Most reasonable people shouldn't have to be dissuaded from engaging in horrific acts of domestic violence by treats and high praise. Typically one doesn't have to make a fist, pretend to dangle some beef jerky above his nose, and yell, "Sit, Chris Brown, sit! Good boy!" in an attempt to keep the pop singer or any similar-minded dude from succumbing to whatever chemical imbalance makes them predisposed to senseless acts of brutality. But the idea of Chris Brown as a reasonable man kind of flew out the window in February and never really made its way back in the house. There were a few lame attempts. Like this, well, misguided apology. More recently there was this irksome tweet that reads, "Good NEWS: my album date has changed .. December 8. Graffiti. If u love me get it twice and if u hate me still get it." Which demonstrated how Brown still remains clueless. If not about his actions, then the waves his actions created in the world around him. Still, the man's gone a number of days without black-eyeing someone and he deserves a judge-approved gold star and a free dinner at Red Lobster, right? Right.

Eh, it's unlikely, but the songbird has become otherwise adept at putting up walls and keeping prying eyes from getting too close. Ideally, she'd know better than to stir up a tempest outside of a nightclub. Still, this crack in her steely foundation becomes makes us wonder what sort of fire-and-brimstone brand of madness could be swirling beneath that head of perfectly coiffed hair. Recently, perhaps after her Nokia-sponsored live gig in London, Rihanna threw a tantrum when her driver was minutes late in picking her up. Some reports indicate that she was slinging thunderbolts with no mercy, threatening to get bouncers and valets at the club fired. Others say they saw her head do a complete 360 on her neck á la The Exorcist. Some, still scarred from that night, may even say that in her eyes, they could see the smug countenance of Madonna, grinning away. The truth, while peppered with colorful quips by Rihanna, is decidedly duller.

● Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are totally going out; it’s confirmed they were snapped holding hands! Well, Kristen is grasping Rob’s wrist anyways. [PopSugar]
● Kim Kardashian says pregnant sister Kourtney is having issues with the fact that you actually gain weight while pregnant: “"Kourtney is going crazy, she feels so big right now.” [Us]
● Comedian Katt Williams has been released from a Georgia jail after being arrested for attempted burglary. Williams is accused of trying to break into a home with a crowbar and stealing $3,500 worth of jewelry and rare coins. [CNN]

What to do after sharing your story with eight million other people and being branded definitely "not slutty" by a middling British girlband? Make an unexpected appearance at a Jay-Z concert, naturally!

Like the cleaning of a house, Rihanna's press circus never ends! Although last night, her 20/20 segment finally wrapped up. The rest of the world sighed a humongous cloud of relief because this sit-down with Diane Sawyer looked promising. It was a humble, pitch-perfect way to close that part of the pop star's life before she fully immerses herself into her Rated R campaign. Face-to-face with Sawyer, Rihanna showed that she has it in her to make peace with this altercation. And despite being well-timed, in case this tabula rasa misfires, here's a considerably more palatable alternative! Regardless, in her provocative interview, Rihanna kept an admirably cool, level head. She wasn't on a mission to point fingers, assign blame, or ravage the last flecks of meat dangling from the corpse of Chris Brown's career. She simply sussed out the events of that fateful February night, picked apart the psychology leading up to those events, and shined light onto a history of domestic violence in her family.

This morning, a stoic Rihanna sat down with Diane Sawyer for the first part of an interview about what went down between her and her abusive former boyfriend Chris Brown. (Choice quotes: “I fell in love with that person, and it’s embarrassing that’s the type of person that I fell in love with” and “Don’t react off of love. F#*@ love.”) The interview wraps up tomorrow night at 10pm with Rihanna going into details about the pair’s pre-Grammy altercation. Four hours earlier, MTV will broadcast an interview with the beanie-wearing, “100% comfortable wit my sexuality” Brown, also about the abuse. In the clip circulating, the singer seems to say the right things (“What was I thinking? ... How do you, Chris go from point A to Point B, turn it to a positive, become the person that you want to be.”), but I still want to know: What is MTV doing in his corner?

And it's not just because their album titles vaguely rhyme either. But Amerie's In Love & War is one of the more unexpectedly delightful entries in hip-pop this year. It also builds substantially on her reputation as "that fashionable lark who chirped that catchy jingle some years ago." In fact with Rihanna's Rated R out soon, Amerie's strategic timing provides ample opportunity for those put off by the drama swirling around Rihanna to find a substitute who isn't as hyperbolic as Beyoncé. Four albums in and In Love & War may just be the beginning of her creative crest.

"I went to sleep as Rihanna and woke up as Britney Spears," the Barbadian pop princess tells Glamour in an exclusive interview. It's well-timed for her comeback. This isn't to say that when Rihanna awoke, she shaved her head and tattooed a heart to the back of her neck, all before chasing down a car with an umbrella. It means that the media hoopla around her personal hell became a frenzy overnight. And rather unexpectedly, too. "That was the level of media chaos that happened the next day."

● That report of Lindsay Lohan and Gerard Butler getting it on in Morocco was shot down by Lohan, and Butler is threatening legal action against the British papers who printed the story. [GossipCop]
● Where do you go after getting publicly fired from your show? Disneyland! Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and husband Pete Wentz took little Bronx to the happiest place on earth to lift her spirits. [PopSugar]
● Rihanna says of all the media attention she received after the Chris Brown incident: "I went to sleep as Rihanna and woke up as Britney Spears." [USA]

Rihanna's new album, Rated R, is on its way. And the cover's been revealed, along with her new single. We're pretty sure we know what to expect with this one. Come, take a look at this thing -- you tell us.