Wrigley suspends Chris Brown over Rihanna row

More details have emerged about the arrest of the American R&B star Chris Brown. As reported here yesterday, he and his singer girlfriend Rihanna (pictured) missed scheduled performances at the Grammys ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday after Brown was charged with attacking a woman after a party in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Although 19-year-old Brown's camp have yet to comment on the incident, a police source quoted by the Los Angeles Times claims that Rihanna, 20, was the victim of the alleged assault. TMZ, the showbusiness website, claims that it has seen photographs that show Rihanna with "major contusions" on both sides of her face with "serious swelling and bruising. It also claims that the attack, which is said to have taken place in Brown's rented silver Lamborghini, left Rihanna with "bite marks on one of her arms and on several fingers".

The celebrity website Radaronline quotes an unidentified eyewitness who claims to have seen Rihanna being treated at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. "Rihanna was clearly very upset by what happened and I could hear her screaming. Rihanna was trying to get her point across about something. She sounded like she was crying," the source told the website.

Los Angeles prosecutors are still said to considering whether to formally charge Brown, who was released on $50,000 bail on Sunday. If convicted of assault, he could reportedly face up to three years in prison.

Brown, whose eponymously-named debut album sold over two million copies in the US and enjoyed a squeaky-clean image in the music business, is already suffering from the bad publicity. Yesterday, Wrigley, the chewing gum manufacturer, announced that they were suspending a Doublemint commercial featuring the singer, pending the outcome of the police investigation.

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