Gossip War?, page six, gossip, media, the new york post

What's the Post's Problem with Aretha Franklin?

Picture 3-3 First, someone at The New York Post selected this open-mouthed photo of Aretha Franklin to illustrate a tiny item about the singer in today's Page Six online. Then, some Sixer began said item with, "PAPS, get your wide lenses ready—Aretha Franklin is coming to the Hamptons this summer!" In the next sentence, Franklin is referred to as "The large and in-charge diva." Okay, we get it: Someone, or several someones, at the often thuggish paper doesn't like the singer and wants to point out that she's fat and demanding. Except, the rest of the item is pretty obviously a space-filling favor drop for Franklin's own agent.

"The large and in-charge diva's agent, Ruth Bowen, told her pal Page Morton Black that Franklin has rented a home in Westhampton for two weeks in July. Bowen and Black—the chairman of the Parkinson's Disease Foundation—seemed almost as excited by the news as they were about the Parkinson's annual fund-raiser May 14 at The Pierre hotel." Is this evidence that over-exposure to celebrity gossip can occasionally screw your shit all up? Or is this some passive-aggressive mindfuck between Franklin and her agent? I simply do not know. [P6]

2:20 PM on Sat Apr 12 2008
By ian spiegelman
1,305 views
18 comments

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IBentMyWookie at 02:45 PM on 04/12/08
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This reminds me that I really should have bought that "Me Want Food" t-shirt at the NBC store.
miss_msry at 02:47 PM on 04/12/08
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With her talent, just call her "She who must be obeyed."
Mike_Jahn at 03:06 PM on 04/12/08
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This is a good time to reflect on the fact that Aretha Franklin is directly responsible for the execrable Mariah Carey and all the rest of that howling mob.
Mike_Jahn at 03:23 PM on 04/12/08
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Oh, and Westhampton is the Motel Six of the Hamptons. You may as well go to Center Moriches and move next to a duck farm. If Westhampton is the best she can do, she has problems that go beyond agent loyalty.
VoxPopuli at 03:31 PM on 04/12/08
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I volunteer to hold Ms. Franklin's purse while she smacks those bitches around diva-style.
Tammany_Fall at 03:36 PM on 04/12/08
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@Mike_Jahn: Apropos of nothing (hell, it's the weekend), have you ever seen the Richard Pryor NBC special on which he "can't" get Gladys Knight, so he just has the Pips, smilingly singing perfect backup harmonies next to an empty mike?
Mike_Jahn at 04:05 PM on 04/12/08
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@Tammany_Fall: I missed that one, but it sounds great!
Dickdogfood at 04:05 PM on 04/12/08
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@Mike_Jahn:
:(:(:(

She suffers from occasional bouts of awful taste and should just stop pretending she's sex-symbol-hot--it was disconcerting even back in '01. But I like Mariah. (Being gaHEIGH has nothing to do with it, I swear.) The Mimi album could kill people, it's so rad.
dadoorunrun at 04:10 PM on 04/12/08
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isn't this a case of a thug calling a thug thuggish?
Mike_Jahn at 04:10 PM on 04/12/08
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@Dickdogfood: I actually like her I'm-a-sex-symbol thing. There's something very charming about her having one of another body part falling out while she's flashing that smile over her right shoulder. Does she have a left profile, BTW? I've never seen one in a photo.
jackvinyl at 04:56 PM on 04/12/08
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@Tammany_Fall: I have been searching online for this clip since i read your post and it's not out there... I saw that Gladys-less Pips clip when i was a kid and i've never heard the song since without wishing that Gladys would just sit out a verse or two b/c those Pips kill it without her...

tracy jordan also can kill:
[www.funnyordie.com]
Trixie from Toronto at 07:28 PM on 04/12/08
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@Mike_Jahn: But did you ever hear any of her stuff when she was just starting out? When she was a skinny teenager? When she did the loveliest cover of "You Made Me Love You?" Before the voice got all big and huge?

So sweet.
Saxon 212 at 08:17 PM on 04/12/08
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Many years ago I was a fashion stylist on a video shoot she did with Annie Lennox She said of the jewels that were loaned for the shoot "well I guess as I am the Queen I can keep them".She did and she never paid.
Mike_Jahn at 08:21 PM on 04/12/08
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@Trixie from Toronto: The very early stuff, yeah. She was where, Atlantic Records? I knew some of her sidemen.
sharpeiboy at 11:05 PM on 04/12/08
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Could also be because she tons of dead animals to try to make herself look pretty.
RedHotAries at 01:35 AM on 04/13/08
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What's the Post's problem? They ain't got no R-E-S-P-E-C-T, that's what.

Sorry I had to go there.
ByeBye at 01:04 AM on 04/14/08
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@RedHotAries: Otis Redding is the one that gets no respect.

Anyways - maybe the POST invited her over, and they ate their head editor. I know, Ms Franklin is a she, but she is a 'they' as she could probably be split up and count as a group of people. Or something.
ByeBye at 01:05 AM on 04/14/08
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@IBentMyWookie: Sorry to double post - but I love that shirt too, and the "sketches" from 30 Rock...