Thursday 3 July, 2008, 22:14 GMT | Posted by Alison

"I'LL BE LOVIN' YOU LONG TIME" ONLINE VIDEO PREMIERE

Mariah's new music video for her 3rd single off E=MC², "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" featuring T.I., premiered on Yahoo! Music earlier today. The video was shot in Oahu, Hawaii in early June by director Chris Applebaum. It will premiere on TV on BET's 106 & Park today at 6:00pm ET.

Please continue streaming the video online only at Yahoo! and AOL. Billboard has expanded its Hot 100 formula to include weekly streamed and on-demand music data from these two prominent sources of online music.



Source: Mariah Daily, Yahoo! Music

Thursday 3 July, 2008, 22:13 GMT | Posted by Alison

U.S. ALBUM SALES PLUNGE IN FIRST HALF

It wasn't as steep as last year's drop, but U.S. album sales posted another double-digit decline at midyear. Sales plunged 11% to 204.6 million units for the six months ending June 29, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That compares with 229.8 million units scanned in the first half last year, which was down 15.1% from the same period in 2006.

This year's drop was fueled largely by the 16.3% decrease in CD sales, but digital sales remained a bright spot. Downloads posted a 34.4% increase to 31.6 million units. Sales of digital tracks jumped 30% to 532.7 million units in the first half. That compares with the 417.3 million recorded in the six-month period ending July 1, 2007.

The top-selling album at midyear was rapper Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III", with 1.5 million scans in only three weeks of release. Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" was next at 1.2 million, followed by Mariah Carey's "E=MC2" at 1.1 million.

They were the year's only million-sellers at the midpoint, but two other discs were poised to join them: Alicia Keys' 2007 set "As I Am" (986,000 sold in 2008) and Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" (971,000 after only two weeks). Six albums had topped the million mark at this point last year.

Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" was the best-selling track at 2.6 million units. Flo Rida's "Low," featuring T-Pain, was second with 2.4 million, followed by Jordan Sparks "No Air" duet with Chris Brown, which clocked 2.1 million.

Source: Reuters/Billboard

Thursday 3 July, 2008, 22:12 GMT | Posted by Alison

KATY PERRY FENDS OFF JONAS BROS. ATOP HOT 100

Buoyed by increasing airplay, Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" starts a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week. "Girl" is the first song since Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" to simultaneously appear on the Mainstream Top 40, Rhythmic, Adult Top 40 and Alternative charts.

But there's some stiff competition from the Jonas Brothers this week, as their new single "Burnin' Up" debuts at No. 5, the second-best entry by a group this decade. Only Fall Out Boy's "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" started better when it debuted at No. 2 in February 2007.

In between, positions 2-4 (Lil Wayne's "Lollipop", Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" and Rihanna's "Take a Bow") remain the same as last week. Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" also holds at No. 6, while Plies' "Bust It Baby Pt. 2" featuring Ne-Yo rises 8-7, trading places with Chris Brown's "Forever".

Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas' "This Is Me", from the "Camp Rock" soundtrack, moves 11-9 in just its second week, while Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine" drops 5-10 to round out the top tier. Also new this week is Sugarland, Little Big Town and Jake Owen's cover of Dream Academy's '80s hit "Life in a Northern Town", which opens at No. 43. The track is No. 29 on Hot Country Songs. Jessica Simpson's "Come on Over", her first country foray, starts No. 65 on the Hot 100. It's No. 27 on Hot Country Songs this week.

Keyshia Cole's "Heaven Sent" rules Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for a fourth week. Rihanna's "Take a Bow" is the greatest airplay gainer there, rocketing 24-11. The top debut comes from Mariah Carey's "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" at No. 62, her 45th career entry on this chart.

Montgomery Gentry jumps 3-1 to overtake Hot Country Songs with "Back When I Knew It All". Billboard's rock charts are unchanged at the top, with Weezer's "Pork and Beans" at No. 1 on Modern Rock for a ninth week and Disturbed's "Inside the Fire" leading Mainstream Rock for a ninth as well.

Source: Billboard

Thursday 3 July, 2008, 22:10 GMT | Posted by Alison

MARIAH IN VEGAS?

From OK! Magazine:




Source: Mariah Daily, OK!

Wednesday 2 July, 2008, 22:12 GMT | Posted by Alison

IT'S GREAT TO BE MARIAH CAREY

Va-va-Mariah! As we go to press, the blogosphere is abuzz with Mariah's confirmation of her "secret" Bahamas wedding to the dreamy Nick Cannon - matching tattoos and all. Her latest smoking-hot album E=MC2 remains at the top of the charts, and she's never looked better (have you seen MC in a bikini lately?!). Yes, lambs, it's looking pretty fabulous to be Miss (Mrs?) Mariah Carey these days.
Our own Editor-at-Large Jasmine Dotiwala caught up with her best friend - our cover girl - before the latest media storm, to bring you inside the marvelous world of Mariah Carey. Read on...

Tell us about E=MC2.
This album, it's so much about fun and freedom and just the continuation of me feeling emancipated. It's sort of like emancipation equals Mariah Carey times two. This is me, 100 percent - having fun, just being real. People ask me all the time: "How do you stay relevant, how do you stay current, how do you make music that people continue to respond to?" You just keep being real, keep being you. Stay true to who you are from the beginning.

How was working on this project different from your last album?
It's really interesting because I didn't know what was going to happen with The Emancipation of Mimi. I was, of course, hoping for success, but the fact that it was such a massive Worldwide phenomenon - I was so grateful and thankful to God for that gift and that blessing, that getting back in the studio was really, you know I really prayed to have something that I could be proud of and that I could be really inspired to go in there every day and sing or write a new song.

If Mimi was dinner, this is dessert?
Me and my friends have a joke about "treat it as dessert" - that's kind of it's own little thing that we say. It's a long story, it's an inside joke I can't really say but, yes, if Mimi was dinner, treat this as dessert. Meaning it's the best part coming up.

Did you try anything new this time around?
It's hard to be really specific about it because music is, it's in the air, it's divine inspiration but I think what I did is just try to express myself from my soul. I tried to express myself from, like, having a sense of humour - and just really being myself. I think that's the most important thing that for a long time I wasn't able to do. When you can listen to your own music and put inside jokes in there, and put things that have been a part of my behind-the-scenes life in to a song - fans are getting a glimpse of me the person as well as the artist. So I think it's something very new for me.

Would you describe it as more Hip Hop or R&B?
It's so funny because ever since I did my first remix with ODB people have been saying "Wow, you're doing this new hip-hop thing." And I'm like: it's not new, it's what I've always loved, I'm just allowed to do it now. And a lot of people didn't know some of those hip-hop collaborations because they didn't listen to hip-hop radio or buy remixes. I just put the remix record out a few years ago, so some people never got to hear that 'till then. So now yes, there's a lot of hip hop flavour but there are definitely very powerfully sung, emotionally rich ballads. Some of these records are so powerful in terms of where they're coming from lyrically, the way that I just sang them: one time and that was it. Reminiscent of some times a long time ago when I would sing a song one time and just leave it and that was it because the emotion was there. And I think that's what's different about this record to maybe the past few albums.

Where did you record the album?
I recorded in a lot of places. Let's say I'm working with a big producer, I'm working on a track, I'll go to where they are usually, where they are inspired, and then I'll take the track and go sing some place like Capri or maybe Florida. I spent a lot of time in St. Martin, all different places this time on this record.

Why did you create the Emancipation of Mimi Live DVD?
I just wanted to share something different with the fans this time. I wanted to allow the cameras backstage; I wanted people to be able to see the dressing rooms and what that's like. I wanted everybody to be able to feel like they were with us on tour. Not just seeing the show but, you know, behind the scenes, feel like they're part of the show, feel like we're all like one big family. My fans are part of my family.

And the karaoke feature on the DVD?
It's been really amazing for me to watch how karaoke has become so popular around the world. It's fun and - it's cute - it's something fun to do.

Did you take a break after your last tour?
I actually did take a break and worked on an independent film called Tennessee (2008). I was very, very grateful to be offered that role of Krystal. The producer Lee Daniels has worked on so many incredible movies - obviously his biggest success being Monster's Ball, such a wonderful performance by Halle Berry which she won an Oscar for. I was just very fortunate to even meet Lee and to be able to work with him and everybody on Tennessee, guess I worked on that movie for a couple of months and after the movie I went straight into - it was really important for me to get right back in the studio. I felt like I'd taken a break from being Mariah Carey, I'd taken a break from being on tour because, even though I was still working on a movie, it's not the same as being in the studio. I love creating songs, and working in the studio, and putting that music out there for my fans.

Tell us about your new fragrance, M by Mariah Carey.
I was so excited to work on a fragrance because I've never even worn a fragrance before. I've never liked perfume until I started talking to the people at Elizabeth Arden about working together on a fragrance. It's called M and it's my favourite, favourite scent of all time.

How did you create a fragrance while working on new album?
I was very busy in the studio so it was really tough for me to take on a big project but we had a really great time and it was just something I wanted to share with my fans.

What was the inspiration behind the fragrance?
I guess it's inspired by a lot of different parts of my life: childhood, different vacations and places where I've been in my life. I don't know if they do this all over the world but in America we have different things like campfires and fun things like that when we're little kids and so it reminded me of toasting marshmallows over the campfire - that's just a little fun thing that kids do at camp and so that was one memory. And then of course the beautiful fragrance of the Tiare flower, as well as the low note in the fragrance - the more sultry, sexy, sensual part of the fragrance which is like a Moroccan incense. So it's all different types of feelings that are combined to make you, when you smell the fragrance it just evokes different feelings. You know, it's very sensual it also brings you back to different memories and the floral Tiera note is just wonderfully beautiful.

Is it more fun to be you now than in the past?
Yes it's definitely a lot more fun being "Mariah Carey" now than it was when I first started out. I was very young and people were kind of bossing me around and telling me what to do and it was more difficult to be myself. But, now, being able to make the music that I love, whether its singing a big ballad or doing an up-temp record that makes me happy. It's up to me to do what I want, and so it's fun.

Migrate - This is just a fun, festive song. It's about keeping it moving and having a good time. Every time I go into the studio, if I'm inspired by the track I'm working on and if I've put so much of myself into the record, at the end of the day I want it to be the most fun explosion of music that I can make.
Touch My Body - This is so amazing to feel how fast Touch My Body's exploding all around the world. I'm just so thankful because it's a song that I love so much, a song that really does express my personality, and I feel like you hear that song, you watch the video, you get a little bit of a glimpse of who I am as a person.
Last Kiss - When I hear that song, I feel like an eight-year-old kid. I'm like, OK this is me as a little girl singing. I was playing it at a party for a friend of mine who happened to have Quicy Jones as one of her guests there and Quincy asked me to rewind that song and play it over. And I said, "Well, he is Quincy Jones! Thriller and Off The Wall, and if he's asking me to play as song over I should pretty much take that as a humongous compliment!" And I did, and it makes me really happy 'cos that's my favourite song.
Bye Bye - Sometimes when I'm writing a song like Bye Bye it does come from such a raw place that I'm, like, I'm actually crying while writing it, or thinking about it. But sometimes I will hear it and feel like this is gonna touch a lot of people. That's why it's important that no matter what's ever happened to me over my career that I stay the course, and continue to write and try and reach people. Because I know that I'm one of those people, and when someone does that and they write something that touches me I'm indebted to them forever.
For The Record - One of my favourite songs on this album. It's one of those songs that the people who really are fans of mine, who really know my music really well, tend to gravitate towards because it's - not only is it kind of a real life story but I've used a lot of my own songs in the bridge to tell the story. Towards the actor I say "For the record you'll always be a part of me, you'll always be my baby." And I kind of go through "can't nobody say I didn't give my all to you". The real fans who listen and then hear "I told you underneath the stars" they'll know that's for them. I'm really happy that people are feeling this song.
Love Story - I love Jermaine Dupri as a person and I love him as a fan, I'm a fan of his work. One of the funny things about Jermaine is when I say something to him, he just runs with it. I said on the beginning of Love Story I really want this beat to be hard, make this for the jeeps, do not make this too soft. I wanna stay true to what I love most which is urban music and R&B music, and I feel that's the same thing that JD loves.
Thanks For Nothing - It was the first ballad I wrote for this album. This song is gonna resonate with people who are really going through a bleak moment in their relationship where it's like "yeah, it's fantastic, thanks for nothing". You know what that is, I mean I'm being very sarcastic; it's a sarcastic moment in the land of Mariah Carey songs.
I Wish You Well - This is in the tradition of songs like, I would say, Outside and I am Free - visual album cuts from different albums that all those people who aren't really fans won't know. Basically it's about coming to a place within yourself where you, no matter what somebody does to you, you can forgive them. And even if you're a little bit bitter about it you say your piece and you let it go.

Source: Ocean Style

Wednesday 2 July, 2008, 22:08 GMT | Posted by Alison

INSIDE THE WORLD OF THE CELEBRITY ASSISTANT

They're the unsung heroes of showbiz - the assistants who pander to every whim of Hollywood's pampered A-list. Guy Adams enters a world of paranoia, poodles, and lobster thermidor at 2am.

It was surprisingly straightforward to gatecrash the summer drinks party of the Association of Celebrity Personal Assistants. This secretive group had arranged to meet at The Farmer's Daughter, a fashionable but far-from-exclusive hotel on the outskirts of Beverly Hills. By arriving early and bagging a table adjacent to their reserved section, it was possible to eavesdrop on proceedings while nursing a cocktail and pretending to read that day's LA Times. Shortly before 6.30pm, the first guest arrived: a tall, elegant black woman whom I took to be Kimberly Logan. In her day job, Logan manages the life of a prominent TV comedian called Cedric the Entertainer. In her spare time, she's president of Acpa, as members call their organisation. This job carries considerable kudos. And as Logan had gently explained during several phone calls that week, it also confers the power to refuse journalists permission to attend Acpa events, even on an off-the-record basis. Next came a blonde in a summer dress. Then, a shorter fortysomething woman wearing jeans and sensible shoes. Going by online pictures, she closely resembled Becky Pentland, who is PA to Roseanne Barr, and one of Acpa's leading lights. In a bizarre love triangle, Pentland also happens to be married to Barr's ex-husband, Bill Pentland; I'm not sure how this arrangement works, since she'd been impossible to raise for an interview. But I'd sure like to find out. Acpa's members have one hell of a job. They are the bag-carriers, tit-tape holders, and herbal tea-makers to the Hollywood elite. They run homes, reign over private offices, and cope with the tackiness, tantrums and downright weirdness that accompanies extraordinary fame. They are integral to Hollywood folklore - and studying them is one of the few ways we can see what the biggest stars are really, really like. Where, for example, would our understanding of Jennifer Lopez be without the knowledge that she travels with not one, but two assistants (one to pluck each eyebrow)? Would Mariah Carey still be Mariah Carey without an entourage of nine, one of whose jobs is, reportedly, carrying her Evian? How differently might we still see Jude Law, if he hadn't been exposed for cheating on Sienna Miller with assistant Daisy Wright on a film set in New Orleans? How, more to the point, would celebrity culture exist without hard-pressed courtiers to provide the trappings of royalty to this modern breed of monarch? Could we, the public who lap up every detail of their lives - particularly the ugly bits - survive without the dirty laundry that gets washed each time a star's relationship with an assistant goes wrong? Because when that happens, things really do go properly wrong. This week, supermodel Christie Brinkley is locked in a Long Island divorce court facing her estranged husband Peter Cook, who ran off with his 18-year-old assistant Diana Bianchi in 2006. The couple had been married for a decade, raised a daughter together, and Cook was aged 47 at the time of the affair. Bianchi is due to give evidence for Brinkley's side. The Brinkley-Bianchi case, however, will serve as a mere entrée to the celebrity court case of the summer: the battle between Rob Lowe and two former assistants, Jessica Gibson and Laura Boyce, which returns to court within the next few days. Their extraordinary wrangle involves allegations of sexual harassment, casual racism, and a plot to extort money. The West Wing star stands accused of - and, it must be stressed, strongly denies - exposing himself to the teenaged Gibson, and "putting his hand inside her pants in order to touch her crotch". Acpa's latest "mixer/happy hour" event took place last Tuesday, as teams of lawyers put the finishing touches to their submissions in these high-profile cases. By 8pm, the gathering had swelled to roughly 20 people. It broadly reflected Acpa's 125-strong membership: three-quarters female, average age mid-to-late-thirties. Most wore casual, yet practical clothes: jeans and a blouse for the ladies; shirts for the men. (In Hollywood, super-assistant Josef Csongei had recently informed me, suits are strictly for agents - though "you might dress up if Nicole is coming round for dinner.") Topics of conversation included the impending actors' strike; Angelina Jolie's twins (they hadn't arrived last week, despite TV reports to the contrary); and a red-carpet security man who recently committed the faux pas of passing his business card to Val Kilmer in the hope of securing freelance work. As guests began dipping into the cocktail list, snippets of more colourful gossip began to emerge. Someone called Charlie "has terrible table manners". Tom (Hanks? Cruise? Petty?) wants to home-school his kids, and is scouting for a tutor. Minnie Driver's baby-shower, in Malibu last week, was "simply divine". Watching the evening unfold, It was plain that there's more to celebrity assistants than meets the eye; they are, perhaps, some of the great unsung heroes of public life. People brave enough to serve devotedly the likes of Naomi Campbell, who boasts a conviction for assault on a member of her staff, using a mobile phone. People clever enough to defuse the legendary tantrums of Tyra Banks - whose favourite former assistant, Bradford Sisk, runs her multi-million dollar production firm, Bankable. And while many commentators dismiss assistants as ghastly fame-junkies, or call them parasites feeding off a bloated Hollwood elite, the more you watch and learn about them, the more you realise that there's lots more to being a professional celebrity sidekick than meets the eye.

Suppose you woke one morning and decided to devote the rest of your career to organising a famous person's life. Your first step might involve a training seminar organised by Rita Tateel. About twice a year, Tateel runs a class for would-be celebrity assistants through The Learning Annex, an adult education centre in Los Angeles. This is the industry's version of Oxbridge. The seminar offers a step-by-step guide to "assistance", talking through ethics, work environments, and the 50 or so key professional skills it requires. Tateel highlights the job's benefits (glamour, travel, free luxury goods) and the drawbacks (long hours, stress, "people using you for whom you work" and "the loss of sense of self"). Broadly, though, her advice can be condensed into a single point: all assistants must eliminate the word "no" from their vocabulary. "If you gossip, it isn't the job for you," she says. "If you get sick, it isn't the job for you. You have to be organised. You have to be able to multi-task, and handle lots of serious pressure," she says. "Those are skills you either have or don't. I've done about 45 seminars. Most people come, take it, and afterwards say there's no way they'll ever be an assistant. But a few get to the end and go: 'Absolutely! That's exactly what I want to do with my life.' " According to a survey by Acpa, celebrity assistants earn between $30,000 (£15,000) and $105,000 a year (the average is $61,000). They work between six and 16 hours a day (the average is 10) and are expected to report for duty five to six days a week, normally, and seven days a week at "special" times. They travel constantly. The standard Hollywood assistant is 38 years old, female (81 per cent) and gets medical insurance (71 per cent) but not dental cover. In the unlikely event that Tateel has failed to dissuade you, and you still fancy pursuing a career as an assistant, the next step is to get hired. Famous people seldom advertise openly for staff; instead, they generally hire by word of mouth, or offer jobs to people they run into on, say, movie shoots. So, you could take a runner's job on a film set or in a music studio and hope to get picked up. But it's not a given. A more reliable policy might be to join the books of a specialist recruitment firm, such as Malibu-based Celebrity Services and Staffing (CSS), run by Jessica Doran, Salma Hayek and Kristen Johnston's former assistant. Doran's website boasts glowing endorsements from both her former employers. Salma Hayek claims that "CSS is essential to everyone who wants balance in their life". Kristen Johnson is more gushing, describing her as a "sanity touchstone" and "the classiest, kindest, most discreet (not to mention fun) person I've ever had the pleasure of working with!" Good assistants, Doran says, have three qualities: they need to be an executive assistant (someone who runs an office), a personal assistant (the person who books doctors' appointments and answers party invitations) and an estate manager, normally for several homes. "I also look for people who aren't critical," she says. "Assistants are going to be in a celebrity's life a long time, and it's important they realise that not everybody's perfect. Celebrities might get overweight or have problems and don't want someone around who will be negative or critical behind their back." Doran works like any head-hunter. She carries out background checks. She interviews potential candidates, examines their credit history, establishes that they don't have a criminal record. She tailors searches individually - and for this, she charges between 12 and 15 per cent of the first year's salary. That may seem a little steep, but famous people can be demanding. Last year the TV documentary Victoria Beckham: Coming to America revealed how Britain's celebrity queen vetted applicants for her PA's job to make sure they weren't too thin. Cynics at the time wondered if it had something to do with that Rebecca Loos business involving her husband. "I know how to weed out bad candidates," adds Doran. "If they start gossiping about Cher, or discuss anyone they work for, that is a big no-no. And hey, I'm sure someone like Rob Lowe wouldn't mind paying not to have a bad assistant in his life any time in the future."

In a recent TV documentary, The Business of Being Born, the chat-show host Ricki Lake recalled her decision to bring son Owen into the world via a home water-birth. Smiling joyously at the camera, she joked: "Still, to this day, my assistant talks about how she had to clean up the bathtub afterwards!" To cynics, this summed up all one needs to know about life as a Hollywood assistant. The impossible intimacy; the menial, and occasionally disgusting tasks you're expected to perform. The soul-destroying way that no one, not even your employer, refers to you publicly by name. You are simply "my assistant" - the non-person who gets to clean up Ricki Lake's afterbirth. Speak to those in the profession, though, and a different picture emerges. Assistants are for the most part happy; they feel deep affection for their employers, and are generally well treated. They're in a glamorous line of work, and if that means occasional unpleasantness, then so be it. Bonnie Low-Kramen has worked for Olympia Dukakis for 22 years, and recently published a manual called Be the Ultimate Assistant. "People like me are seen as a luxury, or an indulgence, or some sort of fashion accessory," she says. "That's a complete myth. By having an assistant, a celebrity gets free time to make more money, and who doesn't want to do that?" "By employing me, Olympia gets to do things that only she can do." "I take care of all the other stuff. Only she can learn her lines, for example, or go to dress fittings - though I did once go to an eye doctor to check that her frames fitted. But why should Olympia Dukakis spend her time worrying that the cleaner's coming, or paying household bills?" Low-Kramen has become friends with Dukakis - "I was at her kids' weddings, her family came to my son's bar mitzvah" - but is anxious to stress that their relationship is "primarily business". She takes a dim view of assistants who end up facing former employers in court, and says that it's often when the borders between a friendship and a business relationship get blurred that conflict ensues. Plenty of assistants do become matey with their boss, though. "Some get helplessly involved, like one woman I met who had looked after Sharon Stone, and then Dennis Hopper," says Jake Halpern, who interviewed dozens of assistants while researching his book on modern celebrity, Fame Junkies. "Then you get some others, like Nick Nolte's assistant, who struck me as much more professional; but then, Nolte isn't the kind of man who'd send you out because he desperately wants lobster thermidor at two in the morning." Others struggle to achieve friendship at all. Lilit Marcus, an ex-assistant (she's unable to name her former employer for legal reasons) runs an internet site called savetheassistants.com, which provides a sort of support service for disillusioned sidekicks. Her site contains links to assistant "horror stories" elsewhere such as on Perezhilton.com, which recently claimed that David Hasselhoff's assistant's duties include handing his business card to eligible women in LA nightclubs. "The worst side of it is where assistants become another form of wealth, to be shown off," she says. "Like in the new Sex and The City film, where Carrie gets an assistant a sort of fashion accessory to prove that she can afford not to do menial tasks." Without exception, though, experts say the most convincing cinematic portrayal of a celebrity assistant was that achieved by Ann Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada. "One of my favourite parts is when she's talking to her boyfriend and the phone rings, and she gets ready to answer it, knowing it's going to be her boss," says Shelley Anderson, assistant to Oprah Winfrey's favourite self-help guru Louise L Hay and author of the book Dealing With Divas. "Her boyfriend says the person you are really having the relationship with here is not me, it's the celebrity. That is so true. Because to do this job, you'd better not have any plants, pets or people in your life. It's a can-do career and you've got to be prepared to sacrifice everything. But don't give the impression that we hate it; people like me wouldn't do it if we did."

Back at The Farmer's Daughter, the can-do brigade is letting its hair down, in a very "can do" manner. A small mountain of mobile telephones and BlackBerrys are lying on tables, and they are not hitting the bottle in the manner of, say, a group of city PAs during a night out in London's West End. But Acpa is not merely a social organisation. It exists to help members do their job better. The association's website boasts a (private) bulletin board, where members can post requests for help, and carries job ads. The organisation also publishes its own Yellow Pages: a directory of suppliers and services (anything from discreet plumbers to good tennis coaches). "You want an example of how we're useful?" said Kimberly Logan, during a phone call when I'd wondered out loud what sort of person might decide to join a masonic-sounding organisation for celebrity assistants. "One time a TV star wanted dancing poodles for a child's birthday party. Her assistant had no idea where to go for them, but a 'help me' message got posted on our website, and she found one in hours." Perhaps, then, something like Acpa is just a natural by-product of an industry that requires perfectly ordinary people to be incredibly resourceful. Watching celebrity assistants in a herd - often the best way to observe human behaviour - they certainly seem smart, respectable, and hard-working. "The biggest myth is that we're mindless, brainless people who just get told what to do," adds Logan. "You see these movies that show us being ordered to make coffee, and suddenly people think we do a stupid job. In fact, most of our members have college degrees, some have a Masters, and one has a doctorate." Logan particularly dislikes a recent genre of pulp novels, bearing titles like Chore Whore and It's All Your Fault. Actually, people like Logan are nobody's chore whore. Instead, they a weirdly varied lot, who play a variety of roles - from Waylon Smithers to their bosses' Montgomery Burns (The Simpsons), to Anthony Hopkins in Remains of the Day, who remains calm when all around are losing their heads. And without proper assistants, stars tend to fall off the rails (witness Britney Spears or Amy Winehouse). The problem is that like any courtiers, they can corrupt the people they serve. "Assistants make sure these people who employ them never hear any negative feedback. And that's very dangerous," says Jake Halpern. "A Cornell psychiatrist has identified a condition called acquired situational narcissism, whereby over long periods of time, if you are constantly in a situation where you're only told what you want to hear, it has a corrosive affect on your psyche. You become prone to rage and paranoia, or start doubting what you're told. And that is why celebrities have tantrums." Even Rita Tateel admits fame breeds insecurity. "I've been working with celebrities for 20 years, and they are the most insecure people on the planet, for one reason: if you consider putting yourself in their shoes, and stepping outdoors and find people are always very nice to you. Well, you have no idea if they are being sincerely nice, or if they have a hidden agenda and want to get close to you because fame is power. So part of being famous is tremendous insecurity." And it is while getting lost in these thoughts at The Farmer's Daughter that I look up to see one of the guests at the Acpa party, and notice (to my horror) that it is Josef Csongei, a former assistant to Stanley Kramer and Diane Ladd, whom I'd interviewed during an off-the-record lunch the previous day. I duck behind the LA Times, but am pretty sure I catch his eye, and that it registers a look of astonishment. About five minutes later, a waiter approaches with the bill, saying my table's been booked for dinner. Am I being thrown out? It's difficult to say, but it certainly feels that way. The world of the celebrity assistant is, by its very nature, an exclusive one, and I had certainly not been invited into it.

Source: The Independent

Wednesday 2 July, 2008, 22:06 GMT | Posted by Alison

"BYE BYE" TOPS MYX WEEKLY COUNTDOWN

"Bye bye" rose a spot this week to check in the penthouse of the MYX Weekly Top 20 countdown. While the song had continously gone down in the Billboard Hot 100 (#49 this week), the song is relatively doing better in the Philippines. The song is also #1 for two consecutive days in the MYX Daily Top 10 countdown (June 26 and 27).

In related news, MYX, a local music telivision channel, will feature Mariah in MYX Presents this July 3 and 10, 9 pm. They will show an exclusive interview with Mariah when she was in Japan earlier this month.

Source: Mariah Carey Philippines

Wednesday 2 July, 2008, 22:05 GMT | Posted by Alison

E=MC2 ALBUM TRAJECTORY & SALES

United States (01-01-02-05-06-07-08-13-21)
Argentina (10-OUT)
Australia (02-11-21-28-36-39-46-OUT)
Austria (08-36-30-56-69-OUT)
Canada (01-04-08-09-14-18-26-42-50)
Denmark (18-34-OUT)
France (06-17-23-25-35-51-62-78-93-112)
Germany (07-22-38-48-65-90-92-OUT)
Greece (20-09-10-06-OUT)
Ireland (07-13-25-39-68-51-66-84-OUT)
Italy (09-15-22-29-52-49-94-83-99-OUT)
Japan (07-09-11-11-16-26-15-21-24-37-56)
Mexico (43-56-53-60-OUT)
New Zealand (10-20-25-20-29-24-30-36-40-OUT)
Netherlands (11-17-28-42-50-51-61-85-OUT)
Norway (20-OUT)
Portugal (15-OUT)
Spain (16-30-65-71-95-OUT)
Sweden (22-40-50-58-58-OUT)
Switzerland (05-10-15-22-36-50-43-59-78-OUT)
United Kingdom (03-05-12-23-46-49-51-61-OUT)

*All chart peaks/runs are on the overall charts of each country and not the international charts*

Official/Estimated* Total Sales:
United States - 1,046,000
Japan - 136,500
United Kingdom - 88,000
Canada - 48,000*
France - 38,500*
Brazil - 23,000 (shipment)
Australia - 20,000*

Certifications:
Japan - Gold (100,000)
United Kingdom - Gold (100,000)
Australia - Gold (35,000)
Philippines - Gold (10,000)
Thailand - Gold (9,000)

Source: Mariah Daily