LOS ANGELES?Queen Latifah, who has been in the news lately for revealing that she was sexually abused as a child, explained in a recent press con why she opened up about it.

Speaking to reporters at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New York, Latifah explained, ?I talk about these things to let people know that it?s okay to talk about it; that it?s not your fault. I?ve gone through therapy for it. I feel that I?ve overcome the damage that was done to me and the guilt that came along with it. You?re a 5-year-old kid and, somehow, you think it was your fault. I was really taken advantage of.?

Disclosure

The singer-actress first made the disclosure in an interview with Essence magazine, wherein she disclosed that a teenager, who was in charge of watching her, abused her over a period of time. She was quoted as saying, ?He violated me. I never told anybody; I just buried it as deeply as I could and kept people at an arm?s distance. I never let a person get too close to me. I could?ve been married years ago, but I had a commitment issue.?

Latifah told the magazine that when her brother died when she was 22, ?I knew I couldn?t carry his death and that secret?I had to get it off my chest.? She said that she finally told her parents, who are separated.

Hoping to encourage people, especially youths in distress, to open up, Latifah shared in our interview, ?I talk about other things on this issue. I talk about a young boy who tried to commit suicide. You just never know what?s going on in someone?s home. Kids could be neglected or are being abused by their parents.?

She added, ?There?s a song called ?The World? in my new album, where I address the issue of being molested as a child. It?s basically about putting your faith in God, because the world would put you on a pedestal, snatch it right out from under you, and laugh. That?s how sinister it can be sometimes.?

Latifah uttered those encouraging words in her soothing, melodious voice, which she uses to calming effect in ?Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.? She reprises Ellie, the voice-role she created in ?Ice Age: The Meltdown.?

In the new movie, Ellie, Manny the Mammoth (Ray Romano), Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo), Diego the Saber-toothed Tiger (Denis Leary), and possums, Crash (Seann William Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck), go into an adventure in a mysterious underground world populated by dinosaurs, where they meet a swashbuckling weasel, Buck (Simon Pegg).

Connection

The 2008 Golden Globe Best Actress in a TV Movie or Miniseries for ?Life Support? said of her ?Ice Age? character: ?Ellie has matured since the last movie. In that last one, she thought she was a possum, then she figured out that she really was a wooly mammoth. She made a connection with Manny by the end of that movie. Time has passed and, now, they?ve connected for life. They have a baby on the way. So, for me, it was important to bring the warmth, love and strength that a mom has. When everything?s going crazy, mommas somehow keep it together. While Manny thinks he?s in control of everyone, she?s the one who?s really in control of the whole thing! She?s trying to keep herself and everyone else calm, considering that she?s about to have a baby.?

When asked about her favorite animated film, Latifah offered an atypical choice: ?Heavy Metal,? the 1981 Canadian movie. ?I loved the classics, like ?Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.? But, when I saw ?Heavy Metal,? I thought it was the most amazing movie! I had never seen anything like it.?

As for any adventure that may match the one her character, Ellie, and the gang experience in the movie, the Queen volunteered, ?I just came from a hiking boot camp, where you hike about 70, 80 miles a week. You hike 10 to 15 miles a day up in the mountains between Calabasas and Malibu. I jumped off cliffs in Jamaica. That was thrilling! I ride motorcycles. I?m adventurous. To me, life is an adventure. I try to take every day and find something exciting about it. That?s how I live my life, because life is not merely a promise. Every day should be a chance to discover something new.?

Moviegoers who loved Latifah?s Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated performance in the musical, ?Chicago,? will rejoice to read this: She will star as Bessie Smith, the legendary blues singer, in an upcoming HBO feature.

?It?s a project that Lily Zanuck brought to me years ago, and it?s being written right now,? she announced. HBO managed to acquire the rights. So, now, the road is finally clear for us to make it. I think it would be one of the greatest adventures of my filmmaking career!?

Extraordinary life

Of Bessie, who reigned in the 1920s and 1930s, Latifah gushed, ?She was incredible. She was a very strong woman who once faced down members of the Ku Klux Klan. They were coming to break up one of her concerts. She marched down the field, met them, and chased them away.?

In the meantime, fans of Latifah as a singer can look forward to the release of her new CD next month. ?It?s called ?Persona,?? she said of the album. ?Each record likewise displays my acting abilities, because I channel these different characters or tell stories through the eyes of other people. It might also be about an experience I went through as Queen Latifah, the hip-hop artist, the spokesmodel, the girl who rides motorcycles, the nurturing mother, and the baseball cap-and-jeans girl?those are my different personalities, so ?Persona? is an appropriate title.?

E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com, and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.