Queen Latifah wanted to keep a heart-clogging secret.
The hip hop diva hoped to hide her involvement in a pair of Fatburger franchises because she was pitching Jenny Craig weight-loss products at the same time, a witness testified in Brooklyn federal court yesterday.
“I don’t think she wanted it to be public that she was involved with Fatburger,” said Tony Martin, road manager for accused cocaine-dealing music impresario James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond.
The embarrassing revelation came during Rosemond’s trial for allegedly using his music-industry business as cover while smuggling millions worth of cocaine in packing cases from Los Angeles to New York.
Martin said that Latifah and Rosemond wanted to open Fatburger franchises in the Miami area.
“He was excited about that,” Martin said of Rosemond. “He went to LA and met with the Fatburger executives.”
But Latifah, who tips the scales at 200-plus pounds, wanted her role in the Fatburger venture kept on the deep down-low.
“I think she was involved in a weight-loss business,” Martin explained
Fatburger’s menu includes the 24-ounce, Triple Kingburger, chili cheese fries and frosty milk shakes, which together pack a 2,500-calorie wallop.
The chunky, Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated singer and actress gained national notoriety on health issues as a spokeswoman for Jenny Craig.
“I don’t want to be a supermodel,” Latifah said in the Jenny Craig ads. “I want to be a role model.”
Latifah, 42, who was born Dana Elaine Owens in Newark, NJ, signed on with the weight-loss outfit in 2008, and continued as a celebrity spokeswoman the following year after dropping 20 pounds.
Fatburger was founded in Los Angeles in 1947 and went national in the late 1990s.