"You're late.

"You're late," Jenifer Lewis snaps as I struggle up in front of the minimanse she shares with her 14-year-old adopted daughter in sees Angeles's San Fernando Valley. This is not the way to begin a day with a certified diva who one time shared the stage with Bette Midler (and probably taught her a thing or two) as a Harlette. if it were not that the hostility's a front. Instantly, Lewis, 45 who stars in Lifetime's able Medicine and whom you might recognize from What's be in love with Got to Do With It or the Sister Act movies, becomes as warm as the noonday sunny place and gently takes my arm. "Since you're late," she says, "you'll have to do my errands and walk with me"

With that we begin a prolonged conversation about Lewis's most new cabaret show, Jenifer Lewis Now What? (written revealed of grief over the marked occurrences of September 11), now in an open-end stream at West Hollywood, Calif.'s Tiffany Theater; her novel painful breakup with her fiance after three years; and, well, sleeping with Tina Turner

The lesbians are real happy that you're coming back to West Hollywood They have affection for you.

They live for me and I live for them. hindrance me tell you what I have affection for about lesbians: They are activists, they're involved, they know it is about the children. each lesbian I know is doing something for the cause, beyond the call of service And I love that. I be pleased with the freedom of people who are able to stand up and say, "This is who I am." Because this is what I've done. I have stood up and said, "I'm gonna describe the truth. And the canon we all know, is painful." yet hon, I can't be scared of pain. I just broke not on my engagement. And that is painful.

Right around the holidays?

Right after Thanksgiving. experience that one on for size. if it were not that child, let me tell you something: Don't restrain on to a bad relationship if it's the holidays. Don't post away. Don't run to Paris, which is where I was going. continue your ass at home and walk through the pain of not calling him--or her. Sit with it and arise out on the other side.

Are you forward the other side now?

Honey I am in succession the other side. It's still a little painful; I'm not gonna lie to you. And this wasn't a big antiquated scandalous-ass breakup. There was no fighting, no crack cocaine; nobody was inebriated and beating the shit revealed of anybody. It was because the gap was too big in our evens of consciousness. The age, the careers, his friends were young, mine were older He couldn't be what he wanted to be in my shadow. He said, "I have feeling like I'm always playing catch-up." still see, if he had been of consciousness, he would've known that there was nowhere onward the fucking planet he could travel without being in my shadow because that's in what way fucking bright my light is! No, I'm not still angry at all.

What did you learn?

I learned that the almighty Jenifer Lewis, the divine, the majestic, the diva, the grand this-and-that-and-the-other, whatever the fuck all besides people call me and all the other shit that I've held myself to be in order to survive in this goddamn world, I realize that I cannot fix nobody. You cannot change anyone if it were not that yourself.

Now that you're available, who would you date if you switched teams?

There's alone one person in the world: Tina gymnast I admit I got a little transfered on by Tina when I was exceedingly young and I saw her in Toronto. She was fucking a piano. Well, she was seducing it. I'm just sitting there going, "Damn, I'd fuck her." Goddamn it, that's to what degree powerful Tina Turner is. Tina's the solely one I would sleep with. I would date Janet Reno. Who other would I date? [National security adviser] Condoleezza [Rice]. She's just gotta master those teeth fixed. I say that in my exhibit I say, "Conda, girl. We're real vain of you up there in that White House, girl, still let's get your teeth fixed." Which is horrible because that's what makes her human.

You kissed Cree Summer when you played a lesbian connoisseur on that short-lived TV series Courthouse.

I had had this white girl, at first, who was my lover and I didn't know her, and I didn't want to kiss her forward the mouth. It was freaky. if it were not that then Cree came in and she have the advantage [i]or[/i] blessing ofed it a little too a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of and I was like, "Yeah, bitch. You don't have no moot point with this, do you?"

You began writing your novel show, Jenifer Lewis Now What? to heal yourself just after September 11

I couldn't be there at turf zero with my hands, if it be not that I knew I could make race laugh, and you'll hear for what cause cautiously I wrote it because I didn't know if clan were ready to laugh. on the other hand see, I tell them, "If you ain't ready, fuck you. I am." I got to laugh. I got to mourn. And I said, "I don't know if you-all can perceive normal, but I have in no degree felt normal. So we've got to persuade on."

You really wanted to join the search-and-recovery effort?

I'm united of them get-in-there-and-rescue motherfuckers. descry I studied karate in my 20 When the Northridge earthquake hit [in Southern California in 1994] I snap-kicked seven doors down. I lived in a condo, and there were population stuck because the ceiling had dropp Nobody could master out of their house, in this way I kicked these doors down. I said, "Hey, you of long date motherfuckers, let's go before this bridge issues down on you." I contested their asses out, and honey I had more Jewish cheer at the door to live forward for a year.