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      *LL Cool J has known Queen Latifah for decades through mutual adventures in the rap game, but neither had really gotten to know each other until production began on their latest film, “The Last Holiday.”

      “I didn’t know Latifah has the sense of humor that she has,” said LL during interviews for the movie this past weekend in Los Angeles.  “I knew she was a nice person, because I’ve seen her around many times for years, but I didn’t know she had that type of a sense of humor. I didn’t know she was so laid back and relaxed.”

      At nights during the shoot, LL said his crew spent time with Latifah’s posse tearing up the local bowling alley, “going crazy and sliding down the lane,” laughs the rapper. “Sliding into home base to get strikes.”

      Hopefully, audiences will laugh as much in the theater as the actors did during their free time.  The film is an update of the 1950 film starring Alec Guiness in the title role of  George Bird, an agricultural machinery salesman who find out he hasn’t long to live and embarks on a last holiday. Latifah, as Georgia Bird, is a cookware salesperson for a New Orleans retail outlet who takes a dream vacation to Europe upon finding out that her days are numbered. LL plays Sean Matthews, a shy, soft-spoken man who carries a secret torch for the lady.

      “That’s the thing that made [the role] attractive,” said LL, who turns 38 on Saturday. That was the fun part of the role, the fact that it was an opportunity to play against type, against what people expected me to do. Most of the time, especially in film, people are gonna assume, ‘Oh, it’s a rapper, it’s hip hop.’ So this was an opportunity to do something different.”

      Despite the role being a departure for the New York native, LL says he shares one trait with his character.

       “What a lot of people don’t know about me is that I am shy,” he says. “I’ve never been the guy who went up to girls and asked them for their phone numbers. He wasn’t that far away from me, as far away as a person may assume. We all have different pieces to us and different aspects of our personality.”        

       Born James Todd Smith in Bay Shore, Long Island, LL has been busy these days taking advantage of the opportunities introduced as a byproduct of phenomenal success in the rap game. In a road similar to his co-star Latifah’s, platinum records were followed by a television series, then films and, eventually, business ventures.       

       “Every rapper or musician who goes platinum or double platinum is gonna get a movie opportunity, that’s just the way it works. Whether you like it or not, that’s just the truth,” admits LL. “But are you gonna be able to take advantage of it?  Is it something you love? Do you truly wanna do it? Are you killing time? Those are all questions that get answered over time.”

       For LL, opportunities that have come his way include a nine-picture production deal at Lionsgate and his Todd Smith clothing line, two ventures that give the rapper as much joy as a hit record. But those aren’t bad either.        

       His next disc, titled “Todd Smith,” hits the street in March with Jennifer Lopez on the first single, plus guests appearances by Mary J. Blige, 112, Ginuwine, Mary Mary, Teairra Marie, Lyfe Jennings, Pharrell Williams, Jermaine Dupri, Juelz Santana and Broadway.       

       In explaining the use of his birth name as the album title, husband and father of four says it’s because, “I’m revealing something else. I’m going to another dimension musically that’s totally different from what I’ve done in the past. It was an opening up. I was more collaborative with the writing than I’ve ever been, I’ve allowed other people to be involved with helping me write the songs, with creating the music. It was like an opening up and inviting in of everyone.”