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Timbaland says he's got nothing but love for Chris Brown, despite the fact that Brown is now an ex-contributor to the MC's latest album.

"The decision was a mutual decision since both artists were at the time working on their solo projects," a rep for Timbaland tells E! News in response to a TMZ report that Brown's vocal on "The One I Love" was dropped due to all the "drama" in his life.

"Chris is a friend to us," the rep said.

Neither version is particualrly farfetched, but that's the official word.

Another rapper on the track, D.O.E., told TMZ that the tune was originally titled "Maniac," but was changed to "The One I Love" because of Brown's involvement.

Timbaland's latest solo effort, Shock Value II, is due out Dec. 8. Brown's new album, Graffiti, drops the same day.

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Get a load of the latest videos in both Chris Brown and Rihanna's repertoires right here.

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Chris Brown is on the up and up.

At the singer's first checkup hearing since being sentenced for attacking Rihanna in February, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg said she had received "an extremely favorable progress report" on him from the probation department.

Brown, who arrived early for his afternoon appearance today, was sentenced in August to 180 days of community labor, which he's been serving in his home state of Virginia, five years' probation and a one-year anti-domestic violence program.

So far, he's keeping up with the court's expectations. Schnegg said Brown has provided the court with DNA samples, paid all fines and court fees, performed more than 100 hours of community service and completed seven domestic violence classes to date.

The thumb's-up from the judge came at a great time for Brown, who's been busy shooting music videos and working on his new album at a pace that has rivaled only...well, Rihanna.

Plus, he just kicked off his "Fan Appreciation" tour to thank the loyal "Run It" lovers out there for sticking by him through this turbulent year.

He has carte blanche to travel within the U.S. but would need to get the judge's permission if her wants to leave the country.

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Catch up on Rihanna's side of the story right here.

With videos like these, it's almost as if Rihanna and Chris Brown were hoping for mass-media scrutiny to follow.

As promised, the two megastars debuted their new music videos on Friday, the first for each since the highly publicized incident last February, and spoiler alert: they're both left wide-open for interpretation.

Rihanna's "Russian Roulette" portrays some seemingly real emotion as the songstress bounces back-and-forth between writhing around a padded cell, and facing off with a rather muscluar man presenting her with a loaded gun.

Representative of her relationship battles with Brown? Likely Perhaps, but far more unstated than her former counterpart's attempt.

You can't deny Brown's ability to bust-a-move in his videos, but "Crawl" just feels like another one of Camp Chris' ploys for public pity. The song is great, but casting R&B singer Cassie—often touted as Rihanna 2.0, with her strong fashion statements and outlandish hair styles—to play Brown's faux famous-ex? Not cool.

Now you decide, who gave fans the best comeback video: Rihanna or Chris Brown?

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Rihanna and Chris Brown's promotional schedules may have curiously collided in the past, but this is just getting ridiculous.

Last month, Rihanna released her highly anticipated comeback single, "Russian Roulette." Brown chose the same day to announce his tour plans, which he followed up, two days later, by releasing his new single, "Crawl."

Then last week, Rihanna sat down with Diane Sawyer for an emotional and revelatory two-day interview. Brown answered the appearance as best the ratings-poison singer could, spilling his own oft-repeated secrets in a same-day interview on MTV.

Well, get ready for a shock: Rihanna's music video has long been set to premiere on 20/20 this Friday. And in what can only be described as a shameless piggybacking publicity ploy coincidence, guess who else decided that a musical return to the airwaves was also in order?

Brown has been booked on Friday's Wendy Williams Show, where he will both chat (though probably not much) with the hostess and premiere the not nearly as anticipated music video for his single. But while Rihanna has offered no clues on what we can expect from her video, Brown has given fans a few sneak peeks, having already released promotional pictures of himself and Cassie on set.

But, credit where it's due, one thing Brown has managed to do all on his own is stay on top of the terms of his probation.

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How many people had their Lizzie Maguire memories destroyed by Gossip Girl last night? How bad did Rihanna's interview show up Chris Brown's? And why would Saturday Night Live never dream of pulling a Kanye West on Taylor Swift?

The answers—and more questions—in this week's TV ratings quiz:

1. So, was that threesome good for Gossip Girl? It wasn't bad, especially considering the event was nothing more explicit than three people (Penn Badgley, Jessica Szhor and Disney grad Hilary Duff) not kissing at the same time. The CW show was up 18 percent from last week: 2.3 million estimated viewers versus 1.95 million, per Nielsen stats.

2. What were the two most surprising things about the episode? One, the show lost viewers as it headed into its threesome-boasting final half-hour; two, teenage boys chose to watch The Big Bang Theory instead. (The show did best, per usual, among young adult women.)

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Even if she had never met Chris Brown, Rihanna knew how domestic abuse could turn into a vicious cycle.

"I always anticipated it happening. At night I wouldn't want to sleep, because I was too afraid it would happen," the singer said in the portion of her ABC News interview that aired on 20/20 tonight, referring to her father hitting her mother when she was a child growing up in Barbados.

"She never went to the hospital, but he broke her nose.," Rihanna continued. "She would never go to the hospital...Domestic violence is not somebody that people want anbody to know, so she would just hide it in the house. I always said to myself, 'I'm never going to date somebody like my dad, never.'

"I always said that."

And yet she not only dated someone who hit her, she went back to him after the fact.

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Despite all that's happened, Rihanna doesn't hate Chris Brown.

In fact, she still loves him.

"I don't hate him at all," she tells Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America. "I actually love and care about him and I'm concerned about him doing well. I want him to do well, have a great career, have a great life and grow up, and just take this as something that you had to go through to grow up and learn."

She may wish him the best, but neither this morning nor yesterday morning did she mention the words forgiveness, reconciliation or rekindle, although those are topics supposedly set to be tackled on tonight's 20/20 special.

The singer did, however, explain some of what happened in the car that fateful February night.

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"Eff love."

That's Rihanna's firm advice to women of any age facing domestic violence.

The first of the pop star's televised interview with Diane Sawyer aired this morning on Good Morning America. The 21-year-old sat poised and beautiful as she explained how she went back to Chris Brown after he beat her last February, how she managed to break free from him and how she feels about it now.

Rihanna declares she's "strong" but is ashamed at how the whole relationship went down.

"I fell in love with that person—that's embarrassing," she says. "That's embarrassing that that's the type of person that I feel in love with, so far in love, so unconditional I went back."

Sawyer noted that, on average, woman will take a beating seven times before leaving. The 21-year-old's response was chilling.

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Apparently, it's time.

Since Rihanna's horrific altercation with then-boyfriend Chris Brown in February, the "Umbrella" singer may not have kept a low profile, but she certainly has not been talking.

Until now. Today marks the first we're hearing from her on the situation, whether in snippets from her interviews with Diane Sawyer and Glamour magazine, or in her music video for "Russian Roulette," her first single from Rated R.

The star is set to appear on Good Morning America on Thursday and Friday mornings and 20/20 Friday night, but her first quote has just been released.

"This happened to me…it can happen to anyone," she tells Sawyer. "He was definitely my first big love."

Of that fateful night, the 21-year-old tells Glamour, "I went to sleep as Rihanna and woke up as Britney Spears. That was the level of media chaos that happened the next day."

Eight months later, and she's already looking on the bright side of the whole scandal.

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What's with all the Michael Jackson imitators, people?

We don't mean those smooth criminals posing for pictures out in front of Hollywood's Kodak Theater. Those guys have made a commitment. A wrong-headed one, perhaps, but still. It's what they do.

From the looks of things, however, Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus started feeling a little too inspired by This Is It's release this week and began copping some Michael magic—along with their crotches.

What do you think: Sham or Shamone?

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Get more Michael Jackson sparkly gloved love in our This Is It premiere gallery!

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Chris Brown had his first comeback show last night at a Power 105.1 concert in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Required note: his first since assaulting Rihanna.)

To kick off his Fan Appreciation Tour, the R&B singer decided to dress up like his idol, Michael Jackson. Or maybe it's more like Chris dressing up as Kanye dressing up as M.J. Either way, it's perfect timing since he couldn't make it to a This Is It premiere, and we know how much C. Brown loves M.J. covers.

But you know, sometimes we just get so worked up, we lose perspective. Compared to what happened later in the show—ripping off his shirt and humping the stage—maybe we should just let him carry on with his cheap impression of Michael.

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