Latifah in Job Swap

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/06/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Rapper, actor ("Living Single") and TV host Queen Latifah, 30, switched jobs with a fan on Friday and spent a day behind bars -- working as a zookeeper. South Carolina's Greenville News reports that Latifah showed up for duty at the local zoo and tidied up after lemurs, washed an elephant and fed a dead rat to a 15-foot python, reportedly with a pair of tongs. All apparently proceeded smoothly until the snake decided to lunge, causing Latifah to scream and pull back, whereupon the shocked python gulped down the rodent and the tongs.