Rihanna’s old hair, and eyes Photoshopped to be blue, cover Elle Magazine May 2012. She changed her hair to black, shaved on the sides, days ago. So, this cover unwittingly dates itself.
It’s an over-styled cover, and an under-styled rest of shoot. And it’s posey. But most people aren’t going to notice, because the interview once again addresses the night ex-boyfriend (whom she appears to still be sleeping with, if not only regularly talking to), Chris Brown who stopped just short of beating her to death in 2009. For which she forgave him, because domestic violence is something to which one can evidently become inured. Fatally so, in some cases.
On the fan reaction to her being beaten and running back to her abuser: “I respect what other people have to say. The bottom line is that everyone thinks differently. It’s very hard for me to accept, but I get it. People end up wasting their time on the blogs or whatever, ranting away, and that’s all right. I don’t hate them for it.”
On why she won’t apologise for setting a dangerous example: “Because tomorrow I’m still going to be the same person,” she says. “I’m still going to do what I want to do.”
More on the 2009 beating: “It gave me guns,” she says of the trauma. “I was like, well, f***. They know more about me than I want them to know. It’s embarrassing. But that was my opening. That was my liberation, my moment of bring it. I wanted people to know who I am. Whatever they take that to be, good or bad, I just want them to know the truth.”
On what she gained from the experience: “I have more freedom the more people know about me,” she reasons. “It’s like, one less skeleton in the closet, one less burden, one less secret; now you know that, so you can say what you want about it. I don’t have anything to hide.”
On channeling her pain while recording Rated R: “I was going through the hardest time of my life. I was angry, sad, confused, torn. I was still in love. And I needed to talk about it. That was the only way I could get peace, because it was in my head, and I couldn’t leave it there.”
On having babies one day: “It could be tomorrow. It could be 20 years from now. I just feel like when the time is right, God will send me a little angel. But first, of course, I have to find a man. I mean, there’s a very important missing piece to the puzzle here!”
On finding that man: “I feel like it’s hard for everybody! I don’t think it has anything to do with being famous. There’s just a major drought out there. […] But I just need to find the person who balances me out, because then things like my schedule won’t matter. I’ve done it before, so I know I can do it again.” - via Us Weekly, Elle Magazine.
Rihanna is also in the tabloids this week, with sources for lie-factory OK! Magazine saying Ashton Kutcher “dumped” her. This is the… something… about which Rihanna got pissy on the promotional trail for her latest movie. TMZ.com posted photos of Rihanna arriving at Kutcher’s home, only for the whole story to be yanked. Everyone saw the photos, and read the article.
Rihanna insists she’s single, although that doesn’t preclude hooking-up that night.
But OK! says she’s “single” because Kutcher distanced himself: “When Rihanna arrived at his house she didn’t tell him she’d been photographed by paparazzi. He was very specific that she check to make sure she wasn’t being followed, and the way he sees it, she either screwed up or, even worse, tipped the photographers off herself. She went off on him and told him she suspected him of calling the press. The way she sees it, he has more to gain from the fling than she does.”
