Cher has a lot of respect for her “Burlesque” co-star, Christina Aguilera

“Bout me & Xtina ! Didn’t know her b4, but she worked her a** off,” Cher Tweeted on Tuesday night. “She has my respect & a great deal of my love.”

“I wanted 2 help her ! In my heart I think I did,” Cher, 64, added.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Cher and Christina recently shot their November-due film, “Burlesque,” about a small town girl (Xtina), who moves to LA and starts work and becomes the center of drama at a burlesque club, run by a former dancer (Cher).

Cher also praised her other co-stars including Kristen Bell, “Grey’s Anatomy” star Eric Dane and “Dancing with the Stars” pro and country cutie, Julianne Hough.

“K bell kicks a** ! She is smoking,” Cher wrote of Kristen, who plays Christina’s rival, Nikki. “Julianne has a great sensitivity ! Eric well I’ve known him since he was a teenager I’m proud!”

Cam Gigandet also got a Tweet shout out from the superstar as did Peter Gallagher, who are also part of the cast.

“Cam has got chops,” she wrote. “Peter Gallagher never stops creating! Hope I don’t seem like stupid Divia Just observations.”

Cher, who won an Oscar for “Moonstruck” in 1987, added that filming the project wasn’t easy, especially with all the stars.

“I was scared but I loved working with all the REALLY Precious Talented actors ! I’m lucky,” she added.

Christina Aguilera has built up a name for herself as one of the sexiest singers around during her time in the music industry.

With singles including Dirrty and Not Myself Tonight under her belt, the 29-year-old star is no stranger to causing controversy with her risque dance routines and raunchy lyrics.

But now Christina has taken a chance with her career, and made the move into film – starring alongside Cher in the upcoming Burlesque.

And, as the first pictures from the film show, she has no intention of toning down her naughty side.
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Christina Aguilera is back with her new album Bionic and a movie Burlesque, four years after she stepped out of the spotlight, so is she now planning to expand her family?

“Bionic is definitely my baby at the moment,” Christina tells Entertainment Tonight. “Eventually, in the future, I do want to expand on my family and have another one, but for now, Bionic is the baby and Burlesque is the other baby.”

Despite the sexually-charged content of her new music, Christina cites a surprising source of inspiration.

“I couldn’t be happier about … the fact that the album’s inspired by my son, and the future, and the feeling of the movement of electronica music, in a sense,” says Christina, “but still maintaining that rawness of having those definite ballads that evoke that pure, honest emotion.”

She adds: “Being able to just pour my heart out into the beauty and emotion of a song is very important to me.”

Christina explains why she stepped away from the spotlight for so long: “The first year we spent touring, getting pregnant, living that out, becoming a mother, taking the first year to sort of do the mom thing, feel what that’s really like, and then be inspired for my new record. Then I accepted the movie Burlesque, and that was almost a year away from the public eye.”

Christina stars opposite Cher, Kristen Bell, Eric Dane, Alan Cumming, Julianne Hough and more in the upcoming big-screen musical and she says of the Burlesque experience, “acting is a completely different animal, but it definitely is something — it gave me a lot of tools to now use in my world of music.”

Meanwhile, when she goes home at night after work, she gives all her attention to her two-year-old son Max with hubby Jordan Bratman.

“I sing my son to sleep with Mary Poppins [songs],” she says, “and rock and cradle him and cover him up in bed and do really silly things that we won’t even mention.”

It’s all about the duet these days and Adam Lambert is hoping Christina Aguilera will be his new singing partner.

The 2009 American Idol runner-up has already hooked up with Lady Gaga, former Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins (he’s still around?) and Muse’s Matt Bellamy, but it’s Aguilera that Lambert dreams of working with. “I’ve been a fan of hers since I was a teenager and when she first came out, we were around the same age,” he told TeenToday.co.uk last month.

“I think she’s incredible. There’s really no-one who can match those vocals. I think it would be really fun to sing with her. She’s a powerhouse.”

This Friday, June 25, marks the one-year anniversary of Michael Jackson’s shocking death at age 50.

CBS News’ The Early Show will celebrate the legendary singer and performer with The King of Pop: One Year Later, an hour-long broadcast tribute (during the 8am hour) devoted to Jackson’s life and legacy.

On hand to remember the superstar? Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony, LL Cool J and Smokey Robinson — plus British singer James Morrison, set to perform “Man in the Mirror” live.

The stars shared some of their “King of Pop” memories:

Christina Aguilera: “Music wouldn’t be what it is without someone like Michael Jackson. I remember going to my high school talent show singing ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ and being a huge fan of his album Bad. I know all my dancers wouldn’t be behind me dancing if it weren’t for that.”
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M.I.A has spoken to MTV News about hitting the studio with Christina Aguilera.
The independent-minded and controversial artist teamed up with the massive popstar and her producer Switch to write the song Elastic Love- which features on Xtina’s Bionic album.

“Elastic Love was the first track I recorded actually- even before I started working on my own album,” M.I.A told us. “It’s the one I made in-between taking time out and having a baby and starting mine. “

Maya continued by comparing the song to her own recent punk rock single. said: “Born Free was the first song I wrote for my album and that’s so weird now. I look back at the time and I wrote such a nice cute song for Christina- then the next song I wrote was Born Free.”

Asked by us why she agreed to work with Aguilera the XXXO singer explained: “Other people were involved who I respect like Peaches and it was like a sea of women coming together to write this new thing. Christina had also had a baby, you know, so it was kind of an interesting situation.”

When Elastic Love leaked websites reported that it featured M.I.A- rather than just Aguilera sounding very similar. And the London born star admitted being disappointed when Christina didn’t want to do her trademark warbling in the studio.

“I really thought I was going to be able to go in there and get her vocals on to the next level and she didn’t want to do it. She was like ‘You might think that’s great because it’s not what you do, but to me I’m really bored of it.”

She added: “It’s interesting getting to work with people who can do things vocally that you cant… but yeah I only heard the song for the first time when everyone else did.”

Christina Aguilera has announced that her next UK next single to be taken from her Bionic album will be You Lost Me.

The ballad, which will be remixed when it is released as a single has been described by Xtina on her official website as the ‘heart’ of her LP.

You Lost Me, which was co-written by Aussie soul-pop singer Sia Furler is also thought to be her next Stateside release.

Aguilera stated: “You Lost Me was a song that Sia brought to the table. She had started writing the verses and I wrote the choruses. ”

She added: “The lyrics were just so beautiful, so simple and raw, but very real and hit you right to the heart, that I immediately connected with it”

It is thought that the video for the single will be shot at the end of this month and the track will be available in the UK sometime in September.

In other Xtina news, her Bionic LP suffered the biggest single-week drop in UK chart history after debuting at number 1 then plummeting to a dismal 29 the following Sunday.

Aguilera’s comeback album only sold 24,000 units making it the lowest selling number 1 album for eight years.

There’s a new look to both of Billboard’s pan-European sales charts, as Christina Aguilera debuts at No. 1 on the European Albums listing with “Bionic” (RCA/Sony Music Entertainment) and soccer World Cup fever engulfs the singles market. K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag” (A&M/Universal), Coca-Cola’s official anthem of the tournament in South Africa, jumps 5-1 on European Hot 100 Singles.

Aguilera was last on the European countdown in 2008, when her “Keeps Gettin’ Better” compilation debuted at No. 12. Her last studio set “Back To Basics” spent its first two weeks at No. 1 Europe-wide in 2006. “Bionic” is off to a No. 1 start in the United Kingdom, No. 2 in Switzerland, No. 3 in Austria, No. 4 in Spain and Ireland, No. 6 in Germany and Holland, and rises 16-4 in the Belgian region of Flanders. The U.K. news is somewhat tempered by the fact tat the album tops that chart with only 24,000 sales, the lowest for a No. 1 in the market for eight years, compared to an opening 84,000 for “Basics.”
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Christina Aguilera put her John Hancock on a 2010 Chrysler 300 Eco Style Edition car for charity — and raised $50,000!

The “Beautiful” songstress personalized the car, which was auctioned off by Stars for a Cause to benefit the United Nations World Food Programme, which is aiding relief efforts in Haiti.

Today, Stars For A Cause co-founders George and Laura Braunstein were able to present $50,000 to Kevin Sturtevant, Vice President for Development, Friends of the World Food Program, the U.S. Branch of the United Nations World Food Programme, for 100 percent of the proceeds from the SFAC charity auction of the Christina Aguilera-autographed Chrysler 300 Eco Style.

Aguilera was selected to personalize this one-of-a-kind, vanilla exterior and cactus interior luxury car. The eco-style edition uses recycled materials, such as recycled rubber for the floor mats, bamboo wood interior, 100 percent recycled metals, and includes a fuel efficiency system that reduces the eight-cylinder engine to four cylinders when necessary.

Launched in 2006, Stars For A Cause is a unique charity fundraiser that has helped raise money for various charities through the help of celebrities and the Hollywood community.

Christina Aguilera won her second U.K. No. 1 album and the British singles chart was overrun by soccer-related releases, as the Official Charts Company’s latest sales data was unveiled.

Aguilera’s “Bionic” (RCA/Sony Music Entertainment) is her second consecutive studio album to debut at the top, after “Back To Basics” in 2006. The 2008 compilation “Keeps Gettin’ Better” peaked at No. 10. “Bionic” outran fellow Sony act Alicia Keys’ “The Element of Freedom” (J), which climbed back 5-2 in its 26th chart week. Keys was among the performers at the televised World Cup Kick-Off Concert in South Africa on June 10.
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