By Debbie Schlussel
Yet another ongoing bitter verbal tiff to add to my “Feuds I Wish Would Never End”. This one is probably the dumbest and most petty, among very stiff competition. Call it, “Alieness v. Predatorette, No You Di’in’t Edition”:

The Queen of Soul is in high dudgeon. Aretha Franklin, who expressed her displeasure in February after Beyonce referred to Tina Turner as “the queen” during a salute on the Grammy Awards, is now fuming over remarks by her royal rival.

Alieness v. Predatorette, No You Di’in’t Edition:
Aretha Franklin v. Tina Turner . . .

Turner, currently on tour, was silent when Franklin dubbed Beyonce’s remark “a cheap shot for controversy.” Asked to comment in a USA TODAY interview last week, Turner said, “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 joked, “That’s how queens are!”

I think the more accurate term here is “drag queens.”

One queen wasn’t laughing. In a statement to USA TODAY, Franklin says Turner “clearly was talking about herself” in terms of ego.
“I never figured her to resort to tacky press just to sell a few tickets,” says Franklin, who adds she has never met Turner. “I really had put her in a different class – higher than that.
“No one has been more gracious . . . to their peers than I have, and I am confident and secure enough to do so, unlike some others.”
Turner did not respond to requests for comment.

Let me tell you a little some’in, some’in about the “gracious” Queen of Calories, er . . . Soul. Aretha Franklin is the queen of gazillionaire pop stars who rip people off and don’t pay their bills. She’s been the subject of countless Detroit media stories about the gazillion lawsuits against her for not paying her bills. Even her accountant had to sue her for non-payment, after he was hired to handle her bills. But as you can see, she, herself, ain’t goin’ hungry.
It’s one thing if you’re an average Michigan citizen struggling to survive in a tough Michigan economy and can’t pay, but this woman is loaded and has no excuse other than she just doesn’t feel like it.
Oh, and there’s that ritzy contemporary mansion she owned in swanky Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. . . the one she apparently got her son Teddy to burn down, probably for the insurance money. He was caught running in the middle of the neighborhood in the middle of that night with accelerant all over his body. But both of them got away with it because of incompetent prosecutors who chose not to charge her, along with incompetent Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who was too busy persecuting divorced fathers to charge the Franklins.
A couple of years ago, I saw Teddy Franklin in court, yet again, this time for receiving stolen property (bicycles worth over $1,000), and his and his mother’s high-priced attorney didn’t show up. His bill must not have been paid, either. It was a comedy of errors, since Teddy Franklin told the judge he works for mommy Aretha on her tour and then referred to “my problems with the house and the fire.”
Yes, Aretha is definitely the queen of something.
Feuds I Wish Would Never End:
Aretha Franklin v. Tina Turner . . .