Timeless beauty

Yes, she still looks that fabulous.

The rock and soul supernova known as Tina Turner is 65, and it has been nearly half a decade since she discontinued the hyper-aerobic live performances that used to serve as her primary fitness regimen.

But as she sits by a window in her hotel suite, her skin bathed in the kind of natural sunlight that many divas half her age would avoid, Turner remains a model of ageless beauty.

She acknowledges that she was a little nervous before launching promotional efforts for “All the Best,” her two-CD retrospective which hit stores last Tuesday.

“I had started doing Pilates about a year ago, but I thought that over Christmas I had probably gained a few pounds. But I didn’t,” she says.

“I started to put on my work clothes, and I said to my boyfriend, ‘Look! I didn’t diet! I didn’t stop my champagne!’ So I think the training has worked.”

The tunes on “All the Best” offer further reminders of Turner’s enduring exuberance. Except for 1973’s “Nutbush City Limits,” which she did with ex-husband Ike Turner, the material is culled from the past two decades, beginning with her 1984 comeback album, “Private Dancer.”

There are also four new tracks, among them the single “Open Arms,” on which Turner promises, with typical fortitude: “Whatever life throws at you, your friend is here.”

“I thought it was a good message, especially with the world being as it is today,” she says. “The world is really heavy, isn’t it?”

She refers not only to the obvious “storms and wars” disrupting global events, but also to how her industry is dealing with the times. Part of the problem, Turner says, is the shallow voyeurism encouraged in contemporary culture.

“It has become too much about sex,” says the woman who has been raising men’s temperatures for more than 40 years.

“When I worked with my dancers, we wore short dresses, but we were well covered, and we cared about our moves,” she says. “Now, it’s spread-eagle right out in front. Imagine trying to send out a message when you’re tattooed and your dress is up to here.

“It’s not about putting out a great song that will actually inspire people; it’s about who’s very hot and very new and who will go the furthest.”

Lest she be mistaken for an exceptionally well-preserved old fogy, Turner adds: “I know there’s a lot of young talent out there, even if their influences aren’t good enough. And the ones who have that talent will find a way to get it out there.”

Since wrapping her last concert tour in 2000, Turner has put her own career on the back burner. She is spending much of her time alone and in the company of her longtime beau, record executive Erwin Bach, at her homes in Switzerland and France.

“I was tired of hotels and traveling,” she says. “People might have thought I was off jet-setting, but no – no planes, no trains. I traveled by car, with my companion, and just had moments of quietness at home, doing yoga and meditating. It was something I really needed.”

Turner hasn’t ruled out a return to the limelight. She has been in discussions for a musical inspired by her work, and last year she accepted the role of an Indian goddess in a developing Merchant Ivory film.

The latter project is on hold because of what she describes as “a problem with the script. But I’m not worried, because Merchant and Ivory have a good track record, and I have project approval. I’ve never wanted to be on the screen badly enough to do any part, but if it’s the right thing, I move with it.”

Turner applies the same philosophy to living. Her 1986 autobiography, “I, Tina,” was adapted into the hit film “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”

“I think I helped people from the standpoint of saying: ‘Keep going. No matter what happens in life, just keep going,’ ” she says.

Asked whether she plans to write a sequel, Turner smiles.

“Not yet – I need to be a bit older,” she says. “Wisdom comes with age, especially when one is at the stage where I am, still absorbing and looking and learning.

“I still feel like something else is coming for me, something very special. I might be 90 or 100 years old, but I’ll be able to say, ‘I’ve got it!’ “