Which queen did she mean?
Aretha Franklin is none too happy about Beyonce Knowles‘ introduction of Tina Turner at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, in which Knowles called Turner “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, the longtime Queen of Soul, said in a statement issued by her publicist.
“However, I dismissed it as a cheap shot for controversy.”
Franklin ended her brief criticism on a gracious note, thanking the Grammys and the voting academy and saying, “love to Beyonce anyway.”
In the first few seconds of Knowles’ introduction of Turner, she name-dropped Franklin and a long list of famed female singers.
Then she said: “There is one legend who has the essence of all of those things: the glamour, the soul, the passion, the strength, the talent. Ladies and gentlemen. Stand on your feet and give it up for the queen.”
At a party later that night, Knowles called Turner her “ultimate icon.”
Bids don’t lie
One fan forked over $3,000 for one of Shakira‘s bras and another shelled out $14,000 for front-row concert seats and the privilege of meeting the pop star in an online auction.
The auction so far has raised $76,000 for her Bare Feet Foundation, which is building a school for impoverished children in Colombia.
A lavender skirt with turquoise-and-coral beading that she wore while singing “Hips Don’t Lie” fetched more than $1,000.
He’s a chop-socky jockey
Jackie Chan saddled up to promote the Beijing Olympics’ equestrian event.
In the 30-second video, the 53-year-old “Rush Hour” action star, sitting on a horse and resplendent in riding gear, urges viewers to visit his hometown of Hong Kong to watch the event and introduces various local tourist sites.
Building their rap sheets
An Arizona jury has indicted rapper
Lil Wayne
on felony drug and weapons charges.
A search of his tour bus last month yielded nearly four ounces of marijuana, just over an ounce of cocaine, 41 grams of Ecstasy and miscellaneous drug paraphernalia.
And rapper Juvenile was arrested Tuesday in Mississippi after police pulled him over for an expired tag and found marijuana in his car.
Hey, what she talkin’ ‘bout?
Gary Coleman is a not-so-newlywed.
The “Diff’rent Strokes” star told “Inside Edition” he married 22-year-old Shannon Price in August on a Nevada mountaintop.
Coleman, 40, downplayed both their height disparity – she’s 5-foot-7, he’s 4-foot-8 – and their age difference:
“I don’t have issues with age, I have issues with intelligence. She’s more intelligent than I am, and that’s what matters to me.”
The birthday bunch
TV personality Hugh Downs is 87. Actress Florence Henderson is 74. “The Insider” host Pat O’Brien is 60. Magician Teller (Penn and Teller) is 60. Actor Ken Wahl (“Wiseguy”) is 51. Actress Meg Tilly is 48. Singer Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty) is 36. Actor Freddie Highmore (“The Spiderwick Chronicles”) is 16.