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By: BLENDER Magazine

Super Fly

Its no secret to ex-boyfriend Nick Cannon or anyone else in R&B rising star Christina Milian has all the tools to give the Beyonces of the world a run for their money.

Uh-oh, these could get me in big trouble, Christina Milian says, sampling a citrus-flavored Blood and Sand, signature cocktail of L.A.s Dresden Restaurant Ill be like, Oh, this is so good! she coos with eyelash-fluttering innocence. How did it get so hot in here? She mimes discarding a garment. How did this come off?

This most celebrated of alcohols side effects would be extra-appreciated in the case of the 24-year-old Milian, one of the more enthusiastically ogled females in the R&B/Hollywood nexus. Shes like a Frappuccino with hips, Nick Cannons character said, appraising the five-foot-two Latinas entrance in the 2003 film Love Dont Cost a Thing. The two dated soon after Shes a lovely little sunflower, Outkasts Andre 3000 told a reporter in 2005. A dandelion. And as for Usher, the prospect of a soaking-wet Milian was reason enough to ruin his perfectly good cashmere sweater when she arrived at the Versace mansion for Jermaine Dupris pre-party for the MTV Video Music Awards. He came up to me and Im wearing a white dress, she says. Made from cotton, by the way! She laughs. And he says, Lets get in the pool! Everyone was like, He wasnt trying to get in the pool until you got here! Yet into the pool she was Ushered, both of them fully clothed.

Tonights hang is significantly lower-key than the Versace mansion, although it has its own muted surrealism. Since Milian is aready a showbiz vet with some 15 years in the game, Blender figured she might appreciate a real quality act like the Dresdens star attraction, Marty and Elayne a piano-and-drum couple with some 120 years between them, who were apparently beamed up from some Borscht Belt hotel and deposited before the dazzled hipsters of Los Feliz. Resplendent in chest hair and gold chain, Neil Diamond ish Marty sits behind the kit singing and cutting up. On Ive Got You Under My Skin, he substitutes dermis for skin. After his wife sings Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl, he interjects, She was a hooker!

A proud Cuban American, Milian sits grooving to Barry Manilows Latin-flavored Copacabana as she leans back at our table, Gucci heels resting on the seat before her. The fourth button on her tight white shirt is straining mightily, her gold hoop earrings are blinging tastefully and her blonde hair, caramel complexion and sweet oval face suggest a more petite, Muppet-baby Beyonc.

A hip-hop demi-star since she appeared on Ja Rules 2000 hit Between Me and You, Milians own tastes are a bit streetier than most of the Marty and Elayne songbook. Her upcoming album, So Amazin , features Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne. Her cellphone ring features Three 6 Mafia. But at Blenders suggestion, she jots down some more traditional requests on a napkin to pass to Marty and Elayne: Diana Ross, Duke Ellington, Bennie and the Jets. Whaddya, writing a book? says Marty when he gets her napkin.

At this, Milian considers requesting DMXs Get at Me Dog something she occasionally yells to her Chihuahua. Blender informs her the duo is actually more influenced by The Ying Yang Twins.

Oh yeah, Milian deadpans, nodding to the bossa nova. I can hear that. As she sips, Milian studies these two sexagenarian OGs holding it down with How High the Moon. In matching black cabana wear, the bushy-haired Marty teases the ride cymbal rat-packishly while the sheet-white, heavily-mascaraed Elayne sways behind the piano like a bebop Miss Havisham. While a bit ghastly, the sight is also pretty inspiring. Itd be so great, says Milian, sighing, to be that age and still have people come out to see you perform.

Like Britney, Fergie and the other Christina, Milian is among todays class of kids cable veterans tasked with transitioning from spunky tween to sexy grown up woman- an act thats surprisingly hard to nail without going off the deep end. In fact the deep end might fairly be characterized by Milians last video for her 2004 song Dip It Low.

In it, the former Disney Channel star rolled around semi-naked in black paint singing a stripper-worthy instructional on holding male attention, straying beyond sexy and perilously close to skeezy. It was pretty extreme Milian acknowledges. I felt pretty risqu with that, and I loved it, but thats probably where the line gets drawn. Theres a part of me sometimes that has to stop myself or have my mom [and manager] stop me from going to the extreme. Im comfortable with my body and in my skin so sometimes I might pick something to wear that I probably shouldnt wear.

Now Milian is preparing for yet another repositioning, this time under the guidance of new Def Jam mastermind L.A. Reid. When the man who rehabilitated Mariah Carey from TRL meltdown to multiplatinum respectability says jump, you jump. And L.As plan for Milian was to roll back the sexiness. He was like OK, we need to tone it down. Milian reports You need to relate to the average girl, thats something I want to do

This will probably be easier for Milian given her last year or so. While plenty bouncy and fun Milians earlier records were nevre terribly emotionally charged. This changed as of 2005.

First Milian went to shoot the new Wes Craven thriller Pulse in Romania- a locale that proved trying. I can adjust to any culture, she says over a beet salad at an LA restaurant. But there is a lot to deal with there. In addition to shrill levels of ethnic hostility Black! Black! one wag yelled to her outside a mall- Milian encountered particularly gangsta gypsies. This one lady threw a baby at me! she reports. A real baby, and when you catch it the other kids swoop in to take your wallet.

But the real horror began when a series of urgent phone calls suggested problems with her long-term boyfriend, the fresh-faced urban dreamboat and fellow former child star Nick Cannon

My friends started calling saying Um. Are you guys still together? she says. All the time we were together I heard nothing, no rumours, no gossip, and then all of a sudden Im in Romania and I start hearing stuff Isolation, suspicion, and too much time on her hands culminated in an act Milian now speaks of with shame.

I did something no woman should do, she begins. But sometimes youre entitled to and I think a lot of women do it, but this is my first time doing it, and OK, she says, taking a deep breath, I found out the pass code to his Sidekick. Laughing, she claps her hands and falls to the side.

Needless to say, the messages she found cast grave doubts over the fidelity of Mr. Cannon- a discovery Milian kept to herself until she returned to the States two months later. The confrontation was brisk, the break-up quick and the outcome surprisingly productive. Heartbroken, Milian delved right into her new record with Miami based hip-hop producers Cool & Dre, best known for helming the Games Hate it or love it. Among the first songs she wrote was Whos gonna ride, whos theme is well represented by its opening line: I aint one to cuss, but fuck you. Among its other declarations is the statement Them Evas and them Vidas they cant add up to me which is a sure mathematical certainty.

Unlike many child-stars-turned-MTV-hotties, Milian has a disarmingly down-to-earth vibe in person- perhaps the humility of someone whos taken a few knocks in her decade and a half in showbiz. Growing up in New Jersey and Maryland, Milian got started singing in a local musical and doing commercials when she was 9. In her teens she portrayed a junior journalist on the Disney TV series Movie Surfers, and ant in A Bugs life, and a band dork in American Pie. IN the beginning of the movie you can see me and I look hideous, she says of this last role. It was in the middle of my chubby phase and I had lopsided pigtails with overalls on, no make up and Im trying to play an instrument backwards or something stupid. Her ugly-duckling transformation occurred with Love dont cost a thing, in which she played a high school hottie to Nick Cannons swain- and started their real life relationship.

Throughout this period Milian was also immersed in music, her earliest inspiration being none other than Miss Wardrobe Malfunction herself Janet Jackson. The Janet Album, she rhapsodizes. I had it memorized from top to bottom. I thought I was hot, too, cause they used to call me Little Janet so I thought I was all sexy, she laughs. When at 18 she actually met her idol at an MTV appearance, Milian says I literally couldnt get a word out of my mouth. All I was thinking was Dont cry and the second she walked out the door, I cried like a baby. At MTV!

Milian bounced back from this minor humiliation, along with tougher breaks like having her party-hearty self-titled debut scheduled the week Aaliyah died, which was promptly followed by 9/11. Nine-Eleven is what sent me overseas, Milian says, Europe being judged a more receptive and safer environment for her albums release in the early months of the War on Terror. Thus was 2004s Its about time her first US-released album and dip it low her first US hit, despite a strong, five-year industry track record that began with penning the song Play for J.Lo.

For her third album, Milian worked in Miami, an experience that proved crucial for rebounding from her break-up and unlocking her creativity. Working in Miami, she begins, chuckling I cant front, I had a greeeeat time. After my break-up I thought I was never gonna date anybody for the longest time. But next thing you know youre in Miami, out on the beach, going out- I had a great time.

Which seems like a good opening to ask her to confirm rumours shes currently dating her producer Dre, aka Andre Lyon. She smiles and looks at Blender Who said that? she says. Whered you hear that? Thats so funny, now Im gonna probe you.

After some nervous laughter- mostly from Blender- Milian says OK, one thing I can definitely say: hes a really cool guy. She laughs wickedly. Cool & Dre were there for me when everything went wrong [with Nick]. Theyd say Write whatever you feel dont be afraid. Ive always been a little scared to let people into my personal life, but I as finally like Screw it, lets go for it.

In going for it, Milian seem to have settled happily into a post-Cannon and post-Disney life. She shares a spacious house with her mom and sister in the San Fernando Valley. (I never got caught up in the whole Hollywood thing: I dont like going out) And while she still fields marriage proposals from various rappers, actors and pro-athletes- including a box of 50 teddy bears from an amorous NFL star shed never met, with a request to fly out and see him- shes faithful to the men in her life. Within limits obviously.

I have the Brad Pitt clause, she explains. When I date a guy, its in the contract: If Brad comes around- she throws her hands up helplessly. I mean Ill be back but im gonna give him some attention. [Blender]

END OF INTERVIEW

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