Christina Milian: Super Fly

It’s no secret to ex-boyfriend Nick Cannon or anyone else in R&B — rising star Christina Milian has all the tools to give the Beyoncés 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. “I’ll 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 alcohol’s 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. “She’s like a Frappuccino with hips,” Nick Cannon’s character said, appraising the five-foot-two Latina’s entrance in the 2003 film Love Don’t Cost a Thing. (The two dated soon after.) “She’s a lovely little sunflower,” Outkast’s 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 Dupri’s pre-party for the MTV Video Music Awards. “He came up to me — and I’m wearing a white dress,” she says. “Made from cotton, by the way!” She laughs. “And he says, ‘Let’s get in the pool!’ Everyone was like, ‘He wasn’t trying to get in the pool until you got here!’” Yet into the pool she was Ushered, both of them fully clothed.

Tonight’s 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 Dresden’s 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 “I’ve 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 Manilow’s 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 Beyoncé.

A hip-hop demi-star since she appeared on Ja Rule’s 2000 hit “Between Me and You,” Milian’s 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 Blender’s 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 DMX’s “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.

“It’d be so great,” says Milian, sighing, “to be that age and still have people come out to see you perform.

To find out more about Christina, get this month’s Blender at your local newsstand or subscribe today!


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