Backstage at Z100’s Jingle Ball

As members of Paramore shop around, Sean Paul tells me he can’t wait to use the SodaStream soda maker, Canon PowerShot digital camera and Blackberry Pearl Flip Smartphone in the recording studio.

I bump into Brody Jenner in the hallway before the Madison Square Garden concert featuring Kanye West, Rihanna, Chris Brown and Leona Lewis begins. He had a last-minute wardrobe switcheroo. “I had my Dickies on before I came here, and my manager told me to take them off and put my jeans on,” he says.

Ashley Tisdale enters the press room, sporting brunette locks instead of her trademark blonde. How does being a brunette compare to being a blonde?

“I’m naturally brunette, so I feel back to myself, I guess,” the High School Musical star tells me. “Being blonde, it was so much fun. I think blondes and brunettes have so much fun, but I feel like Sharpay really owns the blonde, so I kind of feel back to Ashley in a way, so it’s exciting.”

Ne-Yo plays it cool when asked what he thinks about the rumor that Rihanna is expecting with boyfriend Chris Brown.

“Really?!” he says. “That’s a new one on me. I just heard that. OK. If she is, congratulations, and if she isn’t  -- come on guys, cut it out.” (Psst. Eyewitness acccount: Her stomach is totally flat.)

David Archuleta giggles through American Idol questions, but when Hayley Williams of Paramore is asked to pose alone for a fashion shot, she declines. “I’m not very fashionable,” she shrugs, ducking off with the boys. (Hm, Demi Lovato would disagree.)

Veronicas singer Lisa Origliasso says they taught the Jonas Brothers “everything they know” when the boys opened for the girl group in 2006.

“I think people look at them like they’re good boys, and they are good boys, but they’re very rock-and-roll,” her twin Jessica Origliasso tells me.

Here is Lady GaGa, who looks like a Muppet in her long blonde hair and super-long eyelashes. “It’s not a persona,” she tells me. “This is who I really am -- in all my origami glory.”

Up next is Jesse McCartney, who plays coy when it comes to dating. “The microphone has been my girlfriend for the last year,” he says. “I haven’t really done much.”

Get this -- Brandy doesn’t want to leave the press room when she’s asked to move along. Her new Rodney Jerkins-produced single is called Right Here (Departed). “It’s about being there for the people that you love,” she says. “Everybody needs somebody, so I thought it was a great song to reintroduce me back to the world.”