Chris Brown & Rihanna: A Fairy-Tale Romance Gone Awry

Sunday night, R&B’s hottest couple, Chris Brown and Rihanna, were supposed to light up the Grammys.

Instead, the normally affectionate twosome were embroiled in a domestic violence drama that left Brown, 19, booked on felony criminal threats charges and posting $50,000 bail after turning himself in to the LAPD on Sunday at 6:34 p.m. PST.

Sources say that Rihanna (real name: Robin Fenty), 20, was the victim in the alleged assault which occurred around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday. Responding to a 911 call about a disturbance, the LAPD took statements from a female with visible injuries, who named Brown as her attacker.

Just hours after the incident, witnesses spotted Brown and Rihanna leaving the London Hotel together around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Later that evening, during the Grammy telecast for which both Brown and Rihanna were no-shows, bodyguards for the couple were seen moving their luggage out of the London.

The ramifications of Brown’s arrest? Already charged with making criminal threats – defined in part as a situation where the victim “is in fear for [his/her] life” – the R&B singer may face additional charges at the discretion of L.A.’s district attorney’s office.

To help him face the legal storm, Brown has hired attorney Mark Geragos, best known for defending convicted murderer Scott Peterson, Winona Ryder after a 2001 shoplifting arrest and Michael Jackson during his child molestation trial.

An R&B Romance Turned Sour?

Rumored to be a couple towards the end of 2007, the singers were first photographed at the Grammys on Feb. 10, 2008. Often coy about their yearlong relationship, the two consistently refused to talk about their romance during interviews.

But the pair offered up other signs of their closeness, from matching star tattoos on their necks to holding hands and kissing at concerts.

Even at the Clive Davis party at the Beverly Hills Hilton on Saturday night, Brown and Rihanna looked cozy and happy.

But over recent weeks, they seemed to have hit a bumpy patch in their relationship.

“They’ve been fighting a lot lately,” a source told PEOPLE. “Lots of ups and downs. One second they’re all lovey dovey and then they’re fighting like crazy. They’re both pretty stubborn.”

Jennifer Connelly’s Secret to a Successful Relationship

 

“Neither my husband nor I am interested in mincing words,” she tells the March issue of Glamour of always being up front with hubby-of-six-years Paul Bettany. “If I break something, for example, I have to announce it. I’m a compulsive confessor.”

The actress, who is out stumping for “He’s Just Not That Into You,” believes such candor is “crucial to a relationship. Otherwise, one person holds all the power. It’s healthy to be straightforward, and it turns out you can wind up weathering a lot. Knowing that everything is on the table — what you see is what you get — lends a sense of safety.

There’s also a sense of security in being hitched.

“I had enough time being single to know I have no regrets about being married!” says the Oscar winner, who emphasizes her wedlock satisfaction by recalling a particularly unsuccessful blind date.

“It was horrible!” she cringes. “I went on a date with a guy who played his guitar for me and was so full of himself. We had plans to go out to a party, and he was driving and I remember saying, ‘You know what? I’m so sorry, but I’d like to go home please.’ So I got out of the car and I left.”

Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany are spotted in New York on Jan. 30. (©www.splashnews.com)

Connelly, who is mom to sons Stellan, 5, and Kai, 11 (dad is photographer David Dougan), admits she’s not sure exactly how she knew Bettany was the one for her, only that there “was something about the way that we were together. He stood out to me as someone singular and rare and beautiful, and I liked the way he was in the world. I liked the way he was with people. I liked the way he was with my son and the way he made me feel.”

Probably not making her feel great these days is the scrutiny she’s under due to her slimline figure, which has caught the attention of the tabloids.

The London Daily Mail has labeled her “worryingly slender” after she was photographed walking around her New York neighborhood with Bettany last week.

Meanwhile, the current issue of Star calls her “scary skinny” in its “Hollywood Weight Crisis” investigation, alleging that her loved ones are “trying to convince her to gain even a few pounds.”

Bettany recently attributed her whittled-down look to her grief over the loss of her father, a subject Connelly touches on with Glamour.

“I was very close to him, as were my husband and kids,” she acknowledges. “It’s the first real heartbreak I’ve experienced. I think he would want those of us who loved him to fight to experience joy, so I’ve been striving to remember him in a positive way. I don’t have to work to feel the sadness of his loss. But I do have to work to feel happy about [having had] the time I had with him.”

Prince Harry Splits with Girlfriend Chelsy Davy

 

Britain’s Prince Harry and his Zimbabwe-born girlfriend Chelsy Davy, 23, are calling it quits after five years, a royal source confirms to PEOPLE.

The 24-year-old prince parted amicably with Davy, a post-graduate law student at Leeds University, three weeks after the couple spent a romantic holiday together in the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius.

“They are remaining friends,” says the royal source. “There have been all sorts of reasons given [for the split] but suffice it to say they felt that it had run its course.”

According to the British newspaper News of the World, Davy, the daughter of a millionaire safari operator, made the decision to break up after tiring of the prince’s playboy antics.

The pair met through mutual friends in 2004 and conducted a long-distance relationship for three years while Davy studied at a university in Cape Town, South Africa, and Harry was enrolled at Britain’s Sandhurst military academy.

Last week, Harry – who recently came under fire for uttering racist comments caught on videotape – began a new phase of his military career, a 2½-year course with the Army Air Corps in helicopter pilot training.

Inaugural PDA for J.Lo & Marc

J.Lo arrives at the Latino Inaugural Ball — with her wedding ring. (©AP) More photos

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony’s supposed marital woes are currently topping the tabloids, but they put on their shiny, happy faces as they hit the Latino Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C., on Sunday night. The rumor-plagued pair, whose little-seen twins Max and Emme will celebrate their first birthday next month, even shared a public smooch during Paulina Rubio’s performance, says Politico.com. The Jiffy Pop-coiffed, electric blue gown-clad Mrs. Anthony cemented this latest show of togetherness by deciding to wear her massive engagement ring. You’ll recall that Lopez was once again sans sparkler when she turned up at the Golden Globes last week in an unforgiving gold gown, her hollow-cheeked husband on her arm, although she insists the bauble’s absence was an aesthetic, not an emotional, decision. “Every time I’m not wearing my ring, people think I’m getting divorced. That’s crazy!” she assures In Touch. “It just didn’t go with the dress.” And sure, you could argue that love and commitment go with everything, but J.Lo says all is well in their four-year union. “Divorce is not — and was never — an option,” proclaims the twice-divorced star. Still, that apparently doesn’t mean it’s all been smooth sailing. “You have two really strong-willed people who are passionate and butt heads,” a source blabs to the tabloid. “They fight so terribly, but then they make up and are happy again.” Star echoes the tiff claims and adds a few troubling details. “They love hard; they fight hard — and sometimes that has led to pushing and shoving,” alleges a source. “They throw things and scream and just go bananas. It’s been war in their house!”

Amanda Bynes and Doug Reinhardt Split

Amanda Bynes and baseball player Doug Reinhardt have called it quits on their relationship.

Bynes’s rep Melissa Raubvogel tells PEOPLE exclusively, “I can confirm that Amanda broke up with Doug.”

Last week, Bynes, 22, was visibly upset while at the GBK gifting suite in Los Angeles and was telling people they had broken up, according to a source.

But it might have been a rough patch, since the pair was spotted hand-in-hand Tuesday night when they popped into Swingers in L.A. for a late-night bite. “They looked really happy,” a witness said.

Separate Parties

On Wednesday night, the couple partied at separate hot spots. Bynes was seen at Guy’s Lounge with some girlfriends and a unidentified guy who never left her side, a witness said. Reinhardt, who is a Hills regular, was seen dancing with a bevy of ladies at Crown Bar, and even kissed one of them.

A source close to Reinhardt said, “Doug is so over being with her.”

But a source close to Bynes tells a different story, saying that on Thursday morning, Bynes went to his house and demanded her stuff. “[She] stormed out saying it was over and she was done,” says the source.

Inside the Obama Marriage

 

He thinks she’s strong yet vulnerable and mysterious. She thinks he’s smart, exotic and hot!

In the Jan 26. issue of Star — on sale now — we have an intimate peek behind closed doors at the tenderness, the conflict — and how America’s new First Couple make it work.

It wasn’t exactly love at first sight for Barack and Michelle Obama. When the attractive young Harvard Law student strolled into her Chicago law firm in 1989 to work for the summer, the whole office buzzed about his charm, intelligence and good looks — everyone, except Michelle. “I’m more of a skeptical kind,” she later confessed. “I was thinking, ‘Yeah, he’s probably an idiot.’”

But their work relationship soon blossomed into a friendship, and then “it just took off from there,” says Michelle.

But 16 years of marriage hasn’t been without bumps. Barack and Michelle have clashed over many things, including finding a new school for daughters Malia and Sasha. According to an insider, “He thought public school would be a far better way to go, but Michelle is the boss. She put her foot down, and now the girls are at the private Sidwell Friends School.”

When it comes to the girls, their parents don’t always see eye to eye. The insider reveals that Michelle worries that with Barack as President, Malia and Sasha will be thrust into the public spotlight. He, meanwhile, is concerned that Michelle spends too much dolling the girls up in fancy dresses. “He doesn’t want them looking like little princesses.”

And he feels the same about his wife. The fashion plate First Lady is often compared to the iconic Jacqueline Kennedy, and in order to live up to that high standard, she’s been spending a lot of money on designer clothes, says the insider. Just before the inauguration, she came home to their suite at The Hay-Adams hotel in Washington with loads of new purchases, including a very expensive pearl necklace — and Barack hit the roof!

“He was stunned at how much she had spent,” says the insider.

Lisa Bonet Gives Baby No. 3 Unique Name

Lisa Bonet and her Hawaiian born boyfriend Jason Momoa welcomed their second child together and named him Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa.

Try saying that three times fast!

The baby announcement was made by Jason’s mother on the forum of his Web site. She noted that the baby arrived during the first half of December on “the stormiest, rainiest night.” As for the decidedly unique name, the grandmother explained that Nakoa means “warrior,” while Mana refers to “strength/spirit,” and Kaua — “rain” — and po — “dark” — refer to the weather conditions when he was born. The second middle name, Namakaeha, is the same as Jason’s.

Lisa, who’s appearing in Life on Mars, and Jason, of Stargate Atlantis fame, already have a daughter, Lola Iolani, 17 months. The actress’ daughter with Lenny Kravitz, Zoe, is 20.

Unique names seem par for the course for the one-time Cosby Show star. Back in 1993 she legally changed her name to Lilakoi Moon, though she continues to go by Lisa Bonet professionally.

What do you think of the name Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha? Better or worse than Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz’s son Bronx Mowgli? Talk back.

It’s a Girl for Jennifer Garner & Ben Affleck!

 

Jennifer Garner and husband Ben Affleck have welcomed their second daughter, PEOPLE confirms exclusively.

The actress’s rep says: “Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck gave birth to a healthy baby girl.”

The baby was born Tuesday in Los Angeles. No other details were immediately available.

Garner and Affleck, both 36, are also parents to daughter Violet, 3.

In the weeks leading up to the birth, Garner, stayed close to home, picking up Violet from preschool and even treating herself to a mani-pedi.

Just days before giving birth, Garner was spotted with Violet at the Farmer’s Market in Pacific Palisades and grabbing a decaf coffee at Caffe Luxxe in Santa Monica with a girlfriend.

Former Alias costar and close friend Victor Garber says the actress needs no help in the mommy department.

“It’s her second child,” Garber told PEOPLE. “She knows what to do. She’s probably the best mother I’ve

Kendra Turns Conservative Since Engagement

 

Bridget Marquardt may have lived in the Playboy Mansion with Kendra Wilkinson, but she hardly recognizes her former housemate – and The Girls Next Door castmate – anymore. And that’s not a bad thing.

“She’s doing amazing, she’s so in love,” Marquardt, 35, said of Wilkinson, 23, who recently became engaged to NFL player Hank Baskett. “She’s changed so much. She’s not even the same person. I mean, she is the same, but she’s different. I love the old Kendra and I love the new Kendra.”

What is the “new Kendra”? “She’s a lot more timely. She doesn’t flash anymore. She’s a lot more conservative. She’s so in love,” Marquardt tells PEOPLE.

Bridesmaids, All

Like her other housemate Holly Madison, Marquardt will be a bridesmaid at Wilkinson’s wedding at the Playboy Mansion.

While her costars both appear to have found love – Madison is dating Criss Angel – Marquardt remains reticent about discussing her own love life.

“I’m just really happy for Holly. She’s happy and in love,” she says. “And Kendra has found love with a great guy. Hank is the perfect gentleman.”

The Girls Next Door’s Kendra Wilkinson Engaged to NFL Star

Kendra Wilkinson of The Girls Next Door is engaged to football star Hank Baskett, according to her ex-boyfriend Hugh Hefner, who plans to give her away at a ceremony at the Playboy Mansion.

“[She] has met someone who she would like to spend the rest of her life with,” Hefner said in a statement on Thursday.

The Playboy mogul says Baskett, a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, proposed to Wilkinson on Saturday.

“I have given her my blessing and will be giving her away at a very special wedding ceremony at the Playboy Mansion this coming June,” the statement adds.

Wilkinson isn’t the only Girl Next Door finding love outside the Playboy Mansion. Costar Holly Madison, also one of Hefner’s former girlfriends, recently stepped out with magician Criss Angel.

The engagement was first reported by E! Online.