Queen Latifah Arrested on DUI Charge

By Rachel F. Elson

11/21/2002 at 01:55 PM EST

It's been a bad week for R&B stars and their cars. First hitmaker D'Angelo was arrested Monday by Virginia police after he allegedly assaulted and verbally abused a woman at a gas station -- an incident apparently triggered by her criticism of the way he was driving his black BMW SUV.

Now soulful hip-hop star Queen Latifah, 32, has been arrested on an alleged DUI charge, the Associated Press reports.

The actress-rapper was driving a 2003 Cadillac Escalade sport utility vehicle at about 3:15 a.m. Wednesday morning when she was pulled over for making an unsafe lane change, California Highway Patrol spokesman Alex Delgadillo tells the wire service.

She showed a valid New Jersey driver's license -- with her given name, Dana Owens -- but then failed a sobriety test, Delgadillo said. The hip-hop Queen was booked, released on $2,500 bail and given a Dec. 11 court appearance. Police said she was cooperative during the arrest, according to Reuters.

Come to think of it, Queen Latifah's been unlucky with cars in general. In 1996, she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor weapons charge after a CHP officer stopped her for speeding and found a loaded gun in her car-door compartment, and the previous year she was the victim of a carjacking in New York in which a companion was shot, the AP noted.