THEY’RE ALL BIG STARS, BUT HOW DO OUR FAVOURITE FEMALE CELEBS REALLY MEASURE UP. HERE’S THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT...

Tina O’Brien - 5ft 1in
SHE may be big in Weatherfield but the 23-year-old Corrie actress is actually so short it’s a wonder she can see over the Rover’s Return bar.

Charlotte Church - 5ft 2ins
WITH 6ft rugby star Gavin Henson as her boyfriend, the 20-year-old Crazy Chick has to rely on killer heels to get within kissing distance of her hunk.

Eva Longoria - 5ft 2ins
THE 31-year-old Desperate Housewives star proves you don’t have to be an amazonian model to win an army of male admirers. She says: "I’m short, I’m dark-skinned and I don’t fit the classic sex symbol mode."

Madonna - 5ft 4ins
SHE is one of the biggest stars in the world, but the 48-year-old Queen of Pop is one of the smallest stars in the flesh.

Victoria Beckham - 5ft 5ins
IN her mini with long legs on show, it’s easy to mistake Posh, 32, for being tall. She says: "I was never a 6ft pin-up. I’m the girl next door who got lucky."

Jade Goody - 5ft 6ins
SHE’S got a huge personality and the former Big Brother star has the height to match... Well, nearly.

Kate Moss - 5ft 7ins
KATE’S one of the world’s most successful models, but the 32-year-old is short for a catwalk queen. Most agencies wouldn’t look at anyone under 5ft 9ins.

Mariah Carey - 5ft 9ins
SHE’s comes across as a girly sex kitten but Mariah, 36, is so tall she struggles to find men to date who are taller than her. "I’m pretty tall so I usually end up with guys smaller than me," she sighs.

Katie Holmes - 5ft 9ins
TOM Cruise always goes for women taller than himself, but at 5ft 9ins the 28-year-old actress is a good two inches bigger than her fiance. Katie says she was "tall and gawky" in school but she has grown into a Hollywood beauty.

Uma Thurman - 6ft
THE 36-year-old casts a shadow over many of her leading men. Describing herself she says: "Tall, sandy blonde, skinny in places, fat in others."

Source:Daily Mirror.

I just got that Mariah videos DVD and thought I should let you know, if you didn’t already know, the tracklisting is different from listed on Play:

1. Heartbreaker (version with Jay-Z cameo)
2. Heartbreaker (remix with Da Brat & Missy Elliott)
3. One Sweet Day
4. When You Believe
5. Whenever You Call (Butterfly tour montage)
6. My All/Stay Awhile
7. Honey (Bad Boy Remix)
8. All A Want For Christmas Is You
9. My All
10. Breakdown
11. Always Be My Baby
12. Forever (Daydream tour montage) - has the beginning missing too!!!!
13. Boy (I Need You)
14. Shake It Off
15. It’s Like That
16. We Belong Together
17. Through The Rain
18. I Know What You Want
19. Anytime You Need A Friend (Remix)
20. Hero

The whole collection has terrible visual quality and not even worth the little you have to pay for it.

Source:Kerry.

The following Mariah video’s are featured on UK Yahoo Launch’s online video chart:

The below calendars are available from UK based Calendar Club:

Sales for the week came in at 966 units.

Sales for the album at close of play, 23 September 2006, now stand at 39,487 units.

Source:February Sky

MARIAH RE-ENTERS UK CHARTS
After a short break, Mariah re-enters the Official UK R&B Albums chart with "The Remixes" at #30.

Source:February Sky.

I thought it'd be nice to have a little baby update... I'm feeling a little better I've been getting really bad morning sickness - at night ugh! I'm finding out all these foods that I once loved but I now I can't stand, it's really hard getting used to it all!

I saw my midwife today. It was OK but she didnt seem very interested also because it's my second pregnancy I won't see her again until February next year! Ugh... until the next time... .

Source:February Sky.

As you can see from the recent updates I'm finally back online! However, 2 weeks ago I found out I'm pregnant with my second baby . It's early days but I don't have as much time and energy to put into this site as I once did. Therefore from now on, unless any major news breaks I'll only be updating the site with news from the UK an Ireland. I hope you all understand. This site will never close and maybe in a while I'll feel up to doing a bit more... Thanks for everything ...

Source:February Sky.

Fans of X-Factor should tune in today to see Debbie from Yorkshire sing When You Believe by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.

Source:Daily Record.

Below is the schedule of Mariah’s scheduled appearances on UK TV in the coming few days:

FHM: We Salute You Mariah Carey
Tuesday 26 September
4:00pm - 4:15pm
Q

Tuesday 26 September
7:00pm - 7:30pm
Q

Source:February Sky.

Last we heard, Mariah Carey was getting a high-fashion makeover courtesy of American Vogue – if she did, it appears she’s forgotten all their advice already. Kicking off her new Emancipation of Mimi tour in Miami, Mariah looked like a fashion car crash up on stage in her Bridget Jones-style pants, bra and, yes you did see correctly, flowing black cape. Is a close-up view of this outfit worth the front-row ticket price alone?

Seeing Mariah Carey’s big show last night got me thinking about divas and their spectacular diva concerts.

No man can compare to the sheer scale of grandiosity and display of ego that is a diva working her trade - usually on a magnificent stage drawn from childhood fantasies of the ultimate Barbie Dream Tour.

Countless spectacular diva events from Madonna to Beyonce to Gwen Stefani to Tina Turner and back through the ages attest to that. Trends may change, but the full-blown diva spectacle remains a powerful draw. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger and more fabulous.

A respectable crowd of 12,500 turned up to witness the celebration of herself that is the Mariah Carey experience - the lights, the sounds, the dancers (great dancers), the costumes, the excitement! The closest comparison would have to be the farewell tour put on by Cher.

Consider the following:

WIGS:
Mariah: None needed.
Cher: Each more gravity-defying than the last.

HOTNESS:
Mariah: Plenty. Not many divas would perform in nothing but a cape, black bikini and high heels.

Cher: She was, once.

KNOWN BY ONE NAME:
Cher: Yes.

Mariah: Sort of.

GENERAL FABULOUSNESS:
Cher: Absolutely.

Mariah: Off the scale.

THE VOICE:
Cher: Braying donkey.

Mariah: Five-octave freak of nature as pure as the sweat of angels.

Other than that, they’re exactly the same - divas through and through.

After an opening set from rapper Busta Rhymes - whose coarse yet charming ways threw the headliner into even sharper, more fabulous relief - this show was all about Mariah. The songs came second.

It opened with a film where she talked about herself, comparing her life to a roller-coaster and offering wisdom like "eventually you have to face your fears." No you don’t, but let’s move on.

The stage was as fabulous as we expected it to be: old-fashioned theatre curtains, sweeping ramps down the sides, the whole thing shaped like a giant "M" and the giant video screens, which, when not showing Mariah herself, would show a cartoon of Mariah or some other Mariah-related image.

And don’t forget the rising platform where Mariah made her grand entrance. Divas must always enter the stage on a rising platform of some sort. Preferably shrouded in fog and dazzling colour. In this case, it was a number called It’s Like That. She sang a few notes, shouted "whassup, Edmonton?" - not for the last time - and started to really sing as glittery dancers writhed around her.

The latest diva spectacle was underway.

Mariah hit the "Star Search" moment early, unleashing a barrage of high notes so sweet they brought tears to the eyes of the toughest security man. Those pipes really went into overdrive in the love ballads - the high diving act we had all come to see. Songs like Heartbreaker and My Own featured notes so high they could only be heard by dogs, others that shattered every piece of glass in the arena. Yes, I exaggerate, but the point is made: Mariah can sing.

By the time the giant lighted "MIMI" was lowered - Mimi is Mariah’s nickname, as made clear on her comeback album, The Emancipation of Mimi - I was wondering whether any substance could get past all this diva dazzle. There were times when potential soul was lost in a sea of glitter and blithering talent demanding to be shown off. She ruined the ending of one ballad by pausing for cheers after flurries upon flurries of notes, all rendered meaningless, undone by her own ego. How ironic.

But do divas ever create meaningful music that is remembered after they’re gone? Sometimes. For now, the diva spectacle seems to be the most important thing for Mariah.

BONUS DIVA ITEM: On Mariah’s orders, security was hassling fans about the "no cameras" rule, despite the fact that every person here seemed to have a camera in their cellphone - none of which were capable of taking a good picture from 50 feet away in a darkened arena. Geez.

Source:The Edmonton Sun.

When Mariah Carey shimmies onto the Saddledome stage Monday, few will recall the teetering, twittering diva doling out popsicles and stripping as a stupefied Carson Daly gawked on in disbelief.

But at the time, a mere five years ago, the meltdown on MTV’s Total Request Live -- after which she was hospitalized for extreme cleavage, er, sorry "exhaustion" -- had all the makings of a spectacularly ungraceful swan song to an until-then gold-plated career.

"I just want one day off when I can go swimming and eat ice cream and look at rainbows," she told Daly.

Yes, Mariah, don’t we all. But coming off her notorious flop Glitter, there would be few days of ice creams and rainbows ahead for the free-falling superstar. The following year, Virgin Records bought out her contract for a reported $28 million US. And her follow-up album Charmbracelet was appropriately charmless.

Given this, few would have foreseen that, with the release of 2005’s The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey would find herself once again catapulted to Grammy-grabbin’ chart-topping heights.

Carey had survived choppy waters before, of course -- notably her marriage and divorce to Sony boss Tommy Mottola, which in turn led to her transformative Butterfly album on which she first dipped daintily into urban hip-hop sounds.

But with Mimi, she proved there’s hope even for the most-beleaguered of stars (cue Lindsay Lohan) to wipe the slate clean and start anew on the cycle of celebrity. Comeback glory is only a few key self-help steps away.

Disappear
Absence makes the heart grow fonder after you’ve mixed popsicles and stripping -- two great tastes that should never go together. Wisely, after the hyper-publicized meltdown suffered by the songstress and her breasts, she did what every celebrity needs to do after skydiving off the deep end. She went away.

Don’t stretch
Carey’s career rocketed off the rails shortly after she ventured onto the big screen with Glitter, a movie so bad it was like porn without the nudity. The result? It plunged faster than one of her necklines. With The Emancipation Of Mimi, Carey wasn’t attempting anything new or inventive. Rather, the New Mariah was very much the Old Mariah -- albeit with considerably more jiggle and junk -- retrenching herself as pop’s reigning diva in the face of such whippersnappers as Kelly Clarkson.

Keep your private life private
Although Carey has been romantically linked at one time or another -- falsely or not -- to everyone from Eminem to Vin Diesel, she has managed to avoid a Bennifer-sized debacle, although one wonders what name would have been granted to either union. Miminem? Viniah?

Don’t marry Bobby Brown
No one should really have to be told this, of course. But then, that’s probably what Whitney Houston’s family said to themselves 15 years ago.

Remember you’re a star
Stars are North America’s royalty, of course. No princes or kings here, just movie and rock stars. So while, yes, everyone loves to see celebrities without make-up or grovelling for redemption (get ready for your close-up, Mel Gibson), they also like to see them behave in such a way that justifies their extravagant lifestyles. Unlike, say, Britney Spears, Carey’s wealth fits her as snugly as the teensy-weensy, diamond-studded Underoos she shrink-wraps her voluminous self in.

Know people are fickle
And that, as much as they’ll love to see you comeback, they’ll also enjoy seeing you shredded -- hence, recent stories deriding Carey’s choice of concert wardrobe (black bra and cape, apparently) and questioning her popularity considering sluggish sales in some U.S. and Canadian markets. What Carey knows through experience is that all she has to do is last for a couple more years. By then, it’ll be just about time for a comeback.

Source:The Calgary Sun.

Young singer JoJo set a new Hot 100 record with the biggest jump into the top three, as "Too Little Too Late" zoomed 63 places to No. 3, fueled by digital sales; Mariah Carey’s "Loverboy" held the previous record, with a 60-2 move in August 2001.

Source:Yahoo News.

"Fly Like A Bird" slips down to No.3 on Billboard’s Urban AC Airplay Chart in the United States.

Source:February Sky.

Mariah Carey, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Black Eyed Peas and Nickelback each earned three nominations for the 2006 American Music Awards, taking the lead in the music industry’s trophy festival.
For the second consecutive year, Mariah Carey, "The Emancipation of Mimi," diva is up for Favorite Female Artist in both the Pop/Rock and Soul/Rhythm & Blues categories, as well as a nod for Favorite Album in the latter category.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, who also led the nominations for last month's MTV Video Music Awards, are competing for Favorite Artist in the Alternative Music category, and Favorite Band, Duo or Group and Favorite Album for their "Stadium Arcadium" in the Pop/Rock field. Their primary challenger in all three races seems to be Nickelback.
The Black Eyed Peas were nominated for favorite rap/hip-hop band, and favorite album "Monkey Business" in both the rap/hip-hop and soul/R&B categories.
Nine artists received two nominations each: Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kanye West, Jamie Foxx, T.I., Rascal Flatts, Pussycat Dolls, Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.
Winners will be picked by a survey of about 20,000 listeners. The awards will be given out in a Nov. 21 ceremony in Los Angeles that will be broadcast live on ABC from the Shrine Auditorium. Enditem

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Mariah Carey: MTS Centre
Sept. 19, 2006
Attendance: 10,000
3 1/2 out of 5 stars

SUPERSTAR Mariah Carey showed off two of her biggest assets at the MTS Centre last night: her powerful vocals and her dancing skills.
The 36-year-old diva’s first local appearance was a full-on spectacle of glitter and glamour as Carey dazzled a crowd of 10,000 fans -- covering a surprisingly wide demographic, male and female, young and old --on her comeback Adventures of Mimi Tour.

After suffering a very public breakdown following the flop of her debut movie Glitter, the most successful female artist of the 1990s roared back to the top of the pop world with last year’s Emancipation of Mimi, the top-selling album of 2006 with over six-million units sold so far.

The crazy Carey days of 2001 -- when she famously pranced around MTV handing out popsicles dressed only in a T-shirt and posted bizarre messages on her website -- are over and these days the surgically enhanced diva with the fake tan is back prancing around stages all over the world dressed in other skimpy outfits.

She addressed the ebbs and flows of her 16-year career during an opening video featuring a roller coaster with a voice-over about life’s ups and downs before Carey took the stage to the club-thumping sounds of the first track from the new album, It’s Like That, dressed only in a sparkling black bra and panty combo, high heels and a cape. She was surrounded by four dancers with flashlights who whirled around her on the top of a two-tiered stage flanked by two winding staircases which led down to the main-tier where her four-piece band played.

Carey seemed comfortable in the lingerie -- she obviously wasn’t hanging outside yesterday -- and remained nearly naked for the hit Heartbreaker off 1999’s Rainbow. The disco-esque number was the first of many times Carey would show off her multi-octave range and vocal hysterics; she has an amazing voice, but sometimes the high-pitched squeal she belts out is simply annoying. Think of the sound a cat makes when its tail is stepped on and you have a good idea of the shrieks Carey is fond of making. She kept up the vocal gymnastics on Dreamlover, but through binoculars in the press box Carey’s own backing vocals being played through the P.A. made it appear she was lip-synching at times.

She turned the microphone on to slow things down for the sultry R&B of 1997’s My All before a giant Kiss-inspired lighted Mimi sign dropped from the rafters for the funky slow-burner Shake it Off with Carey prowling across the stage while her dance crew twisted around her.

Then she was gone to change and D.J. Clue kept the crowd interested with some old dance floor standards before the star returned dressed in a skin-tight diamond-studded full-length canary yellow gown with a sliver of fabric connecting the bodice to the bottom, still revealing the sides of her trim stomach and back, to deliver her 1990 breakthrough single Vision of Love, another ballad which showcased her outstanding range.

Because the show started almost half-an-hour late press time came in the middle of the Jackson 5 tear-jerker I’ll Be There with Trey Lorenz. She had been following the setlist of her most recent shows, so fans could still expect three songs on a B-stage in the middle of the arena floor, a medley of old hits and at least two more costume changes.

Rapper Busta Rhymes started the night with a 45-minute set of commercially friendly hip-hop which included plenty of crowd interaction and a censored version of his hit I Love My B--h.

Rhymes, joined by fellow rapper Spliff Star and a DJ both wearing identical black and white shirts decorated with the name of his latest album, spoke almost as much as he rapped, spewing out gibberish about the hot girls in the crowd and other sexual innuendoes which got the audience screaming and shouting along.

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Below are the number of weeks, Mariah’s albums have spent on the Billboard Hot 200 Chart:

128 Weeks - Music Box
112 Weeks - Mariah Carey
81 Weeks - Daydream
74 Weeks - Emancipation of Mimi
61 Weeks - #1’s
58 Weeks - MTV Unplugged EP
55 Weeks - Emotions
55 Weeks - Butterfly
36 Weeks - Rainbow
22 Weeks - Charmbracelet
17 Weeks - Merry Christmas
12 Weeks - Glitter
11 Weeks - Greatest Hits
05 Weeks - The Remixes

Total: 727 Weeks - 13.91 years

Source:February Sky.

Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, John Travolta and Jake Gyllenhaal are among 40 celebrities who have signed wooden "dog bones" for a charity auction benefiting the Mississippi Animal Rescue League.

The celeb-signed bones will be auctioned off Thursday at the organization’s second annual Fur Ball event. Proceeds will go to constructing a new animal shelter, said Allison Nutt, a MARL board member and chairman of the Fur Ball event committee.

"It was time to find a location where we could grow for the future," said Debra Boswell, MARL director. The group currently operates one shelter, where dogs and cats are segregated but share the same room. The new facility would separate the animals and would include outdoors space as well.

The organization started sending out the wooden bones in February to celebrities along with a note explaining the cause. The first bone signed and returned was from Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman, who lives in Tallahatchie County in northern Mississippi.

Nutt said some celebrities included personal messages or photos with the bones.

Gyllenhaal has often be photographed walking his dogs, Atticus, a German Shepherd, and Boo Radley, a puggle. The actor’s autograph was accompanied by his dogs’ paw prints, Nutt said.

Mariah Carey signed the bone and added her pooch’s name, Jack, as well.

Nutt said some celebrities painted the bones, including country singer Brad Paisley and wife actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley. The couple decorated the bone with a barn scene with dogs and rolling hills.

Other celebrities who signed bones include Matthew McConaughey, James Caan, Leann Rimes, Betty White, Dr. Phil McGraw, Eric McCormack and "Dog Whisperer" Cesar Milan.

MARL cares for 16,000 animals a year, Boswell said. Last year’s Fur Ball earned about $58,000, but with an estimated 500 attendees this year Nutt hopes the event will raise close to $75,000.

On the Net: Mississippi Animal Rescue League: http://www.msarl.org/

Source:Chippewa Herald.