“[It] didn’t take a lot of work [to lip-synch to her song],” he confessed to MTV News at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “But I do like Rihanna.”

In fact, his biggest confession about his connection to the singer came next. It seems the two were thisclose to working together on her 2011 “We Found Love” video. As the story goes, before male model Dudley O’Shaughnessy landed the role as Ri’s troubled leading man, Franco had the opportunity to be cast as one-half of that rocky romance.

“She actually asked me to be in that video, the one with the relationship that gets crazy,” he dished. “I couldn’t do it. But, I guess, I hope that that means there’s mutual love between us.”

Well, apparently these two are getting a second chance to work together, and this time it’s on the big screen. Franco teased that Rihanna may appear in pal Seth Rogen’s flick “The Apocalypse,” which follows a slew of celebs playing themselves. They’re partying at Franco’s house when they learn the apocalypse is coming.

“I think she’s gonna be in the new movie that I’m doing, Seth Rogen’s directorial debut,” he shared. “I think she has a little part in that.”

• Rihanna “We Found Love” music video is nominated for 2 MTV Video Music Awards 2012: Best Female Video & Best Pop Video. Vote here! Japanese Navy, don’t forget that Rihanna will be there in April and August!

• Katy Perry has recently mentioned a possible collaboration with Rihanna: “We’ve collaborated on a lot of things, but just not songs yet. It’s one of those things that’s got so much build up that we have to deliver. I want it to be like that Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin song ‘Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves,’ not ‘Beautiful Liar.’ But I definitely want to do something that is so iconic. [Rihanna's] kind of busy too. We’re both busy but we planted the seed two years ago. How disappointed would you be if that song came out and it’s no good? Sometimes you have to wait for greatness.” Katy has also talked about Battleship and “We Found Love” — read here. She was also asked to sing a little bit of “We Found Love”, click here to watch.

• To ready for her role as Raikes in Battleship, Rihanna had to go through some tough military training. Check out the video below and look for the movie in theaters near you this spring 2012:

Actor Danny Trejo was in the LA tattoo parlor when Rihanna came in to get her “Thug Life” tattoo — and tells TMZ she “didn’t stop saying thug life the whole time she was getting it done.”

Danny says he has no problem with Rihanna’s Tupac tribute because she is “one of the downest female thugs in the world.” Danny says he just kept thinking, “If I was 40 years younger she would be in a lot of trouble.”

VIBE: I think many people can join me in honestly saying they watched your “We Found Love” video 20+ times [laughs].
Melina: I did it too. I usually hate most of my work, probably at least more than half of it. When things are done I kind of want it to be done and never see it again, but this is one that I was really proud of and I’m extremely happy others are too. It’s the best feeling ever as an artist to be happy with your own work.

You’ve spoken about the video’s theme, but there’s one thing we need to speak about specifically—that ass tattoo. When Rihanna read the treatment was there any initial hesitation?
I think the more provocative it is the more she responds to it. She read the treatment and loved it. What I thought was funny was when we were on set and she said, ‘I didn’t realize until yesterday that I actually have to play this character. I read the scene and I’m like this is hot, but then it just hit me like oh shit I’m the one who has to play this out!’ I thought that was funny, but we shot that on the second day and they were already pretty comfortable with each other and I was like ‘So now he tattoos your butt.’ Obviously she likes tattoos. She had a warning that that was going to happen. It’s not like I sprung it on her [laughs].

I remember seeing The-Dream tweet that the video was good enough to flip into a short film. Were you guys thinking about doing something like that at all?
We’re thinking of doing an extended version possibly. I’m not sure yet. But I’m happy with how it is, too, so it’s not totally necessary.

We did a post recently asking a group of folks if Rihanna’s Beyonce’s inevitable successor. Beyonce had a movement that was about autonomy, financial independence and that opened the door for Rihanna’s movement with sexual liberation. Do you think that will most likely happen?
I wouldn’t say there’s a successor or not. To me they’re very different artists. Yes they both do pop music and both are Black women, but we can just like both of them. So many people are like ‘I’m on team this, I’m on team that.’ It’s like why can’t I just like music and like what these two women represent in different ways? Yes they’re both talented, but they’re different kinds of artists. Like Beyonce, well I wouldn’t go into everything that they do, but you know what Beyonce has to offer and I think Rihanna offers a bit something different. And yes they’re definitely some overlap in that they do some similar stuff, but they are totally different. At least for me they satisfy different parts of me creatively and I think that that’s what it is. Each of them has their own lane and that’s a lane they can fill if they want or leave vacant if they want, too.

How important is it that you guys highlight sexual liberation in visual projects?
I think that sexuality is something beautiful that should be embraced and shown off. It’s not something that we should run away from. It’s a part of being a woman and a part of being a man too. There’s nothing wrong with our bodies and it should teach us to love ourselves. And I think she does that really well and I love that about her. She doesn’t shy away from it. It’s also like American culture is so scared of that kind of thing where in some other cultures it’s not that big of a deal. It’s like this is who I am.

Right it’s also become very popular mindset amongst females of today. I feel like you’re going to soon come across an artist that’s going to ask you to give them a “Rihanna” video. How do you answer that?
No. [Laughs] I can’t do that because you’re not going to give me what Rihanna gives me. I haven’t been asked to do that ever thank God because then that’s copying someone, then it’s really a rip-off. Rihanna’s her own person. I don’t have anything to do with that. She is who she is. It’s just a good collaboration. I might be better with her than I’m with somebody else just because we get each other and we have similar tastes so then we can play off each other and so much about filmmaking is that collaborative nature. It’s like certain stylists might be really good with one person but when they work with other people their work doesn’t show that as well.

I’ve read folks who say you’re trouble for Rihanna because of the copy and paste accusations in the past. What do you say to shit like that?
It’s all what I grew up on. You can call it inspiration or you can just call it me. Those are the influences of my life and so they become a part of you and of course you’re channeling that into your work. I grew up on Kids. I grew up watching Requiem for a Dream and Trainspotting and those kind of movies inspired me to become a filmmaker, so they’re part of my foundation. They’re part of who I am now.

The better the video the more the hate?
Exactly. No one can just like something.

Did the David Chapelle case hit the hardest?
I can’t really comment on that because of the legality of it.

Got you. If you go with that extended version, I think within the next 365 days you’re going to get a shitfull of movie offers.
I’m dying to. Coming from videos and pop stuff and dance I get a lot of those “Step up” and musical offers and I don’t want to do any of that. If you knew what I really watched –I watch a lot of foreign films; I watch gritty real stories that aren’t about the cinematography or how they look; it’s really about these characters, so doing this for me, was trying to show the type of work that I would like to do.

So what’s to come while we wait for your next video?
I’m working on a commercial now that I’m prepping for next month and maybe another video for next month and then we’ll see. I’m definitely trying to use this to spark some more stuff and hopefully get a film that I want to do. My goal was to find a film that I wanted to do at the end of the year, but that’s hard. I found the people I want to work with; it’s just finding the material. I’ve read so many scripts, but I haven’t found anything that I’ve loved yet. And doing a film you give so much of your life and it’s not video where you’re done in a month and you can move on so you better love it. You’re dedicating three years of your life or something.

Right, it has to feel organic.
I’m definitely not motivated by money. I definitely need it to represent me and who I am as an artist. Thank God I have other ways to support myself in the mean time. That I’m able to take my time that’s a blessing.

Doing your job must be really cathartic…
I’m really trying to tell a story and all the aspects of it, even down to the costumes and who’s this character and what does she look like and making it a real person. I think that’s what people are wanting now. I don’t know if economics, but you want a relatable artist.

As the pair are reported to have met up since filming for supper and a shopping spree, and were photographed leaving Mahiki in London together, the world wants to know more about the person behind the undeniably beautiful face.

“Everyone has been surprised and shocked, but everybody is happy for me,” says O’Shaughnessy, snacking on chocolate croissants in a meeting room at his agency, Next Model Management – his watery eyes still giving shy downward glances, despite his new heartthrob status.

[...] it was only a matter of time before his agency put him forward for the role in Rihanna’s video – pitched at the agency as being much like a short film – and Rihanna personally picked O’Shaughnessy to be her love interest.

When his agent says, “The director, everyone, loved him. Obviously Rihanna loved him,” O’Shaughnessy sniggers like a cheeky schoolboy – although he remains outwardly unruffled by the whole encounter.

“I wasn’t starstruck at all … She’s just such a nice girl. It’s not like just because she’s achieved so much that she thinks her shit don’t stink. She’s such a humble, down-to-earth girl and that made it even better for me because I didn’t feel intimidated or anything. We just got along. We were just like mates.” As for the sex scenes, “You’ve just got to get into it,” he says, smothering a smile by taking a timely sip on a glass of orange juice. “It took about three-and-a-half days to film. I loved it. I didn’t want it to end. Not just because it was ‘a certain person’s’ video but just because I love being on set,” he explains.

Click here to read the full article.

Thanks for the tip, Tangie!

Via NeonLimelight: Rapper Royce Da 5’9″ made the Twitterverse go absolutely crazy when he dropped the now infamous line “Hi Rihanna” (it’s a trending topic on Twitter for over 2 days now) during the Shady 2.0 cypher at the 2011 BET Hip Hop awards.

“Hi Rihanna, is Nicki living with you? Let me know so I can buy binoculars and telescopes. Hi Rihanna, I don’t need to know you better. You tell me you love my music again, we go together. Bye Rihanna.”

With the verse becoming larger than life, an explanation on why he decided to name-drop the pop princess was needed. During an interview on BET’s 106 & Park, the Detroit-bred rapper talked about how the line came to be.

“I seen her overseas. Me and Em [Eminem] were performing at the V Festival and she was coming out to perform with us and she seen me and she came up to me. I’m just a Detroit guy. Like, everybody treat me like I’m famous now but I still feel regular. So she came up to me and told me that she likes one of my songs. So I just feel like if you tell me that again, we go together. Has to happen.”

Royce says he didn’t expect the verse to get the reaction that it did and he didn’t know whether Rihanna would hear the line or not. Turns out, she did. The pop star returned the love on Twitter with a simple “Hi @Royceda59.”

Watch the full interview below:

Earlier today it was reported that Rihanna will be featured on Coldplay’s new album “Mylo Xyloto” to be released on October 24th. The news was confirmed by Coldplay’s official website. Rihanna is said to be featured in a track called “Princess of China”. Sounds interesting!

Band’s leader, Chris Martin, revealed to The Sun:

“The album is designed as a whole piece. It has boy and girl lead characters and top of our list for the girl part was Rihanna… but it took a while to pluck up the courage to ask her.”

CHRIS MARTIN is the frontman for one of the biggest bands on the planet and is married to Hollywood A-lister Gwyneth Paltrow, so you’d have thought he could play it cool in front of anyone.

But in an exclusive interview, the Coldplay legend explained how global pop queen Rihanna reduced him to a bumbling, Hugh Grant-style rom-com mess.

After revealing to The Sun that the band had pulled off the coup of persuading the sexy Bajan to appear as a guest vocalist on track Princess Of China, on new album Mylo Xyloto, Chris, 34, said: “The album is designed as a whole piece. It has boy and girl lead characters and top of our list for the girl part was Rihanna… but it took a while to pluck up the courage to ask her.

“We did a show in Las Vegas and I met her and said, ‘Do you think there’s any chance?’ I was very Hugh Grant-like and spluttering about it.

“She has such an amazing voice and it’s so different to mine. When the vocal happened I thought ‘Wow, you sound different’ but I think that’s also because she was singing a different song to what we are used to hearing from her and it is written by a bloke from Devon.”

Chris and bandmate Jonny Buckland, 33, were talking ahead of the launch of their eagerly anticipated fifth album — and it soon became apparent it is not only Rihanna the lads are huge fans of.

After racking up worldwide record sales of 50million, you would think they had earned the right to call themselves Britain’s biggest band.

Rihanna’s guest appearance on “Princess of China” marks the first time the group has tapped a star vocalist to appear on an official full-length.