Sunday 16 September 2001

Mariah's demons return

As she recuperated at a California Spa from her recent breakdown, Mariah Carey seemed on the road to recovery. But something snapped and now she's back in the hospital. Can the singer loosen up before she looses control of her life?

Mariah Carey seemed to be getting her groove back. After spending 2 weeks in July at Silver Hill, a sanitarium in New Canaan, Connecticut, for what her spokeswoman called a "complete emotional and physical breakdown", Carey appeared to be taking the break she needed - lounging at her mother's house in Goldens Bridge, NY enjoying a short holiday in Puerto Rico and then, during the week before Labor Day, checking into Bacara, a Santa Barbara, California spa where suites run as much as $2000 a night. Surrounded by bodyguards but looking happy, healthy, the 31 year old Grammy winner chatted with fellow vacationers and signed autographs for children. "She was smiling and really outgoing" said one guest.

But behind her smile, it appears that Carey was pushing herself toward another breakdown. Anxious about her new movie Glitter, which opens September 21st, and the accompanying album, the hard-driving Carey was, according to sources, meeting with executives at her label, Virgin Records, soon after leaving Silver Hill. She was also reportedly consumed with thoughts of her perceived rival, Jennifer Lopez. "It was too much for her," says a music industry source. By Labor Day, Carey had become so anxious, she suffered a relapse and checked herself into the UCLA Medical Center in LA on September 4th. According to some reports, unconfirmed by Carey's spokeswoman, Cindi Berger, the star's doctor's have asked that she remain in the hospital for 2 weeks "She's had an emotional setback" an acquaintance told the NY Daily News.

At the same time, Carey abruptly canceled a September 12th interview with Barbara Walters and a Tonight Show appearance set for September 14th. "The sad thing is that this poor child has problems," said Walters. "As soon as she's well, we'll do it." Said Berger: "She needs more time to rest, and that's it. That's all I'm going to say."

Carey's feud with Lopez now seems more intense than many at first believed. In its October issue, Talk Magazine reports that Carey's July 25th plate-smashing tantrum at TriBeCa's Grand Hotel which resulted in her stay at Silver Hill, was in part caused by her belief that music was "stolen" from her latest single "Loverboy". Carey borrowed part of the Japanese techno song "Firecracker". She claims that Lopez later used the same sample on her own single - which was released first - and is convinced it was no coincidence.

"It literally drove her crazy," a source said Carey thinks that Lopez had been deliberately styled to look like her. In the article, she also took potshots at her rival. Upon hearing that the Talk writer had met Lopez, Carey sniped, I bet that was really intellectually stimulating. I bet you could see the depth in her eyes." And when Carey, an insomniac, heard that Lopez claims to get 8 hours of sleep a night, she responded: "If I had the luxury of not actually singing my songs, I'd do that too."

Her anger with Lopez appears to stem from a conflict with Carey's ex-husband, Sony music President Tommy Mottola, 51, who she claims has tried to wreck her career since their 1997 separation. Carey apparently believes that Mottola has been grooming Lopez, who is under contract to Sony, to replace her as the queen of pop. Lopez has no comment about Carey's remarks, and Mottola, in a statement, said, "I am deeply saddened that Mariah is back in the hospital and trust she is getting the best of care on her road to recovery."

Carey has hired a San Francisco private investigator Jack Palladino to look into what he describes as a "smear campaign" against her. "Tommy is attempting to control her career, her future and her life," Palladino told Us Weekly in August about Mottola, who discovered Carey at 18, nurtured her to stardom and married her when she was 23 and he was 43. "Something Mariah didn't bargain for when she left Tommy Mottola was how much he was someone who could run interference between her and the real world," says Mark Goulston, a psychiatrist at UCLA who has treated many celebrities (though not Carey). "My guess is that when she broke free of him, instead of picking and choosing stuff that was in her best interest, she said: I'm not going to let him control me anymore and I'm going to say yes to everything."

The world may have to get used to the singer's saying no. With Carey likely to be hospitalized for the Glitter premiere, executives at Fox, the movie's studio, were unsure whether she would be doing any publicity for the film she coproduced. But getting Carey to turn down other projects so she can rest won't be easy. "The hardest thing for her to do is sit still," says David Anspaugh, who directed her in Wise Girls, which is set to be released in 2002. "Mariah does what she wants to do" says Anspaugh. "Her people can advise her but ultimately, Mariah listens to Mariah."

(US Weekly)



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