Fri:22-08-2008

- Rihanna Is Broke!

$20 000 In Barbados-Beauty's Bank Account

Rihanna may need someone else's 'Umbrella' to stand under, since reports have broken that she is skint!

You'd think that with a chart smashing album and a slew of top selling singles, Cover Girl and Samsung endorsements, and an exhausting schedule of public appearances and concerts, Rihanna would be living the pimped-out high life!

But not so. Turns out Ri is worth a paltry $20 000, and when she found out she lost her shit!

The Barbados-born chart sensation and her manager Marc Jordon dismissed her business manager Patricia Williams after finding the minuscule sum in her bank account.  Ri and her manager have accused her of stealing, and in retaliation, Patricia ran to the media in an attempt to clear her name.

Patricia tells Blackarazzi.com, "It's not my fault that she only has $20,000 to her name. I'm a professional business manager, I have a staff of more than a dozen, I have worked for many high-profile actors, musicians and multi-million dollar corporations. Why would I steal from Rihanna? I showed her all the paperwork and tried to explain to her the circumstances but she wouldn't listen. She called me all sorts of horrible names and stormed off. I now feel compelled to share with the world the background story as I will not allow my name to be slandered".

She goes on to claim that Def Jam has failed to support the star properly - despite huge sales of her single 'Umbrella' and her third album 'Good Girl Gone Bad' - forcing Jordan to scrimp and save.

Williams adds, "Def Jam doesn't fund Rihanna properly, so Marc uses the money Rihanna makes from third-party endorsements and from tours to fund her album and music videos. I don't want to disrespect Marc's name. He is a fantastic manager and genuinely believes in Rihanna. But he uses her money to fund her future projects because he believes he can break her in the world market."

Williams states that Jordan, her publicist from well-respected public relations firm 42-West, has built a lot of hype around Rihanna's name but the singer has only made "a little bit above a million" and "all of it was spent on making her as big as she is now.

"'Take A Bow' was bought through her money, the video was created with her money and so is her most recent video and single 'Disturbia'. The label didn't even want to pay a dime for anything! Close to 750,000 was spent on those two songs alone. And now she expects to see money in her account?"
 
"Her album sales are not nearly as close to her single sales and he [Marc]knows that if she is only known as a singles artist she will only be as good as her last hit. Unfortunately, he didn't inform his client and I'm receiving the brunt of it."

Rihanna's single 'Umbrella' was number one on both sides of the Atlantic while her recent album 'Good Girl Gone Bad' has sold around 5 million copies worldwide.

She has also performed stadium tours across the US and Europe and signed lucrative sponsorship deals.  The Barbados born singer has had four back-to-back albums, including a re-release since her debut of "Pon De Replay" in 2005. We can understand why Rihanna's miffed, after years of slogging it out she hardly has enough to afford bling for her little finger!
 
Time to get an acting gig so the label can't scalp you anymore Ri, either that or sell a few more Umbrellas!

By Penelope Quinn

Catch more goss on our daily program "MTV News" by clicking through to Overdrive !