Um…sorry 'bout that?
Yesterday, E! News exclusively broke the news that LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian were done simply playing house and were ready to make it official and that the controversial couple is engaged.
Cut to last night, when Rimes was mysteriously MIA from her also controversial Shape magazine cover party…which itself was bizarrely thrown a month and a half after the issue was released.
Coincidence? Well…
We'll let you decide.
A source close to the couple tells E! News that Rimes and Cibrian are "pissed" that the engagement news broke, since they were planning to cash in on their personal life by giving the exclusive to another outlet, complete with happy couple photos and the now requisite "over the moon" pullout quotes.
Aww, our bad.
Especially since when Rimes gets mad, she apparently gets sick.
The bride-to-be was expected to attend a party celebrating her October cover of Shape (which incidentally hit stands in early September, but who cares about timing when there's free publicity to be had), but curiously enough, ended up a no-show.
And just when they'd gone and made such public nice.
Reps for the magazine wasted no time in announcing that Rimes' absence was due to sickness, but once again noted that Shape plans to work together with LeAnn in the future on a new project to combat cyber bullying.
For her part, Rimes has been tweeting furiously for the past two days (including well into last night), and has made numerous mentions of battling the flu.
"Feeling crappy," she wrote yesterday afternoon. "I'm sick…I really need to take care of me at this moment."
However, she's more than aware that her illness just so happens to play perfectly into her media narrative (thanks for that, by the way) and is hoping her fans don't believe it.
"Don't buy into the Shape BS, it's just another thing for them to 'report,'" she wrote this morning. "Just happen to get sick at the 'perfect' time, SUCKS!!
"Headed to the dr in a bit," she went on. "This flu thing is hard to shake. Just to clarify, I was never supposed to sing at the Shape party and yes, under dr's orders I couldn't go. I spoke to [editor-in-chief] Valerie yesterday I don't know how many times and all is well w/absolutely NO controversy. There is LOVE all around from Shape to me and Me to Shape."
LeAnn's rep echoed the singer's sentiments this morning.
"LeAnn is proud of her Shape cover and was more than happy to attend the event, but unfortunately caught the flu and under doctor's orders was advised not to travel or go out," they told E! News.
"She appreciates all of the support and sincerely regrets not being able to perform for her fans this weekend. She looks forward to seeing them in January at the rescheduled dates."
Incidentally, among her other Twitter revelations, LeAnn also noted yesterday that she has long been courted by Dancing With the Stars, and been asked "a few times" to do the show. Something tells us they won't be backing off anytime soon.