You know what? I’ll just say it: I would totally marry Aretha Franklin. Just as I would have married Elizabeth Taylor, God rest her soul. I would marry Nora Ephron or Etta James or that fabulously bitter Olivia de Havilland. I would marry them because I like good gossip, and no one has better gossip than an old(er) lady who has been famous for decades, who has been married and divorced a bunch of times, someone who partied with the greats and doesn’t take crap from anybody. I’m not saying these would be healthy marriages. But they would be fun. And I would have a lot to say in my memoir.

So it doesn’t surprise me at all that Aretha Franklin has found what will likely be her LAST husband. Aretha announced that she and her “forever friend” William Wilkerson are getting hitched. Get yours, ‘Retha.

The Queen of Soul will soon have a king.

Aretha Franklin and her “forever friend” William ‘Willie’ Wilkerson are engaged to be married, her rep tells PEOPLE.

The iconic singer, 69, and Wilkerson are discussing tying the knot on Miami Beach, with an exclusive reception aboard a private yacht.

And for her dress?

“Ms. Franklin is considering Donna Karan, Valentino and the queen of wedding dresses, Vera Wang, to design her gown,” says her rep.

Franklin lost 85 pounds last year after a health scare and told PEOPLE, “I feel fabulous.”

Adds Franklin herself of the upcoming nuptials: “We’re looking at June or July for our date and no, I’m not pregnant, LOL!”

[From People]

God, I love old broads. Aretha is like Miss Marple with a even more fabulous hat collection. And Aretha doesn’t solve murders, she just sings the blues. RESPECT. Anyway, congrats to Aretha and William. William has been Aretha’s “gentleman companion” for years now, so if he’s a golddigger, he was definitely playing a loooong con. I think it’s just more likely that William and Aretha are close friends, and Aretha thought, “Why the hell not?”

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Aretha Franklin announced a few days ago that she wanted Halle Berry to play her in a newly announced bio-pic that will be made about Aretha’s life, from her childhood to her fame and success in the 1960s, and what will probably be her continuing success from the 1970s until present day. I don’t know, though, they could just end it in the 1970s, Aretha’s pinnacle. Now… I’m not saying there is NO resemblance between Halle and Aretha. There is. But it’s awfully convenient that Aretha wants the gorgeous Oscar-winning Halle to play her, right? When, honestly, there’s another beautiful Oscar-winner who would do gangbusters in the role too – Jennifer Hudson. Right?

Aretha Franklin wants Halle Berry to show her some R-E-S-P-E-C-T and sign on to portray a younger version of the Queen of Soul in an upcoming biopic. The 68-year-old singing legend sent out a press release this week revealing her choices for Hollywood stars to play top roles in a planned film about her life and career.

Besides Berry, Franklin says she wants another Academy Award winner – Denzel Washington – to play her father, the late C.L. Franklin, a prominent Baptist minister and civil rights leader in Detroit. Her wish list also includes Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard as Motown star Smokey Robinson.

The movie, for which Franklin says she’ll be reviewing the script next week, will be based on her autobiography, “Aretha: From These Roots,” a best-seller a decade ago.

Messages seeking comment were left by The Associated Press on Friday for representatives of Berry, Washington and Howard.

In her release, Franklin says the actors in question are “enthusiastic about the project and have agreed to take on these roles, subject to further negotiation.”

The statement says Washington, for one, “was very interested in the role,” and Franklin “also had a very positive response from her in-person conversations with Terrence Howard and others.”

Franklin is one of the most honored musicians in American history, having won numerous Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award; the National Medal of Arts; the Presidential Medal of Freedom and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[From The Huffington Post]

Denzel is a fine choice, and Terrence Howard… well, I think that man is strange, unprofessional douche, but whatever. Wonderful actor, but he seems like he sucks as a person. Halle would be fine in the role, but you’ve got to think that J.Hud is being seriously considered, right? But what do I know? In my life story, they would cast Mindy Kaling. No disrespect to Mindy at all (I do love her), but in our own minds, aren’t we always played by someone like Angelina or Charlize? Why not?

Aretha Franklin PR photos from the 1960s, plus one from the 2000s. Credit: WENN.

On Wednesday, Ellen DeGeneres lightly poked fun at Aretha Franklin’s unusual inauguration hat. The gray felt cap with the giant bow got a lot of people talking, with more against than for it. I knew it was a serious topic of conversation when I noticed last night that my roommate had joined a Facebook group devoted to the hat. That’s how you know stuff is important. Ellen’s take on it was pretty cute.

On Wednesday’s Ellen DeGeneres Show, the talk show host sports an over-the-top hat similar to the one that Aretha Franklin wore to Barack Obama’s historic inauguration.

“That would of been so embarrassing. The next thing you know, we would have been in Us Weekly’s ‘Who Wore it Better?’” DeGeneres jokes. “They said this is the only one they made! I can’t believe it!”

[From Us Weekly]

US notes that bloggers took to the web en masse to protest Franklin’s hat.

On Tuesday, bloggers criticized Franklin… “What was up with Aretha Franklin’s hat at the inauguration? While it’s quite Aretha-like, between the shape and the bow and the glitter she reminded me of the ball atop Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Tone it down, honey, this is not your day,” wrote blogger Kristi Gustafson on Timesunion.com.

[From Us Weekly]

To be fair, it’s Aretha’s job to be “Aretha-like,” regardless of the occasion. It’s also “Aretha-like” to wear unsupportive dresses without a bra, but she at least kept that business to herself. And a couple hundred people are big fans of the hat. The milliner who made it has been flooded with requests, and is doing his best to accommodate eager buyers.

The calls began to flood Luke Song’s hat shop not long after Aretha Franklin finished belting out “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” at President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Franklin, who wore a gray felt custom-designed hat from Mr. Song Millinery, has inadvertently caused an economic boom for the South Korean immigrant’s store.

Song said he wasn’t prepared for the hundreds of calls requesting the hat with a Swarovski rhinestone-bordered bow. We even have a lot of men calling to get it for their wives, mothers and grandmothers,” Song said. The hat worn by the “Queen of Soul” was hand-molded and would cost upward of $500 _ if it were for sale, the 36-year-old designer said. Customers instead were offered a satin ribbon version for $179.

“They want the same hat, but they understand it’s for the ‘Queen’ only,” he said. “Ninety-nine percent said, ‘That’s fine. I’ll get the next best thing.’” The family millinery has been in Detroit for about 25 years, and Franklin has been a customer for about 20 of those years. The store also sells to about 500 boutiques across the country. “We always make hats for her for high-profile events, so for us, the inauguration really was no big deal,” Song told The Associated Press on Thursday.

[From the Huffington Post]

I love that making a hat for a historic inauguration was no big deal to them. I suppose if it were an ordinary hat it would make sense for them not to think twice about it. But that was one attention-grabbing piece of headwear. In a sense, Aretha designed it herself. According to Song, it was a combination of two different hats. Franklin walked through the store looking at the merchandise and said, “I want that bow (put) on that hat.” Sounds like it worked out well for nearly everyone – with the exception of a vocal few.

Images thanks to Newscom.

Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin, two of music’s most lasting and influential women vocalists, are in a war of words, focusing primarily on one: Queen. Turner, 68, performed with Beyonce at the Grammy’s last year and was introduced by Knowles as “the queen” when she joined her onstage. This did not sit well with Franklin, long known as the Queen of Soul, and she set off what has turned into a war of words by issuing a statement the following day.

The day after the Grammy telecast, the 66-year-old ‘Respect’ singer released a statement that said: “I am not sure of whose toes I may have stepped on or whose ego I may have bruised between the Grammy writers and Beyoncé. However, I dismissed it as a cheap shot for controversy.”

Turner told USA Today that she wasn’t surprised by Franklin’s overreaction to the incident.

“Aretha has always been like that. We’ve always accepted that from her. She’s the queen of soul, and I’m the queen of rock ‘n’ roll. There were so many kings and queens there that night. Her ego must be so big to think she was the only one,” she laughed. “That’s how queens are!”

[From Urban Music 2000]

Not to be outdone, because, evidently, that’s how queens are, Aretha, 66, has responded in kind to her rival in music royalty.

“I have always appreciated what Tina Turner has to offer and had quietly cheered her on after Ike and her subsequent success. However, with respect to her statement concerning my ego (in saying, ‘Her ego must be so big to think she was the only one … that’s how queens are’) clearly she was talking about herself as she described herself as the ‘Queen of Rock’ and saying ‘that’s what Queens do’ — particularly since she does not have a clue as to who I am in view of the fact that we have never met.

“I never figured her to resort to tacky press just to sell a few tickets. I understand and I know that the concert market is down where ticket sales are concerned. I really had put her in a different class — higher than that.

“Finally, no one has been more gracious or complimentary to their peers than I have and I am confident and secure enough to do so, unlike some others. I wish Ms. Turner all the best, as I always have. Perhaps one day we will meet.”

[From USA Today]

I was surprised to read that Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin have never met. Two legendary icons of R&B music would seemingly have been at the same place at the same time at some point over the last 40 years. But maybe old rivalries we never knew about die hard and they’ve made a point of not being on the same billing or guest list.

Turner’s response to the 8-month old incident came last week during a USA Today interview for her newly launched “Tina Turner Live” tour. Franklin has a holiday album, This Christmas Aretha, coming out on Monday. Something tells me Franklin and Turner might know each other a little better than they’re letting on. These women are clearly old pros at garnering publicity when the time is right.

Tina Turner is shown on 7/3/08 in Paris with Giorgio Armani. Credit: WENN. Aretha Franklin is shown on 9/11/08 in NY and 8/27/08 at the US Open with Billie Jean King and Kelsey Grammar. Credit: Ray Filmano / WENN; HRC/WENN

Apparently the saying “once a diva, always a diva” really is true. Okay I don’t know that that’s actually a saying, but based on some Grammy awards behavior, it should be. Not only did singer Natalie Cole go off on Amy Winehouse for winning five awards, which she called “undeserved,” but now Aretha Franklin has gone off on Beyonce Knowles for calling Tina Turner “The Queen.” Apparently Aretha is “The Queen” and to call anyone else such a royal term is absolute heresy.

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 issued by her publicist. “However, I dismissed it as a cheap shot for controversy.”

[From the AP]

Um, Aretha, this is the biggest deal in your world, not the world. No one else noticed. Come on, issuing a press release? Doesn’t that make you the one who’s trying to stir up controversy? I think everyone was way too busy focusing on your outfit, which was about five inches south of where the rest of us would have liked it.

I don’t know Beyonce, but instinct tells me she didn’t actually write the little into speech. The sentence in question was, “Ladies and gentlemen. Stand on your feet and give it up for the queen.” While Aretha has long been known as the Queen of Soul, Beyonce just called Tina Turner the queen. She could have meant the queen of cheesy fries for all any of us know. I don’t think it’s anything to get into a major statement-issuing tizzy over. I’m pretty sure that these king and queen titles we give to musicians aren’t actual designations of royalty or anything. They’re just fun honorifics. Besides, if you keep freaking out like that, you’re going to get a completely different nickname, and it won’t be nearly as flattering.

Here’s Aretha Franklin at the Musicares Person of the Year Benefit on February 8th. Images thanks to PR Photos.