Operation Misery: Day 5.

Rather proving my point about the actual concerts being something of an after thought Rihanna has not performed since Friday (8/3/13) in Buffalo, NY state but that doesn't mean there hasn't been drama.

On Monday (11/3/13) photographs of Rihanna from a photoshoot taken by her friend Melissa Forde were released. This photoshoot supposedly took place over the weekend (9-10/3/13) and this claim was supported by postings made by Forde on her Instagram account. However if you look at the exterior shots they were clearly not taken in either Buffalo on Boston. Also Rihanna certainly doesn't look unwell in any of the pictures. So apart from the question marks about Forde's sexuality that accompany any pictures she takes of Rihanna the release of these photographs is supposed to fuel speculation that rather then cancelling Sunday's (10/3/13) concert in Boston due to illness Rihanna simply blew off the concert to go and have some fun with her friends instead. If I'd paid money to see Rihanna in concert in Boston this would p*ss me off.

However I suspect the photoshoot actually took place a few weeks ago between the Grammys and the London Fashion Week trip. The timing of the release is simply an effort to pour gasoline on the tense wait to see if Rihanna will actually turn up for her Baltimore concert tonight. Of course there is also a hope that people will now expose their intelligence gathering networks trying to find out Rihanna's whereabouts over the weekend.

Also in one of the shots Rihanna is seen modelling a t-shirt being sold by UK retailer TK-Maxx in support of the Comic Relief charity. As an off-shoot of the Live Aid movement set up to tackle the 1985 Ethiopian famine Comic Relief is held in incredibly high esteem in international development circles because not only has it raised hundreds of millions of dollars to aid development across Africa it really invented the concept of private charities being involved in international development. Therefore Rihanna is clearly taking part to be seen as a supporter of the cause. However the damage her Diamonds tour is going to do to developing nations especially ones in Africa means that it's going to take more then one photograph of her wearing one t-shirt to save her reputation.

The specific t-shirt Rihanna wears features Marilyn Monroe being made to look stupid with comedy glasses and a comedy rednose photoshopped on. Rihanna frequently describes herself as the Marilyn Monroe to Chris Brown's James Dean. Considering that Monroe and Dean never actually met let alone dated that's a really stupid comparison. By appearing in a not exactly flattering t-shirt of Monroe Rihanna once again appears to be showing that she has problems realising when she's being taken for a fool.

Also yesterday a website published what is alleged to be stolen financial information relating to a number of famous Americans including Beyonce, Jay-Z and Kim Kardashian who are all part of Rihanna's wider social circle. The list also included former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, current Vice-President Joe Biden along the heads of the FBI and the Los Angles police force. The website claims to be based in Russia however those things are easy to fake. Therefore the website appears to be a US effort to find out if anyone's bothered to look at the financial relationship between say Jay-Z and the chief of LA police. This is a test to find out if anyone believes in the fantasy about Chris Brown being kept out of prison due to some local corruption in LA.

In slightly better news fashion Givenchy have released their sketches and explanatory notes about the outfits they designed for the Intro segment of Rihanna's concert. This was a clear effort by the fashion house to diplomatically raise the issue of proselytising with the Moroccan authorities before Rihanna's concert in the nation. Sadly Rihanna's people do not seem to have released similar information relating to the set design. That design features stained glass windows which are a common feature in Christian Church design. However stained glass windows are not exclusively used in Churches and are more something that may contain religious imagery rather then being religious imagery themselves. However I'm sure the Moroccan authorities would prefer to have these issues raised by Rihanna's people in advance rather then by some Salafi group raising it by running riot of setting off bombs at the time.

Finally the rash of gig cancellations that followed the cancellation of Rihanna's Boston concert each have their own purpose. For example the UK Queens cancellation was an attempt to disavow the Falkland Island's referendum which I'll cover in more detail later. However the over-riding message of all of them was to remind Rihanna's team that their play was considered weak.


(Originally Posted) 14:30 on 12/3/13.