You could almost see her snap her fingers back and forth through the air with “Independent Woman” assurance.

“I’m already a star. I have my nine Grammys. I know I can sing,” Beyonce Knowles declares, sounding more than a little rehearsed as the national opening of the highly anticipated “Dreamgirls”approaches, opening in theaters on Christmas day. A bootylicious maxster of spinning her own image during recent interviews for the film in New York City, she is carefully — and a tad defensively — navigating the central brouhaha emerging around the musical’s release.