Emotional rescue...

Rihanna says recording songs on her new album was such an emotional experience that she sometimes had to leave the studio to prevent herself from breaking down. “I walked out the studio a few times just trying not to be in tears,” she said Monday about recording her fourth studio album, “Rated R,” to be released on Nov. 23.

“It was about me, and so much so that songs got really personal to the point where it took three months for me to start recording it because it was too deep for me to even listen to,” she said.

The CD comes nine months after the 21-year-old singing sensation was attacked by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. Rihanna said recording helped ease the pain— giving her an outlet to express how she truly felt.

Nailing the nomination...

Sonia Sotomayor heeded White House advice to paint her fingernails a neutral shade during her Supreme Court confirmation process—up to a point.

At a White House reception after her confirmation, Sotomayor showed her freshly painted red nails to President Obama, according to an article in the new issue of Latina magazine to be released Tuesday. Obama joked that Sotomayor had been briefed.

“Mr. President, you have no idea what you’ve unleashed,” Sotomayor replied, according to the article by her close friend Sandra Guzman.

While Obama was still deciding whom to nominate, Sotomayor wondered if the job was right for her. Just three weeks before the president announced his choice, Sotomayor confided to a friend that she was leery of losing privacy and time with her mother and wanted to withdraw her name from consideration.

“This is not about you,” attorney Lee Llambelis said he told Sotomayor. “It’s about the little girls and boys, brown and black, who live in the projects and poor communities around our nation, who can dream bigger if you are in the Supreme Court.”

Sotomayor has granted few, if any, sit-down interviews since becoming the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court. She did not give a formal interview to Guzman.

The article details Sotomayor’s personal life, including a 1983 divorce from her high school sweetheart, Kevin Noonan; a broken engagement to a Bronx contractor, Peter White, in 2000; and her most recent relationship, “a friend with no strings attached.”

Sins of her youth...

Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean calls a sex tape she made for an ex-boyfriend several years ago “the biggest mistake of my life.”

Prejean told Fox News on Monday and NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday that she shot the X-rated video of herself alone when she was 17 and sent it to a boyfriend.

The 22-year-old told NBC: “It was for private use, but does that justify what I did? No. It was the biggest mistake of my life.”

Prejean was fired in June. She believes she lost her crown because of her opposition to gay marriage. Pageant organizers said she was skipping official events.