Rihanna reminds me of a combo of Mr. T. and Prince. This look does one thing for sure… takes the focus off her hairstyle. Like seriously… who is this girl’s stylist? Here she is covered in necklaces adorned with silver crucifixes, keys, horseshoes and what looks like hands? while having a bite to eat at the Cafe Med at Sunset Plaza in West Hollywood.

She’s been in rehearsals getting ready for her performace at Sunday’s American Music Awards airing @ 8PM ET/PT on ABC.

Kanye West had this to say about her:

“Rihanna had a really breakout year and became the biggest artist. Like, Rihanna sells more records than me all together if you include her in national sales and she is arguably the biggest artist in the world right now.”

Rihanna looks lovely as she poses for photographers at the 2008 UNICEF Snowflake Lighting at Grand Army Plaza in New York City today.

Rihanna has partnered with UNICEF’s fight to save children worldwide and reduce the number of children dying from preventable causes from 25,000 to zero. It’s an organization that has saved more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization.

Says Caryl Stern, President and Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF:

“We are thrilled to have Rihanna take part in the lighting ceremony in New York City. She has tremendous enthusiasm for helping those in need and is the ideal person for spreading the UNICEF Snowflake’s message of hope, peace, and compassion for children around the world.”

Rihanna flipped the switch to illuminate the magnificent UNICEF Snowflake, which acknowledges the beginning of the gift-giving season across the world. The celebration included treating the crowd to a live performance by Ne-Yo!

Hilary Duff is pictured (one of the best dressed of the night in my opinion) here adding her star power to help celebrate MTV’s TRL “Total Finale Live” at the MTV studios in Times Square this past Sunday in New York City. She looks amazing.

Hilary talked a little bit about “Reach Out,” featured on her greatest-hits LP, Best of Hilary Duff. “Reach Out” sounds very similar to the Depeche Mode song, ‘Personal Jesus.’ MTV caught up with her backstage after her performance and she had this to say to them:

“It’s different for me. It’s a little dancey, and there’s a rapper named Prophet who’s on it who’s really cool and kinda fresh.”

It was announced a few days ago that Hilary just signed a development deal for a TV series on NBC so expect to see more of her on a regular basis!

Demi Lovato who is one of Entertainment Weekly’s 2008’s Breakout Stars is seen her striking a pose. She along with Robert Pattinson, Russell Brand, Estelle, Tristan Wilds, and David Cook were among the others who made the list.

Demi told EW that acting is something she is passionate since it stimulates her mind. She’ll always have a love of :“Music comes naturally, but acting is a mind challenge and I have a huge passion for it.”

Demi will show us if she has what it takes to be an actress when the Disney channel airs the new series, Sonny With a Chance, sometime in February of 2009. She most definitely is a talented singer, and perhaps a little bit of an undiscovered and unexplored talent for acting.

She needs time and the right projects to challenge herself with, and find out what inspires her. I’m not sure that Sonny with a Chance or PPP are those projects, but they are stepping stones in the right direction!

The Jonas Brothers taped the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade this morning at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.

Here they are greeting fans and posing with Donald Duck’s nephews — Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck!

You can catch the parade, which also features Miley Cyrus and Corbin Bleu, on Christmas, December 25th @ 10AM ET/PT on ABC.

The brothers also have a song called “Joyful Kings” on Target’s exclusive holiday CD, “All Wrapped Up”. It’s available in stores now.

Justin Timberlake took a few swings with the new FT-iQ Driver from Callaway Golf at Grand Central Terminal in New York City this afternoon.

Since he is now the new face of Callaway Golf he now gets to play a full complement of Callaway golf clubs, golf balls and will carry a bag branded with the Callaway logo.

Last night, Justin rocked the stage when he performed “4 Minutes (To Save The World)” with Madonna last night on her Sticky & Sweet Tour in Los Angeles.

Today he also was the surprise guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show which will be airing Tuesday, November 11th. Ellen has said on her show that JT is her musical crush so it should be a great show to watch.

Madonna has marital woes, and it also seems she has movie woes.

She released her “Filth and Wisdom” directorial debut three weeks ago and there was quite a bit of fanfare at New York’s IFC Center. She really hasn’t received any critical acclaim as an actress, but she did receive some positive reviews for directing this feature starring members of the group Gogol Bordello.

It now seems that New Yorkers aren’t really into it. So far, “Filth and Wisdom” has sold just over $18,000 in tickets since its release October 17th. What is ironic is that it’s not even playing in New York! The odd film played in just three theaters over the weekend: in Toronto, St. Louis, and Columbus, Ohio.

The three cinema showings this past weekend was down from 10 the week before.

Her soon to be ex hubby Guy Ritchie isn’t doing much better. His “RockNRolla” seems to be another box office bust for him. It’s only made $3 million since its release on October 8th. On Halloween, Warner Bros, increased its screens from 19 to 826. Not even that effort helped it along. On Sunday when the take for most movies is up, “RockNRolla” fell 28.7 percent.

She has a concert in L.A. tonight and supposedly Justin and Britney will be there to perform with her and there’s no doubt she’ll be getting great reviews for that.

Snoop Dogg and 3D of Massive Attack have done a collaboration that is now available on 3D of Massive Attack’s website. The song they recorded is titled ‘Calling Mumia’ and it will be appearing on the soundtrack of the film documentary ‘In Prison My Whole Life.’ The film follows the life of political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal who was charged with killing a police officer and sent to a U.S. prison.

In 2001, Jamal’s death sentence was overturned due to inconsistencies that surfaced during his trial.

In other Dogg news…

Dogg was granted a visa thanks to lobbying from the spin doctors at CPR, and he was in Flemington today as a guest of Lavazza. He also launched a sunglasses range by Arnette called Notorious at Revolver nightclub the other night which is a perfect venue given Dogg is on probation for gun offences.

Here is his rider request from the other night:

“A case of still mineral water at room temperature, six bottles of Moet White Star, a bottle of Grey Goose vodka, two bottles of Hennessy cognac, two packs of Hubba Bubba gum (watermelon), four packs of Vocalzone throat drops, cutlery (no plastic), a tray of chocolate brownies, video games, enough chicken strips for 20 people.

Adam Levine, held a private Halloween party for family and friends which was sponsored by EFFEN Vodka this past Friday night at his house in the Hollywood Hills.

He dressed up as Scottish knight William Wallace from Braveheart (originally played by Mel Gibson in the 1995 film).

Kirsten Dunst, dressed as Amelia Earhart and Adrian Grenier, dressed as a 1930’s pro golfer. Mischa Barton was wearing a huge cardboard Christmas tree cut-out costume with glowing green lights wrapped around her.

Not sure how he managed to swing a private party hosted by a vodka company, but it must be another one of those celebrity perks!

There’s just something about him I like.

Zac and Vanessa wowed their fans into a frenzy at a press conference in Mexico City last Thursday for their latest movie-musical High School Musical 3: Senior Year.

Vanessa wore a gorgeous purple slip dress from Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent. It’ll be available in stores next month if any of you are interested!

Zac was recently asked what was the highlight of his entire HSM experience was and his reply to CosmoGirl was:

“I think that one of the moments that we all look back on as pretty amazing was in the first movie, when we filmed “We’re All in This Together.” We were all in our elements in that moment. It was the time of our lives and that was the beginning of it all. Another standout moment for the whole cast — I know it was for me — was the finale of the third movie, the very last thing we shot. It was very surreal to look at how far we had come.”