The Gift of Cher

Remember those special Christmas episodes of the Sonny & Cher show back in the '70s? No? Well fortunately, The Sonny & Cher Christmas Collection is out on DVD for those who missed 'em or just want to reminisce. "The Christmas shows are kind of like the most luxuriously produced home movies you'll ever see," Cher tells TV Guide Online. "Oh, my god, it was so much fun." Here, the sharp-tongued icon gives us an early holiday treat by fielding this very random assortment of queries.

TV Guide Online: What are your holiday plans?
Cher: We used to go to Aspen, but then it turned into Beverly Hills. Aspen was more fun when there were no rich people there — for the most part, I don't like rich people. (Laughs)

TVGO: I don't picture Cher in the kitchen preparing the Christmas goose.
Cher: I do the greatest stuffing and ambrosia, but Chas [Cher's daughter, Chastity Bono] does the turkey. I'm a really good cook, but I learned from the best... Sonny.

TVGO: What do you think now when you see old Sonny & Cher episodes?
Cher: Oh, my god, it was so much fun. The thing is, I'm not so sure we should have ever been married; we were more like brother and sister. The hardest part of the Sonny and Cher relationship was being husband and wife. Sonny had a roving eye and that wasn't easy.

TVGO: Did you ever have a roving eye?
Cher: Not for a second, never ever! Sonny was 11 years older than me and he was really a father figure to me, and that was a difficult thing to break away from. But no matter what was going on between us, even if we were in an argument, we'd go to work together and end up laughing. Sonny was very difficult to be angry with for a long time.

TVGO: He also had more talent than some realize.
Cher: Sonny never got the credit he deserved. He was really smart and very talented. He made music without being able to read music; he did all our songs by singing the arrangements. He was very serious, but could also be a huge practical joker, so you couldn't tell exactly what was going on with him. Sometimes you'd think he was [ticked] off and then he'd break out into a big smile.

TVGO: How's the farewell tour going?
Cher: It's been great, but I'm getting a little tired. I was supposed to take three weeks off, but then I went with the tour to Mexico and then back to New York. I'm taking a month off for Christmas. I'd like to end it in America next year — maybe at the Hollywood Bowl, which I first played in 1965.

TVGO: Is this really the last tour?
Cher: Yes, this is the last tour. This should be the last tour, because I'm just getting too old to do it — I'm doing something a 20-year-old used to do.

TVGO: I heard you plan to pose for nude photos in two years when you turn 60.
Cher: (Sarcastically) Yeah, right. No way. But whoever started that rumor really got it around; I had someone from New Zealand asking me about it the other day.

TVGO: So what actually happens for you after the tour?
Cher: I'd like to direct a new version of the Marlon Brando movie The Men. I also have a new album in the works that's going to be a little more rock and roll. No more dance music — although it was very good to me. It's really amazing the kind of longevity I'm having in the music world, because as you may know, I'm past the sell-by date.