Fan Fare

Rihanna inks new look

Rihanna  is not the kind of starlet who wants a cute butterfly tattoo on her ankle. The “Disturbia” singer has gotten attention for her choice of body ink before, and recently had a gun tattooed on her rib cage.

Now, Rihanna is back with another flashy piece of body art. OK! magazine this week posted photos on its website of the singer with her new tattoo which reads “Never a failure, Always a lesson.” Rihanna has inked the phrase under her right collarbone, written backward.

The 21-year-old Rihanna reportedly wanted the phrase, which is a personal motto of hers, written backward so that she can read it to herself when she looks in the mirror.

Now that Rihanna has moved on from her relationship with singer Chris Brown, who pleaded guilty in June to assaulting her, the Barbados-born singer seems to have her career back on track, releasing an album called “Rated R” that debuted at  No. 4 last month on the U.S. album charts.

Meanwhile, Brown’s album “Graffiti” came out on Tuesday,  to mixed reviews.

What do Fan Fare readers think of Rihanna’s new tattoo? What should be her next ink job?

Sharon Stone bares mostly all, again, on Paris Match cover

Actress Sharon Stone has something to say to her doubters, and she’s not afraid to let her bare breasts do the talking.

In cover photo for the French publication Paris Match that hit stands on Thursday, Stone poses topless wearing a black corset and high heels. The accompanying headline reads (in French): “I’m 50 years-old … so what?”

Well, that’s one way to grab the public’s interest. The Oscar-nominated Stone is actually 51, but with a cover photo like that, who cares?

The star of “Casino” and “Basic Instinct” (see below) has recently suffered some rough turbulence in the media. Last year many people were outraged at her comments about an 8.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred on May 12 in China and killed more than 80,000 people.  In response to a reporter’s question at a red carpet Cannes event, Stone said that in light of China’s harsh treatment of Tibet, the earthquake made her think, “is that karma? That when you’re not nice that bad things happen to you?”

Stone was roundly criticized after the statement, and she later told the New York Times, “Clearly, I sound like an idiot.” But she also insisted that her comment was taken out of context, and in fairness to Stone, in the controversial red carpet statement she immediately went on to say that she was reduced to tears when she found out a group called the Tibetan Foundation was working to help earthquake victims, and that it was a “big lesson” to her about service.

Stone going topless is in some ways a return to her Hollywood roots, because it was her extensive nudity and commanding performance as a seductress in the 1992 film “Basic Instinct” that made her a star. In an interview published in French with Paris Match to accompany the publication’s photos, Stone said “Is there an age when a person should forbid themselves from doing these kinds of things, from showing your body?”

“This is middle-age, it’s not the end of life!” she said. “If someone is shocked by these photos, it’s a reflection of their own view of life, and they should ask themselves why they have that attitude.”

Madonna’s biceps become a controversy

So, Madonna penned an article about Jewish mysticism for an Israeli newspaper, and that made some headlines on Wednesday.

But the online world was still buzzing about a photo of the Material Girl that a pair of British newspapers put on their websites on Tuesday, showing Madonna’s arms looking veiny and bulging, like the guns an arm wrestling champion might sport, or a veteran seaman.

The photo was shown here on the website of British publication The Daily Mirror, and here at the Telegraph. (The photos shown on this blog page are from Reuters, and neither one is the photo in question of Madonna, which appears to have been taken on the street in London)

Liz Rosenberg, a spokeswoman for Madonna, said in an email to Reuters that the “4 Minutes” singer has been the victim of some strong-armed photo altering.

“Madonna’s arms do not look like the photo that has been shown this past week in papers and the photograph was obviously altered or photoshopped in some way,” Rosenberg said. “Like Michelle Obama, Madonna has beautiful and very impressive arms.”

Michelle Obama, the U.S. first lady, was the subject of endless media reports earlier this year, after she posed sleeveless in a White House portrait.

The Mirror and the Telegraph continued showing the picture on their websites on Wednesday. MatrixPhotos, which is credited in the Telegraph piece as the agency that took the photo, did not return an email from Reuters seeking comment.