Rihanna Delighted to Be Called “The New Princess Diana”

Rihanna has been called a lot of things, but "The New Princess Diana" is something she never predicted.  The cover of Britain's Sunday Times magazine features a picture of Rihanna's face melded with that of the late princess, along with the headline "Why Rihanna Is the New Diana," and Rihanna had quite a reaction when she saw it.

"Just so happens I came home drunk to this in a pile of papers outside my hotel room!" Rihanna tweeted, posting several shots of the British papers with the story about the comparison on the front page.  "My lil Bajan behind never thought these many people would even know my name, now it's next to Princess Diana's on the front of a newspaper! Life can be such a beautiful thing when you let it be #yourejealous :)"

She added, "When your face is pic-stitched to Princess Diana's on the cover of The Sunday Times.... I mean... #extraordinaRIHbehavior."

As for why Camille Paglia, the author of the Sunday Times article, compares the two, it's not entirely complimentary. It apparently has to do with each woman's ability to manipulate the world's media into getting out their messages.  They share a "ravishingly seductive flirtation" with the press, writes Paglia, adding that they both used every photo op to convey "allure, defiance or revenge."

"Both developed a false intimacy with photographers and the public and began to cannibalize themselves in their futile search for security in love," writes Paglia. "Diana, rebuffed, eventually accepted her exile. But Rihanna, in the classic syndrome of the battered woman, still pities and hopes to change and save her abuse