Some of the biggest names in UK and American music have joined forces to record an emotive cover of the REM classic “Everybody Hurts”, to raise money for charities supporting the relief efforts in Haiti. The line up of featured artists is: Mariah Carey, Jon Bon Jovi, Robbie Williams, Kylie, Rod Stewart, Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke, Miley Cyrus, Take That, Joe McElderry, Cheryl Cole, JLS, Mika, Michael Bublé, James Blunt, James Morrison, Susan Boyle, and Westlife.
MARIAH Carey has revealed how she drew on her hell with her ex-husband for her explosive role in the acclaimed new movie Precious.
In an exclusive interview, the megastar, 39, revealed she poured the torment of her broken marriage into playing a dowdy social worker who saves a troubled teenager from a terrible home life.
But it was Mariah’s own turbulent upbringing - in a broken home with a sister who turned to prostitution - that made her accept the part initially.
Tapping into those dark experiences sharpened her performance, and has led to a string of gong nominations, including a Screen Actors Guild award.
Escape
But there is no crowing from the legendary diva when she talks about the film and her reasons for doing it.
Speaking about her first husband, the record producer Tommy Mottola, she shivers: “It was an abusive relationship emotionally and in several different ways.
“At first, music was my escape. But as time went on, different friends and different people would help me to see I could get out of that relationship.
“That’s in the past, but it helped me get to a place where I could grow and use all that stuff. I look forward to acting more to be able to use all of those things.”
Mariah - who says she has another acting role in the pipeline - was 23 when she wed a 43-year-old Mottola in 1993. They split up four years later and she is now now happily married to actor Nick Cannon.
But you have to look further back to understand why the usually dolled- up-to-the nines Mariah embraced the role of the plain and hard-working Mrs Weiss in Precious. As a kid, Mariah had it tough. Her white mum Patricia was disowned by her family for marrying a black man.
Then the marriage ended when Mariah was just three, and her mum ended up working late shifts at nightclubs to make ends meet.
A few years later Mariah’s older sister Alison got pregnant at 15 and moved out of home. She later became a drug addict and turned to prostitution to support her habit.
When her second child was born, Alison was infected with HIV, and has been living with Aids for nearly 15 years - a disease that features in Mariah’s new film.
The singer can’t talk about her sister for legal reasons but admits her upbringing had a lot of bearing on how she played Mrs Weiss.
“Most people think that I was born in this magical bubble and here I am singing high notes - it wasn’t like that,” Mariah says. “So yeah. I do know people who have been through some deep s***.”
She goes on: “Precious has been ignored her whole life for the abuse she went through. All of us have had a little bit of a slice of what that tastes like.
“I come from a unique background. In my father’s family there were a lot of troubled uncles and aunts and people who were literally in very intense situations that I couldn’t even go into now.
“But yeah, I’ve met people who have gone through similar things.
“And I myself have been through things that I could draw on in terms of being able to sympathise with her character.”
Mariah was given the role just two days before starting shooting - when Dame Helen Mirren dropped out.
And she had to go through a total de-glam, which didn’t come naturally to her. The only make-up she was allowed to wear was dark shadow under her eyes and on her upper lip, to give her a “miss-tache”.
Mariah giggles: “If I’d have stood out as, ‘Here I am, a well-known person even looking remotely glamorous,’ it would have taken away from the whole essence of what the film is.
“It was tough, honestly, because I am so used to the music world, which is so different with the cameras, the lighting, the angles and this and that.
“We were in fluorescent dentist office lighting. It was, like, the worst-lit scene of the movie on purpose. Lee (Daniels, the director) caught me trying to put blush on and said, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’ And I was like, ‘Precious has blush on!’ He was not going for it.
“I guess I’ll feel better about it when I am just normal at my house, walking past the mirror without make-up on. I’ll be like, ‘Well, I looked worse then!’”
Terrible
Lee also banished Mariah’s entourage from set and ordered her to change the way she walked.
She explains: “Obviously I walk around on my tiptoes when I’ve got on my four-inch heels. Even if I took them off, I’d still be walking on my tiptoes.
“He was like, ‘You’re up here - can we bring it down here?’ So all of the little manners that people might know me for, they had to be thrown out the window.” After shooting had finished, did she go back to her old ways? “Yeah, I had to,” she groans.
But taking off her make-up for even a short time was a big step for Mariah who has issues over her appearance.
She explains: “I remember starting out and being at a record company at 19 and having someone tell me, ‘This is your good side and this is your bad side. Don’t ever let anyone take any pictures of you from that side. You look terrible from that side.’ And so on.
“I created this whole complex - like I didn’t already have enough of a complex!”
And it doesn’t help that the big 4-0 is looming in March.
At the mere mention of the word forty, Mariah snaps: “No, darling - don’t say the F-word around me!”
Mariah Carey makes an appearance in 22 year old Brunei artist Hill’s video.
Hill performed at a party for the Brunei Royal Family in UK last year at which Mariah was a guest, along with Janet Jackson, Ne-yo and many other entertainment industry personalities.
Mariah is said to be impressed by Hill & when he approached her to do a cameo in his video, Mariah to his amazement and surprise said yes! The video was shot in London in early December & it is there Samantha Mumba met Mariah Carey on set.
The first 2 pics were taken at Prince Azim’s birthday, the last one on the set of the video:
I HOPE the New Year is going well for you, readers. I had an amazing festive period. I began my adventure this year by flying to LA just before Christmas to join my Christmas family, the Carey-Cannons. We flew out of the hot LA weather from the private air field wearing t shirts. Then, four hours later, we pulled on our polo neck sweaters as we landed on the thick snowy runway of the Aspen air field, which is full of celeb and wealthy jet plane owners. (Trust me, Aspen’s not for us regular folks, unless we can hitch a ride with a mate like I did!)
At one point, I went out to a coffee shop and, no word of a lie, I walked past Paris Hilton, Zac Efron, Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson on my way there! As if that wasn’t enough, when I got to the coffee shop, guess who was standing in front of me? None other than actress Goldie flippin Hawn! She asked the server for a choc chic cookie then started talking to me, before realisng that I wasn’t her sister who had walked off for a minute. ‘‘Oh no,’’ I insisted to her. “Don’t apologise – I love chit-chatting to Hollywood legends!’’
After I had helped Mrs C purchase some of her gifts, we returned to the house where we played what was to be the first of many games of ‘Mafia’.
Let me explain the game: A group of people are divided into two groups – ‘Townspeople’ and ‘Mafia’ – depending on which card they are dealt. No one is aware of each others’ status but the aim is to work out who the mafia are in order to execute them, whilst in turn, the mafia during the night bump off the townsfolk. The ever-festive Nick was his usual animated self and had us all involved, screaming and pleading our cases in minutes.
On Christmas Eve, after skiing and snow-boarding we went sledging. Imagining myself in an old James Bond movie, I had visions of husky dogs pulling us through the snow. However, once on top of the mountain, it became clear that this was the kiddie activity that involved us sitting on a brightly coloured plastic vessel and hurling ourselves down the steep hill. Nick and Mariah’s friends Pastor Kase and Deric (DJ D Wrek from Wild n Out) began the races downhill, whilst I looked on like a scaredey cat. I finally convinced Deric to let me piggy back his sledge and so we started the two-on-two races against the Carey Cannons. A nearby gent offered to lend me his “extra fast sledge,” which had just been waxed to ensure ridiculous speed.
I agreed, but instead of using it myself, I naughtily passed it to the Carey Cannons, thinking it would freak them out – it didn’t. They used it and they won.
As soon as we got home, we changed into our festive red PJ’s and awaited the arrival of Santa, who of course, Mariah knows personally. The kids were all put to bed as we placed ourselves strategically behind curtains and sofas to film and capture the children’s faces as Mr Claus awoke them with his cries of “ho ho ho.”
Once Santa had done his duties, we all dragged him into the living room to pose with us under the 20-foot high Christmas tree. I sat on his knee, as is traditional, and reassured him of my good behaviour the past 12 months. In return, he let us all ride his sleigh around the front garden and yes they were real reindeer!
Before we went to our beds, Nick warned us with an evil twinkle in his eye that ‘Santa’ would be waking us at 6am for present opening. “No way,” I thought. Well, how wrong I was. Mr ‘Saint Nick’ (Nick dressed as Santa), stomped up and down the house in his big black Santa boots and huge pillow belly, ringing the bell from hell to wake us all up. After three attempts to ignore him, I dragged my lazy ass down to the Christmas tree where wrapping paper and screams of joy were flying. How could I not get into the Christmas spirit?
As well as the traditional socks, scarves, gloves and toys being exchanged, there were also gifts with handles, heels, diamonds and one with wheels!
That evening, we all put on our best frocks to sit down to Christmas dinner, which tasted mouth-wateringly good.
Later, thoroughly exhausted, we hit the sack early as the next day Mrs C was taking her version of the bus – the jet – to Italy to pick up her special award for best supporting actress at the Capri film festival for her role in the movie Precious.
MC collected her very appropriately shaped mermaid award (which is now sitting in her mermaid room) on the red carpet with a wall of paparazzi documenting her every move. After only 24 hours in Capri, we jetted to New York City, where a whole heap of new adventures awaited me!
I CAN’T believe that in all the years I’ve been travelling to the United States, I have never witnessed Thanksgiving out there. So when Mr and Mrs Carey-Cannon recently requested the pleasure of my company out there, I knew it was extravagant but I couldn’t resist the chance to go and visit their new pad out in LA – as well as eat myself into oblivion.
I weighed up the pros and cons and my belly won the argument. So there I was in the California Hills for two days. On my arrival, Mrs C showed me around their new home. We spent the first day in aprons preparing a lot of food that was going to be devoured the following day. Mrs C even showed how to ‘rock the apron so that it looks cute’!
Then, her bro Shawn sneakily videoed my ‘how to rock an apron’ lesson and posted it on my Facebook wall!
Mrs C showed me how to make a real Thanksgiving dinner. I felt like I was on a Jamie Oliver/Gordon Ramsey TV show. She had me peeling armfuls of yam for the candied yam and chopping potatoes for the potato salad, which had many secret ingredients. (My eyes were certainly opened.) I mashed those potatoes until my arms went dead!
Stuffing was prepared, macaroni cheese sampled, turkey marinade concocted, long island iced tea was boiling away in a giant pot, the delicacies of real cranberry sauce was discussed – it was deep. Mrs C taught me how to braise short rib before partnering it with the roast veg and then roasting it in the oven until it’s so tender the meat falls off the bone like butter. Get this: when you add red wine to the fat stock on the stove, it breaks down the fat and acid and tenderises the meat. (Or something like that.) I was trying to pay attention but it was all very technical! Maybe she should host her own cooking show in the future.
On Thanksgiving day, we spent all day cooking up a feast fit for a kingdom, which was a good thing as there were about 35 people in attendance for dinner. Mr C had us all say grace before we ate and we all went around the table mentioning a couple of things in each of our lives that we were thankful for. It felt special and for once, I thought that being American may be more fun than being British.
The next day we took the family puppies for a walk to burn of all the food and listened to Mariah’s remix album, which features a host of legends dueting with her. I cant wait for you to hear it – it’s fire!
Some of the biggest names in UK and American music have joined forces to record an emotive cover of the REM classic “Everybody Hurts”, to raise money for charities supporting the relief efforts in Haiti. The line up of featured artists is: Mariah Carey, Jon Bon Jovi, Robbie Williams, Kylie, Rod Stewart, Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke, Miley Cyrus, Take That, Joe McElderry, Cheryl Cole, JLS, Mika, Michael Bublé, James Blunt, James Morrison, Susan Boyle, and Westlife.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
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