Rihanna and her “friend” Matt Kemp must be getting pretty serious! Word on the sidewalk is that RiRi flew all the way to Arizona from Berlin to be with Matt and his family at Matt’s “Ante Up for Autism” charity bash last weekend. This event meant a lot to Matt and the Kemps because Matt’s brother is autistic.

She had performed at the Echo Awards in Berlin on Thursday but then hopped on a plane shortly after. “Matt was happy she came,” says an inside source on Rihanna making it to the event.  “It was an awesome show of support.” Besides the other pro baseballers in the house Saturday evening, Kemp’s family also attended, and they met Rihanna for the first time. “Rihanna fit right in as if they all knew each other. It was comfortable.” The fundraising gala kicked off with Vegas-style gaming and cocktails, a live and a silent auction, followed by dinner and dancing. The second-annual event raised $170,000 with only 150 people in attendance.

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Up next for Rihanna is the Kids’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles at the end of this month (Sat. Mar 27), where she is set to perform but won’t be taking home any awards because she didn’t score any nominations.

Pop singer Rihanna took to the stage last Thursday night (Mar 4) at the 2010 Echo Awards at Messe Berlin in Germany, and performed her latest single “Rude Boy,” complete with sick lighting effects and big animatronic robots, which definitely added a bit of value to her performance.

She also walked the red carpet of the event in a futuristic Alexandre Vauthier bottle green jumpsuit, which, according to reports, comes from the designer’s Spring 2010 Haute Couture collection. The Bajan beauty paired the dress with nude Christian Louboutin pumps.

Check out 10+ pictures of Rihanna arriving and performing at the 2010 Echo Awards in Berlin, Germany below, and continue reading to peep a video of her “Rude Boy” performance!

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Pop singer Rihanna is currently over in Germany promoting her latest album Rated R, and she was spotted at the MediaMarkit home electronics store at Berlin’s Alexa shopping mall signing autographs and meeting with fans. Check out a few pics below…

In related news, her personal trainer Cindy Percival filed a lawsuit against her in L.A. County Superior Court last week, claiming she owes her over $26,000 from invoices dating back to 2009.

In the lawsuit, Cindy claims she was hired to perform “exclusive personal training services” for Rihanna for $1,500 per day — but never got a check for a couple of weeks of work between September and October. Cindy is also asking for $2,644.14 in travel expenses — because she claims she had to travel all over Europe to meet up with Rihanna … to make her bend, stretch, pump and sweat in person … which really should be payment enough. No comment from Rihanna’s people.

TMZ

We’re sure it’s something simple behind this like an accounting error or something. $26k is almost chump change to someone as rich as Rihanna…

Over the weekend, Thea Amena, mother to 6-year-old Jasmina Amena who died in January following a year-long battle with leukemia, allegedly put out a message on Twitter questioning pop singer Rihanna’s motives for being a part of the young child’s life.

“It has been a month since Jasmina’s passing. Still not even a card or text message from Rihanna. Did she use my child for a publicity stunt?”

After being re-tweeted a number of times and passed around through the media, the message was deleted and replaced with this Monday:

“Apparently there are some negative blogs out there. For the record, Rihanna has been nothing but really nice !!!”

Thea denied writing the original tweet herself, as stated in an e-mail she sent to People Magazine, but she said that she is indeed disappointed that Rihanna didn’t personally reach out to her or her family when Jasmina passed away on January 27th.

“Friends have helped me with all kinds of stuff and many know the passwords to my personal e-mail, the Caringbridge site and also Twitter,” Anema wrote. “Although I did not Tweet this particular one, I do wish that Rihanna had responded to me on Jasmina’s passing. It would have meant the world to me.” Still, Anema says she is grateful for everything Rihanna did for Jasmina.

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Wearing a stylish pair of sunglasses and bundled up for the cold weather, pop singer Rihanna and her best friend/personal assistant Melissa Ford were spotted arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport in the UK Wednesday (Feb 24). Check out a few pics of the BFFs walking through the airport below…

Meanwhile, when Rihanna’s new unconfirmed boyfriend Matt Kemp was asked about his relationship with Rihanna in a recent interview with Fox Sports’ Chris Myers and Steve Hartman, the LA Dodger said that the pair were only “friends” and they enjoy hanging out with each other and are just having a little fun.

Hartman: Did you buy [Rihanna] a diamond necklace?

Kemp: (laughter) Come on, guys. Y’all are killing me, man.

Myers: It’s his business … [but] Are you guys dating? Can you clarify that?

Kemp: That’s just a good friend of mine.

Myers: Oh, OK.

Kemp: A very very good friend of mine. And we enjoy hanging out with each other and we’re just having fun.

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Our friends over at That Grape Juice recently got the chance to interview R&B singer Monica and this is what she had to say about her first encounter with pop singer Rihanna.

TGJ: Who would you say have been the nicest and rudest celebrities you’ve met to date?

Monica: I was really surprised, Rihanna and I use the same makeup artist sometimes, and I called her phone the other day and I was talking to Myla and she said ‘Oh my God we’re listening to you’ and I said who, and I heard somebody with an accent say [does an accent] ‘who are you talking to, that can’t be Monica…. I love her, oh my God’ and we talked and it was heart-warming for one to see someone that’s a of a superstar status enjoy my music and is not afraid to say ‘look, I love your work, I love what you do, I love your voice’. I think it’s important for all of us to stay humble enough to pay respect to those who came before us in any way and that was very heart warming for me.

They also talked to Mo about her family, her new album and tons more. Definitely an interesting read. Continue reading for the full interview…

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Since her 21st birthday sucked, Rihanna’s new boyfriend “friend” Matt Kemp reportedly surprised the singer Saturday past (Feb 20) with a big party for her 22nd birthday in Phoenix, Arizona. Sources say the “Rude Boy” singer was shocked because she was only expecting a small, intimate get-together with a few friends.

Matt had been planning the shindig, which was attended by about 40 people, for about a month, and it was complete with champagne, a live chef … and a midget stripper. Yes, a little person gave Rihanna a strip tease! In addition, the LA Dodger gave his new girlfriend a custom diamond necklace. Nice!

There were flowers, Sprinkles cupcakes, tiki torches in the pool, engraved bottles of Ace of Spades champagne and Johnny Walker Blue, as well as a Jamaican chef who whipped up lots of appetizers for the crowd. Around 40 people showed up, including both Rihanna’s friends and some of Kemp’s baseball pals.

At one point, a little person billed as  Bridgette the Midget entered and danced around Rihanna to the strains of “So Hard.” Kemp brought out a cake decorated with the songstress’s various tattoos, while everyone sang “Happy Birthday.”

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Peep this behind the scenes video of the making of Rihanna’s newest music video, “Rude Boy.” Continue reading to watch Rihanna playing dress-up and messing around with fake animals in front of a green screen…

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During a short promotional stop in Sydney, Australia for her latest album Rated R, pop singer Rihanna did an impromptu photo shoot at the Intercontinental Hotel Sunday afternoon (Feb 14).

Rihanna also hit the stage on Ellen recently and performed her new single “Rude Boy,” which aired Monday (Feb 15). And it wasn’t too bad! Check it out after the cut…

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Ahead of a short promotional tour down under, pop singer Rihanna was spotted at the Sydney International Airport early Saturday morning (Feb 13) in Australia. She was presented with flowers and took the time to take a few pictures with her fans as she made her way through the airport. Check out more pics below…

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES / WIRE IMAGE