Walking out on Mariah Carey
Mariah who? Doesn't she know I am Richard Abowitz! That would be with an A as in apple and then B as in boy. OK, so what if I totally lack fame, that doesn't mean I am going to live on diva time. Of course, keeping people waiting, even to your own party, is what celebrities get to do in Vegas. VIPs can do most anything short of organize armed memorabilia recovery raids.
Last night Mariah Carey hosted a birthday party at Pure at Caesars for her husband, Nick Cannon. Then neither of them showed up. Well, they arrived but not on the day listed on the press release for the event, Tuesday, Oct. 7. Instead, according to a photographer who chose to wait for Ms. Carey, she finally arrived early this morning (Oct. 8) at about 12:30. Unlike me, most of the photographers arrived expecting to wait on the singer (no one seemed all that interested in her husband, birthday or not). The reason: these were mostly the same photographers she had kept waiting at a nightclub appearance this weekend at Bank at the Bellagio. And then the diva further irked the photographers by posing on the carpet for a very short time. The photographers also did not like how she posed.
Media photographers may sound like a fussy bunch (and they can be), but remember, they have deadlines, families and are people working late into the night. They do not get to enter the nightclub; they get no further than shooting the red carpet, and then they head off to send out the photos before finishing their night. So, after being kept waiting, they felt especially aggrieved not to have enough opportunity to get a good shot of Carey at Bank for all their patience. Remember, these are not stalking paparazzi like those who linger in front of restaurants in L.A. These photographers were invited and encouraged to cover Carey's appearances at Bank and Pure. And they were given times to be there. Indeed, for Pure last night, they were asked to check in at 10:30 for arrivals at 11. So, those who waited until when she arrived yesterday were left waiting for two hours before they got their photograph of Carey.
None of the print people who showed up last night were bothering to stand at the front with the photographers. No one had any expectation she would do interviews. Why were writers there, ready to hold an interview they know they won't get? It was Tuesday night and there was nothing else going on with a celebrity in her league that could yield a story.
Still, treating celebrity hosting like it is beneath her is the diva way; it speaks volumes that she both still does the work of multiple hosting gigs and also the offers to do so keep coming no matter when she arrives. And the photographers were mostly willing (indeed, required) to wait as they needed that shot of her. For the freelancers, their evening's pay depended on a photo of Carey.
The nightclub world is a complex anthropology of degrees of VIP services. One starting point for that division at Pure is the general admission and the separate, though almost as long, VIP line. I decided to use the free time supplied by awaiting Carey's ultimate escorted VIP entrance to talk to the last person in the general admission line that wrapped around the club.
After some walking, I found the last person in line was Matt, 21, from Orlando, Fla. He wasn't even here for Carey, just to check out Pure. "I'll wait as long as it takes. We bought VIP tickets. We waited in the VIP line already and then they sent us over here." But of course VIP tickets don't mean you are a VIP in the sense that you wait in the VIP line. Doesn't everyone know that?
So, at 11 the daring thought hit me and I shared it with my media colleagues. Why don't I walk out on Mariah Carey if she is too late? She is working as a host and I am working as a reporter; how long before she is too late for work for me to waste more of my work time on waiting for her? Further, she is the host of a party she does not bother to get to early enough to greet her guests? Rude. And if she can't get excited enough to rush to her husband's birthday party with him, why should anyone else, especially me? I never heard of the guy.
So, why was I there? Well, like everyone else, it was Tuesday night and there wasn't any other celebrity of her magnitude in the offing. But there is no reason her time is more valuable than mine; there are limits. And so we waited out Tuesday; then Buffet photographer Sarah Gerke shot the empty red carpet Carey had yet to walk around midnight, and we left without looking back.
Hey, Mariah Carey, you aren't worth waiting for. And I spell my name A-B-O-W-I-T-Z. Wow, I like being a diva.
Photo credit: Sarah Gerke
Hey I was able to take some good pics of her in her VIP section. The body guards were forming like a human shield. One of the pics has her holding a champagne glass, I found that interesting.
Posted by: Will G. | October 08, 2008 at 02:28 PM
Hey I was able to take some good pics of her in her VIP section. The body guards were forming like a human shield. One of the pics has her holding a champagne glass, I found that interesting.
Posted by: Will G. | October 08, 2008 at 02:30 PM
See this is the problem, HATER, Mariah is human, she is an extremely busy woman, get off her back, whining about how she didn't show you no attention, is corny. She was celebrating her husband's birthday and filming a music video, and not having a press moment to market any specific product, be glad she posed for pics, IF IT WERE CAMERON DIAZ, MADONNA, ETC.... they would have went thru the back door and ignored you all together.
Mariah's I Stay In Love is beautiful.
Posted by: Ty2phine | October 08, 2008 at 02:32 PM
Mariah is beautiful, and such an inspiration. i don't care how short her skirts are. she is not half as bad as 1/2 naked janet or beyonce or disgusting Madonna (who should be ashamed).
mariah writes her music, and has the BIGGEST heart, Mariah you are an inspiration to me, i LOVE YOU GIRL
Posted by: Susan | October 08, 2008 at 02:42 PM
I love Mariah, i know people hate on her because she's a girly girl. but her voice is beautiful. She's the BIGGEST SELLING FEMALE IN HISTORY, and i agree with "ty2phine". i stay in love is such a great comeback ballad for her
Posted by: Mary | October 08, 2008 at 02:44 PM
Funny, some nobody photographer is having a tantrum! You are a dime a dozen. Don't wait and take her picture but you know what...somebody else will. The fact that Mariah can do this is why we want to see her picture.
Posted by: Sophia | October 08, 2008 at 03:12 PM
If you don't care then don't bother coming let alone complain she doesn't please you at her husbands birthday bash!!!! That's the problem in the 1st place, you act like it was a movie premiere or something it was nothing more than a birthday party that happened to be thrown @ a public place. Did you ever think that you photogs were not on her top priority on this particular night. I swear some people are so selfish & self absorbed ( and I'm talking about the photogs not Mariah)
Posted by: Kathy B | October 08, 2008 at 03:33 PM
Lol@ people talkiing about her music. Who cares! If someone told you to come by and take some picfures ( this is not you just showing up, you are TOLD or invited) and then the very person who asked you to be there showed up HOURS late ( as she seems to do very often). Who cares if she is the biggest celebrity in the world. She's no better than the average joe on the street. She just makes a lot more money and has a more visible job. If she didn't want to show up to an event, she shouldn't have told these photographers to be there. What would have been hilarious is if every photographer that was there bounced. Now that would've been funny. Very unprofessional behaviour on Mrs. Cannon's part.
Posted by: Elizsabeth | October 08, 2008 at 04:49 PM
I can completely identify with being late to things. We plan to leave at a certain time and it just never works out. People need to chill out. This def. was not worth writing an article about b/c it proved nothing. Sorry you had to wait but life isn't fair man! lol! and yes 'I Stay In Love' is my current fav. song. Go MC!
Posted by: Kerri | October 08, 2008 at 06:50 PM
Sir and you are who? You walking out on her means what? You don't run anything in hollywood. No one is checking for your work. The paps get paid every time La Carey makes a move, so if she moves late they will do the same if they want to eat for that month. Stay your ass at home and stop leeching of off the fame of those who've earned it and get a real job. Hell you ought to be grateful for this little attention this pathetic excuse for a tantrum has brought you.
Posted by: Get Bent | October 08, 2008 at 07:04 PM
deal with it... you should have never became a paparazzi!
Posted by: Ro | October 08, 2008 at 07:45 PM
You know what, Elizabeth, you are absolutely right on that. It was not meant for that mess to happend like that. If Mariah had the sense enough to say that she and Nick wasn't going to show up @ the restaurant, The picture you see now wouldn't be on the website. They should have celebrated his birthday right where you see the picture where no one's standing there in front of the camera! Mariah admitted that she always, AS USUAL, show up late most of the time. If the photographers knew she and Nick wouldn't show up, why take a picture on the spot where no one's standing there posing? Something's not right!
Posted by: Pinkandblack80 | October 08, 2008 at 08:16 PM
YOU ARE PATHETIC !!! GET OVER IT!! HA HA!!!!
Posted by: ted | October 08, 2008 at 09:43 PM
The photographers will make decent money by just pushing a button on a camera. Waiting around is the hard part. She is doing them a favor by stopping at all and doing the red carpet. Yes, she gets paid big bucks to host the party and promote the club but she doesn't owe anything to the photographers, and don't say the picture in a magazine helps publicize her because it doesn't. People will just trash the way she looks and it's not like anyone buys a cd because they see a red carpet photo of someone in People magazine.
Also, welcome to the world of clubs. A lot of them don't get hopping until midnight or later. Did you really think she'd stop and answer enough questions for an interview? It was her husband's birthday party, it's not always about promoting herself.
Posted by: TJ | October 08, 2008 at 10:22 PM
HUGE magazine interviewers have waited 5+ hours to get a 30 minute interview with Mariah Carey in places that took them 10 hours of travel time to arrive. Thats just how big and busy a star she is. You have no business complaining that she is 2 hours late to a party for you to, let me get this straight, take pictures of her?! It's crazy. You may have gotten your little 20 minutes of fame by off Mariahs fans, but I guarantee Mariah Carey will never read your little "diva" article. And I know deep down inside, you and your friend really hate that you missed gettings shots of the real diva, hence, the article.
P.S. Diva = a distinguished female singer, which you clearly are not!!
Posted by: Monica | October 08, 2008 at 10:54 PM
See this is the problem, HATER, Mariah is human, she is an extremely busy woman, get off her back, whining about how she didn't show you no attention, is corny. She was celebrating her husband's birthday and filming a music video, and not having a press moment to market any specific product, be glad she posed for pics, IF IT WERE CAMERON DIAZ, MADONNA, ETC.... they would have went thru the back door and ignored you all together. (Well said!!)
Posted by: jojo | October 09, 2008 at 02:39 AM
First of all, Do you think it is even Mariah who asked you to be there? I don't think so. It's her manager who deals with all the scheduling. I bet it's them (her people) who suggest a given hour even if they know MC won't make it because they want her to act as a diva. They knew she'd be shooting a video. Mariah is an extremely nice person and treats the paparazzi and photographers very well. An you know what? In some poor countries you have to wait longer than that just to see a doc.
Posted by: javier | October 09, 2008 at 04:54 AM
Sir,
I really do agree with you about waiting. Time is a lot of things, among them precious and money. But I am really tired of people dissing Nick Cannon. "I've never heard of the guy." Well, your kids have, MTV has, and over 60% of people under the age of 30 have thanks to his movies, his television series on Disney and MTV, his clothing line, his CDs and his philanthropy. In fact I am really sure that the IRS has heard of Nick, cause the guy is really, really, really wealthy and as a result I'm sure (hope) he has paid his share of taxes. So, I say, he may not be as well known, or as wealthy as his wife, but he has done nothing but be a good role model for young people since he became known in Hollywood. After all several of the reasons you have never heard of him is because he's never been arrested, hasn't been sued for child support, busted for drunk driving or drugs, hasn't gone to rehab, hasn't gone gay, pays his outstanding bills, and somehow in Hollywood manages to be a man of faith. So, I guess you're right. You haven't heard of him.
Posted by: elaine | October 09, 2008 at 07:19 AM
I kind of liked the article. It's nice to see something written about a celebrity that's not in the style of Robin Leach.
Posted by: Bill | October 09, 2008 at 09:26 AM
Well, someone obviously posted a link to the entry on a Carey fan board. It's obvious that most of the posters so far do not grasp that to the majority of the public, Mariah Carey is no big deal. She's talented and successful, and congratulations to her for it. Nobody is questioning that she is a beloved superstar.
But talent and success are no excuses for treating others with the kind of disrepect she displayed to Mr. Abowitz (I can spell it!) and the other press invited to the venue. Being 'busy' is no excuse. Just what could she have going on at 11pm other than sitting to have her hair and makeup done that could justify being two hours late? If it were an infrequent occurrence it would be one thing, but to make a habit out of disrespecting the press who kept her name in print when her music career had nearly faded to black, goes beyond diva and well into utterly thoughtless.
Posted by: elf | October 09, 2008 at 12:08 PM
Nick Cannon's birthday cake designed and prepared by SIN CITY CAKES.
www.sincitypartycakes.com
give us a call....
Posted by: SIN CITY CAKES | October 10, 2008 at 04:51 PM
Richard= feeling like a diva? so gay! LOL!
Posted by: cc | October 10, 2008 at 11:23 PM
Oh, GREAT. The illiterate "lambs" and their collective three brain cells have come out in defence of their precious little diva. (AOL, I blame YOU for making this possible. It USED to be, you had to have an IQ in the double digits to get online.) As in, boo-hoo, you merely pointed out evidence that she's an overrated, overpaid, overblown, spoiled narcissist (who USED to be very good at what she does), and you hurt their witty-bitty FEELINGS.
Good for you, sir, for bailing — and those who joined you. Maybe if more people went that route, she might finally get it into the space between her ears that she's just not THAT important to treat people like that, and get away with it. I mean, I know that I'd have done the same. Frankly, where I come from — you know, The Real World — when you're two hours late to an event that you INVITED other people to, and DEMANDED that they be there at a specific time, then guess what? They get pissed off. Imagine that.
You should consider yourself lucky, though, that she didn't waste a whole night of your life. I read an interview that appeared in the _Financial Times_ last year in which she kept the poor slob who wrote it waiting for SIX HOURS. Evidently, Miss Mariah is so important that she has her own time zone, and doesn't have to respect anybody else's schedules, deadlines, or agenda. Or, at least, inside her own head, she is — to the rest of us, she's just got no class, which is why we laugh at her.
I grew up idolising this woman, but it's stupidity like this that made me lose all my respect for her years ago. This is just one more facet of her tragic evolution from an actual human being into merely a caricature of one (a caricature dressed like a cocktail waitress from _Blade Runner_, no less).
And as for these people being paparazzi? Read the article again, retards: "Remember, these are not stalking paparazzi like those who linger in front of restaurants in L.A. These photographers were invited and encouraged to cover Carey's appearances at Bank and Pure. And they were given times to be there." And you might want to consider developing a sense of humour — he's NOT throwing a tantrum; he's being sarcastic and deadpan. Not that I'd expect her audience to grasp the concept, though.
why is it that the average Mariah Carey worshipper has the capacity to read and write on only a second-grade level?
Posted by: No, Thanks, I Listen To REAL Music | October 11, 2008 at 05:53 AM
Man, I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU WALKING OUT ON MARIAH CAREY. You just did the right thing what a TOTAL LOSER would do and that would be to just walk away when nobody cares.
And looking down on Mariah's fans with the way they read or write... well what can I say? You must have tried so hard to write your pathetic, post. Sadly though, it didn't show you as someone any better or your IQ any higher.
You're a photgrapher asked to take pictures of her in that event to which you gave in to the invitation - this only shows that you really wanted to get some shots of Mariah (otherwise you would have declined). Others waited because, though she may be hours late, they know for a fact that the pictures would sell out. Few hours must have been worth the wait. On the otherhand, you were just some unknown photographer the "diva" rolled on her own time and not yours. Patience is what you probably don't have that is why you never made any mark in your line of work. And as whiny as you can get with your posts, the fact remains that she's a big name and no matter how much other haters like you despise her, you can't topple her off easily. I understand it's tough to be waiting around to get a shot of her... maybe this job is not right for you. Try something else like embroidery or something. Get a job!
Posted by: Bratboy | October 12, 2008 at 06:02 PM
"...VIPs can do most anything short of organize armed memorabilia recovery raids."
Brilliant... love it! :-)
Posted by: Ron | October 17, 2008 at 04:22 PM