Kaiser’s already covered these photos of Rihanna at the Battleship premiere, but I pulled out some more from the set because of how physically drained Rihanna looks at this event. Sure, her body looks great, but her eyes tell a different story. This premiere took place just a few days after the Met Gala where she wore that fantastic Tom Ford dress and then proceeded to allegedly land herself in the emergency room after partying hard and tweeting that freaky photo of an IV in her arm. This week’s issue of the Enquirer builds upon the events of the past few weeks and also refers to Rihanna’s blunt-filled, alcohol-laden Hawaiian vacation from this past holiday season. The tabloid has also talked to a couple of medical “experts” who have not treated Rihanna for their take on her downward spiral:

Rihanna is in a desperate life-or-death battle with liver damage caused by years of boozing and out-of-control partying, sources tell The Enquirer exclusively.

The 24-year-old Grammy winner was hospitalized after an early May bender, and her reckless behavior, couple with her grueling work schedule, has friends and experts warning that she’s on a fast track to becoming the next Whtiney Houston.

“Rihanna is spiraling out of control and is headed for an early grave,” said one concerned insider. “It never seems to be one beer or one cocktail. Once she gets started, Rihanna pounds drinks all night long, sometimes until the sun comes up. She definitely goes on binges. She’s been a hard drinker since her teens and her friends and family are desperately urging her to get into rehab.”

Medical experts say the sexy singer’s drinking habits could be deadly. “Rihanna could be dead tomorrow from liver failure,” Orlando-based, board-certified physicial Dr. Gabe Mirkin told The Enquirer. He noted: “Anybody who drinks alcohol for more than two hours a day, even if it is binge drinking once a week, is looking a premature death. Once the liver is permanently damaged, it’s over.”

Dr. Robert Waldman, consultant to the Cliffside Malibu treatment center and a 25-year veteran of addiction medicine, agreed. “The earlier you start to drink, the more the body becomes dependent on alcohol. It can cause deadly cirrhosis of the liver and alcohol poisoning — even at her age.”

Rihanna’s world came crashing down earlier this month. She missed an “SNL” final dress rehearsal and needed a shot of penicillin to make it htrough her May 5 performance. And on May 8, she tweeted a picture of her arm hooked up to an intravenous drop, claiming she was suffering from a nasty bout of the flu, a day after attending the Costume Institute Gala in New York. She was reportedly hospitalized for exhaustion and dehydration.

Ratcheting up her stress, she’s coming off a grueling tour last year, and she’s been flying all over the world to promote her film Battleship. Rihanna recoverd from her frightening hospitalization to make it to the May 10 L.A. premiere, but then she alarmed onlookers by skipping dinner, opting to chew gum and drink a lime cocktail instead. Two days later, she was seen partying until 4 a.m. in a New York nightclub.

Sadly, the entertainer, whose father is a former crack addict, appears to be continuing her nonstop pace — blazing a round-the-world party trail since shse started the year knocking back beers and smoking pot during a Hawaiian vacation.

[From Enquirer, print edition, May 28, 2012]

Questionable medical ethics (on the part of those two physicians) aside, I agree that Rihanna needs to slow down in several regards. She needs to take it easy professionally and whittle down her schedule a bit, and she needs to stop boozing so hard. Perhaps she truly seeks to ease the pain associated from her past (?) relationship with Chris Brown, but hardcore drinking is (obviously) not the way to accomplish any long-term healing. As Kaiser also mentioned recently, Rihanna strongly identifies as a Pisces, and (speaking as one myself) that astrological sign tends to have their head in the clouds if left unchecked. It’s probably safe to say that Rihanna really has been drowning her stress and sorrows in too much liquor, and I would suspect that a visit to rehab is in the cards.

Just for the hell of it, here’s a photo from Rihanna’s twitter that she took of herself and her father. If he’s really a former crack addict, then addiction might very well run in the family.

Photos courtesy of WENN and Twitter