She is a queen to little girls everywhere, thanks to her role as ice queen Elsa in the hit Disney movie Frozen.

But when offered the chance to pay tribute to her idol, American actress-singer Idina Menzel was terrified.

The Broadway star was tapped to play Bette Midler's role - New York entertainer CC Bloom - in a remake of 1988 weepie Beaches, but she said no several times.

"She is such an idol of mine. It was a beautiful movie. I thought (a remake) would invite a lot of negative comparisons," Menzel, 45, told The New Paper over the phone from her home in Los Angeles last week.

But a tweet from Midler last August settled it.

"Can't wait to see Idina Menzel as CC in Lifetime's Beaches!" Midler wrote.

Menzel said: "I felt relieved and flattered. It was a generous thing to do. It gave her audience permission to support our film."

Like the original, the remake follows best friends CC and lawyer Hillary (Nia Long) over three decades of friendship.

Beaches airs on Wednesday at 9pm on Lifetime (StarHub TV Ch 514).

It features updated versions of the iconic theme song Wind Beneath My Wings and The Pretenders' I'll Stand By You, both performed by Menzel.

She is now promoting her self-titled album, released last year, with concert stops in Japan, the US and Europe.

A regular companion on tour is Walker, her seven-year-old son with her ex-husband, American actor Taye Diggs.

"He is old enough now, and he wants to sell T-shirts.

"He is very protective of me. The last time we were in Japan, he got a samurai sword from the toy store and used it to scare anyone who came up to me in the airport, which was very embarrassing," Menzel said.

As protective as he is, Walker is not a huge fan of his mother's singing.

But that has not stopped him from using the Frozen connection to his advantage.

"He says he is not a fan of Frozen because there are too many princesses, but he has been known to flirt with the girls in his class and use my Elsa thing to help him get in with them," said Menzel.

"I will start singing and he will tell me to 'shut up, Mummy', and all of a sudden he will be in school, and he will say 'Do you know my mum is Elsa?'"

Menzel is engaged to Broadway actor Aaron Lohr, but said they have no plans to walk down the aisle any time soon.

"We already live together, and we bought a house together. There are no plans," she said.