Monday, September 28, 2009
Ms PudInC
Last Saturday I jumped on a plane to go see my American cuz Mariah shut down Toronto Film Festival with her fellow cast from the movie she’s starring in titled ‘’Precious’’ about a young girl who has low self-esteem issues and is abused. Its a story that will have you laughing and crying but is ultimately full of hope. I was filming for a Mariah TV Special which will air soon.
Starring new actress Gabourey (Gabby) Sidibe and Robin Thickes actress wife Paula Patten, Mariah plays a social worker-Mrs Weiss. Doesn’t sound too glamorous? Its not! MC was forced by director Lee Daniels to strip herself of make up , they gave her bags under her eyes, drew in a faint moustache and made her hair-well-you got to see for yourselves-its pretty unbelievable.
MC had just flown in from her 2 night residency at Vegas star spot-the Palms Hotel and as soon as she got off her flight she was shoved into a press photo call and conference with Oprah and Tyler Perry-(the exec producers of Precious) and the rest of the cast including Mary J Bilge who wrote for the sound track.
The photo call was breath taking to watch as the legend that is Oprah generated a feeling of excitement and paparazzi were frantically snapping away every time MC spoke, smiled or even nodded!.
Paula Patten got quite emotional when talking about the story and actually cried at which my cynical self rolled my eyeballs LOL!. Mary J Bilge talked again about how she was abused but made it through her pain, and shaking up the whole serious doom & gloom vibe was of course MC who had the press and photographers in stitches laughing at her as she described her ‘’homely-frumpy’’ look and how Lee was determined to ‘’fugly’’ her up.
Straight after that MC was dragged upstairs to another suite where she and the female cast members and Oprah did a quick photo shoot for Instyle magazine after which MC was seated in a movie junket setting where she did 20-(yes 20!) back to back 5 minute interviews with every big Canadian and American broadcaster you can think of! Then they gave her an hour off before pulling her into hair and make up again as she was to attend 2 red carpets, a cocktail party and the movie screening that same night- now I understand why she often claims in jest ‘’ see how they’re abusing me!’’. Wow! That’s a crazy schedule!.
Funny moment was when Lee Daniels walked MC out of the 1st red carpet into his car without telling MC’s security and all hell broke loose as we chased her in following vehicles. That’s precious cargo he’s dealing with LOL! To add insult to injury-he took MC for a quick bite to the Canadian version of KFC-Swiss Chalet! Luckily they didn’t have time to stop and eat.
The screening was amazing with us sitting with Oprah and the cast up high in a box and to see Lee Daniels eyes crying at the end with joy was touching.
By the time MC finished at the screening she was knocked out with exhaustion!.
We were all bundled into a waiting convoy of huge black SUV’s and raced to the private airfield where the jet was waiting to zoom us back to her home town of NYC . Even though the flight was only 45 minutes MC was out like a light as soon as she slipped under her leopard print duvet.I-ever the opportunist- made our pilot read out parts of my show script over the tannoy on camera-oh yeah-I’m ALWAYS workin!.
MC was highly amused and laughed through her half sleep!
Once we touched down another set of big black cars sped us hastily through the dark inky New York night to MC’s crib.
In NYC, we slept until late the next morning before I cooked up some scrambled eggs on toast for brekky. We stayed at home that day and ate fruit salad and chilled out in the Carey-Cannons rooftop hot tub in our matching Chanel bathing suits. Mrs C relaxed as I placed my laptop on a towel at the side and actually worked on my script. Hey-its a new way of mixing business and pleasure.
Before MC went to bed she always insists on watching her hubby Mr C on Americas Got Talent-which he hosts. Ah-what a dutiful wifey eh?!
The next morning MC had to be up bright & early for a commercial shoot for which the storyline focused around her diva demands-I loved that she can laugh at herself!
Her puppies JJ and Cha Cha ended up starring in the piece too- that’s what you call a full on working family! To ensure the dogs weren’t worked too hard there was even a representative from the
Humane society there as well as their trainer-even the pups have an entourage!. (You know Americans have very script rules about puppy labour!)
I laughed at the fact that MC had just 2 words to say in the ad-nice work if you can get it!
Later that day MC had to have a full days vocal rest as she was preparing for her Oprah performance later that week so we hung out on the premise that we wouldn’t speak, and for the purposes of her team reading this column-we didn’t. Smile.
She gestured to me that she had to get through her ‘’to-do-list’’ at home. Now readers my to do list usually reads ‘’buy food, wash clothes, pay bills’’. MC’s said ‘’walk the dog, take a dip in the hot tub and watch a movie’’ .LOL!
MC slipped into something comfy- for me it would’ve been a ropey old shapeless sweatsuit, for her that meant a white satin floor length full Hollywood glamour negligee and frou frou Agent Provocateur slipper heels in which she did indeed walk the dog on her rooftop, take a dip in her hot tub and watch a movie-except her ‘’movie ‘’ of choice was to watch the DVD that Nick made of the 2 of them on repeat. Ah-they’re both soooo loved up.
The night before MC had to sing for the Oprah show in Central Park we didn’t think we would make the 6am sound check if we travelled all the way from her apartment to the park in early morning peak traffic so we slept at the Plaza Hotel, across the street from the park to ensure we wouldn’t be late. MC likes to read her Bible and watch a movie before hitting the pillow but alas the hotel were showing Sacha Baron Cohens movie Bruno which just had us busting up laughing and yelping at the nastyness!.
The next morning, the glam squad arrived bright and early-5am-or as MC would say ‘’bleakly early’’ and we all arrived at Oprahs set excited in anticipation for the show.
Before MC hit the stage a few very big names including L.A Reid came to wish her well in her star trailer at the side of the stage. Nick had raced from his L.A show the night before to the airfield where he had jumped onto a plane through the night and then raced to the park and got in just in time to hit the stage with his wife.
As MC sang her new single ‘’I want to know what love is’’, she shut all the non-believers who may have been questioning her recent vocal abilities up totally. I sat next to her mum Ms Carey (hi Pat!), who looked lovely and as proud as ever watching her legendary daughter onstage!.
Her voice was strong and sounded amazing even though the Central Park wind was rushing her hard.
Twitter was going crazy raving about how great she looked and how powerful she sounded and I just felt proud and happy that she had reached such another great milestone in her life.
A wonderful husband, a part in a film that has just made history by winning prizes at both the Sundance and Toronto’s film festivals, a fragrance that is outselling the best of them in its new cut glass shaped bottle and a brand new album ‘’Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’’ which is out this week and arguably one of her best works thus far, (and not just cos I get a name check either! LOL).
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