It should come as no surprise to learn that Rihanna's recent (15/2/13 - 17/2/13) trip to London, UK to launch her Spring/Summer clothing line for River Island had very little to do with the Autumn/Winter (2013) shows at London Fashion Week (LFW). Instead it was supposed to serve as a test run for Rihanna's forthcoming "Diamonds" music tour. That is to say it provided an opportunity for any problems to be unidentified and possible solutions discussed.
The main issue
for the tour is going to be Rihanna's travel plans and transfer between
different nation states. This is important because it allows us to know under
exactly whose jurisdiction Rihanna is operating at any given point. It will
also impact on the spread of rumours such as Rihanna having to cancel her say
Belgium concert because she's been locked up in say a Cambodian psychiatric
facility. The official announcement from the US (asteroid 2012 DA14) of
Rihanna's departure from the US was out by a margin of around five hours. There
was no official announcement on Rihanna's arrival in the UK. The official US
announcement of Rihanna's departure from the UK (Danica Patrick's Daytona 500
pole position) was out by a margin of some two hours. There was no official
announcement of her return to the US.
For her part -
under some pressure - Rihanna did eventually take to Twitter to announce her
departure from the US. However there was no announcement of her arrival in the
UK or her departure from the UK. She did though make a confirmation of her
arrival back in the US. However this was done in such a heavily coded manner
unless you were really paying attention this would have caused more problems
then it solved. The normal method of reporting Rihanna transferring between
nation states (airport paparazzi pictures) took place as she left the US but
stopped immediately after. This seemed fair because that reporting method is
always delayed by several hours, requires people to expose intelligence
networks and can disappear entirely when private jets are being used at small
airports.
A simpler
solution would be to post photographs of airport signs after take off or
arrival at the hotel.
The other major
issue for the Diamonds tour will be whether Chris Brown intends to join
Rihanna. This is important because there are many people on this earth who will
quite happily kill Chris Brown. Up until now the US have been intending to have
fun with this by using Chris Brown's security as an issue to put pressure on
nations hosting the Diamonds tour. However in some of the rougher nations such
as Turkey, Morocco and to some extent Poland it genuinely may not be up to the
state security services to decide if Brown lives or dies. Not least of the
reasons for this is that if I was currently working in US intelligence I'd be very seriously
considering putting together a kill team to solve the problem while
embarrassing the nation that hosted the actual killing.
For the London
trip Chris Brown's Twitter account was used to announce that he wouldn't be
joining Rihanna by confirming that he'd be appearing at a concert within the US
on the Friday (15/2/13) night. The main problem with this was that no mention
was made of Brown's plans for the Saturday and Sunday leaving open the
possibility that he could be then flying on to meet Rihanna in London. However if you'd stared closely enough at Jay-Z's face during the NBA Allstars weekender I'm sure you could have picked up clues.
The other major problem was that this method of announcing Brown's intentions also raised the big issue that Brown (or more accurately the Judge) will face at his next court appearance. Namely why he isn't being indicted on multiple counts of fraud and attempting to pervert the course of justice when on multiple occasions paper work has been filed claiming he was performing community service in west Virginia when he was actually being photographed and filmed appearing at industry events in front of thousands of witnesses hundreds of miles away (although I haven't seen the case papers). Rihanna's decision to bring Brown's 'spirit' to London by wearing his jacket on arrival was simply childish.
The other major problem was that this method of announcing Brown's intentions also raised the big issue that Brown (or more accurately the Judge) will face at his next court appearance. Namely why he isn't being indicted on multiple counts of fraud and attempting to pervert the course of justice when on multiple occasions paper work has been filed claiming he was performing community service in west Virginia when he was actually being photographed and filmed appearing at industry events in front of thousands of witnesses hundreds of miles away (although I haven't seen the case papers). Rihanna's decision to bring Brown's 'spirit' to London by wearing his jacket on arrival was simply childish.
A simpler
solution would be for Chris Brown to be put in prison or at least placed on
bail conditions that prevent him contacting Rihanna or leaving the US.
A very London
specific issue for the Diamonds tour is Rihanna's apparent friendship with the
British model Cara Delevinge. Despite only having been on the scene for less the
two years Ms Delevinge has already cemented a reputation for herself as a
British informant. That is to say co-operative organisations (in this case the
actual Royal Family through Prince Harry) have conspired to create a 'buzz'
around Ms Delevinge. This buzz means that she get invited to all the key industry
events and gets to meet all the key industry players. She then reports all the
gossip back to her handlers because there's nothing like a bit of blackmail to
make people co-operative. Hence the term "Rever/Reeva" (see
"Firefly" for details). Given Britain's very hostile attitude towards
Rihanna I would say this make Ms Delevinge a prime example of a phone number
Rihanna could afford to lose.
Also as Ms
Delevinge claims to be bisexual photographs of her cavorting with Rihanna and
more importantly her friend Melissa Forde only add to the questions about Ms
Forde's sexuality. I honestly don't care what the truth about those rumours are
but I know that the mere presence of these rumours will cause a lot of problems
for nations and people who do not share my liberal attitude towards homosexuality. It
will especially cause problems for people who are unable to tell if these
rumours are in-fact code for something else.
Therefore
serious questions have to be asked about Rihanna's decision to miss the
official launch party for her clothing line that was attended by people who
could support the product in favour of going on a tour of Soho sex shops and
nightclubs with Ms Delevinge. I appreciate through the heat generated by
the Oscar Pistorius story would have made it very difficult for Rihanna to
politely give Ms Delevinge the slip. However in her drunken state I think that
at one point Rihanna honestly thought she was getting the gossip on all the LFW
shows that Ms Delevinge was modelling at. At another point Rihanna thought she
was getting all the latest gossip on music industry rival Rita Ora who refers
to Ms Delevinge as "wifey." At another I think Rihanna genuinely
thought she was testing out if Ms Delevinge could give as good account of my
life as I could. I also think that at one point Rihanna was genuinely looking for tips to help her in her new career.
I hope Rihanna
got all the clues she was looking for. That's because you heard Monday's
(18/2/13) wonderful story about the Burberry show which featured items containing RFID tags which when
activated by a smart-phone tell the story of the object you would know the price
Rihanna has paid for that information is having a big target painted on her
back.
For their part
Rihanna's handlers in US intelligence were very keen to use the trip to raise
possible retaliations people could use in response to Rihanna's aggressive
behaviour.
So on the
Thursday (14/2/13) prior to the trip Rihanna used her Twitter/Instagram account
to treat us to a series of pictures clearly documenting her marijuana use. Funnily
enough it turns out that international border posts such airports are
specifically designed to catch people who are carrying illegal drugs such as
marijuana. Therefore arresting members of the Diamonds tour entourage or simply
subjecting them to enhanced searches could be one possible retaliation. The
photographs led to a conversation between River Island and Rihanna's
management. I believe that the gist of this was rather then worrying and
relying on the "Navy" Rihanna should source her drugs through the
local tour promoter. Or "Standard Practice" as it's known in the
entertainment industry.
On the Saturday
(16/2/13) Google (who have been under a lot of US pressure since Egypt) placed
age restrictions on Rihanna's "Diamonds" video on YouTube. This led
to her fans (The Navy) to mount a Twitter campaign to have the age restrictions
removed. This was designed to promote discussion about a possible media
blackout. That's because it's not hard for me to imagine a future where the BBC
or their equivalents simply do not play Rihanna songs or videos. The live
stream of the River Island catwalk show also kept kept cutting out with the
sound going on and off. This was supposed to raise speculation that the feed
was being hacked because it is possible to enforce a blackout on a media outlet
that does not comply willingly.
For their part
British intelligence made sure that Rihanna was accosted by a drunk fan on her
night out in Soho. While Rihanna herself has not commented on the incident I
believe the man threw a plastic bottle at her while shouting abuse about her
reunion with Chris Brown. This caused a drunk Rihanna to fall against a metal
shop shutter slightly cutting her right knee. Her body guard attempted to catch
the man but failed, falling and injuring himself in the process. The Brits were
hoping that this would be seen as them issuing a friendly warning to their US
counterparts that possible retaliations can quite easily go as far as physical
violence or worse and Rihanna's current security detail is clearly not up to
the job. However along with the Sunday Times article comparing Rihanna's
relationship with Chris Brown to Princess Diana's relationship with Prince
Charles this was really intended to make Rihanna's head spin. After all violent
confrontations always get the adrenaline pumping and this particular one touched
on whether Rihanna actually enjoys getting beaten up and the incident in
Barbados over Christmas with the interloper. However I don't think the point
the Brits were trying to make is that when incidents like that happen I'm
exactly the person you want at the other end of a phone.
So having
considered all these factors I would have to class Rihanna's trip to London as
a massive failure. It was of course a marked and great improvement on the 777
Tour but it was a massive failure none the less.
Also, obviously
Rihanna decided that she didn't want to meet up with me while she was in my
home town. This is a problem because if she continues to refuse to co-operate
with me my job will become so difficult that it may become impossible.
Fortunately - and perhaps fearful for their brand - River Island have once again attempted to move the heaven and earth required to bring Rihanna back to London to meet me at the retail launch of her collection. It was this that got the age restriction on the "Stay" video lifted although the US tried to cover it with the current LA shooting, However if she wants to enter that particular competition I'm sure she knows the US number she's got to ring.
21:50 on 19/2/13.
Edited at 22:25 on 19/2/13.
Edited at 22:25 on 19/2/13.
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