rihanna (198 posts)

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It was ladies' week in Hollywood (and related environs) as real stars like Rihanna and Mariah Carey opened up on TV about serious, emotional issues; celebish types like Kate Gosselin rehashed stories we already know, but with more tears; and nonentity (in Hollywood and related environs) Nicole Forrester talked about having a one-night stand with Fergie's man.

Hey, to each her own.

Read on for your complete week in review...

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ABC/ Ida Mae Astute

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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Rihanna may have had it rough, but, unfortunately, hers is not the only abuse story on the docket this week.

Mariah Carey appeared on Larry King Live last night and admitted she's faced her own difficult relationships. "Abuse has several categories," she tells the host when he asks if she's ever been in a situation similar to Rihanna's. "[I've been abused] Emotionally, mentally."

Not unlike the battered pop star, Carey says the hardest part was breaking free from ex-husband Tommy Mottola (whom she doesn't mention by name but very clearly alludes to).

"It's scary," she admits. "I just think you get into a situation and you feel locked in…For me, to really get out, it was difficult because there was connection that was not only a marriage, but a business thing where the person was in control of my life."

When asked for her thoughts on Rihanna's struggles, she reacts the way many of us have.

"Yikes," she says calmly, later adding, "I can't imagine what she went through."

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Too much serious! Time for Silly Celebs' Goofy Grins!

ABC/ Ida Mae Astute

"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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Chris Brown premiered the highly unanticipated video for his first single, "I Can Transform Ya," today.

There's not much to the video. He just stands in front of a white background singing about how great he can make some lucky lady's life ("I can change your life, make it so new/ Make you never want to go back to the old you"), and sometimes he’ll bust out a nunchuck trick. (Special shout-out to MTV for choosing the perfect "I Ain't a Monster" screenshot above.)

The whole Transformers thing is so strange in timing it makes us think he recorded it as a theme song for the summer blockbuster but Michael Bay was all, "Thanks for the input, Chris, but I think we're going to go with someone who's done a little less Rihanna assaulting. Linkin Park, you're in."

And that brings us to what people will always remember about Chris' career: Rihanna. In an effort to combat this, it appears he's using Twitter to show how much he's grown as a person since his assault conviction. Yesterday, in addition to announcing the Dec. 15 release date of this album Graffiti, he also posted this video:

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Well, what are the chances? Just two days after Rihanna debuted her new single, chronic one-upper (among other things) Chris Brown has rolled out a new song of his own.

And while those looking to link Rihanna's "Russian Roulette" to her Brown beatdown did so courtesy of tenuous lyrical metaphors and heavy speculation, Brown isn't making his listeners work quite so hard with "Crawl."

Interestingly, while RiRi came out fighting, draping herself in barbed wire and peppering her dark tune with gunshots, Brown—still deep in character and career rehabilitation—went the Celine Dion route, releasing a slow jam that paints him as nothing more than a hopeful man who just so happens to be unlucky-in-love.

Well, in his defense, you try finding something that rhymes with "girlfriend-beater."

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Kevin Mazur/MJ Memorial/Getty Images

So, we're checking out the new Rihanna single and... Wait, what? Chris Brown's going on tour? Say, that is news!

Just hours after his ex released her first solo single since being assaulted by Brown in February, Brown announced plans for a Fan Appreciation Tour to—just as it sounds—thank the folks who have stood by him in the wake of his arrest and subsequent guilty plea.

The month-long jaunt kicks off Nov. 14 at the House of Blues in Houston and will touch down in similar capacity venues in 19 cities across the country, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston.

Small theaters were chosen to encourage a "fans only" atmosphere, according to tour organizers.

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Def Jam

The wait is officially ova.

Making good on her countdown clock-underscored promise of big things, Rihanna has debuted her immensely anticipated lead single, "Russian Roulette," streaming it online this morning at precisely 11:23 a.m. ET. (For those playing along at home, her fourth album, Rated R, is coming out Nov. 23—another 11/23—got it? Good.)

If ever a song's lyrics were up for intense media scrutiny and armchair overanalysis, this is it. So let's jump in, shall we?

"Said I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving/I know that I must pass this test," RiRi sings. "So just pull the trigger."

"So many won't get the chance to say goodbye/But it's too late to think of the value of my life," she goes on in her lyrics, rife for the mining from pop-psychologists. Lest we forget, the song is Rihanna's first musical output since her attack last February at the hands of Chris Brown.

As it is, the surefire hit, produced and cowritten by Ne-Yo, has proven true the reports that her new sound is a darker one, what with her oft-repeating chorus of "pull the trigger," and dramatically abrupt ending—a sharp intake of Rihanna's breath and a single echoing gunshot.

Of course, while it's dark, it likely won't be that dark, as the music video is set to debut during prime-time on the family-friendly ABC.

So the wait is ova. Was it worth it?

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Check out Rihanna's transformation to the dark side in our Fashion Spotlight gallery.

twitter.com; Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Out with the old, in with the new.

Not wanting to be anything like Miley Cyrus or Courtney Love, Rihanna and/or her peeps have set up a Twitter account for the distinctive singer, making her a little late to the party, but a welcome guest all the same.

Her inaugural tweet: "The Wait Is Ova. Nov 23 09."

Sounds like an album release date... (And it is, according to the identical message on her website.) The upcoming effort will be her fourth studio album and first since 2007.

So, the ever-expanding and contracting Twitterverse has pulled another celeb into its orbit. We advise you to be on the lookout for any back-and-forth between the handles "rihanna" and "MechanicalDummy," aka Chris Brown, who yesterday twittered his concern after "So Cold," a tune off his upcoming album, ended up online.

"im a lil upset but i pray my album doesnt leak..," he wrote. We're sure "rihanna" feels the same way.

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Hey Rihanna, feel free to start posting Twitter pics, like these celebs did from the Emmys red carpet!