The 71-year-old singer says in an audio clip that surfaced online Thursday that she would "whip" Beyonce for singing "her song" "At Last" at an inaugural ball for President Barack Obama.
"The great Beyonce ... I can't stand Beyonce," James said in the clip from a Jan. 31 concert at the Boulevard Casino in Coquitlam, British Columbia. "She has no business up there, singing up there on a big ol' president day, gonna be singing my song that I've been singing forever."
Beyonce portrayed James — and sang the 1941 song written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren — in the film "Cadillac Records" last year.
In an interview airing Friday on the Today show, the recent mother of octuplets – to go with six other children at home – tells NBC's Ann Curry: "That was always a dream of mine, to have a large family, a huge family."
The desire, she says, stemmed from a dysfunctional childhood.
"I just longed for certain connections and attachments with another person that I really lacked, I believe, growing up," she says.
Asked what she felt she lacked, she says, "Feeling of self and identity. I didn't feel as though, when I was a child, I had much control of my environment. I felt powerless. And that gave me a sense of predictability. Reflecting back on my childhood, I know it wasn't functional. It was pretty, pretty dysfunctional, and whose isn't?"
Phelps said: "I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment. I'm 23 years old and despite the successes I've had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again."
Boyle beat out David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon) and Gus Van Sant (Milk), all of whom he'll face at the Oscars, plus Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), whom he won't.
Since 1948, the DGA winner's only missed out the Oscar six times. Half of those instances, however, have occurred since 1995. Ang Lee is the last DGA winner to win Best Director, and not see his film (2005's Brokeback Mountain) win Best Picture, too.
Slumdog's DGA win comes one week after it claimed top prizes from the producers and actors guilds.
Though not a registered lobbyist, the South Dakota Democrat over the last two years earned more than $2.1 million as a "special policy advisor" at Alston & Bird, a law firm with more than 50 lobbying clients in the healthcare industry.
According to financial disclosure forms filed with the Office of Government Ethics, Daschle also took in $153,200 in 2008 for giving speeches to healthcare companies and industry groups such as GE Healthcare, a leading manufacturer of medical devices.
A decade ago, Daschle's wife did some work for the healthcare industry as well. In 1999 and 2000, Linda Daschle was among a group of lobbyists at Baker Donelson Bearman & Caldwell who represented the drug maker Schering-Plough Corp., which paid the law firm $470,000 over the two years, according to federal lobbying reports.
Tom Daschle has indicated he plans to resign from Alston & Bird if he is confirmed. He already stepped down from more than a dozen boards, including that of the Mayo Clinic, another influential voice in the healthcare debate.
"It was a mistake. Our batting average is usually very good, but we missed that one. Fans will call you on that stuff, as it should be."
President Barack Obama signed a series of executive orders Friday that he said should "level the playing field" for labor unions in their struggles with management.
Obama also used the occasion at the White House to announce formally a new White House task force on the problems of middle-class Americans. He named Vice President Joe Biden as its chairman.
Union officials say the new orders by Obama will undo Bush administration policies that favored employers over workers.
