EPIC IS NO WAY TO DESCRIBE MARIAH'S LATEST SINGLE
Caesars Palace headliner Mariah Carey might be humming her 2005 hit “We Belong Together” if a Hollywood report is true that Epic Records may be dropping her. Longtime entertainment columnist Roger Friedman reported this week that Epic Records is “very unhappy” with the sales of her latest single, “I Don’t,” a break-up song about her split with billionaire James Packer.
Friedman called it “a total failure” since it dropped last month “and a total surprise to Epic. They were sent the track all completed, with no forewarnings from Carey’s camp that it was coming.”
The single peaked at No. 89 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Her previous single, “Infinity,” topped out at 82 on Billboard’s Hot 100 two years ago.
Friedman said his source said Epic chief L.A. Reid, who brought Carey back to the Sony label in 2015, is considering dropping her.
This comes at a time, said Friedman, that no work is being done on an album “and no conversations are taking place between Epic and Carey’s team.”
Friedman said he ran into Carey and her iron-fisted manager Stella Bulochnikov at the Vanity Fair party after the Academy Awards on Sunday. When Friedman mentioned to Carey that no one knew how to get a hold of her, Bulochnikov advised him to call Carey’s publicist.
Carey interjected, “I’ve known Roger since I was in diapers” and gave him an email address “she promised me it would work,” Friedman wrote.
"It didn’t," he said.
Sammy Davis’ Oscar nightmare
Until last Sunday’s Oscar night debacle, Sammy Davis Jr. was the only presenter to read the wrong winner in the 89-year history of Hollywood’s glittering showcase event. It happened on April 13,1964, moments after host Jack Lemmon introduced Davis.
Davis, who was to announce back-to-back music awards, opened the first envelope and announced John Addison, had won for writing the best original score for the Oscar-winning Best Picture “Tom Jones.”
The audience reacted with tepid applause since many were aware Addison wasn’t even nominated in that category.
Davis rushed back to the podium and said, “They gave me the wrong envelope,” then added, “Wait till the NCAA hears about this.”
Thunderous laughter and applause erupted.
Then he pulled out his glasses and quipped, “I ain’t making no mistake this time, baby.”
And, after being handed another envelope by the same dour-faced man, Davis announced the Oscar goes to conductor Andre Previn for “Irma La Douce” for best score (adaptation or treatment).
Sports notes ‘n quotes
This Las Vegas footnote on the retirement this week of Bob Miller, the Los Angeles Kings’ longtime play-by-play announcer.
It’s doubtful he saw anything freakier over his 43 years with the Kings than the grasshopper plague that invaded the Sept. 27, 1991, outdoor exhibition game at Caesars Palace.
The game between the Kings and New York Rangers was twice delayed by swarming grasshoppers attracted to the lights and bright surface of the rink.
That was the forerunner of the league’s move to occasional outdoor games.
A crowd of 13,000 watched the wild spectacle on an 85-degree night that ended with the Wayne Gretzky-led Kings winning 5-2. Gretzky scored a goal.
The next food rage at pro sports arenas and parks?
The New York Mets are claiming they’ll feature cookie-dough from the city’s hottest confectioner Cookie DŌ NYC.
Not so fast, the company told the New York Post. “It is being considered but nothing to date (has been agreed to).”
“If DŌ does end up at Citi Field,” the Post said, “it could give Shake Shack a run for its money when it comes to the longest lines at the ballpark this summer.”
The company’s menu of 13 classic cookie flavors includes chocolate chip, sugar cookie and brownie batter.
The quote of the day goes to New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick, who has issues with former Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig going into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
“What shall Selig’s plaque read as per his achievements?
“Served as the team owners’ point man as MLB became infested and corrupted by drugs that obliterated pre-existing records achieved by drug-free, legendary players.”
On this day … March 3, 2001: John Ruiz upsets Evander Holyfield at Mandalay Bay to win the WBA title and become the first Latino heavyweight champion in history. The triumph is clouded when tapes show Ruiz avoided a knockout by rolling on the ground as if he were hit in the groin, when he was not.
The punch line “In California, an experimental self-driving Uber drove through six red lights. In other words, it just passed its Los Angeles driving test.” – Conan O’Brien.