When Ne-Yo found out about the allegations of violence between Chris Brown and Rihanna, he knew he couldn't get the story from a third party. Concerned for both his friends, the singer wanted to speak to them personally.

On Monday afternoon (February 23), a still-stunned Ne-Yo offered his thoughts.

"I wanted to talk to them before I made a comment," he said about the much-publicized incident that occurred several hours before the Grammy Awards on February 8. Brown turned himself in to police during the awards show and was booked on suspicion of making criminal threats and released. "I spoke to Rihanna. She says she's fine. She didn't go into detail about what happened. I understand it's a painful situation; I didn't push."

Like so many of Rihanna's fans, friends and family members, Ne-Yo said he was grief-stricken after viewing the recently leaked photo of a bruised and apparently battered Rihanna shortly after her altercation with Brown.

"I saw the picture," he said solemnly. "That just really — that hurt me to my heart, man. Again, I still don't know what happened, 'cause I haven't had the opportunity to talk to Chris yet. But to take it to that level really hurt my heart. All I can say is, I'm praying for both of them. They're both in my prayers. I haven't had a chance to talk to Chris yet. I just wanna sit down and talk to that dude and just explain if he doesn't understand: 'That's not something that's excusable, bruh. You have to get a little smarter about whatever it is going on in your relationship. You have to get a little smarter about how you handle certain situations.' "

Still, Ne-Yo refused to be Brown's judge and jury. "I'm not going to crucify him," Ne-Yo said. "I'm not going to do that. That's still my homeboy at the end of the day. For it to go to that level was wrong. I won't say who was responsible. I won't pick no sides. I'm just saying it was wrong [that] it had to happen like that, and I'm praying for the both of them."

Ne-Yo has had very close ties to Brown and Rihanna. In 2006, Brown and Ne-Yo co-headlined a tour that featured Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana. In 2005, Ne-Yo and Rihanna became two of the main pieces of the Def Jam puzzle when then-president Jay-Z had a hand in signing both acts. Ne-Yo penned his duet with Rihanna "I Hate That I Love You." via

Nicky Hilton made a citizen’s arrest over the weekend.

Perhaps even more interesting — it happened while Hilton was eating at an IHOP.

Access Hollywood has learned Hilton was leaving the International House of Pancakes on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, Calif., just before 5 a.m. on Saturday when Michael Broadhurst, 50, allegedly pushed her from behind.

While she wasn’t robbed or hurt, Hilton was extremely upset, authorities told Access.

A sheriff’s deputy inside the restaurant came out to check on what he referred to as a “commotion” and found Hilton placing the man under a “private person’s arrest.”

He and another deputy helped out, but authorities told Access that Paris’ kid sister had it all under control.

Broadhurst has been ordered to appear in court on April 21.

If it makes Hilton feel any better, if she returns to IHOP on Tuesday, she’ll get free breakfast – it’s National Pancake Day. via

Was it just me, or were the Oscars like the longest episode of "American Idol" ever? First, Ryan Seacrest interviewed all the contestants—oops, make that nominees—on the red carpet. Then, the stage was suspiciously similar to the circular "Idol" platform, and the live show began with a musical number from host Hugh Jackman. The first winner was announced by a panel, though unfortunately Paula Abdul wasn't on it. And at some point in the evening, Jackman appeared with Beyonce, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens to cover a strange assortment of Broadway tunes.

That latter number was awfully schizophrenic, and it only made sense when we learned that it was directed by the king of excess himself, Baz Luhrmann. The flashy, uneven choreography summed up the entire evening. This year was the Academy's biggest push to make the Oscars young and more relevant. Too bad they failed, even worse than when they tapped Jon Stewart as host. Throughout the telecast, my BlackBerry buzzed with messages from friends, all in their 20s, about how un-hip and un-young and unwatchable the Oscars felt.

It's not the Academy's fault the show was so predictable—nothing could stop "Slumdog Millionaire"'s unstoppable march to victory. At the same time, what the heck was going on onstage? It felt as though MTV executives tried to hatch a new Oscars, with two strange parents: the old Oscars and the Tonys. Needless to say, the result was a weird-looking baby.

Without further ado, let's get rid of the envelopes, please. Here are the eight strangest moments of the strangest Oscars of all time.

1. The Academy promised us this year that the show would finally come in at three hours, and it was only 30 minutes over. The problem is, it felt twice as long. For some crazy reason, the Academy did away with showing clips of all the acting nominees, even though it's a high point, a way of comparing the performances to each other. Instead, what we got was the ghosts of Christmas past.

Each acting category was announced not by one, not by two, not by three, not by four, but by five (five!) presenters. And they weren't just any presenters, but old winners in each category, some of whom seemingly haven't been seen in public for decades. So for Best Supporting Actress, we were treated to appearances by Whoopi Goldberg, Tilda Swinton, Goldie Hawn, Eva Marie Saint and Anjelica Huston. Having such different, and differently dressed, actresses all onstage at the same time eulogizing—because that's really what it felt like—the nominees was so distracting, it was hard to focus on the eventual winner, Penelope Cruz (who ended her speech in Spanish, completing the weird dream sequence).

2. The pairings of presenters are always weird, but nothing topped the weirdness of Jennifer Aniston appearing onstage with Jack Black, Angelina Jolie's "Kung Fu Panda" pal. Then, as if Aniston's this-isn't-awkward teleprompter reading wasn't awkward enough, the camera panned to her ex Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, looking up at Aniston, who had come to the Oscars with John Mayer.

3. Hugh Jackman is a pretty charming guy, but the material didn't live up to his talents as a host. His opening song number, where he re-enacted some of the nominated movies, felt like high school musical theater (except for the moment when he brought Anne Hathaway onstage for a "Frost/Nixon" routine). And the big Beyonce number really did seem to be stolen from "American Idol," with Efron, Hudgens and the kids nobody knows from "Mamma Mia" all crooning their hearts out.

4. Anybody who tuned in to the Oscars in the middle of the Best Song numbers might have thought they were watching the Bollywood channel by mistake. The Academy somehow nominated two songs from "Slumdog Millionaire"—instead of, you know, that one great song by Bruce Springsteen from "The Wrestler." Clumping the two together in a performance (along with a song from "Wall-E") didn't help distinguish them.

5. Usually, the montage of the dead is backed by sad instrumental music (and swells of applause). This year, it was backed by Queen Latifah in a full blue gown singing "I'll Be Seeing You." As if that weren't over-the-top enough, the stage had more TV screens than a Best Buy, and each set showed a different image. It was like trying to watch an amateur YouTube clip.

6. Remember criticism No. 1? Things got even stranger in the Best Actress category when Sophia Loren tried (the key word being "tried") to pay tribute to Meryl Streep. Streep's what-the-heck-are-you-saying reaction was priceless.

7. Were the people backstage who were in charge of making things happen onstage asleep? At one point, the curtain didn't open. And when Reese Witherspoon was talking about Best Director, the video clip started early, startling even her.

8. Why were there so many old movie clips spliced into the five clips for Best Picture? Given that so few people actually saw the movies nominated this year, how many viewers caught that "Lost in Translation" wasn't "The Reader"?

Still, I'd like to thank the Academy for at least one classic moment—when James Franco and Seth Rogen belted out "Mamma Mia" while watching their Academy screeners in a clever prerecorded video. Maybe they should host next year.via

FREIDA PINTO will follow her movie debut in Oscar-winning SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE with a role in legendary filmmaker WOODY ALLEN's next picture.

The 24-year-old was stunned when the Danny Boyle-directed film took home eight honours - including Best Picture and Best Director - at the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday.

And the young star has credited Boyle with helping her to catch the eye of three-time Oscar winner Allen, who's made huge stars out of young Hollywood actresses, including Scarlett Johansson.

Asked of the collaboration on U.S. morning news programme Today, she says: "Yes, it's up (begins) in July (09). So thank you, Danny Boyle, for helping me take off." via

IF an Oscar, two Golden Globes and a Bafta aren't enough for KATE WINSLET – she's now been bestowed with another honour.

HUGH HEFNER has offered the British actress a spot on the cover of Playboy with a nude spread inside.

If Kate takes Hugh up on his offer she would follow in the footsteps of MARILYN MONROE, SHARON STONE, PAMELA ANDERSON and fellow Oscar winner CHARLIZE THERON.

The 82-year-old Playboy boss told a newspaper: “There’s no question we would be interested in Kate.

“It’s a competitive market, more than it used to be, so she would be a most welcome addition in our pages.”

Kate has been filmed topless in many of her movies, including Academy Award victors The Reader and Titanic.

But she has vowed to never again appear naked on screen again, for fears of being typecast.

She said: “I don’t want to be known as that actress who gets her kit off.”

What better way for an Audrey Hepburn fan to ring in a birthday than to have breakfast at Tiffany's? That's exactly what Jennifer Love Hewitt did to mark turning 30 over the weekend.

The Ghost Whisperer star, who starred as her idol in the 2000 made for television biopic The Audrey Hepburn Story, dressed up like Hepburn's Breakfast at Tiffany's character, Holly Golightly, in a little black dress, long black gloves and a tiara on Saturday. She then had breakfast – a croissant and coffee – at Tiffany's in Beverly Hills.

"My mom worked that our for me," Hewitt told PEOPLE at The Envelope Please AIDS Project Los Angeles Oscar viewing party in West Hollywood on Sunday.

"It was amazing. I had a great day," Hewitt beamed, showing off a pair of Tiffany diamond stud earrings and a Tiffany diamond cuff bracelet that her mother, Pat Hewitt, gave to her as a birthday gift.

On Saturday evening, family and friends, including Ghost Whisperer costar Jamie Kennedy, all partook in the Hepburn theme at The Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills.

"The whole cast, we all went and all the women were Audrey Hepburn and all the guys were George Peppard," Kennedy tells PEOPLE. "I played it off by wearing a skinny tie." via

Miley Cyrus didn't get to meet her idol, Angelina Jolie, at the Oscars.

"I wanted to see Angelina, but I didn't get to see her," the Disney star told Usmagazine.com on the red carpet Sunday.

Earlier, the 16-year-old joked she wouldn't mind becoming a Jolie-Pitt.

"She's beautiful...she could, like, adopt me!" Cyrus told E!'s Ryan Seacrest.

So how did Cyrus -- who donned an ivory silk chiffon beaded Zuhair Murad ball gown -- prep for the Oscars?

"I didn't do anything out of the ordinary to get ready," she told Us. "I just loved my dress!"

Beyonce knowles Performing at 81st Academy Awards

Diane Lane - 81st Annual Academy Awards - Feb 22

Kate Beckinsale at 2009 Vanity Fair Oscar party 2/22/09

Salma Hayek at 2009 Vanity Fair Oscar party 2/22/09