Khadijah James (Queen Latifah) was the publisher of a magazine called "Flavor". She shared an apartment with her daffy cousin Synclaire James (Kim Coles), who also worked as a receptionist at Khadijah's magazine, and materialistic Regine Hunter (Kim Fields). Regine worked at a fashion boutique. Maxine "Max" Shaw, a wild college friend of Khadijah who was a lawyer, hung out in their apartment constantly. Max was always exchanging insults with smooth financial planner Kyle Barker (T.C. Carson), who lived upstairs with roommate Overton Jones (John Henton), a handyman.

The friends were always involved in romantic entaglements, career issues, and other mishaps. Max ended up being booted out of the prestigious law firm she worked for after the advice she gave a client about getting a prenup before their wedding backfired. The firm rehired her, but when she found out they had demoted her, she quit and took a job with the Public Defender's office. Khadijah constantly fought battles to keep her magazine afloat and get good articles published. Synclaire and Overton became a couple which led to them getting married. Regine became the buyer at the boutique and had a romance with a rich guy (played by rapper Heavy D) who wasn't quite sophisticated enough for her.

The series had decent ratings, but it was up against NBC powerhouse "Seinfeld" (1990-1998) throughout most of its run. Unfortunately, during the last season, the FOX Network kept pre-empting episodes, then the show was yanked off the air. When Synclaire and Overton got married, they moved into their own apartment. Khadijah and Regine welcomed Ira Lee Williams III, or Tripp (Mel Jackson) as he was called, as a roommate. The dynamics weren't quite the same after that. Kyle and Max fell for each other despite of their mutual hostitlity towards each other. The craziest plot in the last season had Max pregnant after a visit to a sperm bank, only to discover the sperm had been donated by Kyle. Regine planned a party for a rich computer company owner (Don Franklin); he proposed to her, but their marriage was never shown. Her character disappeared from the show after she got engaged. Khadijah finally decided to get serious with old flame Terrence, otherwise known as Scooter (Cress Williams).

Queen Latifah--real name, Dana Owens--began her career as a rapper, with such hits as "Latifah's Had It Up To Here" and "U.N.I.T.Y.". Mel Jackson appeared as a slimy ex-boyfriend of Nia Long in the movie Soul Food. John Henton was later a regular on "The Hughleys".