MariahDaily.com will now be posting multimedia files on a weekly basis. For the next month, we will be presenting the Mariah Homecoming Marathon: every week for four weeks we will post two live audio files from Mariah’s 1999 FOX-TV Homecoming Special. Below are the first two files available for the first installment. Many thanks to JD for giving us the opportunity to offer these files for download.

Heartbreaker (Featuring Da Brat & Jay-Z)

Dreamlover

Mariah Carey is washing her hands of some more handlers.

Having recently fired her longtime spokeswoman, Cindi Berger, the diva has now axed her agents at William Morris.

A spokesman for the talent agency, which has represented her since 1998, tells us: "While we're confused as to the reasons for her decision, we wish her well."

Insiders say Carey blamed her Morris team for not finding her the movie roles that have been slow in coming since her 2001 flop, "Glitter." She is also said to have held the agency responsible for her disappointing world concert tour, which lost several million dollars.

Carey's manager, Benny Medina, says, "She has the right to examine where she'd like to go, and who best can guide her."

Several days ago, we reported that Mariah would be working with underground producer Scram Jones for her new album. Today we received additional information about his involvement. “I just did one track with her,” he said. “I wish I was rapping on her record but I’m just producing. S*** is on fire though. The song is melodic with hard hip hop drums.” Scram also said, “You can see how I met Mariah on N.O.R.E.’s ‘Whatup 2da Hood’ street DVD.”

“Nora’s Hair Salon” starring Jenifer Lewis and Tatyana Ali was released earlier this week for rent and purchase. The DVD edition of the film comes with a behind-the-scenes featurette, in which the movie’s screenwriter Jean-Claude Lamarre discusses a scene that the producers wanted to have a celebrity enter the hair salon.

According the Lamarre, several names were thrown out, including Mariah and Paula Adbul. He said that both Mariah and Paula were very interested in doing the cameo, but eventually the producers decided on Whitney Houston after they cast her husband Bobby Brown as Bennie, an abusive gangster.

Hands down the most anticipated club mixes for 2003 were Mariah Carey's octave remake of the Def Leppard classic "Bringin' on The Heartbreak". So did the mixes live up to the hype and buzz that we all expected?

After their combustive colllaboration for "Heartbreaker" -- the idea of Junior Vasquez and Mariah hooking up again only added to the anticipation of this single. Unfortunately the magic chemistry was much more tepid. This time around, Junior churned out two styles of mixes -- the first being his softer piano laden mellow mix called Junior's Club Mix -- which sounds very reminiscent to housey Maurice Joshua/Jon Cutler style mix, and the more harder and dark mix called Junior's Extended mix with his signature tribal loops, riffs, energetic synth work, which could of benefitted with vocals resung.

The next remixer to take their turn with Mariah (musically speaking) is Mike Rizzo, whom we recall a few years back delivered a lush club mix for Mariah's medley "Never Too Far Away/ Hero". Instead of going for the lush or disco style of remixes that he has been churning out lately, Rizzo decides to approach the song with an energy driven synth arrangement. Mike's mix is filled with juicy percussion, punchy bass, vocal loops, and powerful synth stabs, over a lush energetic keyboard that keeps the melody and harmony intact of the original. The highlight of Rizzo's mix is the culminating break with Mariah's wails of "No, No…", which then transforms back into a pulsating synth explosion. The mix is nicely produced with it's catchy synths and slamming beats, but if fleshed out even more, it really had the potential to be more exciting.

There is always one mix from the bunch that gets attention, and surprisingly it's from remixer Ruanne Emmenes. Ruanne's flawless mix has created quite a buzz with people asking who is Ruanne? Ruanne is a DJ/Producer/ Engineer who has exploded onto the London and NY scene last year, and has worked on many dance productions along side remixers Erick Morillo, John Garcia and John Kano among others, as well also djing, producing, and engineering at Ministry Of Sound, and also starting his weekly radio show at MOS.

Ruanne's Vocal Capture Mix is an exquisitely beautiful deep house/tribal hybrid filled with superb soft tribal kicks, sweet soothing keys and fierce percussive beats with many twists and turns along the way that showcases Mariah's vocals superbly. The mix begins as subdued padapella with a gradual building process that layers passionate textured sounds over a bed of punchy beat patterns, mesmerizing synths, tribal rhythms, nifty chord arrangements, and many creative dropouts with acapella interudes. The magical intro builds with ferocious onslaught of energy -- with Mariah's ethereal vocals resting over some alluring keys and effortlessly blending with the different sounds, which makes the mix hypnotic. Driving every beat with absolute perfection and using the power of Mariah's vocals and the energy of the bassline, the mix then build ups to shimmering crescendo break of sparkling spanish guitar similiar to Vicious' latin stringed break for Veronica's "Someone To Hold".

The quiet guitar interlude break seductively build ups again and lifts off back into a driving tribal pounding mix, with Mariah's signature octave screams getting a very fierce work out as they are stretched and tweaked to perfection. Ruanne's eclectic production has all the amenities of a full-fledged club mix filled with interesting twists and turns to be played in rotation and will definitely give Ruanne major exposure for his forthcoming CD set for release in 2004.

For Mariah fans, the time is now for the label to end the "heartbreak" and "bring on" these mixes for public consumption! (They are currently available for listening through Mariah's official fan club, Honey B. Fly.)

When music fan Tophe Azzo asked Entertainment Weekly music critic David Browne if he had “any tips on how to revive Mariah Carey’s career,” Browne responded by saying, “How about doing something, anything, different? When Carey left Sony for Def Jam two years ago, everyone assumed her R&B side would be beefed up.

“Instead, Charmbracelet was more of the same. Carey should unleash her inner disco diva by working with producers and writers who could supply her with great songs, as opposed to melodic mush meant to showcase her melisma. Why not consider one of Madonna’s recent, techno-drenched collaborators? More elegant threads wouldn’t hurt either.”

-- From Star Magazine: Superstar Mariah Carey was spotted dancing to Missy Elliot's "I'm Really Hot" at Club Marquee in New York City.

-- From VFS Online: Producers became interested [in John Meadows's screenplay Wisegirls] and then Mira Sorvino came on board and then Mariah Carey came on board and then John’s dream of making movies became a reality. John managed to avoid facing the stereotypical writer’s dilemma by being a cost effective solution. “Everything was being negotiated quite late in the process so there wasn’t really anyone else to do the re-writes unless they got someone to do it for free,” he says. “And I was the only one willing to work for free.” But since re-write meetings with director and cast were filled with laughs and often held in Mariah Carey’s luxurious penthouse hotel room, it seems like John’s philanthropic nature paid off. Wisegirls was premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

-- On June 22, 2004, an album entitled "String Quartet Tribute to Mariah Carey" will be released. You can pre-order the CD and listen to clips at amazon.com. Mariah fan Katelin Rowley says, "I have the same thing as a tribute to Beyonce by the same people. It's really kind of funny but entertaining to listen to the artists' work interpreted into the sounds of strings."

-- An online petition has been created asking Mariah's recording company to release a DVD of all of Mariah's music videos. If you would like to sign the petition, log on to petitiononline.com.

In addition to working with big-name producers like Kanye West, R. Kelly, Randy Jackson, and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for her upcoming album, Mariah is taking it underground, reportedly working with more obscure producers like 9th Wonder and Scram Jones.

According to Planet Sound, a British teletext channel, 9th Wonder is rumored to be working with Mariah on her new album. He has previously produced the “God’s Son Remix” for Nas and “Threat” for Jay-Z; although his dealings with Mariah cannot be confirmed as of yet.

However, Scram Jones’s involvement on Mariah’s upcoming album is no rumor. Scram, who personally confirmed to MariahDaily.com that he is producing for Mariah, probably hasn’t done anything you’ve heard yet, but is working on upcoming albums from Lloyd Banks, Freeway, Fat Joe, and of course, Mariah.

Scram also has a pretty fresh outlook when it comes to music. “Hip-hop is so dry right now,” he says. “Everybody sounds the same, rhymes have no substance, people aren’t saying [anything worthwhile], everyone is using the same production. If you look at rock and roll, everyone has their own sound. You don’t see Pearl Jam asking Guns-n-Roses if they can get a beat or something like that. They come up with their own sound and that’s how I want it to be.”

Mariah’s new album is scheduled to be released later this year.

-- Mariah is featured in the latest issue of In Touch Weekly magazine, on page 55. There is a large picture and a write up about her and Jack, her dog.

-- Mariah was mentioned this morning on Dallas' K104 "Gossip To Go With Flo." Gossip columnist Flo Anthony made reference that she believed Tommy Mottola, Mariah's ex-husband, was married twice before leaving his latter wife for Mariah. She went on to say that Tommy and his new wife, singer Thalia, may be headed to divorce court!

-- From Broken Newz: EGE Marketing stands behind their ideas past and present. They are still branded with the failures of the fake breakdown of Mariah Carey to help promote and over shadow her sickening acting in Glitter, and Vanilla Ice. (Editor's Note: Broken Newz is a satire news site. The stories listed on their site are not real are meant to be spoofs.)

-- From Sky News: Justin Timberlake seems to delight in upsetting the ladies. First there was the dumped duet with Mariah Carey that he refused to release. A planned song with ex-girlfriend Britney Spears went the same way. And then there was boob-baring Janet Jackson who also fell victim to his non-release schedule.

-- From The Mirror: Lisa Blyth's long-term boyfriend secretly married another woman. She met him via the personal ads. "His advert struck a chord with me. It said he was looking for 'Endless Love', which was the title of a Mariah Carey song I liked at the time. I thought it was really sweet."

Seems like Mariah's influence can be found just about anywhere these days. Mariah fan Matthew Grant writes, "At the local YMCA I work for, we have been remodeling our Youth Center for the day camp that will be there this summer for middle school-aged kids. We’ve been painting pictures on the walls and one wall has a huge rainbow on it with a cloud on each end.

"On the first cloud, we wrote 'After every storm...' and on the second cloud we wrote 'A rainbow appears.' ...Just like Mariah has written in her Rainbow and Charmbracelet albums! I also made a poster that has a bible verse from the Charmbracelet album credits, the one about the mustard seed. So in the future, maybe some kids will be inspired by a quote from our lovely Miss Mariah!"

I have a secret. Actually I have several, but since this is a column not an epic poem, I’ll try to keep it brief. I love showbiz pap. You know, the crap stuff. The really dreadful, wouldn’t-confess-it-on-your-deathbed type of thing.

Yes, [Mariah Carey] does sing all those dreadful weepy ballads, and yes, some of those outfits do defy both belief and gravity. But her music is wonderfully bouncy. The sort of bubblegum pop that requires absolutely no intellectual thought whatsoever. Especially on headphones, in the summer, walking down the street. And anyone who can show a camera crew around her home and say the words: "This is the shoe room" with the sort of deadly serious tone more commonly heard at state funerals gets my vote any time.

-- From CNN: Major new releases for the remainder of the year include new albums from 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, Eminem, Nelly and U2 in addition to Greatest Hits from Jay Z, George Strait and Shania Twain.

-- From Town Online: "My voice is more along the lines of Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston," [stage performer Caren Manuel] said. "When you're labeled a 'soprano belt' that means you can really belt out the songs. I am a belter."

-- From Marshfield Mail: I try to be a good parent, but mostly when people see me acting like a 12 year-old, it's because I still am in a lot of ways. Friday night was no exception. We went to see "Shrek 2" at the movies. It was fun. I laughed louder and harder than I have at a movie in a long time. Last time I laughed that hard was when I saw "Glitter," but for far different reasons. The thought of Mariah Carey acting just gives me the giggles. But that's a story for another day.

-- From Laksamana Digest: Missy Elliott has canceled her planned concert in Jakarta after the US warned of potential terrorist attacks in Indonesia. Many international superstars have avoided performing in Indonesia following the May 1998 mass riots and more recently the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings. But some prominent performers have played in Indonesia recently, including American diva Mariah Carey.

-- From The Scotsman: [Colin Mackenzie owns] a museum-like collection, including wax cylinder discs, the first CD played on radio in the UK (Dire Straits’ Love Over Gold, played on Radio Scotland in 1982) and the first SACD played on Radio Scotland and Radio Forth in 2000 (Mariah Carey’s Number Ones), he also owns the first rewind radio in Scotland, an ET-like creation called The Bug, made by PURE Digital, only unveiled this month.

Following a tragic accident, Meg Kennedy (Mira Sorvino) moves from Missouri to Staten Island in New York City, taking up residence in her Grandmother’s home and landing herself a job as a waitress in a popular Italian restaurant owned by a mob family. Life starts to look up for Meg as she begins raking in some big money and making close friends with the other waitresses Raychel (Mariah Carey) and Kate (Melora Walters). One evening an incident in the restaurant sees her save a young man’s life, and it doesn’t take long for her to realize that being involved with these connected people and the high paying job, may come at a hefty price.

Apart from her Academy Award-winning performance in Mighty Aphrodite, Mira Sorvino has not chosen the best vehicles for her talents over the years, and when it comes to her involvement in "Wisegirls", you could easily assume that her decision-making skills are not getting any better.

Sorvino is hands down the only shining light in this clichéd mob melodrama, which dribbled onto selected screens throughout the US, and thankfully was overlooked here in Australia. "Wisegirls" is now available on DVD and VHS in Australia.

-- Popular Los Angeles radio station 102.7 KIIS FM is counting down your favorite dance songs of all time. The Top 102 Dance Songs will air on KIIS FM on Memorial Weekend. Place your votes at kiisfm.com. You may want to vote for a popular Mariah dance song, such as "Fantasy (Remix)".

-- You can find Mariah in both The National Enquirer and Star Magazine this week (May 31st issues). Each magazine has a different picture of Mariah golfing with brief captions (pictures we've seen from last year).

-- MTV France is having a Beyonce vs. Mary J. Blige countdown. Mariah fans may want to vote for Mary's "No More Drama" music video, in which Mariah makes an appearance, at mtv.fr.

-- From Live Daily: [Courtney Love's new America's Sweetheart album is] like Mariah Carey's Charmbracelet, an intended return to form where nobody acknowledged that the songs didn't work and the singer's voice was utterly shot, they just carried on pretending everything was OK. Since Love is a far more interesting personality and musician than Carey, America's Sweetheart is a more interesting record, but it's interesting like a trainwreck or a tabloid scandal, something to gawk at for a while but kind of depressing and ultimately forgettable.

-- From USA Today: It's a fairly annoying trend, all those collaborations, but it's not going away. It's very useful to introduce new artists and give them instant credibility, and it can shore up a flagging career as well (Mariah Carey guesting on Busta Rhymes records, etc.).

After being off the scene for a while, Mariah Carey is reportedly planning a carefully constructed plan to make a big comeback. The singer is working on a new album, and she is set to star in the stage version of The Prince And The Show Girl. She also has a television reality show in the making. In addition, the singer is looking at working with R Kelly, LA Reid and Kanye West to add some spice to her upcoming album.

After taking several months off to shield herself from the public eye, Mariah Carey is apparently now set to make a comeback.

Sources say that the 34-year-old singer is set to launch a new album, star in the stage version of "The Prince and the Show Girl" and she may even have a new gig on TV.

Mariah is now under new management as she has moved under the watchful eye of star-producing mega manager Benny Medina. He launched Jennifer Lopez's career and he currently works with Ricky Martin.

According to recent reports Carey is taking her acting career very seriously. She will reportedly play the role once made famous by Marilyn in a stage version remake of "The Prince the Showgirl" in London's West End.

Medina also apparently has some of the biggest names in production lined up for Carey's next album. Music moguls R.Kelly, L.A.Reid and Kanye West are all said to have been lined up for Carey's album.

The first single from the album is set to drop in autumn and Carey apparently wrote a lot of the new album on the beautiful Caribbean island, Anguilla.

-- We have added 100 additional pictures to our photo gallery. So be sure to check them out now by clicking here! In related news, we have updated our Picture of the Week, as well as Mariah's television schedule in the Important Dates section, which is located towards to right of your screen.

-- From Guardian Unlimited: At Islands of Adventure themepark, one way to beat the queues is to purchase an Exclusive VIP Tour ($1,400 for one day, one park, $1,700 for one day, two parks, $2,600 for two days, two parks, for up to 12 people, plus admission, plus tax) is a customised tour of up to eight hours (Mariah Carey took one to go on just two rides).

-- From Fox News: The rumors were flying hard this weekend that Tommy Mottola, former husband of Mariah Carey and ex-CEO of Sony Music, was headed toward the end of marriage No. 3. Or is it 4? The word from Los Angeles and Aspen is that Mottola and wife Thalia Sodi, a Mexican singer/performer/soap-opera star, have gotten tired of fighting and are going to end it all.

-- From Courier News: Aspiring singer Edelina Joy Bustamante said her influences include Celine Dion and Mariah Carey, but her sisters have teased her about her "Mariah Carey hands" that seem to flail when she sings.

-- From The Monitor: Will Oldham’s stark compositions have been covered by legends like Johnny Cash and Marianne Faithfull. "Hearing Johnny Cash do one of the songs, hearing that, was one of the big moments of my life," he said. He admits the moment could be eclipsed if Mariah Carey or R. Kelly chose to cover his work.

-- From The Robesonian: Trevor Jones spent the last month at Duke University Medical Center undergoing radiation therapy to remove a brain tumor - the second brain tumor the 18-year-old has battled since he was 9. Friday was Jones' first day back to school in more than four weeks. A slide presentation with clips of family photos from the time Jones was a child through his senior prom was broadcast in the classrooms Friday morning. The presentation, which was set to Mariah Carey's "Hero," left nary a dry eye.

-- From Star Magazine: Britney Spears' bizarre behavior only seems to escalate. With the added stress of her The Onyx Hotel tour, some worry the 22-year-old is headed for an emotional breakdown -- just like the one Mariah Carey, then 31, notoriously suffered in a NYC hotel in July 2001.

-- From Korea Herald: One of the few bilingual Korean announcers in the industry from his high school and college years in California, Lee Ki-sang was assigned to attend press junkets around the world to interview famous Hollywood stars, such as Toni Braxton, Kenny G, Mariah Carey and Will Smith.

Mariah Carey is the cover girl of the upcoming issue of Autograph Collector magazine. But it’s not an accolade.

The troubled diva — who calls her fans her “lambs” — is singled out as one of the worst celebs when it comes to giving fans her signature.

“Mariah is yet another big name who would rather not be bothered,” notes the article. “Goes so far as to say she won’t sign photos because she doesn’t like how she looks in them. Can you spell v-a-i-n?”

The lambs beg to differ.

Mariah's second number one single, "Love Takes Time", has been sampled by German rap star Sabrina Setlur for a new song entitled "Baby."

It is unknown if "Love Takes Time" has been officially licensed as a sample, because there is no information regarding the credits of the Sabrina Setlur song. The use of Mariah is quite obvious, however. You can listen to a clip of the song by clicking here.

-- As you may know, Mariah's "Bringin' On The Heartbreak" was nominated for Pop Video of the Year at the 2004 MVPA Awards, which were held last night in Los Angeles. Unfourtunately, it lost to Christina Aguilera's "Fighter."

-- The "Whatup 2da Hood" mixtape, which opens and closes with vocal skits by Mariah, Dame Dash and N.O.R.E., also comes with a bonus DVD. It shows Mariah in a studio joking around with the guys mentioned above. They are a bunch of friends who are being themselves and Mariah seems really relaxed, as she's drinking white wine from a styrofoam cup.

-- From The Sun Chronicle: Joe Mazzei, marketing manager for KISS 108 FM, recalled how Mariah Carey refused to drink champagne from plastic cups, instead insisting on crystal glasses, and how she would not walk on a grassy area backstage without a carpet being rolled out first. She didn't want her high heels to sink into the wet ground, he said.

-- From BET Online: Kanye West is blazing up everybody’s tracks nowadays and now he plans to bring Mariah Carey back to the people by using his patented production magic. Well, the return of Mariah is supposed to hit like a meteor of epic proportions. First, she is now under the management wing of Benny Medina, who has worked with Jennifer Lopez. She also finished a 60-city tour and has been writing songs in Anguilla. Lastly, the singer hopes to get back into acting, but after the reviews of “Glitter,” the verdict is still out on that.

-- From The San Francisco Examiner: A source close to Mariah Carey told "Extra" that the singer and manager Benny Medina have drawn up a three-point plan to help put Mariah back on top. She's got a new album due out later this year, she's set to star in the West End production of "The Prince and the Showgirl," and she's in talks with TV execs to star in a show. The source also said that Mariah has been practicing meditation to help her focus.

-- From The Philippine Star: Filipino singer Sarah Geronimo says, "I really hope to have a successful singing career someday," she chimes in. "And to break into the international recording scene." Among foreign artists, she counts Celine Dion and Mariah Carey as her main musical influences.

-- Mariah is featured on the cover of the June 2004 edition of Autograph Collector Magazine. Inside is an article titled "Elusive Signer", which claims that Mariah is among the worst autograph signers. "Mariah is yet another big name who would rather not be bothered. Goes so far as to say she won’t sign photos because she doesn’t like how she looks in them. Can you spell v-a-i-n?" Surely any true Mariah fan knows better.

-- In the new movie "Mean Girls", a Mariah poster can be seen in the bedroom of a gay friend of Lindsay Lohan's character. The poster apparently features the coverart from the "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" single.

-- BabyCenter.com, a popular website for new mothers, has a selection of pregnancy polls including one that asks "Would you ever give your child the same name as a celebrity?" One of the selected answers is "Absolutely not -- I shudder whenever I hear the name Mariah at the playground!", which is in third place with 12% of the votes. Vote at babycenter.com.

-- From All Hip-Hop: Speaking on Kanye [West], ole boy is on fire with the ladies and gentlemen – dude just signed on to jumpstart Mariah Carey’s comeback! Big Up, Big Up!

-- From The Australian: Family and friends at the funeral thought it odd when Sef broke into song with Mariah Carey's schmaltzy One Sweet Day. "Sorry I never told you all I wanted to say, and now it's too late to hold you because you've flown away, so far away," Gonzales crooned to the aghast congregation. He later told a friend he brokered a record deal out of it.

-- Happy birthday to Bianka K. Starr from the Bahamas from your mom Barbara and all your friends at MariahDaily.com!

She's the top-selling female artist of all time, but Mariah Carey's been missing in action lately. This week, though, Mariah made her first public sighting in some time, facing the world this week at a benefit for her charity, Operation Smile. And now, only "Extra" can reveal the three ways the superstar is planning to get back to the top.

First of all, Mariah has now put her career in the hands of Bennie Medina, the man who's launched dozens of stars, including Jennifer Lopez, and is now working with Ricky Martin. Medina has brought in some huge names to work with Carey on her new album, like R. Kelly and rap superstar Kayne West. The first single from the album is due out in the fall.

Mariah has just finished a 60-city tour, but along the way, she spent a lot of quiet time reflecting. "Extra" has learned she is now meditating, and wrote a lot of her new album on the beautiful island of Anguilla.

The third part of Carey's comeback bid involves her acting career. In 1957, Marilyn Monroe starred in "The Prince and the Showgirl," and now we've learned that Carey will be starring in a stage version of the movie in London.

She's also taking meetings with the networks to discuss a primetime gig. And we've learned she wants to get back into movies, preferably independent films.

It's clear that Mariah Carey is back on her game and ready to take the world by storm -- again.

Editor's Note: If you missed the segment, check your local listings for reruns of the show. In New York, Extra airs again at 4:00 am.

Mariah has left a new voice message on her official site to thank the fans for the birthday ("anniversary") wishes. Click here to listen to the message. This is what she says:

"Hey lambs, okay so I'm working on my record and I'm really excited about the music and that's a whole 'nother story, but...

I called to say thank you because, while I'm in the studio and waiting for things to get done and stuff like that, I've been able to look through some of these "happy anniversary" books, right?

And they are so very PIP, that I just have to say you guys are amazing like, okay, I'm looking at one, I think it's from "Lambs Incorporated" and umm, it's just the cake was a stone winner, it was so cute. I saw some pictures from a party in Brazil that you guys had, and it was just so nice of you to think of me on the day of my anniversary of the 12th birthday so, *laughs*,

I hope you like the new stuff I'm working on, I'm really really enjoying it and it's coming out really good. So I will call you back again soon but this is just a little call from me to you to say thank you so much for thinking of me. Love you much! Bye bye!"

A Ms. Mariah memo . . .
Yada. Yada. Yada . . . on the heterosexual front: Singer Mariah Carey chirped at an Operation Smile benefit in New York: "One of the things I do for exercise is that I have a punching bag set up in my apartment that is designed to look like a man which I call Bob. I punch it regularly and I enjoy releasing anger like that very much."

There ya go.

Surveillance
Mariah Carey admired the monster 12-carat rock on Donald Trump fiancée Melania Knauss' finger at Operation Smile at the Whitney...

-- From The Rugged Elegance: From Simon Cowell's Interview on the top three special of "American Idol":

After putting his ego aside, he called a diva someone who is "difficult, egotistical, talented." He cited Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey at their prime as prime examples.

-- From Nashville News: More than 500 people showed up for the funeral in the gym of Camden Fairview High School, where he graduated in 1998. Box was the seventh Arkansas member of the 39th to be killed in Iraq in the past month. An eighth soldier who was killed was from Simsbury, Conn.

Several in the audience shed tears when Box's sister-in-law, Shalunda Johnson, sang the Mariah Carey song "Hero."

-- From The Herald Sun: About the Eurovision contest:

Our favourite was Maltese couple Julie and Ludwig - she looked like an older Mariah Carey and his slick-back hairdo was hilarious.

Do you think the Maltese singer looks like Mariah? Take a look for yourself here.

-- Ayako opened a new Mariah fansite called Pip and Pow. Check it out!

Last night Mariah was at the Whitney Museum’s Robert J. Hurst Family Gallery in Manhattan, New York, to attend a charity cocktail event and fashion exhibition called the Smile Collection, sponsored by Operation Smile’s New York chapter.

Top Italian designers, such as Versace, Moschino and Missoni, were highlighted for the five hundred guests from around the globe that attended the outing, which benefited children who suffer with facial deformities.

Mariah attended the event with her nephew Shawn McDonald, who is a member of Operation Smile’s executive committee. Other attendees included Donald Trump and Malania Knauss, Fabian Basabe and Zani Gugelmann, Paulina Rubio, and members from the cast of “The Apprentice.”

It was only three short years ago that Mariah Carey's career was in the toilet. But she seems to have forgotten that. Last week, Carey fired her longtime publicist, Cindi Berger, of powerhouse firm PMK HBH, because — I am told — she held her responsible for a stupid, unchecked gossip item that ran in a local newspaper.

On top of that, Mariah is all but severed from the record company exec who brought her back from the abyss of the infamous "Glitter" movie and soundtrack. Jerry Blair, who worked on Carey's records for more than a decade at Sony/Epic, started her new Monarc Records at Island/DefJam and helped make her "Charmbracelet" album a success following the "Glitter" debacle.

Now Blair is out too.

In their place: Jennifer Lopez's former manager, Benny Medina, who has systematically taken over Carey's career, sources say. Carey obviously doesn't realize that following her "nervous breakdown" in the summer of 2001, and the "Glitter" disaster, it was Blair and Berger who reconstructed her press image. This pair worked tirelessly to smooth over Carey's bad publicity and do something to make her seem sympathetic. Prior to the Blair/Berger resuscitation, Carey had the baggage of being a defendant in plagiarism lawsuits and a night-crawling trollop.

It always startles me when celebrities forget the work that professionals do to make them stars. A couple of years ago I heard one movie star tell Charlie Rose that she actually picked her own material for films, when everyone in the business knew it was her savvy business partner. But this is what happens when millions of dollars make stars feel insulated from reality. In Mariah's case, it's the $50 million which EMI Records paid her to leave their label after "Glitter" almost killed them.

Ironically, Carey seems blissfully clueless that Medina was Lopez's manager when J-Lo stole — or was given — advance music from "Glitter" for her "I'm Real" single remix with Ja Rule. The result was that Carey freaked out, as ex-husband Tommy Mottola made the handoff. But who does she think Mottola gave the "Glitter" samples to? Lopez herself? Carey was never the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but you have to wonder now if someone's forgotten to plug the lights in at all.

After many years of loyal service, Mariah Carey has ditched her long-suffering publicist. Cindi Berger, who saw Carey through her marriage to Tommy Mottola, her mental meltdown two years ago and the cinematic stink bomb "Glitter," said: "I wish Mariah only the best." Carey is "trying to reinvent herself and needs fresh blood," explained an insider. And it seems she's found some. The songbird was on a date last Tuesday at 66 with a small, dark-haired man.

When filming a movie, there usually isn’t much time to have fun. There are deadlines to meet, last minute script revisions, technical difficulties, and tons of daily stresses. If anyone is enjoying themselves, it most certainly isn’t the crew.

But during the filming of “Glitter”, the film’s composer, Terrence Blanchard, celebrated his birthday. Being the festive individual she is, Mariah took note and threw a party for the entire sound department. (A picture from that event can be seen to your right. Click it for a larger, full-scale view.)

Complete with cake and celebratory champagne, perhaps the special event gave the sound crew extra enthusiasm. After all, the Motion Picture Sound Editors Association nominated “Glitter” for Best Sound Editing in a Musical Feature Film at the 49th Annual Golden Reel Awards. Though, unfortunately it lost to “Moulin Rouge”.

-- "I Know What You Want" is played during one of the scenes of the new Jamie Foxx and Gabrielle Union movie, Breakin' All The Rules.

-- "Vision Of Love" is featured on disc two of the new Time-Life compilation set, The Ultimate Love Songs Collection. The double-disc album collection can be purchased from timelife.com for $16.99.

-- From GrooveVolt: Mariah Carey is in the studio with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. She is recording most of her album in the Bahamas.

-- From Buffalo News: Elayne Rapping, professor of American Studies at the University at Buffalo, says the word "diva" is commonly applied to many "big, powerful, strong women." She says many modern pop-culture divas don't fill that bill, no matter how much they indulge thir ids. "Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and I would include Janet Jackson, they're not really big powerful women, they're just celebrities, and of course everyone is looking to bring down someone famous.

-- From The Japan Times: Avril Lavigne's "Under My Skin" doesn't go on sale overseas until the end of May, thus giving Japan a head start on helping the diminutive Canadian teen shift her millions of units. Why do the Japanese get to hear the new album first? Is it because the album was the first by a foreign artist since Mariah Carey to top Oricon's album chart? No, it's marketing. A two-week jump on the American and European releases means two weeks without competition. Once "Under My Skin" gets released over there it will promptly arrive over here as a "parallel import," which is not subject to fixed prices the way Japanese albums are.

-- From Chart Attack: Nickelback's Silver Side Up has just gone eight times platinum in Canada. Silver Side Up, which was released on September 11 2001, a day when the whole world had other things to worry about, is appropriately about the darker sides of life and personal experiences. Other artists who released albums that day (cough, Mariah Carey) have claimed that the events of that day prevented them from getting decent sales, a theory that Nickelback have proven to be a bunch of bull.

Meet Keith Badgery -- limo driver to everyone from Madonna to Mick Jagger. In his 20 years chauffeuring the rich and the famous, he has learned a lot of secrets about a lot of people.

In his book "Baby You Can Drive My Car", which is available for purchase from amazon.com, Keith's anecdotes provide an insight into a world populated by international stars.

In that book, he writes about driving Mariah during her early promotional trips to London. Inside there is also copy of a signed picture from the "Emotions" era she gave him. She signed it, "Dear Keith...Lots of love and thanks! Mariah." Here's what he had to say:

I've been lucky enough to meet a number of divas in my time as a driver, women who often came from dirt poor backgrounds and, through sheer ambition, determination and talent, made it to the very top of the tree... Mariah Carey is the biggest selling female recording artist of the 1990s. She has sold 120 million albums and singles and despite her recent troubles- a breakdown and a split from her new record label EMI, remains one of the major stars on the showbiz scene. Mariah has had 14 number ones on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and spent a total of sixty weeks at the top of that chart, a record. She also wrote every single one of those hits herself, with the exception of her cover version of the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There." I met her when she was just starting out, though, when she seemed to be little more than a shy little girl. I had no idea how big she would become but I witnessed the transformation - from disco baby to diva.

I first met Mariah Carey in 1991. At the time she was a little-known singer in Engalnd and as I picked her up from the airport with her entourage of just our people -- hairdresser, make-up artist and two dancers -- I found myself wondering, "Who's she?" The five of them piled in to the back of my Daimler limo, looking like nothing so much as a group of excited youngsters on their first trip abroad. Mariah herself appeared to be rather shy. I took them to the Mayfair Hotel, which is a nice hotel in London, but not absolutely the tops, and dropped them off, wondering what on earth they were all doing here. The next day I found out.

I drove the five of them up to the Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham. They were all chatting away in the back of the car, talking about America and their boyfriends -- I, like the rest of the world, had no idea who Mariah was going out with -- while Mariah issued instructions about what they were going to do when they got to the studio. When we arrived, I followed them in, curious to see what Mariah was going to do. I knew she was a singer, but I didn't know a great deal more than that. And then, quite suddenly, Mariah came on to sing. She opened her mouth and launched into "Emotions" -- and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I couldn't believe that this shy little girl had a voice like that; I later discovered she has a seven-octave range, which is extremely unusual even amongst very famous singing stars.

From then on, Mariah was much more relaxed and confident. "How was it, how did it look Keith?" she asked when she came off the set. "Fabulous," I replied. "I didn't know you had a voice like that." She replied, "Why thank you Keith."

The mood became increasingly jolly as the trip went on. The five of them would sing and dance in the car as I drove them around London, unless Mariah was going to a performance, in which case she would warm up her voice by going through her singing exercises in the car. "I do apologise for my screeching," she would say. And she seemed quite awestruck at the hand life had dealt her. "You know Keith, I used to be a waitress in New York before someone heard me sing," she once told me. "I just can`t believe that everyone`s making this fuss about me, laying on a car like this and everything."

In due course I began to learn more about Mariah`s background. She claimed that twenty restaurants had fired her because of her "bad" attitude, although she was always perfectly alright with me.

It was while working with Brenda K. Starr that Mariah got her big break: she got close enough to Columbia boss Tommy Mottola to slip him her demo tape. Tommy acted fast. He signed Mariah up immediately and, just ten months after she moved to Manhattan, she released her first album in 1990. It sold over six million copies and went to number one.

I knew nothing of this as I took Mariah around London, showing them sights such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Cathedral, Big Ben and the Tower of London; to me they were just a bunch of fresh-faced kids.

Mariah was greatly excited when I stopped on London Bridge to let her take pictures -- techinically its illegal -- and rather shocked when I began telling her about England's history.

"What went on in The Tower?" she asked. "It's where they beheaded people." Mariah was horrified. "No! That doesn`t happen in England does it?"
"Not any more, but it used to. And you know what they did to traitors?"
"What?"
"They would chain them to the banks of the Thames, so that when the water level rose with the tide, they`d drown."
"Euow! No! I don`t believe it! Oh that`s so gross!"

Once she got over our barbaric history, though, Mariah fell in love with London. She particularly liked Trafalgar Square, especially Nelson`s Column and the lions. "Your architecture here is so great," she would say, "I can`t believe that a little while ago I was a waitress and now I`m seeing stuff like this. We don`t have anything like this in the States. Don`t you think it`s so great, you guys?." Her friends would agree and there`d be much commenting on the sights until they went back to singing, dancing and talking about their boyfriends.

On the last day of her visit, I drove Mariah to the airport. She was dressed entirely in leather and for the first time I began to realise what a spectacularly beautiful woman she is. Often celebrities who I don`t know that well would jump out of the car without saying anything, but Mariah didn`t. She hopped out, headed towards the door of the VIP lounge and then turned back and gave me a little wave, at that moment she looked exactly what she was back then: a sweet, shy little girl.

Times change. The next time Mariah came to Britain a few moths later, to appear on "The Des O`Connor Show," there was a visible difference in her. She was much more relaxed with the treatment she was receiving and there was no more talk of her past as a waitress. A lot had been going on in the States in those months: her album "Emotions" had been a huge success and Mariah was making the transition from up-and-coming singer to superstar. She was still friendly: "Hi Keith, how ya been?" she asked before giving me a peck on the cheek. There were no more jolly sing-songs in the back of the car though, and no cheerful talk about America and boyfriends. Mariah was on her own now, and concentrating on busness.

I didn`t see Mariah again until some years later. When I finally did, the situation couldn`t have been more different. For a start she was staying at the Lanesborough, one of London`s smartest -- and most expensive -- hotels. Secondly, her entourage had grown. Whereas before everyone had bundled in to the back of the limo, now everyone got their own car.
Her entourage had grown from four to twelve, with five cars and two people carriers to ferry everyone around. And Mariah herself was no longer the sweet little girl she used to be.

There are two words to explain this: Tommy Mottola. Her boss was now her husband and he wanted nothing but the best for his biggest star. This was 1994. The year before, Mariah and Tommy had formalised their relationship. Inspired by the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer -- perhaps unwisely, given the outcome of that marriage -- the couple spent $500,000 on their wedding in June 1993. There were fifty flower girls, an eight-piece orchestra, and a boy`s choir alongside a 300-strong guest list including Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Robert De Niro, and Ozzy Osbourne.

"When I look back on it, it`s so unbelievable! I mean, it really is like Cinderella" said Mariah and the couple -- she was twenty-four and he was forty-four when they wed -- went to live in a large mansion outside Manhatten. But the marriage went the way of Charles and Diana`s and in March 1998, Mariah flew to the Dominican Republic to obtain a divorce. She then flew to Tampa, Florida to watch baseball player, Derek Jeter, with whom, she had been romantically linked, though that romance fizzled out.

"Media pressure was too much for them as a couple," said a spokesperson for Mariah. It was a long way from the little girl I had known, who was so excited about driving around London and who couldn`t believe she so recently had been a waitresss, but the signs were there on that last trip. Success has many benefits, but it can harm you as a person and is no good at all for your long-term relationships.

Mariah Carey has had a difficult time in recent years. Now divorced from Tommy Mottola, she has had a series of breakdowns, and in 2002 was dropped by her record company, EMI, with a reported settlement of £35m. However, a new deal is in the offing, and her career looks set to reignite.

On the new Capone and Noreaga mixtape, "Whatup 2da Hood", both the opening and closing tracks are listed as "Dame Dash featuring Mariah Carey and N.O.R.E." It is unknown if these are actual songs, interludes, or skits. What is known, however, is that the CD is available for purchase from HMV. Stay tuned for any furthur updates.

Tennis champ Serena Williams says she's "into someone who has high morals, loves his mum, gives me respect and treats me like a princess." What can you say? That this is not quite the template into which Neanderthal man has evolved. "Oh I know," she sighed with resignation, than chuckled. "I like to look at Mariah Carey, Sandra Bullock. Beautiful women. Talented women. We're all in the same situation. It's hard to find a good man."

Serena and her sister Venus Williams appeared in the music video for Mariah's song, "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)".

Coming this summer will be a brand new television special entitled "It's Good To Be Mariah Carey." The program comes as part of the weekly series "It's Good To Be…", which reveals the salaries, spending habits and consumption sprees of Hollywood stars; and details their rise to fame and the money they made on the way to the top. "It's Good To Be Mariah Carey" will premiere on E! TV in July.

-- From LA Times: Claremont High will be site of Relay for Life, an annual event to honor cancer survivors, pay tribute to those who've died. At the relay ceremonies, Shanna Roenicke, an 18-year old Alta Loma High School graduate, will sing "Hero" by Mariah Carey. She is a three-year leukemia survivor.

-- From Duluth News Tribune: An excerpt from an interview with Jack Norton from The Mullet River Boys;

Q: Are your shows all original work? If you do covers, what would be an example of something you would cover?

A: Ninety percent are originals, or handmade from scraps of old field hollers, blues chants and Methodist hymns. The songs we cover are covered not based on style but on quality so we do a lot of Christina Aguilera ("Genie in a Bottle"), Mariah Carey and Gloria Gaynor songs.

-- Mariah appears on the first few pages of both The Enquirer and The Globe tabloids this week. The pictures are from Mariah's trip to St. Barts.

-- Make sure to stop by and visit two new Mariah forums for fans: Mariah Lambs United and Mariah Chat.

-- Stephanie, the former webmaster of "Mariah's Web" is facing some financial difficulties and decided to sell her Mariah collection on eBay. Click here to visit her selling page.

Mariah Carey and Lauren Holly are sharing a taste in shoes. They both bought the Cranberry, a silver high-heel thong, at Jimmy Choo in Beverly Hills. Carey first discovered Choo when she wore them at the VH-1 Divas gala, but Holly is the bigger shoe diva. She snatched up 11 pairs in her spree, versus two for Mariah.

On Sonic Youth's new album, like she did with Karen Carpenter on 1990's Goo, band member Kim Gordon dissects another troubled pop icon with "Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream."

Gordon and band guitarist Thurston Moore are well known as thoughtful music zealots, so we played a little "who can it be now?" game with them. We spun discs without showing them the covers, and they guessed who the artist was.

"Is that Mariah Carey?", Gordon asked as the intro to Carey's 1995 hit "Fantasy" played. "That's Mariah", laughed Moore.

"I saw her doing a cover of the '70s disco song, 'Last Night a DJ Saved My Life.' I just couldn't get it out of my head. She was bouncing through this set of gangsta rappers. It was right after her breakdown and she seemed so vulnerable. And she was barely singing! It stuck with me.

"She and Karen Carpenter [the anorexic subject of Sonic Youth's "Tunic"] are both about the body. Karen was trying to get rid of hers. Aesthetics have changed a lot since Karen. I'm sure they're similar A-type personalities...driven perfectionists who just want to please people so much. Karen's voice showed a lot of vulnerability - more so than Mariah. She made the words she was singing her own. That's a scary thing to do when you're standing in a media spotlight. You lose a sense of your identity. It's a narcissist thing."

-- Mariah’s “Heartbreaker” music video was played on the Tuesday edition of MTV’s Total Request Live. An audience member had to pick a number in order to play a retired video. The chosen audience member selected #21, which was Mariah’s “Heartbreaker.” The show’s host, LaLa, asked if he wanted to play it through or pick another; and he said, “Let’s play it! I like this video.” LaLa liked it also.

-- China’s largest music site, Crazy E Music, recently posted two polls that asked “Who is your favorite female artist?” and “Who is the most beautiful female artist?” In the latter poll Mariah came in at #2. Christina Aguilera was #1. However, in the favorite female artist poll, Mariah rose above the competition, coming in at #1 with over 35% of the total votes.

-- From The Scotsman: "I’ve gone mad"...This translation became known as Mariah Carey syndrome after the singer was placed into psychiatric care a few years back. Before long, her publicist had swapped the phrase "extreme exhaustion" for "emotional and physical breakdown". For a celeb who’s gone off the rails - think Robert Downey Jr or Whitney Houston - "exhaustion" is a prelude to rehab or jail.

-- From The Sydney Morning Herald: Missy Elliott looks back on the times she has worked with stars such as Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Mick Jagger as her big moments. "These are people you don't normally get within breathing distance of, or even within turnpike distance. To be in the same room as them and hear them say, 'I love your music,' that is a big event."

-- From Las Vegas Sun: Christophe, an acclaimed celebrity stylist, and his internationally trained team of specialists will "swap hair care for cancer care" by contributing all money raised during the 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. styling sessions to Nevada Cancer Institute. Among the many celebs who flock to Christophe Salons are Nicole Kidman, Liv Tyler and Mariah Carey.

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