Has ex put Carey through rumor mills?
Mariah Carey's feud with her ex-husband, Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola, seems to have only heated up now that she's left his label. We hear the singer has been talking with her lawyers about suing Mottola for allegedly trying to undermine her new album with a whispering campaign - a charge he denies.
Even when they were married and she was on his label, Carey is said to have suspected Mottola of planting unflattering stories about her in the press. "They'd have a fight," says a source. "The next day, you'd read an item dissing her."
After their 1997 divorce, Carey spent years begging Mottola to let her out of her Sony contract. This year, Sony finally let her jump to Virgin. Now that her first feature film, "All That Glitters", and its soundtrack, "Glitter", are due in August, Carey believes the digs against her have "stepped up big time", according to one of her allies.
Friends of Carey suspect Mottola, using intermediaries, has been feeding the media rumors that she's having a diva war with Virgin artist Janet Jackson. They also claim the informants have leaked "early buzz" to reporters and radio programmers that Carey's movie and album are disappointing. Just last week, they note, Howard Stern mocked Carey as a "panicky" whiner. Stern later insisted, "I don't even speak to Tommy [Mottola]."
Word is that the contract releasing Carey from Sony bars either Carey or Mottola from speaking ill of the other. "Mariah and the people at Virgin are totally distressed about this," one source tells us. "Mariah's lawyers are looking to build a case that would charge Mottola and Sony with defamation and restraint of trade."
A spokeswoman for Carey declined to comment. Knocking Carey's "Glitter" album would seem to be counterproductive for Sony, since it has the rights to distribute the disk in Japan. A Sony spokeswoman says allegations that Mottola has it in for Carey "are completely untrue. Nothing of this sort has occurred. We are extremely proud of the work we have done in helping Mariah achieve the status of global superstar, and moving forward, we wish her great and continued success." (NY Daily News)
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