How to chat while playing different games on PS3?

I've had my PS3 since release, but I never played it as much as my 360 as most of my friends were on Live rather than PSN. I've used it primarily for blu-rays and those top-notch single-player-centric exclusives. Finally bought a good friend a PS3 and some games recently so that I'd have someone to play the multiplayer titles with, and outside of us playing together on the same game, I can't figure out how to invite her to a chat while we're doing different things. It always locks us into that white room. How do I do this?

voice chat or text chat?

There's no cross-game chat.

What I'm asking is how do I chat with her while I'm on Netflix and she's playing LBP or something similar. I can't do this?

You can't voice chat while in different games or apps. But you can improvise a little. Use your phone, for example. Landline or mobile.

There are chat rooms you can create, but that is about it.

Better than messaging.

Use a cellphone.

No, you cannot. This is one of the PS3's biggest flaws and probably what people complained about the most.

Damn. That really sucks. You'd think it would have been a no-brainer to have added this feature at some point, to be honest.

@jamejame: There is no cross-game chat on the PS3. The RAM couldn't handle it, 360 had more RAM for the OS, PS3 had less than the 360 for it