Cher Talks Beauty, Men, "Burlesque," and That Killer Bod

If I could turn back time, I would have had a cocktail.

Why? I was about to meet the woman, the legend, the diva and the icon who really is a four-letter word: CHER.

After 20 year of covering celebrities, my pulse remained calm with Clooney, relaxed with Roberts, and peaceful with Pitt.

But this was freakin' Cher who is not just a 64-year-old legend — she is a state of mind.

Cher's peeps summoned me to a secret suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills to talk about her new movie "Burlesque," which is now out on DVD.

Nothing could prepare me for the moment when Cher just materialized in the doorway of room 202 like she had borrowed Capt. Kirk's beaming devise. She was just there….

In liquid tight black jeans.

In a matching black sweater with a sprinkle of tiny gold dots.

Her hair is only shoulder length these days because even Cher knows that her gypsies, tramps, and thieves days are over. However, her tootsies don't know about birthdays. Nothing says "I Still Got It" like sky-high black stilettos.

Most women would need a ladder to walk down from those shoes, but Cher struts around in them like they're flats.

Then there's the diamond encrusted snake ring that wraps around her long, slim index finger. Twirling it around, she finally takes her seat inches away from you. The dusky voice is softer than what one might imagine and her miles of dark lashes gaze down towards the carpeting.

Is Cher shy? Well, not really. Ask for her beauty secrets and she slaps your knee. (I might never wash that knee again.)

"Oh honey," Cher says. "That made my day! My beauty secrets." Then she leans in as if she's about to reveal the secrets of the universe. "It's just 5,000 people up in my hotel room getting me ready. It takes approximately five hours," she says.

She laughs in a deep throaty way that's contagious. There is no vaccine.

DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK…OR ELSE

"I love when people ask me about coming back," she quips. "Where was I? Pluto?"

Cher is not just back in movies, but she just finished a sell-out stint at Caesar's Palace. She was even hip enough to present Lady Gaga with her MTV Award last year. Ask Cher about that fashion statement and she just shakes her head. Gaga was wearing her now-famous meat dress.

As someone who always wore outlandish Bob Mackie clothing what did Cher think of someone who used sirloin as a fashion statement?

"I thought Lady Gaga asked me to hold her mink purse. It was her meat purse. This was a steak. But I must say that I've seen weirder things in life," Cher says.

It turns out that age is just a number to Cher, which is why she upstages everyone in "Burlesque," a guilty pleasure of a film that's a great Girl's Night In selection. Cher's name is over the title. "I refuse to move over gracefully. You'll have to haul me over – and pull hard," she says of her place in Hollywood.

In "Burlesque," she plays Tess, a street-smart, mama bird type who runs a hot LA club on Sunset Avenue where young babes like Christina Aguilera strut their very firm stuff.

"It was a weird thing to play someone who supports the young girls, but this is reality. I'm not 20 now. I don't look at younger women and resent them. I admire them. I want to support younger women and guide them," Cher opines.

USE FEAR TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Cher also wants to get back on the big screen. She won an Academy Award for slapping Nick Cage across the kisser and screaming "snap out of it" in "Moonstruck." After a decade in acting retirement, Cher admits that she was terrified to get back in front of the camera.

She says fear can be your best friend.

"I'm always terrified," Cher says. "That's the way I roll. I'm always terrified in the beginning of anything in my life and then I live it. That's when I know it will be okay."

She has two singing and dance numbers in the film and admits that her bod didn't always cooperate. (Why is it comforting to know that Cher's quads hurt after a good workout, too?)

"There's a scene where Stanley Tucci helps me with my big girl shoes and I scream, 'Ow,'" she says. "In real life, I'm thinking, 'Ow, my foot, my back, my shoulder…..'

"I've spent a lifetime throwing myself around, dancing, falling and being dropped by dancers," she says. "It's a good metaphor for life. You fall. Someone drops you. You get back up."

Mostly jaws just drop around Cher, who doesn't quite understand why she's naturally intimidating. She shrugs and says, "I've been doing this for 45 years. My personality is my personality. The moment someone spends time with me, they feel fine. For the others out there who think I'm some icon, I just want to scream, 'But I'm not doing anything! I'm just being me!'

"I just can't imagine someone being afraid of me or even nervous around me," she says. "I'm just Cher."

In other words: Snap out of it!

CHER ON HER MEN MAKING HER FEEL BEAUTIFUL

She was born Cherilyn Sarkisian La Piere and grew up in El Centro, California, with her mother Georgia Holt who is now 84. She raised Cher when her father took off and would later marry him three different times among eight marriages.

By 1963, Cher was embarking on her own romances including meeting Sonny Bono in 1963, marrying him and co-starring in a hit variety series. Along the way, she gave birth to her daughter Chastity.

Cher also married rocker Gregg Allman and they had a son together named Elijah Blue. Chaz is her daughter Chastity after a gender reassignment surgery that Cher admits took a little adjustment. "I did have a problem saying him or her," Cher says. "The important thing is that my child is happy."

She says it was tough having Cher as a mother. "I remember going with Chaz on a field trip and we were mobbed," she says.  "Chaz said, 'Can't we ever go anyplace without hearing, 'Cher, Cher, Cher!' On the other hand, we'd go to the head of the line at Disneyland and nobody complained about that one."

She says a key to a beautiful life is not bickering with past loves.

"Things can end calmly," she says. "It's better to be friends and not have all of that drama. You don't need the fine lines from the drama!"

On the set of "Burlesque," Christina and Cher would have what was called their Girl Talks. "We would talk about everything including relationships," says Aguilera. "She told me, 'Men come and go, but I will always be Cher.'"

"I loved how she exudes such tranquility," says the pop princess. "That's why she looks so great. She's at peace with her life."

Cher also believes in de-stressing as her best beauty secret. When she has a down moment, she's off to her Hawaii house with Chaz and Elijah. "We get together and just go crazy, which is part of the fun. That's what keeps me young. Dancing around a room with my kids is what makes me feel beautiful," she says. 

CHECK OUT MORE STYLE GOES STRONG EXCLUSIVE CELEBRITY INTERVIEWS

Vidal Sassoon Tips For Great Hair

Wynonna and Naomi Judd's Beauty and Fashion Tips

Helen Mirren Dishes on Beauty, Nudity, and Virgins