Mariah finally has the show she deserves
THE first person to directly address the camera in Mariah Carey’s new reality show isn’t Mariah Carey. Not exactly, anyway.
It’s Bianca Storm, the brunette alter ego Carey introduced (and fought with) in the music video for her 1999 single Heartbreaker. Following an introductory montage, Carey appears as Bianca, lounging on a chaise and holding a glass of champagne.
“I’m here to introduce a documentary about Mariah Carey,” Bianca says, slightly mispronouncing the singer’s name in her posh, not-quiteBritish accent.
Mariah’s World, which premiered on Sunday night on E!, isn’t a reality show – because documentary sounds more grand. Carey’s fans (she calls them lambs) know that the singer likes things to be grand. The opposite, in Mimi parlance, is bleak. Carey’s quirks – Bianca, spontaneous accents, a glam wardrobe and a shameless ban on fluorescent lighting – are on full display in Mariah’s World, but the strangest thing about the eight-episode docuseries (as E! has billed it) might be that we’ve had to wait so long for it. Mariah Carey has always been reality TV gold.
Her first brush with reality television happened nearly 15 years ago on a legendary episode of MTV Cribs, in which she led viewers on a tour of her palatial Tribeca penthouse. Carey changed outfits several times, demurred when it came time to show off her bedroom – opting instead to reveal a guest room where she keeps her fan mail – and famously dropped a silk nightgown on to the floor as she shimmied into her bathtub. (“I didn’t really take a bath. Like, hello, I had on a bodysuit,” she later clarified.) MTV says it’s the second-mostwatched Cribs episode (behind Shaquille O’Neal’s) among the network’s target 12-to-34-yearold demographic.
Back then, in 2002, reality television wasn’t typically a place for a celebrity of Carey’s calibre. Only one Osbourne was famous in America when The Osbournes, a precursor to the wacky family reality-show trope, premiered on MTV. Diddy was a rare exception on MTV’s Making the Band, but he was a sporadic presence, dropping in to deliver good or bad news. A decade later, reality TV had changed: in 2013, Carey joined the judge’s panel on American Idol, replacing Jennifer Lopez, also a megastar and long rumoured to be Carey’s nemesis.
“I don’t know her,” Carey once said when asked about Lopez. Earlier this year, when TMZ asked Carey about the enduring memes inspired by that comment, she said: “I still don’t know her!”
Lopez returned to Idols when Carey, who notoriously clashed with fellow judge Nicki Minaj, left after just one season. Between perceived (or actual) shade thrown at her peers and delicious rumours like the long-standing one about her only wanting to be photographed on one side of her face, Carey has earned a diva reputation. She embraces it with a smile and a wink. “I have a rule which states that I will not be seen in fluorescent lighting without sunglasses,” she says in Mariah’s World. “I know it’s very ‘90s. I don’t give a f***.”
Call it what you will, Mariah’s World has all the trappings of a reality show. E! goes behind the scenes as Carey prepares to go on a world tour, following the most recent leg of her Las Vegas residency. It takes a lot of people to stage a tour, and each one brings potential drama.
Stella Bulochnikov, Carey’s straight-talking manager, is cast as the villain who won’t hesitate to fire anyone. Stella hires her own assistant, Molly, and informs her that she is not allowed to date in her first year on the job, or cry – ever. Molly, portrayed as clueless and inept, breaks both rules before the credits roll.
As with the Kardashians, whose personal stories often play out in gossip headlines before making it into the family’s own E! show, Carey has had plenty of recent drama to stoke interest in Mariah’s World. The first episode finds the singer struggling to plan her wedding to Australian billionaire James Packer amid her impending tour.
TV host Hoda Kotb has asked Carey if she had considered pulling the plug on Mariah’s World after ending her engagement to Packer.
“Oh, I can’t give somebody that much power,” Carey said. Her response hints at one good reason to do this show now – she’s finally in control of her image. So what if that image often comes off as staged? Call it a guilty pleasure if you must, but it makes for great (reality) television. – Washington Post