LL Cool J joins 'Last Holiday'

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Rapper LL Cool J has joined Queen Latifah in the cast of "Last Holiday," a remake of the 1950 British comedy that starred Alec Guinness.

The hip hop star, billed as James Todd Smith in the film, will play an ex-con who has a secret crush on the main character, played by Latifah, the Hollywood Reporter said Monday.

In the original Paramount Pictures version, Guinness plays a poor clerk who, upon learning he has only a few months to live, takes one last holiday, during which he's mistaken for an eccentric aristocrat.

In the updated film, Latifah's character is a shy clerk who goes on a European vacation after learning she is terminally ill.

Val Kilmer and Jonny Lee Miller also star in the film.

LL Cool J's 11th album, "The DEFinition," was released last month and has sold approximately 460,000 copies to-date in the United States.