Brace yourselves. Suge Knight has signed with Beaux Carson's Carson Signature Films to allow his story -- as in his version of the events surrounding the shooting of rap icon Tupac Shakur -- to be told as a movie.

Carson pursued the Death Row Records impresario for two years trying to nail down rights.

The hugely-energetic Carson's already describing the planned film as ''Training Day' Meets 'The Godfather.'' Still, he stresses, 'We're not pointing any fingers, just telling a story' in the project. He also reports that Knight envisions doing a CD in conjunction with the film as a collaborative effort among rap figures of Tupac's time -- with portions of the proceeds going to fund programs serving under-privileged youth.

Those familiar with the never-solved murder of Tupac -- a case that's spawned big and small-screen documentaries, books, articles and a slew of conspiracy theories -- will recall that Knight was at the wheel of the BMW in which Shakur was slain in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. East Coast rapper Notorious B.I.G. and Shakur had been feuding for more than a year. B.I.G. was gunned down six months after Shakur's death. That killing also remains unsolved.

To hear Carson tell it, 6'2'', 300-plus-pound Knight is 'a teddy bear -- but if you take the teddy away, he can be a real bear.'

Knight was arrested this month and is being held on suspicion of a parole violation, after marijuana was reportedly found in his vehicle at a traffic stop in Barstow, CA. In 1996, Knight was sentenced to five years in prison for violating probation he received for assault and weapons convictions in 1992. Two years after his 2001 release, Knight spent an additional 10 months in prison for violating his parole. He was released again last April.

ON THE PERSONAL SIDE: Queen Latifah lays it on the line when it comes to her appearance: 'I've been fortunate to have the career I want without changing what I look like.' She adds that if producers 'ever demanded I lose so much weight that I'm not even a remnant of who I am, then, hell no, I'm not going to do that. Besides, there'd be a lot of girls out there who wouldn't be inspired had I not been that girl with a little more weight who carried herself with that self-confidence,' says Latifah, in the March issue cover story of In Style, hitting stands later this week. The hip-hop star/actress/producer/businesswoman, who soared again with her jazz performance at Sunday's Grammy Awards show, which she also hosted, would like to pass that confidence around. 'I wish every woman would love themselves and embrace what they were given naturally,' she says.

FURTHER DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: 'Lost' regular Terry O'Quinn reports things will be getting curiouser and curiouser on the island wonderland the plane crash survivors inhabit on the hit ABC drama.

'The character Boone (Ian Somerhalder) and I have found a hatch in the woods in the jungle?a metal thing with a window,' explains the actor who plays the mysterious Locke on the show. 'In the episode that I'm working on now we're trying to open it.'

O'Quinn says that fans of the popular ABC drama about airplane crash survivors on an island already know that Locke 'was a paraplegic and couldn't walk before the plane crash. He wanted to go on this Australian Walkabout (a journey of self-discovery the Aborigines do), but when he flew there they wouldn't let him because he was confined to a wheelchair. He thought that going there was going to answer his questions and give him his ambulatory powers back and all that stuff, but it didn't happen. Then the plane crashed and he decided that this was, in fact, his destiny. The back story that we're shooting now predates all that stuff. This Locke back story and the opening of the hatch are interrelated. His coming to the island and his faith in the island as a deity or entity is tied into his remembering something from his past -- and it all ties together in a weird, wonderful kind of way.'

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: 'How do you sum up all of black history in 30 seconds?' asks actress Kim Fields, who faced this challenge during her latest project for TV Land and Nick at Nite. Having directed for the last 11 years, the former 'Facts of Life' star eagerly hopped behind the camera to direct a series of vignettes in which she and four poets reflect on the impact African Americans have had on television. 'They're kind of peppered throughout the entire month,' notes Fields of the network's contribution to Black History Month. 'I commend them for taking a major stride in terms of having such a deeply moving campaign that's not your usual picture of Bill Cosby, Martin Luther King, or Will Smith,' she adds. Fields, who's currently in talks for her own TV series, performs an original piece which deals with growing up in front of the camera. 'Very few people have the testimony that I have -- being able to look back with fond memories.'

Source: Netscape