RIHANNA WRAPS up a rollercoaster year of up’s & down’s with her album, ‘Rated R.’

Rihanna has reportedly revealed that she wants “sex and good food” for Christmas. The 21-year-old pop-star has said that although the sex aspect of her wish may be “difficult” to attain, she can at least count on her mother to cook her a “really good” holiday meal.

“That’s not too much to ask, right? The sex might be a little difficult but my mum is coming to cook me some food,” joked Rihanna. “She does spicy stew called pepper pot. It sounds strange but it’s really, really good. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll be spending Christmas in Barbados or with my grandparents in New York.”

Rihanna has admitted that she felt humiliated when naked photographs of her appeared online. The pictures, which she sent to an ex-boyfriend, emerged on the Internet in May.

“If you don’t send your boyfriend naked pictures, I feel bad for him,” Rihanna said in a radio interview.

“I just felt like my whole privacy was taken before that and then, when that came out, I thought, ‘Oh great, so now there’s nothing they don’t know about me and my private life.’ It was humiliating and it was embarrassing – especially my mum having to see that.”

However, the singer added that her mother had offered her a lot of support, explaining: “It was two days before Mother’s Day, so I was nervous. I sent her flowers first before I called, and then she texted me – when the world is against me she’s always there supporting.

Rihanna also recently admitted that she is often reminded of her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.

‘Power Hits 4’: Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber & More!

Packed with more knockout hits, “Power Hits” is back for a fourth round. “Power Hits 4” is full of exciting combos of hit songs! “Power Hits 4” features teen-sensation and Usher protégé – Justin Bieber, multi-platinum award winners – The Black Eyed Peas, Grammy Award Winner – Mariah Carey, Electro-pop diva – Lady Gaga, and Country-pop star – Taylor Swift.

“Power Hits 4” also contains hits from recent Manila visitors – The Saturdays, Colbie Caillat and The Pussycat Dolls. Tween favorites Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato also provide their share of hits on this thrilling album. Rounding out the album are power-packed songs of up and coming acts like Paradiso Girls, LMFAO, Kid Cudi, Jeremih, and Pixie Lott.

This incredible release also contains a code and link that you can use to legally download extra tracks.

“Power Hits 4,” is available for P375, and is brought to you by MCA Music, Odyssey Music & Video, O Music & Video.

Boys Night  Out awards  100K Crocs Prize

One lucky guy by the name of Jeric Herrera recently took home 100,000 pesos as one of the winners of an ongoing online video competition put up by popular shoe brand Crocs.

The Crazy for Crocs Online Video Challenge is an innovative, YouTube-based contest that requires participants to create homemade videos of them performing a specific Crocs-related theme or task.

The contest involves weekly challenges with simple tasks such as lip-synching to a pop song and speaking with a funny accent, as well as bigger monthly challenges that aim to test the participants’ creativity to the hilt. Winners are decided through online voting, with the weekly champs winning a Canon PowerShot camera, and monthly winners winning P100,000.

For the first monthly challenge, participants were asked to deliver a live entertaining performance inside a Crocs store. Herrera, whose video featured him performing a rap song inside a Crocs outlet, emerged as the top vote-getter over a slew of other entries, making him the deserving recipient of the prize money.

At the awarding ceremony held at the Crocs Concept Store in Shangri-La Edsa Plaza Mall, Herrera was accompanied by two friends who helped him make the video, Gino Reyes and Rupert Cabrera.

They were all smiles as Franco Limjuco, VP of All Condition Gear Philippines, the exclusive distributor of Crocs in the country, handed them the P100,000 check.

“I really did not expect our video to win,” Herrera said in earnest. “There were a lot of very deserving entries, so it’s really surreal that ours turned out to be the winner.”

What makes Herrera’s win extra special is the fact that he and his friends decided to donate part of the money to the Typhoon Ondoy relief drive. “Our family was affected by the typhoon, so winning the money is really a blessing for us. I would like to share this blessing with others too. I also heard that Crocs also made a substantial contribution to the relief efforts, so kudos to them!” he said.

Those interested in checking out the winning videos or joining the competition may visit the official contest website, www.crazyforcrocs.com.

Tuesday is World AIDS Day

Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. The World AIDS Day theme for 2009 is “Universal Access and Human Rights.” World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.4 million people living with HIV, including 2.1 million children. During 2008 some 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus.1 Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.

A vast majority of people with HIV and AIDS live in lower- and middle-income countries. But HIV Monday is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.