Sideshow: Rihanna: I regret trying to help Chris Brown
Rihanna's regrets Singer-songwriter Rihanna says she regrets trying to reconcile with former beau Chris Brown after he pleaded guilty to assaulting her in 2009.
Rihanna's regrets
Singer-songwriter Rihanna says she regrets trying to reconcile with former beau Chris Brown after he pleaded guilty to assaulting her in 2009.
She says she believed at the time her love would help change his behavior.
"I was that girl," the Barbadian beauty tells Vanity Fair. "That girl who felt that as much pain as this relationship is, maybe some people are built stronger than others. . . . Maybe I'm the person who's almost the guardian angel to this person, to be there when they're not strong enough."
Rihanna, 27, acknowledges that even though she was the one Brown victimized, she felt she was responsible for safeguarding him from the world. "I was very protective of him. I felt that people didn't understand him."
She says she realized that trying to help Brown only served to remind him of his weaknesses and bad behavior. "You realize after a while that in that situation you're the enemy," she says.
She learned that putting up with an abusive person sent the wrong message. "And if you put up with it, maybe you are agreeing that you [deserve] this," she said. "Sometimes you just have to walk away."
Yet she has no ill will for Brown, Rihanna insists.
"I don't hate him," she says. "I will care about him until the day I die."
Cosby accusers on NBC
NBC, the home of Bill Cosby's 1980s megahit, The Cosby Show, on Friday will host a Dateline news special featuring 27 of the more than 50 women who claim the comic sexually assaulted them.
The Cosby Accusers Speak, hosted by Kate Snow, is the first show of its kind on the broadcast networks. It follows a similar program last month on cabler A&E that featured 12 Cosby accusers.
NBC this summer dropped plans for a new sitcom starring Cosby and severed ties with the star. The Temple alumnus denies any wrongdoing.
Judd: I was harassed
Insurgent star Ashley Judd says she was sexually harassed by a famous studio exec when she was a younger actor.
Judd, 47, who does not name the man in question, tells Variety's Women of Power issue she was approached by an exec from a rival studio when she was shooting the Paramount picture Kiss the Girls in the '90s.
"I was sexually harassed by one of our industry's most famous, admired-slash-reviled bosses . . . and here I was, a declared feminist," Judd says.
Judd says the man "groomed" her in stages by luring her into situations that were increasingly compromising. One night, he invited her to have dinner at his hotel but insisted she meet him in his room.
"It was so disgusting. He physically lured me by saying, 'Oh, help me pick out what I'm going to wear,' " she says.
He then asked whether she'd watch him shower.
Judd says the man victimized several young actresses, who were all too scared to speak up.
She eventually confronted the man.
ABC Family renamed
In an attempt to draw a more sophisticated viewership, Disney-owned cabler ABC Family will rebrand itself as Freeform. Channel prez Tom Ascheim tells the Hollywood Reporter the renaming, which will coincide with the return of Pretty Little Liars in January, is aimed at capturing the 18-to-34 age range.
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