Mariah Carey Drops the Diva Act, Picks Up Some Self-Confidence

By Alicia Sparks
October 1, 2009

Mariah Carey promotes her new fragrance 'Forever' at Macy's Herald Square

Over the past several months, I’ve paid a little attention to some of the things floating around the social media and networking scene (specifically Twitter) regarding Mariah Carey.

I’m not a Carey fan (well, I haven’t been since that MTV episode of Cribs in which she refused to allow the cameras to shoot Marilyn Monroe’s famous white piano she purchased at the 1999 Christie’s Auction “The Personal Property of Marilyn Monroe” - yeah, it was years ago, and yeah, Carey has since stopped being oddly secretive about it, but, whatever - don’t judge me), but most of the talk was about Carey’s sleeping habits - rather, her nonsleeping habits - and so I paid attention. In addition to catching @ replies encouraging Carey to get some Zzzzs, various blogs from the celebrity-oriented I’m Not Obsessed! to Dr. Michael J. Breus’s The Insomnia Blog picked up on the issue.

Whether Carey stopped staying up all night and then working out at 5 a.m., I have no clue. I hope so. Insomnia sucks.

What I do know, however - or, what Yahoo! tells me - is that whether or not Carey’s sleeping properly, she’s learned not only how to drop the diva act and stop focusing so much on her appearance, but how beneficial it is to do that.

For Precious, Carey’s upcoming film with fellow musician Lenny Kravitz, director Lee Daniels - who was well aware of Carey’s diva behavior - warned the singer/actress that coming in to work with so much as a shred of makeup on would get her the boot.

Carey listened, and apparently it paid off in more ways than one.

But more importantly for Carey, the role helped her shed some of the insecurities that not only hindered her in acting, but in her real life.

“That was such a freeing experience for me,” Carey says during a recent interview. “By making me look so bad he brought out the ability to never be self-conscious again, and that was a gift that he gave me.”

After years of striving to reach an ideal — from her personal life to her music career — Carey, 39, is embracing life’s imperfections, an attitude summed up by the title of her latest album, “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel.” (Yahoo! Movies)

Perhaps Carey will have two things to celebrate once Precious is released in November - a boost in confidence in who she is, and not what she looks like, as well as a film credit worthy enough of making us overlook Glitter. Rolling Stone claims the trailer alone “makes amends.” We’ll see