— by Ryan J. Downey Queen Latifah searches for her ringing telephone, groggy from a weekend's worth of partying. On the other end is the familiar voice of her closest associate and longtime business partner, Shakim Compere. "We got the nomination," he says.  'Chicago' photos Latifah sits up, alert. "What nomination?" Shakim pauses before answering. "The Oscar." Latifah shrieks. She darts out from under the covers. She runs around the house, still screaming. And she's barely clothed. "Just panties, that's it," Latifah explained, recounting the day she found out she's up for Best Supporting Actress. "I was just about to get into bed. I had just gotten under the covers and the phone rang. ... Then of course I couldn't sit still. I was just on a high."  'Chicago' Clip 'The Biggest Mother Hen' Which is understandable. Queen Latifah is certainly having a moment. Thanks to her star-making (or is that remaking?) turn in "Chicago," the onetime seemingly down-for-the-count (remember her talk show?) rapper/actress is back. And while her next career move, the comedy "Bringing Down the House," seems questionable (more on that later), right now is by all accounts her time to shine. Rewind a few weeks. Latifah is riding in a limousine with Shakim and her mother beside her. Will Smith wants to celebrate Latifah's Golden Globe nomination, so he and Jada Pinkett are throwing a party. Tonight, the woman who once regularly rocked a stovepipe hat-style "crown" is dressed with elegance for the occasion.  "It doesn't make you a sellout or a chump." — Queen Latifah "Different game for different places," she explained simply. "That's part of the example to set. It's all about showing versatility. [For example], I've been fighting to show that rappers are articulate. We can speak. Will is another person who's had to break that wall down. LL [Cool J] is another. ... You realize that to get into other rooms you have to move in different ways. My mother wouldn't allow me to speak slang when I was growing up. But when I got outside, around my friends, it was 'Yo' and 'That's the joint' and 'Yo, what's up?' So I had my game for my friends and my game for my mom." "It doesn't make you a sellout or a chump," she added. "It doesn't make you corny. If anything, it makes you intelligent, and [it] opens up your world to more things." Though she and her fellow Native Tongues rappers — De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Jungle Brothers — once discussed launching a touring musical, Latifah never thought she'd actually be earning mainstream accolades for something like "Chicago." "Award shows, like the Grammys, were tough on us early in hip-hop, not even televising our categories or splitting them up on best male or female or any of that. We had to earn them. But you always think about and you always dream about things. You dream about Grammys. You dream [about] Oscars, American Music Awards, and now you dream about MTV Awards." With a new TV series in the works (this time she'll play an ex-cop), the Golden Globes nomination, the potential Oscar, Latifah is a Queen at the pop culture ball. But for a minute it seemed like she'd disappeared. NEXT: Latifah's talk show flops and she falls off the charts, but her influence lives on ...
	Photo: Kevin Mazur/Wireimage