Feeling slightly adrift after a sad week packed with celebrity passings? What better way to regain a sense that all is right with the world than with a rundown of star spats? Here's the latest ...
You'd think that Chris Brown would want to lie low following his jail-avoiding guilty plea last week for his February assault on Rihanna, but he's said to be seething that he wasn't allowed to participate in the Michael Jackson tribute at the BET Awards on Sunday night.
The embattled singer, who hailed Jackson as "the reason why I do music and why I am an entertainer," was purportedly frozen out of the event at the urging of Jay-Z and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
"Jay-Z wasn't having it," a source tells the New York Post of the music mogul (and Rihanna's mentor). "He threatened to pull out of the show if Chris was involved, so BET dropped Chris."
That claim is reiterated to the New York Daily News, with an insider explaining, "[Jay] didn't want Chris anywhere near the awards so close to the court's ruling."
The mole adds that Sharpton also "made such a fuss to the BET executives that they pulled Chris," who was evidently seeing red over the decision.
"He's furious," a friend of the volatile singer tells the paper. "BET asked him to perform and waited until the last minute to tell him it was off. He's pretty shocked and outraged right now."
But before you cue the world's tiniest violin, reps for BET and Brown insist that he was never confirmed for the show.
You'd think that Chris Brown would want to lie low following his jail-avoiding guilty plea last week for his February assault on Rihanna, but he's said to be seething that he wasn't allowed to participate in the Michael Jackson tribute at the BET Awards on Sunday night.
The embattled singer, who hailed Jackson as "the reason why I do music and why I am an entertainer," was purportedly frozen out of the event at the urging of Jay-Z and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
"Jay-Z wasn't having it," a source tells the New York Post of the music mogul (and Rihanna's mentor). "He threatened to pull out of the show if Chris was involved, so BET dropped Chris."
That claim is reiterated to the New York Daily News, with an insider explaining, "[Jay] didn't want Chris anywhere near the awards so close to the court's ruling."
The mole adds that Sharpton also "made such a fuss to the BET executives that they pulled Chris," who was evidently seeing red over the decision.
"He's furious," a friend of the volatile singer tells the paper. "BET asked him to perform and waited until the last minute to tell him it was off. He's pretty shocked and outraged right now."
But before you cue the world's tiniest violin, reps for BET and Brown insist that he was never confirmed for the show.
