David Foster and his wife Katharine McPhee have put out a Christmas album. They’re doing a big promotional push for it because David and Katharine, despite being married and despite collaborating/mentoring being how their relationship began, rarely work together. So that’s their hook for this album, it’s such a rare treasure. They’re both also trying to sell the line that they’re ‘basically’ retired from song-writing/performing, so that makes this even more unique. Despite any feelings I have about the couple, I thought a holiday album from them sounded like it would good. But I listened to some of it on YouTube and it was overproduced.

While speaking to Yahoo Entertainment, David and Katharine addressed not only their careers, but their marriage, or rather the reaction to their 34-year age gap. Katharine claims the ‘hate’ has died down, or feels like it has. David said he thinks it’s because people are starting to view them like Celine Dion and her late husband René Angélil, who was 26-years Celine’s senior. At least that’s who he hopes we see them as.

At the moment, though, Foster and McPhee are content to mostly not mix business with pleasure and just focus on home life, celebrating the holidays with Rennie. McPhee is 34 years younger than Foster and is Foster’s fifth wife, but against all odds and despite rampant public skepticism, their union is going strong.

Perhaps that’s another reason for the couple not collaborating professionally since McPhee’s American Idol days: to not encourage any more hate from the all the doubters and gossipmongers out there. McPhee admits with a slight eyeroll, “Maybe some haters thought, you know, ‘Oh, this is this your opportunity to marry the guy who’s going make [you successful].’ … I mean, even if we were an age difference that made more sense to people, people would still have comments about the relationship.”

“It sort of feels, like for the most part, [the hate from fans] is over. It probably isn’t, but for the most part, it feels like it’s over. Maybe we just don’t look [at comments sections and tabloids] anymore,” says Foster.

“I mean, I just thinking about Celine and René,” Foster continues, referring to Celine Dion — with whom Foster has worked extensively — and her late husband and manager, René Angélil, who was 26 years Dion’s senior. (Dion and Angélil first met when Dion was age 12; they began dating when she was age 20.) “Their age difference was huge. And it was strange at first, but it got to the point where it was just ‘Celine and René.’ We hope that we are now getting to that point. There’s so many years that we’ve been together now that people are just going to think, ‘Oh yeah, it’s just Kat and Dave’ — and that’s the end of the story, we hope. And if not, screw them!”

[From Yahoo]

I don’t know which angle to approach first. They all begin with “no,” but which to start with? First of all, I don’t think people did get past the Svengali aspect to Celine and René’s relationship. The fact that he entered her life when she was 12 still doesn’t sit well with me. However, I know she’s was genuinely heartbroken by his loss. I can feel sorry for the pain she’s feeling and still question whether it was a daddy-complex. Secondly, I think what David actually wants us to focus on is how much René did for Celine’s career. Yes Celine is phenomenally talented, but René catapulted her into superstardom. David has not been able to do the same for Katharine.

The whole interview was kind of silly. David and Katharine kept suggesting they were retired, even though they keep popping up on specials, competitions and albums. I assume because coming out of retirement to record an album makes more money. Katharine told us studios didn’t know how to promote her because she sang all genres so well. David suggested he had to come back for this album because we’d missed him. And then this Celine and René thing. I guess I should be glad they took a break from fear-mongering about being jumped walking down the street of Beverly Hills by senior-beating homeless folks. So, whatever, Kat and Dave. I don’t care about your age-gap. Maybe you could find a little compassion in that Christmas album of yours, though.