Funny Business with Jane Wells

Aretha Wants R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin

Apparently there are so many fans wanting to buy the same hat Aretha Franklin wore to President Obama's inauguration that the Queen of Soul wants a cut of sales.

According to Detroit radio station WWJ, there has been a "flood of orders from around the world" to order the same $179 big-bowed, rhinestone-studded hat created by Detroit milliner Luke Song at his Mr. Song Millinery. "I think that I should be getting big time royalties from him. That's what I think," Franklin said in an interview with WWJ.

But wait! There's more!

Franklin is really blowing her...lid...off over still being billed for any hats Song makes for her. "I was disappointed when I said, 'am I getting all my hats free now?'" she told the radio station. "He said, 'well...uh....' I said, 'oh no you won't!'"

Am I the only one who thinks it ironic that Aretha Franklin's hatmaker is named Song?

Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin

"You'll never get me to say anything bad about Aretha Franklin,"Song told the Detroit News.  But not everyone is taking her side. "Aretha should know that you don't get in an argument with the person who makes your hats," says Mr. Song customer Fred Colson. "Not with the person who makes your food. It's the same thing."

The power of the milliner!

Adding to the intrigue, Franklin wore a pink hat seen here at a NCAAP fundraiser last weekend. She told WWJ she bought elsewhere. "It was my hat," Song told the Detroit News.

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