Lil Bow Wow wades in on domestic violence

Lil Bow Wow is keen that people don't suddenly turn the horrible stories about Rihanna and Chris Brown into some sort of sideshow:

"I've been in a high profile relationship before and I know how it feels when everybody's in your business," he said. "It just puts more pressure. And the only way they're going to get over the situation is just to let them deal with it. And that's what I really want to do. I'm praying for them both.

"At the end of the day," he continued, "I've always believed in whatever happens with people's business ... my mom always told me don't get into [it]. And the situation is so major I think they just need their space and I think they need to deal with it."

Well, that's a wise and mature attitude, Mr. Wow. It might have been even more impressive had you not shared these thoughts with the US imprint of OK magazine.

After having had a bit of a rake over the situation:

"Just shocking," Bow Wow reportedly told the magazine. "I mean, we heard what happened but we really didn't get a visual for it. But I mean, hey, man. The picture speaks for itself."

The rapper, promoting his latest album, New Jack City II, said that when he first heard about the alleged incident, he was skeptical. "I mean, being in the business, the first thing is, 'Ah, it's false, another rumor, bloggers just wanting to have traffic to their site,' " he said. "But when the story was unfolding, it was kind of shocking to all. Chris is a good friend of mine. We've had the opportunity to tour together. And then Rihanna, she's just a beautiful person. Period. Never done no wrong to nobody."

Now, to be fair to Wow, it's MTV who have added the line "promoting his new album" in the middle of a paragraph where he's talking about a victim of an apparent domestic violence assault, but it does seem a little rich for a man who is out discoursing on his friends' troubles while promoting his record to take the moral high ground over bloggers seeking traffic for their site.

And that's by the by anyway: What the hell does he mean "we really didn't get a visual for it"? Is he suggesting that nobody should believe a woman has been beaten up unless they're paraded through the streets to satisfy our curiosity?