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Aretha To Grammys: The Queen Is Not Amused

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 14, 2008

When Aretha Franklin is unhappy, she does not mince words.

On Tuesday, the longtime Queen of Soul slammed Beyonce Knowles' intro to Tina Turner at Sunday's Grammy Awards, in which Knowles called Turner, not Franklin, "the queen."

"I am not sure of whose toes I may have stepped on or whose ego I may have bruised between the Grammy writers and Beyonce," Franklin said in a statement. "However, I dismissed it as a cheap shot for controversy."

E-mail to Knowles' publicist Yvette Noel-Schure and calls and e-mail to Recording Academy spokeswomen Jaime Sarachit and Barb Deghan were not immediately returned.

In the first few seconds of Knowles' intro to Turner's performance, she name-dropped Franklin and a long list of famed female singers. Then the "Crazy in Love" chanteuse focused on Turner.

"There is one legend who has the essence of all of those things: the glamour, the soul, the passion, the strength, the talent," said Knowles, strutting in hot pants. "Ladies and gentlemen. Stand on your feet and give it up for the queen."

Wilson Gets To The Bottom Of His Appeal

Get ready to see a whole lot more of Rainn Wilson than you ever would have imagined.

The co-star of NBC's "The Office" says he dropped trou for a few comedy sketches he taped as host of the Spirit Awards, the Oscars of independent film.

"When I signed up I said, 'I'm not a standup comedian. I'm happy to tell jokes and stuff but it's not really what I do,'" Wilson said Wednesday.

"And you know, they were like, 'Great, let's film some stuff and make it close to what you did when you hosted "Saturday Night Live."' That's kind of what we're aiming for - just funny comedy stuff. ... I assure you, I make an idiot of myself.

"My butt is actually revealed a couple of different times, so if anyone's curious about what my butt might look like..."

The Spirit Awards, sponsored by Film Independent, air Feb. 23 on IFC.

Coleman's Married? Whatchoo Talkin' 'Bout?

Gary Coleman is a not-so-newlywed.

The former "Diff'rent Strokes" star married 22-year-old Shannon Price in August on a mountaintop in Nevada, but they have been keeping their vows under wraps, the pair told "Inside Edition."

"Nobody was around but the minister, preacher, the videographers, the photographer, the helicopter pilot and us," Coleman, 40, said on the program.

Coleman met Price on the set of the 2006 comedy "Church Ball." Price said it was she who proposed to Coleman, but that he surprised her on her birthday by whisking her to a mountaintop in the Valley of Fire State Park to exchange vows.

She said they kept their wedding secret because she wanted to keep being seen as her own person.

Today's Birthdays

TV personality Hugh Downs ("20/20") is 87. Actress Florence Henderson is 74. Jazz saxophonist Maceo Parker is 65. "The Insider" host Pat O'Brien is 60. Magician Teller of Penn and Teller is 60. Actor Ken Wahl ("Wiseguy") is 51. Actress Meg Tilly is 48. Actor Enrico Colantoni ("Just Shoot Me") is 45. Actor Valente Rodriguez ("George Lopez") is 44. Bassist Ricky Wolking of The Nixons is 42. Singer Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty is 36. Actor Freddie Highmore ("August Rush," "Finding Neverland") is 16.

Source: The Associated Press

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