NEW YORK  If you're invited to tea with the Queen of Soul, don't expect to stand on ceremony.  Aging gracefully: Aretha Franklin's new album, A Woman Falling Out of Love, goes on sale Tuesday.  Aging gracefully: Aretha Franklin's new album, A Woman Falling Out of Love, goes on sale Tuesday.  Holding court in the lobby of a swank Midtown hotel, Aretha Franklin is a dignified but decidedly unfussy presence. A few passersby stare at the familiar-looking woman, her newly slimmed-down figure draped in a long white dress. But they keep a polite distance, leaving Franklin to her tray of miniature goodies.  "Tea food is one of my favorites," she says. "Sandwiches, canapés — I love 'em."  Franklin is in town to celebrate her 69th birthday (March 25), and to promote an album, out Tuesday, intriguingly titled Aretha: A Woman Falling Out of Love. The liner notes acknowledge that she "blew the possibility of one of the most exquisite and rewarding relationships ... with a foolish and intended to be humorous quip."  In person, the twice-divorced singer provides no further details other than confirming that she's single at the moment. But she does offer this observation: "It's definitely harder falling out of love than it is falling in love. It's like losing weight: You can put it on in seconds, but it takes weeks and months to get it off."  Having shed about 85 pounds, Franklin is chatty on that topic, and several others. She enthuses about the new album, her first on her own label, Aretha's Records. Available exclusively at Walmart and Walmart.com (though a digital version will be sold more widely starting June 3), it mixes original songs — among them compositions by singer and son Kecalf Franklin Cunningham — with covers of My Country 'Tis of Thee and the themes from The Way We Were (a duet with Ron Isley) and A Summer Place. (Another son, Eddie Franklin, sings His Eye Is on the Sparrow.)  "It's beautifully varied," Franklin says. "There's something for everybody."  Franklin also is eager to discuss a long-rumored big-screen biopic, for which she has finally secured "financial and creative control," if not a leading lady. (Read on for contenders.) But she is more tight-lipped on certain subjects — particularly her health, which became a source of public concern after she canceled concert appearances late last year.  Reports circulated that Franklin had pancreatic cancer, and other rumors held that bariatric surgery was responsible for her leaner frame. Neither was the case, she says: "I have no idea where any of that came from. When some people don't know something, they'll just invent stuff. But I don't think it's appropriate to discuss one's health."  Besides, Franklin says, she's feeling "excellent" these days. She'll perform several shows in May, starting out with a small private gig in Manhattan before playing the Chicago Theatre and then the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel in Niagara Falls. The last appearance "was supposed to be the first, but then the other dates came in, and my doctor said to go ahead, it would be fine."  Franklin attributes her physical well-being in part to the weight loss, which she says came about as a result of simple determination and discipline.  "I realized that I was just too heavy," she says. "I had a Power Rider that I used for exercise, and I actually broke it — I was that heavy. I didn't know how to lose weight."  The key, she learned, was moderation: smaller food portions — including selections from Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers programs — combined with a sensible fitness regimen. "I'm on the track at least three times a week, and the treadmill. I'm up to about 26 minutes on the treadmill and a mile and a half on the track. I haven't worked it up to a run yet; it's more like a slow trot."  Franklin also tries not to eat after dark. "Many years ago, I heard Natalie Cole say that she didn't eat after 6 o'clock (p.m.). And at the time I thought, is she kidding? That's a joke — I would starve. But you know, she was correct: That 6 o'clock thing works."  The singer says she's having more fun with fashion now. "Some really nice designers are cutting for me, and I can shop in places where I couldn't before, which is really cool," she says.  But being thinner does have one drawback for Franklin: "Your weight affects your voice. It does mine, anyway. The tone is a little fuller when you're heavier. At the weight I was at before — what I would call my fighting weight — I had my best, best, best voice. It's still generally the same, but I can hear that little bit of difference."  Songwriter/producer Norman West, a contributor to the new album, begs to differ. "I've heard her sing before and after (the weight loss), and to me it's the same great Aretha. Having her sing your music is like being anointed," he says.  Franklin isn't expecting that the woman who eventually plays her on screen will match that prowess. Though her early favorite, Halle Berry, has already declared herself vocally unfit, Franklin says that she "never expected (Berry) to sing. It was more about her likeness, and the fact that she has (acting) experience. But I guess she wasn't confident in her ability to lip-sync."  Two performers who could likely do their own singing, and whose names have been bandied about —Jennifer Hudson and Fantasia — are candidates. "They're both very good singers and very good actresses," Franklin allows. But she wants the director — "a huge, huge, Hollywood name, though I can't tell you who it is" — to weigh in. "My feeling is that we'll end up with two Arethas, one younger and one older. And you never know who we'll find."  While the search goes on, Franklin continues to accumulate new honors and tributes. March saw the release of Take a Look: Complete on Columbia, a 12-disc box set tracing the singer's tenure at that label in the early 1960s. And an exhibit set to open May 13 at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power, includes some of Franklin's personal items in a section devoted to the late '60s and '70s.  "She's one of the greatest singers of all time," says the hall's chief curator, Jim Henke. "But we also have things that show her connection to a broader cultural landscape," among them a poster of her with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967. "A song like Respect is not only a great soul song; it became an anthem for civil rights and for the women's movement."  Franklin acknowledges that she had no inkling of Respect's potential resonance when she recorded it. "It was just funky R&B as far as I was concerned. But looking back, yes, I can see exactly what it meant to people, why it became a mantra."  That said, Franklin is keen that her legacy not be tied to any historical movement or era. She counts herself lucky "to have been part of every generation since the '60s," and stresses that her journey is far from over — musically or otherwise. Famously wary of air travel since a shaky flight in the 1980s, she recently took a class to overcome her fears, and she hopes to go abroad in the near future.  "I'm going to bite the bullet, and soon," Franklin says, smiling. "I'll do a short flight to begin with, but then I'd love to go back to Europe. And to Israel, and Egypt. To places I didn't go when I was flying."  She's still tickled, and humbled, by her effect on younger icons, whether watching famous singers salute her at February's Grammy Awards ("I saw it on TV, while I was eating a cup of banana pudding — a small cup," she points out) or recalling her command performance for President Obama at his inauguration.  "Of course, it was 20-something degrees that day, and I'm thinking, 'Why does this brilliant moment in history have to be outside?' " Franklin says, laughing. "But it was thrilling. And the president is a very, very classy man. When he heard that I wasn't feeling up to it, he sent me a very nice, thoughtful letter. He had sent another one prior to that, about my dad's sermons, which I gave him as a gift during the inauguration."  The late Rev. C.L. Franklin's daughter clearly hasn't lost her ability to inspire. "I love the way she's carrying herself now," says Cori Murray, entertainment director for Essence Magazine. "You can see that she feels great, that the confidence is back. Regardless of where she is healthwise, there's a sense of, 'This is my next act' — that we're going to see and hear from her for a long time."  That's the plan, Franklin says. "I've considered retiring before, but I'd get so emotional about it. And people were like, 'You're kidding — you can't.' So there isn't going to be any retirement."  , visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor  . For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to  . Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to  We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button.
Aretha Franklin is promoting a new album, showing off a trimmer figure and working on a big-screen telling of her life.