6 celebs who still use BlackBerry phones

BlackBerry smartphones are the antithesis of cool, so why do so many A-list celebrities still use them, even in public? Being the devoted BlackBerryrazzi that we are, we dug deep to answer this burning question. Here's the dirt we scraped up from celebrityblackberrysightings.com and celebswithcells.com — your very own who's who of celeb BlackBerry devotees who still rock their RIM has-been handsets.

You'll never guess which one was reportedly in therapy for her CrackBerry Curve addiction? Scratch that. You probably will.     

1. Brad Pitt 
Mr. William Bradley Pitt, the goateed first half of Brangelina, has long been a fan of BlackBerry smartphones. The uber-sexy actor / producer was recently spotted on the set of World War Z with his BlackBerry Torch 9800 in hand. Who knows? Maybe he needed it to battle zombies. He's also been photographed clutching a BlackBerry Bold.

Our hunch is that Pitt (along with a surprisingly long list of celebs and government and corporate bigwigs) still reach for BlackBerry devices because they're reportedly more secure than iPhone and Android devices. Despite plummeting stock prices, record customer losses in the fallout of the recent Great BlackBerry Blackout, and a plagued PlayBook that doesn't play well, BlackBerry still sets the smartphone security standard.

2. Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty — oh, na na, that's her real name — is a BlackBerry girl all the way. The Barbadian hip-hop siren has sold some 20 million albums and 60 million singles, reports Wikipedia, and her estimated 2011 net worth was $72 million. Not bad! Surely she can afford any smartphone she wants (and any number of them, too). So why does RiRi still flaunt a snow-white BlackBerry like she did last November in her striped, jail suit-style onesie pajamas? She was also spotted last June deftly balancing her WhiteBerry and what appears to be a Mojito on the rocks in her left hand. 


3. Christina Aguilera 
Thanks to CrackBerry.com, we know that Christina Aguilera, aka Xtina, recently brought her BlackBerry Bold 9900 Touch along for some last-minute Christmas shopping. The bleach blonde songstress was also spotted earlier this year at a star-studded soiree in Beverly Hills with her beau Matthew Rutler on her arm and her BlackBerry in her jet-black-polished fingers. Aguilera's matching black covered BlackBerry completed her slick, all-black ensemble. 

4. Lindsay Lohan
The troubled former Mouseketeer, aka LiLo, used to be a hardcore BlackBerry Curve girl. Now she rocks the new touchscreen BlackBerry Bold 9900 Touch, just like Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck, Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, and yes, the JBiebz (Justin Bieber), too. Lohan was spotted rocking her WhiteBerry Bold at a place she frequents often — the Santa Monica Courthouse.  

According to Forbes.com, the ginger actress/singer was recently treated for her "BlackBerry/Twitter addiction." When? While she was in rehab last summer for, well, other stuff. Does the Los Angeles County Morgue have a no cell phone policy, we wonder? It would be kind of hard to scrub the morgue's floors, toilets, and autopsy tables with a BlackBerry (or any phone) in hand. We're just saying. 

5. Barack Obama
It's no secret that the 44th president of the United States is a BlackBerry die-hard. We would say Barack Obama is a full-blown BlackBerry addict, but he is the commander-in-chief, and, well, that wouldn't be very nice, now would it? We'll leave the labeling to CelebrityBlackBerrySightings.com. Bloggers there say our fearless leader constantly carries his custom encrypted BlackBerry in his pocket. He uses it to troll the internet and, yes, even to email and text coworkers, friends, and family, just like the rest of us do.

Did you know that Obama is the first President to send text messages from the Oval Office (or wherever else he gets the urge)? It's true. 

Obama made it clear in 2008 (before he became texter-in-chief) that he would never willingly drop his BlackBerry habit, not even once elected. "I'm still clinging to my BlackBerry," he told CNBC. "They're going to pry it out of my hands." And, nearly three years into his presidency, they (presumably the Secret Service) still haven't confiscated his cherished BlackBerry. Nor have they nabbed the renegade's beloved DODOcase-ensconced iPad... yet.   

6. Madonna
Yes, Madge, the original Material Girl, sleeps with her BlackBerry beneath her pillow. In a recent issue of Elle magazine, Madonna came right out and admitted it. "I have to sleep with my BlackBerry because I often wake up in the middle of the night and remember that I’ve forgotten something, so I jump up and make notes," she confessed. 

The Queen of Pop just found about her new film W.E.'s Best Original Song and Best Original Score nominations for the 2012 Golden Globe Awards while checking her BlackBerry Bold... in bed, of course. "On my BlackBerry this morning, I reached over as I always do when I wake up, just to make sure I didn't get any exciting breaking news, and I did," Madonna told Reuters last month. 

Being Bold for big bucks?
So why do the stars still cling to their BlackBerry babies, even as RIM weighs whether to hold or fold? Our guess is the other things stars love — privacy and endorsement money. Now, we're not saying any of the glitterati listed above are actually on RIM's shrinking payroll. And if they are, they're not telling. Would you? 

Still, we do know that Jenny McCarthy, Ryan Seacrest, and a host of other celebrity hosts recently were on RIM's payroll just in time to kick off 2012 at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve bash in Times Square. The party was officially (and surprisingly) sponsored by BlackBerry. It was a Bold start of a new year for a company that really knows how to drop the ball — except for when it comes to attracting celebrity users that is.  
     
[Image credits: mimosveta, Karen Blue, Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer, dpstyles]

Leave a comment