Appearing in a Los Angeles courtroom yesterday was Chris Brown, who decided that it would be in the best interests of all if he decided to plead not guilty to the beatdown he gave Rihanna:

Nearly two months after police found his girlfriend, the pop star Rihanna, bloodied and bruised on a Hancock Park street, Brown appeared in Los County Superior Court and pleaded not guilty to charges of felony assault and criminal threats. The 19-year-old spoke in a voice so low that many of the three dozen journalists who had waited an hour for the hearing to begin were unsure if he had even answered Judge Patricia Schnegg’s inquiry.

The judge told lawyers to return to court April 29 to set a date for a preliminary hearing but said Brown does not have to attend. The entire proceeding took less than two minutes, surprising some members of Brown’s entourage who filed into the courtroom as the arraignment was ending.

Outside the courtroom, a lawyer for Rihanna said there were ongoing plea negotiations between Brown and prosecutors.

“I believe there are efforts by all of the parties to resolve the case expeditiously and fairly,” said the lawyer, Donald Etra.

He said the 21-year-old was willing to testify against Brown, but hoped that a deal would be reached before trial so “she can get back to her life and her career.

“She would be pleased if this is over quickly,” he said.

Well, Rihanna, this probably won’t be over that quickly unless the behind-closed-doors negotiations between your lawyers and Chris’ lawyers goes very well.

Her father, for his part, wants to know who beat up his daughter if Chris didn’t do it:

After hearing the news that Chris Brown pleaded not guilty after being charged with allegedly beating his daughter, Rihanna’s father, Ronald Fenty, told Usmagazine.com exclusively that Brown “needs to stop being in denial” about what he did.

“So what happened? Somebody else did this to Rihanna then?” Fenty told Us. “I just would like to see justice go in the right direction.” [...]

“I don’t want his career to be damaged — it’s damaged already,” Fenty told Us Monday. “I think he’s a talented guy, but everybody should have to pay. When you do the crime, you do the time. I don’t want to see him locked up for a long time — I just want him to acknowledge and get some help.”

If Brown claims to be not guilty, Fenty wants to know who is responsible.

“Who did it — that’s the question now,” he said. “If he’s not guilty, who did it? He should say ‘guilty’ and let the court be leaning into him and try himself to the mercy of the court, see if he gets a fine…”

He added: “Now he’s going to go beyond that and it could go longer, it can be even worse. It can be worse for him in the long run.”

He’s quite an understanding guy, that Ronald.

Well, all we can do now is wait for either the trial to start or for an agreement to be reached…although it does occur to me that pleading not guilty might not be the best thing Chris could have done.  If he really wants to get out of this, I suggest he fire his lawyers and hire a group of his most fanatical fans, because they obviously can come up with a zillion reasons as to why Chris is totally innocent and Rihanna is a no-talent skanky disease-ridden ho.  I’m sure they realize that no-talent skanky disease-ridden hos deserve a beatdown now and then.

Oh, one last blurb:

He has apologized for the Feb. 8 incident and said he was seeking counseling from his mother, pastor and others.

Including the watercraft sales guy.  He’s just a fount of relationship advice.  When you feel like slamming your girlfriend’s face into the window, just take a buzz around the water, and your frustrations magically vanish!

I will keep this short and sweet. Chris Brown, known girlfriend-beater, let those d!cks at Nickelodeon off the hook by removing himself from the list of nominees for both Favorite Male Singer and Favorite Song. Finally the man has shown some courage, now, if only Nickelodeon would have done the same. Losers.

Here’s Brown’s statement via TMZ:

“Chris very much appreciates the support of his fans and the honor they have paid him in the way of nominations for Favorite Male Singer and Favorite Song.

Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding the incident last month has shifted the focus from the music to whether he should be allowed to be among those nominated.

While Chris would like to speak to his fans directly about this and other issues, pending legal proceedings preclude his doing so at this time. Once the matter before him has been resolved, he intends to do so.”

Perhaps his peeps saw my memo suggesting they were retarded. Yeah, that’s it!

I swear I am trying to ween myself off of the Chris Brown/Rihanna saga, but my best efforts are being thwarted by an endless parade of attention whores.

Sean “It’s All About Me” Combs was on the Ellen Degeneres show yesterday and despite his best deflection techniques, Ellen pinned him down on why he lent his house out for a Chris Brown/Rihanna bitchslap party.

Diddy, like many in the moronic rap community, was defending his decision by stating the obvious “we don’t know what happened between Chris and Rihanna.” Well, see Diddy, you are wr, there’s this thing called the internet and we DO know what happened. Rihanna intercepted a 3-page text messaged booty call, got mad, called Brown on it, pissed him off, he pounded the f*$k out of her and left the scene of the crime. Don’t take my word for it, there are official documents out there making it real simple, even for complete idiots like PuffyDiddlywinks. Hell, Diddy why stop at the house. Surely you have some loaded weapons to offer, or at the very least, a baseball bat.

I don’t know who’s running the PR for Rihanna and Chris Brown, but they are retarded. I am not being derogatory, I genuinely think they suffer from a mental impairment. Instead of visiting nightclubs till 4am, while wearing sunglasses indoors (perhaps covering up still healing bruises), Rihanna should be on an extended vacation getting intensive therapy to overcome her addiction to abuse. Chris Brown, well, he should be making “friends” in lockdown somewhere, and by making friends I mean getting up close and personal with roid-damaged dudes who are less inclined towards forgiveness than Rihanna.

Chris Brown is a thug and a woman-beater. Nothing more, anything he had to offer the world is GONE when he chose to beat Rihanna. Cut your losses Brown, and go away and don’t come back. You can’t be rehabilitated because you don’t want to. Brown’s a pampered celeb and thinks it’s perfectly ok to beat women and threaten to kill them. Move on nothing to see here.

Rihanna, on the other hand, is ruining her career and needs someone with half a brain to tell her to disappear for a while and let this ugliness blow over and NEVER, EVER speak to Brown again. She could be the next Tina Turner and turn this nightmare into an opportunity to help people and better herself, but instead she’s destined to end up being the next Nicole Brown Simpson.

Sorry for the hostility here folks, but this much stupidity can only go on so long. When are these a$$holes going to wake up and smell the epic failure?

(via I’mNotToObsessed.com)

I know we are beating a dead horse with this whole Chris Brown/Rihanna debacle, but now we have the kids involved. And don’t think just because they are kids they aren’t aware of Chris Brown using Rihanna as a punching bag, because they are. Kids are savvy these days, just because YOU don’t let your child watch television, listen to the radio, surf the internet or partake in modern culture, doesn’t mean their friends aren’t.

I can’t tell you the number of times my tween comes home and asks me some kind of shockingly forward question about current events, which I KNOW she didn’t find out about at home — it’s everywhere. But that doesn’t mean we as parents have zero responsibility in setting a better example for our children.

So instead of keeping the violent altercation between these two popular young adults relegated to the adult population, our kids are being forced to participate in the madness. Who’s to blame? Nickelodeon of course! The HUGELY popular kid’s channel, Nickelodeon (you know the one with “Spongebob Squarepants”, “Dora the Explorer” and “Wonderpets”), owned by Viacom (MTV, Vh1) puts on an annual awards show, aptly called the Kid’s Choice Awards. The channel encourages their young viewers to participate in the selection process by picking their favorite movies, actors, songs, artists, TV shows, etc.

Not unlike the Oscars or the Grammys, but for the children. Hosting duties are a big deal and many major stars have gotten the choice spot over the years, including Justin Timberlake, Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Cameron Diaz and this year’s host, Dwayne “Do You Smell What The Rock Is Cookin’” Johnson. The hosting duties tend to correspond with a movie the host promoting, in this case, Johnson is starring in a Disney remake, Race To Witch Mountain. Ultimately, it’s all about marketing and making money.

Which may explain why Nickelodeon has continued to support Chris Brown and Rihanna, who are both up for two awards, favorite male and female singer respectively, and favorite song. Seriously poor choice on their part. It wasn’t bad enough that the Grammy’s were blighted by the now infamous beatdown, but over the last four weeks, we’ve been forced to endure some of the lamest PR decisions Britney hired Sam Lufti.

Chris Brown refuses to issue a real apology and atone for his crimes (in fact he and his team are doing their best to avoid any punishment at all), and then to really add insult to injury (pun intended) Rihanna lets everyone down by allowing this abusive, violent man off the hook, but getting back together with him and refusing to press charges.

In what way does Nickelodeon think that these two are positive examples for today’s youth. In the past, we’ve covered the Kid’s Choice Awards and really enjoyed watching the show with my own children. Not this year. No way, no how. I encourage any of you with kids out there to boycott the show unless they remove these two idiots from their nominees list. This is a democratic society, we need to use our voices to let the powers that be know we do NOT condone violence against women.

Finally, Oprah and I are on the same page, at least as far as Rihanna is concerned. The Big O said that Rihanna should take some time out and “heal yourself first, love doesn’t hurt. If a man hits you once, he will hit you again.” Amen sister.

Fortunately for Chris Brown, the always wise and diplomatic k wrote about last week’s hearing in Los Angeles, where Chris Brown did NOT enter a plea on the two felony charges brought against him for the February 8th altercation between he and girlfriend/singer Rihanna. Because had I written about it, well, there would have been more expletives, less wisdom and WAY more hostility (and likely more spelling and grammar errors, but who’s counting.)

Here’s the thing, I thought Chris Brown was a massive jerk BEFORE I read the official statement from Rihanna stating what went down (read statement after the jump), but AFTER I read it, only one thought came to mind: Chris Brown’s going to hurt Rihanna again, and the next time it will be much, much worse. Next time, she’ll be dead. What Brown did to Rihanna was in the Ike Turner realm of domestic abuse. This was no slap fight or war or words, this was the real deal. When you heap on the public humiliation and the felony charges, Chris will hold nothing back when he takes it out on Rihanna. Oh how I pray I wrong, though I know I am not.

All I need to know about Chris Brown’s capacity to improve can be found in the way he’s handled this crisis from the beginning. First he left the scene, leaving his girlfriend, the woman he claims to love, bloody, bruised and alone. Brown’s second snafu was releasing the most poorly executed excuse for an apology since Bill Clinton claimed he never had sex with that woman. This, after waiting almost a week to do so. To add insult to injury, Brown was then seen out having a grand old time with nary a care in the world, while making clandestine arrangements to meet with Rihanna, despite her family’s request he let her alone.

To sum it up, Brown hasn’t acted like a man attempting to make amends and do what’s best for the woman he beat the living hell out of, but rather, Brown’s acted like a man out to salvage what’s left of his career. While I am usually the last one to suggest anyone listen to Oprah’s often pretentious advice, it’s nice to see at least one celebrity step up to the plate and say it like it is. Kudos to you Ms. Winfrey.

Brown’s a violent young man, with violent tendencies, who has been escalating his violence throughout his relationship with Rihanna. We already know that Rihanna has shown a serious lapse in judgment by her willingness to see Brown so soon after the violent altercation, but as rumor becomes reality, it seems she is now unwilling to press charges and is making steps towards getting back with him. She does so at her own peril

The recidivism rates for domestic abusers is high, with at least 1/3 returning to their abusive behavior AFTER completing treatment programs, and as high as 1/2 repeating the behavior who HAVEN’T been treated, and here’s the clincher: The men most likely to return to violence are on average younger, report alcohol problems, score higher for narcissism (excessive self-involvement) on psychological tests, and have longer histories of pretreatment violence.

We know Chris has shown major narcissistic tendencies (plus he’s a celeb), he’s young (only 19) and has a history of domestic abuse and prior assaults in his background. Rihanna, the cards are stacked against you, it’s not a matter of if, but when and how violent will the next assault be. Rihanna, you aren’t just letting your family and fans down, but yourself. Any self-respecting person knows when to walk away from a hurtful situation. Please, PLEASE rethink your decision. Don’t take my word for, talk to living legend Tina Turner, she’ll set you straight. In the meantime, I won’t be buying any of your music until you come to your senses. I hope your other fans follow suit.

But wait, there’s more…