Rick Ross Says He Obviously Wasn't Rapping About Rape, Because He Didn't Specifically Call It 'Rape'

By Lindy West  |  March 29, 2013 | 12:00am
CelebritiesDirt Bag

Don’t worry, “beautiful, sexy ladies,” Rick Ross totally didn’t mean to imply that it would be awesome to drug and rape you when he rapped: “Put molly in her champagne, she ain’t even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.” What he meant to say was that no one should ever ever do that, because “woman is the most precious gift known to man.” And you can tell he wasn’t talking about rape because he didn’t say “rape.” Phew! Nailed it, Rick!

The outcry over the lyric had previously hit Twitter and Facebook, and nearly 700 people have signed the formal call to action. As a result, Ross addressed the matter in a radio interview with New Orleans radio station Q93.3. “I want to make sure this is clear, that woman is the most precious gift known to man. It was a misunderstanding with a lyric, a misinterpretation where the term rape wasn’t used.”
Actually, that doesn’t seem to address the issue at all, and neither did the rest of his statement. “I would never use the term rape in my records. As far as my camp, hip-hop don’t condone that. The streets don’t condone that. Nobody condones that…I just wanted to reach out to all the queens that are on my timeline and all the sexy ladies, the beautiful ladies that had been reaching out to me with the misunderstanding.”

Yes. No better way to fight sexual assault than to studiously avoid using the term “rape” when referring to circumstances that very clearly and specifically are rape. Thanks for your heroism, bro. [Spin]

Simon Cowell says he’s happy that ‘really, really annoying’ Demi Lovato is coming back to The X Factor.

Demi Lovato is returning to The X Factor for a second season and – even though they publicly butted heads on the show last year – Simon Cowell said he “couldn’t be happier.”
But the sharp-tongued Brit couldn’t resist poking fun at the 20-year-old singer, saying she is “really, really annoying.”
“I couldn’t be happier that Demi wants to come back this year,” Simon said after Fox made the announcement Thursday.
“She’s a superstar in her own right and was a fantastic mentor last year.
“Even though she can be really, really annoying – I truly enjoyed working with her and so did the artists.”

Oh, Scowelly. You and your Scowelly ways. [Radar]

Forbes says that Madonna isn’t on their Billionaires list because she isn’t a billionaire. She’s half of one, at best.

We estimated the singer’s net worth at $325 million six years ago. Since then, our wealth team has chronicled the scads of cash she’s earned via our Celeb 100 list, and while she’s earned a ton of money, the numbers don’t add up to anything near $1 billion. She earned $72 million in 2007, $40 million in 2008, $110 million in 2009 and $58 million in 2010. With no touring or new albums in 2011, she didn’t earn enough to make our list that year, then pulled in another $30 million through the first half of 2012.
Add it all up (plus whatever she earned in 2011–let’s call it $10 million) and you get $320 million. Lop off 35% for federal income taxes ($112 million), another 10% for state and local taxes ($32 million) and 20% for management, legal and agency fees ($64 million). That leaves $112 million before figuring in any expenses for housing, staff, travel or luxury goods.

Madonna has a lot of money. [Forbes]

Matt Lauer issued a bitchy “apology” to a former intern who said Lauer was “not so nice.”

On Tuesday, Matt Lauer tweeted a good-natured apology to a former Today intern after word spread like digital wildfire that the young man had said Lauer was “not so nice” when he worked at the NBC morning show.
“@MarkZinni huh?” Lauer wrote. “Always tried to be nice Mark. Sorry you didn’t think so. Hope you’re doing well. Matt.”
So, how did Lauer-and the Internet-get wind of Zinni’s comment?
In the wee hours Tuesday, Daren Sweeney, an executive producer at Fox 8 News in Cleveland (where Zinni now works on air), tweeted: “‘I was just a young kid with a bright future ahead of me,’ @markzinni talking about internship at @todayshow and ‘not so nice” @MLauer.”

“Good-natured.” Right. [E!]