Mottola's new deal could upset Mariah
I told you several weeks ago, months ago even, that Tommy Mottola had a new deal at Universal Music Group. It was back in April that Mottola managed to get a magazine article about Universal's Doug Morris spiked. His reward was a record deal with Morris. The article at fledgling Radar never materialized. Score one for Mottola.
Today, Morris announced that Mottola will run a revived version of the old Casablanca Records for him. Casablaca's big acts were Donna Summer and Kiss. Of course there are bigger ramifications for Mottola at UMG than just getting a new label.
For one thing, Mottola's ex, Mariah Carey, escaped his clutches by signing with Universal herself. Mariah has a label there, Monarch Records, run by Mottola's former promotions man, Jerry Blair. Carey and Blair would prefer to never be in the same room again with Mottola.
And Morris may have some other tricks up his sleeve regarding Mottola. Lyor Cohen, head of UMG's Def Jam Records, is currently renegotiating his contract. He's also got a bunch of legal problems. Could Morris be thinking that Mottola's new deal will eventually include Def Jam? If so, Carey and Blair would be in the strange position of reporting to Mottola!
Last on the Mottola front is the question of Michael Jackson. Jacko has pursued going to the Universal Group for a while. But last year when he and Mottola were at Sony, he labelled the exec "devilish". Well, this could be Mottola's most devilish move of all. (Fox 411)
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