In last year’s hit film “Hairspray,” her character was “big, blond and beautiful.”

The blond is long gone and, in signing on as the new celebrity face of Jenny Craig, actress/singer Queen Latifah wants to work on the “big.” As part of the First Steps campaign, Latifah hopes to lose 5 percent to 10 percent of her body weight and keep it off.

“For me, it’s not about a body image thing. I feel pretty confident,” the 37-year-old star of “Mad Money” said at a recent press conference for Jenny Craig. “I do realize I’m a role model to a lot of people, and I’ve been a role model for confidence. I feel being a healthier person is a good thing. If I can set the example for confidence on the inside, why not set it for confidence on the outside as well?”

The campaign’s message, according to company and medical officials, is not one of drastic “I lost-100-pounds-in-six-months” alterations, routinely screamed by the tabloids. Shedding 5 percent to 10 percent of one’s body weight significantly reduces an overweight person’s risk of diabetes, heart disease or other related ailments.

“There’s good medical data that a modest weight loss has huge health benefits,” says Dr. Francine Kaufman, head of the Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. “This is a relatively new message. Jenny Craig has always been centered on getting the right portion size and the nutrient quality of the foods. We’re all starting to realize more and more how a healthy lifestyle promotes a healthy outcome.”

In addition, most people consider modest weight loss a manageable goal, says Dr. Ken Fujioka, director of the Center for Weight Management at Scripps Clinic and Scripps Green Hospital in San Diego.

“You don’t have to be thin. You don’t have to be a normal weight,” says Fujioka. “Losing more than 10 percent of your body weight is actually very difficult. Your body fights it.”

This approach fits Latifah just fine.

“I do not want to get skinny,” the actress, born Dana Owens, says. “I do not necessarily need to fit into a bikini. But a tankini could work.”

In joining what she calls “the JC crew,” Latifah follows in the slimming-down footsteps of actresses Kirstie Alley (who lost 75 pounds on the program) and Valerie Bertinelli (40 pounds).

Unlike those other two actresses, however, Latifah was already a plus-size performer when she became famous, first as a hip-hop artist and later in films. She has long professed herself personally and professionally at ease with her curvy figure. Indeed, an October People magazine cover story trumpeted the actress as being “200 Pounds and Loving It!”

But Latifah says one of the letters replying to the People article set her to thinking.

“Someone else wrote, `As a role model, I think it would be great if Queen Latifah could really set the example of being healthy.’ It struck a chord with me,” Latifah says. “I said that maybe there’s something to that. Maybe I should think about that. Maybe I could be that person.”

Latifah announced her support of Jenny Craig during her Trav’lin Light Tour in October but didn’t formally join the program at the time. Preparing to shoot the film “The Secret Life of Bees” in North Carolina, Latifah expects the Jenny Craig requirements to be easy to follow, and hopes to reach her weight goal in four to six weeks.

And then?

“Then I’ll maintain it, maybe even lose more,” she says. “It depends on how I feel. Sometimes you get excited. You want to go even further.”

Are America Ferrera and long-time boyfriend Ryan Piers Williams engaged to be married, as recent reports would have it?
“I make a point of not talking about my personal life,” declares the “Ugly Betty” star. “”But Ryan and I are still together. No, we’re not engaged. We’ve never been engaged — though there have been at least 100 reports this past year that I was engaged to Ryan.”

As her fame has soared, so, too, has the misinformation being spread about all aspects of her life. “You have to ignore some of the things that are said about you,” she says, “Laugh at others — and just shake your head over the fact that there are people who can’t find anything better to do with their time then literally create quotes out of thin air. Some of the things are awful. One magazine, for instance, quoted me as saying that when I was younger, I used to cry at my reflection. I never said such a thiing!”

America, who’ll be before the “Ugly Betty” cameras until May 9, then prepare for a movie shoot — and she has the big-screen “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2″ upcoming — doesn’t feel that the invasion of her private life is the price she should have to pay for fame.

“I don’t think I should have to sacrifice self-respect,” she declares. “People should have respect for others and not chase personalities in their cars or show up in front of their homes. That said, I do enjoy it when fans come up to me and say they love my series and like my work. But there’s a time and place for everything. Having strangers approach you when you’re out having an intimate dinner or, for instance, when you’re on the cell phone, well that can get pretty obnoxious.”

MEANWHILE: America Ferrera alerts fans of “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” to prepare for major changes in the sequel to the 2005 hit. The “Ugly Betty” star, who reprises her “Traveling Pants” role in the August 8 release, says the new flick “is very different in feel from the original.” It takes place three years later, and finds the four girls “grown up and trying to deal with friendship after their lives have taken them in different directions, with experiences the other haven’t shared.”

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: Scott Baio tells us his VH1 reality show will probably be coming back for a third season. According to him, “Professional-wise I get a lot of good heat from the show because it’s sort of a different-looking reality show. At network meetings I spend the first 15 minutes talking about the show because they want to know how we do it. They’re like, ‘We don’t know what this show is. Is it real or not?’ I’m like, ‘It’s whatever you want it to be.’ I can’t tell you what’s real and not real because everything is produced – everything. But it is my life and my baby and my wife and my house, but within that we play. We know where the story is. I know sort of where I want to take my life and I try to get it there.”

While Baio is happy to have buzz surrounding “Scot Baio is…” the actor admits it hasn’t necessarily helped in getting the big roles. Nevertheless, he’s just happy to work. His latest project is the Spike TV movie “Finish Line” where he says he enjoyed playing the bad guy. The action flick about a stock car driver whose need for money leads him to unknowingly work for an arms dealer premieres tonight (4/21) in HD. “Very few people have the luxury of saying, ‘I want to do this.’ You do what comes along and you make the best of it. There is only one Clint Eastwood or one Tom Cruise. They’re the type of guys who can pick and choose exactly what they want. Guys like us, we just sort of take what we can get and hopefully it’s good stuff. This was a fun little movie. I wish I could get deeper about it, but I’m not that guy.”

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: Tom Lennon confirms that he and his cohorts hope to bring “Reno 911” back to the big screen. “We have script for a movie called ‘Reno S.O.S.,’ which is basically like ‘Lord of the Flies’ and ‘Lost’ where we crash on an island. I don’t know that they’ll necessarily green light the movie just yet, but they might.”

HAVE SCRIPT, WILL TRAVEL: Having done a string of six films over the past couple years including “Mad Money” and “Superhero Movie,” Christopher McDonald now expects to take a little time off to be with his family. However, he knows the show business rule: “If you want to work, book a very expensive vacation. If you do – and I’m going to take my kids to France – that’s the time when that gem of a role you can’t pass up comes your way.”