This very '60s clip of Aretha Franklin performing "Chain of Fools" is one of countless video and audio recordings out there that prove Ms. Franklin never goes wrong when she's singing. When she's not singing? Well, sometimes there are problems.

People thought Nas and Jay-Z's beef was epic? Try Tina Turner vs. Aretha Franklin.

It all started at the Grammys, when Aretha Franklin expressed her displeasure with Beyonce's introduction of Tina Turner, during which she referred to Turner as "the Queen." Obviously, Franklin is the only queen, and took Beyonce's innocent intro as a personal slight. Tina Turner weighed in on the old controversy recently while she was doing press for her new tour. She told USA Today: "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."

Aretha didn't like that too much. In a statement to the same newspaper, the Queen of Soul said, "I never figured [Tina Turner] 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."

If one of them comes out with a mixtape filled with battle ballads, we'll know this thing has gone too far. Read Aretha's full statement after the jump.

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One of the joys of being a long-time diva in the music industry is that you can say whatever you want. Aretha Franklin know this. Tina Turner knows it, too. If you recall Franklin was upset at last year's Grammy Awards when Beyonce introduced Turner as "the Queen." According to Aretha, there's only one queen. But Tina Turner told USA Today recently that that was just Aretha being Aretha.

"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."

Turner laughs. "That's how queens are!"

In the same interview, she admitted that she felt nothing after Ike Turner's death, since he had been dead to her for a long time. She also said she could attribute her youthful good looks to genes, "but then again, as [she] look at [her] family, [she would] have to say [she's] the only one that got them." [USAT]

• Aretha Franklin's son: probably a really bad Christian rapper. [NYMag]

• More than 1/5th of blacks surveyed believed that the reputation of Memphis, Tenn., suffered after Martin Luther King's assassination there in 1968. Only 1/10th of whites believe this. Oh. Okay. [JS]

• White people portraying black people in television and film is "risky [and] rarely successful?" Agreed. [PI]

• Legislating sagging pants is "selective law enforcement" and is completely ridiculous? Agreed. [SS]

• Thanks for the new Outkast, Kanye! [KW]

Aretha Franklin is having a bad couple of weeks. Or a good couple of weeks, if you're of the "all publicity is good publicity" school of thought. Probably because of her high profile in the press recently, PETA decided to take notice of Aretha's fur collection.

"Music lovers may think of you as a 'queen,' but to animal lovers, you are a court jester . . . Why not shed the old-fashioned look that adds pounds to your frame and detracts from your beautiful voice? Please consider donating your furs to the homeless as 'queen of compassion,' Mariah Carey, did. You'll get a tax credit for the donation, and we at PETA will all sing your praises."

PETA has learned nothing about the Queen if they think that dropping Mariah Carey's name will help their cause.

Ugly Betty and The Great Debaters were the big winners at the 39th annual NAACP Image Awards last night, while Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder received special honors. In case you're wondering, Jurnee Smollett snatched the coveted Best Actress prize out from under Angelina Jolie. Lots of pics and a list of winners after the jump.

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Check out the one and only Queen when she was smaller in size and, I assume, ego. Her hair was bigger, though.

P.S. Cissy Houston, Whitney's mom, is one of the backup singers. Can you pick her out?

Mathew Knowles is not entertaining Aretha Franklin's criticism of his daughter's choice of words at the Grammys. In fact, he's not even "taking it" to Beyonce. But if she hasn't heard about it by now, she lives under a rock.

"As a manager I am not taking something this ridiculous to Beyonce. Beyonce referred to Tina Turner as a 'queen,'" he told CelebTV.com. "Not queen of gospel, queen of soul, queen of blues, Queen of England. I consider my wife a queen and sometimes call her that. Does Aretha have a problem with that?"

Aretha probably does have a problem with that. No one named Tina is allowed to be called a queen! Why don't people understand that? [DB]

Aretha Franklin doesn't have delusions of grandeur, per se, since she is grand, in many more ways than one. But has her ego raged slightly out of control? Her ridiculous interpretation of Beyonce's introduction of Tina Turner at the beginning of their Grammy performance, during which Beyonce (who I don't believe would ever dare insult Aretha Franklin) calls Tina Turner "the queen" leads me to believe that it has. I mean, she felt the need to release a statement about it.

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…"

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."

At a party later that night, Knowles called Turner her "ultimate icon."

Still, Franklin ended her brief criticism on a gracious note, thanking the Grammys and the voting academy and saying, "love to Beyonce anyway."

It's this sort of behavior that causes people to lose R-E-S-P-E-C-T for aging icons. [AP]

When I read that Aretha Franklin brought her own food to the Sony/BMG Grammy after-party, I thought it was a joke. Unfortunately, I don't think it is.

Instead of noshing on the chicken Caesar salad bites, mushroom tarts or mini-milkshakes offered at the Sony/BMG bash, Aretha Franklin (with Brandy) brought her own food, picking up hot dogs from Pink's takeout stand.

At last night's Unforgivable Woman launch party (which seemed a lot classier than Diddy's feature-length commercial for the new fragrance) Beyonce reluctantly flashed her new brown locks to the cameras. I'll admit, the look's growing on me. After the jump, check out more pictures from the party, including Aretha Franklin posing enthusiastically with an Unforgivable bottle and Eartha Kitt, for the second time in one day.

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Halle Berry, Aretha? I think not. Jennifer Hudson could kill this performance, expect for when Aretha catches the spirit toward the end. I question J-Hud's dancing chops after Dreamgirls, although I admit it is probably hard to dance next to Beyonce and a Broadway star.

No, really. She does.

And a movie?
For television. My autobiography, From These Roots. Hopefully it will happen early spring. I have verbal commitments from Billy Dee [Williams] to play my father, and Terrence Howard to play Smokey Robinson.

Who'll play you?
I'm not sure yet. Jennifer Hudson came to read for me. I also have an interest in Halle Berry possibly doing it. And Fantasia.

I mean no disR-E-S-P-E-C-T, but Halle Berry is pregnant and less than physically or vocally suited for Aretha's movie needs. Team J-Hud. On the less critical end, I can honestly think of no one who would be a better Smokey Robinson than the toilet paper bandit.

[People]

• In another crushing blow to Michael Vick, a South Carolina inmate is suing the football star for "$63,000,000,000 billion dollars" for stealing his pit bulls and selling them on ebay to buy weapons in Iran. [Fox]

• Aretha Franklin, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Carol Moseley Braun and other barrier-breaking black women will come together to honor tennis legend Althea Gibson on the opening night of the U.S. Open. [IHT]

• Authorities deny that an arrest of two Detroit-area college-bound black teens for the murder of a white woman they have no connection with was based on race. [Mlive]

• The Florida congressman who blamed a same-sex prostitution bust on being afraid of the black guy he was soliciting, now has to backtrack and apologize to the local NAACP. What a tangled web anti-gay Republican politicians who are actually gay themselves and kind of racist too weave! [FT]

• Never go to a concert without your video phone. You could be missing out on YouTube gold. [NYT]