Russell Brand? Years of rejection? Yep, the purple-haired sexpot spills tears and secrets in her concert film Part of Me, as the one time religious teen from Santa Barbara breaks Michael Jackson’s chart record, racks up $44 million in one year alone and one-ups even studio execs with her power (don’t let those candy hearts fool you).
“It’s not like I won the lottery or was born into a lot of money or had connections. I really hustled my way here,” says Perry, who was photographed May 21 at Siren Studios in Hollywood.
Perry wears a Versace dress and Christian Louboutin heels.
According to Billboard BoxScore, Perry’s California Dreams tour ranks in the top 15 of the most profitable treks of 2011, ahead of Lil Wayne and just behind The Eagles.
Among the other eyebrow-raising achievements of her short but incredibly fruitful career: breaking Michael Jackson’s record for number of chart-topping singles from one album (his Bad had five), eight Grammy nominations, a stupefying 74.6 million tracks and 9.1 million full-lengths sold, more than 1 billion YouTube views, a successful line of perfumes (Meow and Purr), her line of Eylure false eyelashes, endorsements for ProActiv and OPI nail polish and, now, her second entree into the movies, following the role of Smurfette that Perry voiced for the 2011 animated flick The Smurfs.
Does Perry still buy into the wide-eyed, heart-fluttering sentiment of songs like “Teenage Dream?” “This is real so take a chance/Let’s run away and don’t ever look back?” “Absolutely,” she insists. “I still believe in love and marriage. I’ve just learned lessons along the way. I regret nothing.”