Universal Music Australia have confirmed that ‘Angels Cry’ will be released digitally on Friday, February 19. There is no plans to release the single on physical format!
In addition to the above a digital EP will be released three weeks later on 12 March, 2010 with the following tracklisting:
1. Angels Cry (Main Version Feat. Ne-Yo)
2. Angels Cry (’Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’ Album Version)
3. I Want To Know What Love Is (Chriss Ortega Club Edit)
Source: Mariah Connection Australia | Thanks to Tim
Precious is one of those films that comes along all too rarely. It is confronting and sad and shocking and funny and challenging - and for all these reasons, and a few more, it is worth seeing.
Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) has seen more harsh treatment at sixteen than most people face in a lifetime. Her home life is a horror story: she’s about to have her second child by her father and is virtually enslaved by her physically and emotionally abusive mother (Mo’Nique). At school she’s teased for being overweight and harbors a secret shame—she doesn’t know how to read or write.
As challenging as her predicament is, Precious is endowed with a formidable inner strength that is waiting for an opportunity to be put to use. She is transferred to an alternative school where she finds a mentor in Ms Rain (Paula Patton).
Through Ms Rain’s caring, but relentless prodding, Precious learns to read and write, but more importantly, her newfound ability allows her to express herself in a way she has never done before. Through writing, Precious learns how to understand and examine her life. Precious is the story of Precious’ strength, resilience, growth, and ultimate triumph.
Every performance in Precious is outstanding. It’s almost impossible to be too kind to this group of actors. Even Mariah Carey (who, let’s face it, is not renowned for her acting skill) delivers a believable performance as the counsellor, Mrs Weiss. There are two stand-out performances though. Mo’Nique delivers a sensational performance as Precious’ grotesque mother that is in turn chilling and heartbreaking. Gabourey (Gaby) Sidibe makes a remarkable cinematic debut in the title role. Prior to this movie, Sidibe’s acting experience had been limited to some college productions. The depth of her performance belies her experience.
This is the kind of story that is rarely told, about a character who society usually writes off, judges as a statistic, or simply ignores. It is a story of sometimes shocking truth that nonetheless touches on universal emotions and aspirations. You might not pay attention to Precious if she passed you on the street, but her story will sear your heart.
DOWDY, frumpy, drab - they’re not words we’d usually use to describe Mariah Carey.
But the self-proclaimed pop diva is showing a new side to herself, playing a harried social worker in the acclaimed independent movie Precious.
“I had to lose all vanity and change my inside layers of who I am to become that strong social worker,” Carey says of playing welfare officer Mrs Weiss in the film.
“I always wanted to be involved in independent films and, through this character, I really experienced losing myself and could just be an actress,” she says.
“It’s been such a different ride and I’m sure it’ll change people’s lives in some sort of way, and it’ll help others.”
Carey’s previous film work - most notably the universally panned Glitter - did little to increase her credibility stakes as an actress.
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But Precious, which premiered in Sydney on Thursday, is winning her much acclaim, both critically and publicly.
She won the breakthrough actress award at the recent Palm Springs International Film Festival, although her award was slightly overshadowed by her giggly acceptance speech where she awkwardly admitted to being somewhat “difficult”.
Directed by Lee Daniels, Precious is set in the Harlem district of New York, in 1987, and is adapted from American poet Sapphire’s novel, Push.
It tells the hellish story of “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), who is not only obese and illiterate, but is the victim of child abuse and pregnant with her second child at the age of 16.
Carey’s character is far from the glamorous singer we’re used to seeing on the red carpet or in her video clips.
It’s even further from the woman who earned herself a reputation for being one of the world’s greatest divas who once admitted to sleeping with 20 humidifiers in her bedroom.
The 40-year-old is almost unrecognisable, sporting a few extra kilos, a lank brown hairdo, wearing an unflattering, ankle-length skirt and drab blouse in order to play the social worker.
“I related to the character on so many levels,” she says.
“I really feel it takes you to a different level.
“I had to convert both internally and externally.
“She (Mrs Weiss) is a strong and tough character.”
On the home front, Carey says she couldn’t be happier.
Less than two years after marrying 29-year-old actor, TV presenter and singer Nick Cannon, Carey says the couple are planning on having children.
“That’s the whole purpose of getting married,” she says.
“I want my children to have a beautiful and healthy childhood and to have the best education possible.
“My parents got divorced when I was only three years old and, to tell you the truth, I didn’t have a normal childhood.
“But I know that Nick will be a great and loving father. I’ve found the right person for it.”
While her film career is blossoming, Carey is also pushing forward with her music.
Having sold more than 160 million albums, singles and DVDs worldwide, and securing countless awards, Carey remains at the very top of her game.
The multiple Grammy Award winner’s next project is Angels Advocate, an album of songs taken from her Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel album, with high-profile duet partners adding their touch to the existing tracks.
She’s releasing two singles at the same time: Angels Cry and Up Out Of My Face.
“I am sort of a control freak, so I need to live the whole process,” she explains.
“I get inspired by everything that surrounds me or is happening at that moment.
“It could be just a place such as Puerto Rico or being on a plane. I just let everything flow, you know.”
The diva made a prank phone call to her husband’s radio show, claiming to be a woman who loves watching porn.
Carey, who used a different accent and adopted the persona of a woman called Debbie from Long Island, rang Rollin With Nick Cannon on 923 Now FM to wind up her husband during a debate titled Is porn bad for your relationship?.
‘Me and my husband have a very good time but we watch porn and I don’t think it’s bad,’ she said in a Long Island drawl.
‘I’m talking about porn, real hard core porn.
‘Nick, you know you look at porn. Tonight when me and my husband look at porn I know it’s going to be a humdinger.’
Laughing out loud, Nick said, ‘This is how hilarious my wife is, she rings a station and talks about porn.
‘Thankyou for calling, I love you. You are hilarious.’
Critically acclaimed new film Precious charts a dark but ultimately hopeful course through the life of the ultimate outsider, writes Stephanie Bunbury.
Lee Daniels wasn’t going easy on anyone in Precious, his much lauded story of misery and redemption from the rat-traps of Harlem. Precious is a vastly fat, plain girl whose best hope, day to day, is to be overlooked; ostensibly, it couldn’t have made tyro actress Gabourey Sidibe feel good about herself to play that.
Then Mariah Carey, the pop diva, and the extraordinarily beautiful actress Paula Patton were cast as a harried social worker and idealistic teacher; both of them were scrubbed clean of makeup and Carey had to dye her hair and, seemingly, never wash it. “Lee would whisper horrible stuff into our ears to get a response,” says Carey. “And it worked.”
Since Precious was launched at the Sundance Film Festival last year, where it won the audience award, it has carried all before it. Oprah Winfrey has given it her vociferous support; reviews have raved; awards have multiplied.
Daniels, who first made his mark in Hollywood as the producer of Monster’s Ball — for which Halle Berry won her Oscar — has managed to make a film that is entertaining, harrowing and formally challenging all at once, like a movie of the week directed by Wong Kar-wei. He grins at this. “I love Wong Kar-wei!” he enthuses. “My flavours are European, but a little bit ghetto and a little bit homo. Because that’s what I am.”
Precious’ story is an adaptation of the autobiographical novel Push, written by a girl called Sapphire in a writing workshop. Beaten, abused, deprived and lonely, Precious takes refuge in the threadbare range of fantasies her culture has so far offered her.
She imagines herself on a runway; she imagines herself in lovely dresses, feted by men, a star. Of course none of that, as her vile mother might say, ain’t never gonna happen. Precious is too black, too fat and too dumb for the good things of this world.
In real life, however, Sidibe has turned out to be a star. A psychology student, she had never thought of acting before she went to an open audition for the film at a local school. She only went because she was such a fan of the book and a friend had told her that the people auditioning, as she puts it, seemed not to meet the “physical requirements”. So she thought she would give it a try. It was happening round the corner, so why not?
Patton saw the audition tape and was, she says, astonished. “I thought she was the character, she was so good. And then I met her and she was this Valley girl — she speaks with a high voice, she is a girly girl and so much fun — and I was humbled. I just fell in love with her, but we all did: the gaffers and the grips, everyone.”
Sidibe certainly manages to charm everyone in Cannes within minutes: bubbling with life, she makes size seem irrelevant. She is still obese, although she has lost weight since making the film. “It was difficult, in that I wanted to protect her,” says Daniels. “I didn’t want to feel that I was exploiting who she really was, because the physical characteristics are certainly there.” But, says Patton, she simply rose above the jibes aimed at Precious and thus, inevitably, her body.
“She is so incredibly strong.”
Like Daniels, the 26-year-old Sidibe grew up in Harlem. Her childhood was nothing like Precious’; if anything, she was as guilty as anyone of coldshouldering girls like her when she was being Miss Popularity at high school.
“I’ve turned a blind eye and I’ve had a lot of guilt about that too,” she says. “Precious is ignored — and she then ignores the little girl who follows her around. We all do it, so that was the experience I brought.”
Of course she was nervous when she first found herself on a film set. “I was afraid I wouldn’t know what I was doing, but I listened so closely to whatever Mr Daniels told me to do and he taught me so much. I was open to suggestion because I knew nothing. But I never felt like ‘I can’t do this’ because everyone had so much confidence in me.”
Now she thinks the fact she has never studied acting may be an advantage. “I think sometimes you can have too much information. I feel weird saying it came natural to me but, I mean, I know this girl. I know her in my family.
I’ve seen her. I’ve lived beside this girl. And there’s no class I could have taken to help me know more about her, because I know her already.”
Daniels says he makes all his films primarily for himself. He may never have been a teenage girl, but “most men have Precious in us”. At the same time, he wanted to make a fi lm that would reach ordinary African-Americans.
“My mother and family members don’t really get Monster’s Ball,” he says.
“They saw that, The Woodsman, Shadowboxer and they were like ‘why can’t you make movies like Tyler Perry? Miss Maybelle from the church said something happened to you, because why you making a film about a pedophile?’ So I really made this movie for them.”
But then he started hearing people’s stories; a Chinese-American woman approached him after the Sundance screening and, he says, “broke down crying in my arms. And I realised it was a universal story. Just by telling my truth, I’d made something universal.”
Mariah Carey reportedly had Paris Hilton sacked from a music video.
The Obsessed singer was allegedly furious the hotel heiress had been asked to join her for an appearance in a music video for Prince Azim of Brunei – so she demanded he chose between the two of them.
Mariah reportedly said: “It’s either me or her. I won’t do it with her. I’m a bigger name.”
The 40-year-old pop star is now due to appear in 27-year-old Azim’s upcoming solo single alone.
The billionaire playboy – who is the son of the Sultan of Brunei – had originally wanted to improve the track’s chances of success by having both beauties join him for the video.
But after Mariah made her demands, he had no choice but to ditch Paris, 28, according to the Daily Star.
Azim has since promised to fly the diva and 14 members of her entourage over to London from New York by private jet.
The pop diva has been friends with the prince – who is fourth in line to the throne – for several years.
In 2006, he gave her a $5.7 million necklace and matching ring after flying to see her in his private jet.
Mariah Carey’s Angels Cry duet with Ne-Yo was released to Australian radio at the weekend.
Monday, February 1, 2010
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