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      *Queen Latifah has joined the discussion sparked by the now infamous March 14 “Newsweek” article that examines the Hollywood practice of casting black leading men opposite Latina love interests - because all-black couples are harder to market.

      During interviews Sunday for her forthcoming film “Beauty Shop,” which stars African actor Djimon Hounsou as her boo, Latifah gave us her take on the issue.

      “My take is America’s racist,” she says with authority. “That’s pure racism, and capitalism. It’s like, ‘How can we make the most money? Okay, well, we’re gonna pair you up with this person so you can bring that audience, and you can bring this audience’, but, it’s a shame. I hate the idea that you can’t have a black couple - which you can, it’s just the question of how much money you want to make and how bankable you think it is.”

      As previously reported, the “Newsweek” article mentions Will Smith’s “Hitch” co-star Eva Mendes, who called the practice “lame” and wished “the mentality wasn’t so closed.”  Self-described black-Latina actress Zoe Saldana was also mentioned in the article for her pairing with Nick Cannon in “Drumline”; and Mexican actress Jessica Alba was noted for her role as Mekhi Phifer’s object of desire in “Honey.”

      Alba, who next stars as a blonde stripper in Robert Rodriguez’s stylized “Sin City,” says she’s just happy to have reached a level in Hollywood where roles stereotypical to Latinas are not the only scripts to be sent her way.

      “I only used to get breakdowns for Maria, the janitor’s daughter who was messing around with the white kid,” Alba told us Saturday.

      On the issue of her race being a factor in casting, she says: “I never think about it until people make me think about it. And this industry definitely made me think about me being a Latin girl. It was such a classist, bizarre thing because I grew up in the United States, my mother’s white, my father’s Mexican and I came out how I did and they always want to pigeonhole you.”

      The 23-year-old rising star said her thoughts about race changed after she was cast as the genetically-enhanced star of James Cameron’s TV series “Dark Angel” at age 18. 

      “Jim basically said, ‘You’re the future of the race and that’s basically what ‘Dark Angel’ was, where you’re just a mixture, and we’re not going to talk about it.  It’s very liberating working with people that aren’t going to pigeonhole you as the janitor’s daughter.”

      Meanwhile, plum romantic lead roles will remain out of reach for black actresses as long as studios continue its belief that audiences will not to pay to see a black woman express physical affection for a black man on the big screen. 

      “Do you think you alienate a certain audience because you show that? I don’t think you do,” says Latifah. “I think people use that as an excuse. I think people use that as a crutch. There’s a whole bunch more movies with black couples in it. Some of the major films have had a black guy teamed up with a Latina woman, or a white girl, or me and the white guy. I mean that whole thing is getting kind of old, too. It’s like I enjoy that, but I can also do this person.”

      Will Hollywood’s attitude ever change?

      “It’s got to come from us. It’s got to come from the studios. It’s got to come from the production companies,” says Latifah. “It’s not going to be something that one person can change. It’s got to be a conscious effort not to do that, to show different images and mix it up. I mean, for crying out loud, I done had several Puerto Rican boyfriends, so it’s not unrealistic, but at the same time it’s all about choices. It’s all about having options and seeing different flavors, because that’s really what life is like. Everybody is not the same, we don’t do the same things over and over, we do mix it up sometimes and it would be nice to see that.”

      “Beauty Shop” opens March 30; “Sin City” opens April 1.