People: The hardest-fighting followers in show biz

The self-proclaimed widow admits she’s been a bit of a drama queen.

The lawyer feels brushed aside after more than two decades of dedication.

The preacher struggled with the death of a man who was like a father to him.

And the son is at peace, ready to continue his father’s work.

A year after music legend James Brown‘s death, the people who surrounded him in life continue to fight over the future of his fortune and legacy.

As thousands attended public memorial services for the Godfather of Soul, who died at age 73 on Christmas Day 2006, the legal rifts surrounding his estate were forming.

It took two months for him to be buried, his body at one point resting in a sealed gold casket inside his home.

Tomi Rae Hynie, a former backup singer who claims to be Brown’s fourth wife and the mother of his child, has been a fixture in courtrooms, occasionally sauntering in late, tossing her cranberry-red hair and glaring at attorneys as she vies for half of his estate.

“When I married James he said it wasn’t because I was the prettiest girl in the room,” Hynie says. “He said it’s because I was a fighter. And I’m going to fight. … because every night, when me and that man were in bed together, all we did was talk about this day and what I was going to have to do and how if I wanted it I was going to really have to fight for it.”

Buddy Dallas, Brown’s attorney and adviser since 1984, has been immersed in that fight.

“We laughed together, we cried together, we prayed together,” Dallas says. “And I was there for Mr. Brown’s children as well.”

But after their father died, Brown’s adult children moved to oust Dallas and two other trustees. Dallas resigned in November but now is trying to retract that.

For Daryl Brown, one of six adult children listed in Brown’s will, the money is less important than keeping his father’s musical legacy intact.

“I already knew what my assignment was,” he says. “He left me the Soul Generals (band) and that’s one of the last things we talked about.”

Accepting Brown’s death was difficult for the Rev. Al Sharpton, who had known him since boyhood. The two become closer in 1973 after Brown’s son died.

“He lost Teddy, his oldest child, and my father kind of abandoned me. So in many ways I became the son he lost and he became the father I never had,” Sharpton says.

“The irony is that people are squabbling over things that James Brown created and earned,” he adds. “He didn’t inherit anything. He grew up fatherless, motherless, penniless and left people arguing over what they inherit from him.”

The birthday bunch

Singer-guitarist Bo Diddley is 79. Singer Noel Paul Stookey (Peter, Paul and Mary) is 70. Director James Burrows (“Cheers,” “Taxi”) is 67. Singer Mike Nesmith (The Monkees) is 65. Singer Davy Jones (The Monkees) is 62. TV host Meredith Vieira is 54. “Today” anchor Matt Lauer is 50. TV host Sean Hannity is 46. Actress Eliza Dushku (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is 27. Actress Kristin Kreuk (“Smallville”) is 25.