Tuesday, 12 June 2007

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Rihanna says Jay-Z screens her suitors

But tall, funny and talkative guys will pass the test...

A message to guys looking for a date with Rihanna: You may have to go through Jay-Z first.

"I just found out from a mutual friend that guys will talk to Jay first before they try to approach me," Rihanna, 19, told PEOPLE at a Venus Breeze event in New York City (her gams were named this year's "Celebrity Legs of a Goddess").

Rihanna, whose third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, features her hit duet with Jay-Z, "Umbrella," says she appreciates the rapper looking out for her.

"He's very protective," she says of her mentor, who discovered her and signed her to his Def Jam label. "Jay has my best interests in mind. If it's a good guy I know Jay won't shut him down. But if he's not, Jay will be like, 'No, no, no.' "

And exactly who are the guys trying to court Rihanna? "He actually never tells me. I have no clue who they are and I guess I'll never know," she says.

The singer, who says she received many compliments from her male fans after showing off her newly toned figure at the MTV Movie Awards last week, admits that her busy schedule makes dating difficult, but hopes to "get a date in sometime soon."

The Barbados-born chanteuse says she prefers "tall guys who have a sense of humor, love to laugh, have a good time and good conversation," and describes her idea of a good date as "low key, just hanging out and watching a movie."