Mariah the pariah
Tanking record sales. A diss from Eminem. Indifference from her once-devout fans. Problems with boyfriend Luis Miguel. It was too much for pop diva Mariah Carey to take, friends of the songstress say, and she checked herself into a London hospital. A day after Carey's rep announced she was "mentally and physically" exhausted from completing two movies while finishing up a soundtrack, close friends of the despondent diva are revealing what led to her nervous breakdown.
At the Madonna after-party at Lot 61 Thursday night, one hip-hop record executive said Carey was extremely upset over the flop of "Loverboy", the first single from the soundtrack to the movie "Glitter". The sixth week out of the Virgin stable, the single had already sunk to number 60 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. This week it made a miraculous recovery and was listed at number two, behind Destiny Child's "Bootylicious" - but only after Virgin slashed the price of the single to 49 cents. "She feels very depressed and also betrayed and lonely," the pal said.
"Mariah always felt she had a hard time with the record executives," said the pal, referring to her stormy relationship with ex-husband, Tommy Mottola, who ran Sony music. Another setback for Carey came when she couldn't convince rapper Eminem to help her on her album. Despite rumors of a romance with Eminem, Carey's pals said she was just trying to get him to help to give her "street credibility". "She tried to woo him when he was in New York, she flew to his house in Detroit, she begged him to be on the album or in a video for ‘Glitter', but he said no," said a Carey pal.
On top of it all, Carey's romance with Latin crooner Luis Miguel has been on the rocks for a while and the two are said to have broken up. Meanwhile, Carey's hospitalization has infuriated her new bosses at Virgin Records and caused a rift between Carey and Virgin honcho Nancy Berry, sources said. Earlier this year, Virgin gave Carey a whopping $100 million-plus recording deal for five albums. "Virgin practically gave away the singles when they weren't doing well, but even then, Mariah couldn't beat out Destiny's Child," a Virgin insider said.
Carey has also canceled all of her future engagements, including an MTV 20th anniversary concert on Aug. 1 and all promotional junkets for the album and movie, "Glitter," both due out Aug. 31. "Virgin is furious. Right now she needs to be out there doing concerts, signing CDs for fans, doing ‘Live with Regis and Kelly,' and getting on the radio stations!" the irate Virgin employee said.
Adding to Virgin's ire over Carey's flop is that there has been little communication from Carey to the Virgin execs - something Carey hinted at in her own messages posted on her Web site, just hours before she checked herself into hospital. The messages have since been removed from the site because, Berger said, "Mariah was not thinking clearly when she wrote them."
Regarding Berry, Carey said: "I can't reach Nancy Berry, so I'd like to say Nancy, I will record and stuff, it's just that I need some time off... just do me a favor, close the record... close down the management company that I own, and I'm gonna lie here and wait for that to happen."
The Virgin insider fumed: "Nancy had no idea that she had checked herself into a hospital. There was no communication whatsoever - she had to hear about it from third parties. This is not a good way to start a relationship." But Berger insists there are no hard feelings or poor communication (New York Post)
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