A Journal of Aggressive Living

Just when you thought things were cooling off in the Chris Brown/Rihanna saga, there has been yet another development.

The Chicago-Sun Times reports that Brown and his fellow pop superstar girlfriend, Rihanna, may have worked out an agreement, supposedly entitled “Project Mea Culpa.” The Latin phrase translates to “my fault,” often used when someone wants to take responsibility for something they’ve done wrong.
The agreement includes a promise by Brown to pay Rihanna $10 million dollars if another assault occurs, as well as a book deal and a joint TV appearance tour, obviously geared to repair Brown’s badly damaged public image.

On Friday, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bill Zwecker quoted a source close to Brown’s legal team who says, “Obviously this is a public relations campaign, but it only will work if there’s genuine healing, contrition and a path to preventing future problems. … It’s another example of trying to turn a bad situation into something good … where people can learn to change habits.”

It should be noted that Zwecker wrote a column in January saying that the Rihanna was “very vocal” about Brown being faithful on his European tour. And to ensure his fidelity, his sources say that she hired not only a female detective and one other person to make sure of it, but planned on making a few “surprise appearances” herself. So that could suggest that Zwecker’s connected, since jealously is at the root of the alleged February assault – or it could sound as speculative as the countless other rumors about the couple both before and after the incident.

What is known is that Brown will be back in court on Monday, April 6 to answer charges of felony assault and making criminal threats, also a felony. He has not been ordered to stay away from Rihanna, but has been ordered to not “harass, strike, threaten, assault (sexually or otherwise), follow, stalk, molest, destroy or damage personal or real property, disturb the peace, keep under surveillance, or block movements of” the Barbados native. She, in turn, is allowed to tape his telephone calls.

Rihanna has not made any additional public statements to date, but is said to have reconciled with the Virginia-born singer, although the report of the alleged beating taken by police on the night of the incident documents in detail the horrific beating she endured allegedly at his hands.

With a photo that supports Rihanna’s version of events leaked to the public via TMZ, as well as the jarring pictures taken of an apparently relaxed Brown jet-skiing while reconciling with Rihanna in Miami, is it possible that a “mea culpa” operation would even work?

Both parties involved have yet to appear in public to make any statement about the incident, either jointly or separately. Rihanna has mostly stayed out of sight, although she was photographed alone in Mexico and getting on a private plane from Miami with Brown. Sources on both sides say the two are back to work on their separate projects, but neither has announced any public appearances otherwise.

If blog posts are any indication, Brown is losing across the board with both black music and gossip sites, as well as mainstream site posts condemning him and his behavior. Once it was learned that Rihanna had reportedly returned to Brown, posters have increasingly responded more negatively to her as well. Could any joint press operation at this point be too little, too late?

“It could go either way,” says Chuck Creekmur, CEO and co-founder of the leading hip-hop website Allhiphop.com. “I think that the public is very suspicious of press stunts, and if this were to be an …..accurate report, it could very well undermine the actual importance of the issue at hand. It could play into the fact that all of this is simply for publicity. On the flip side, it could work if it’s sincere, if it’s honest, if it’s truly meant to be productive.”
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