When your name is Mariah Carey, and you are reputedly worth around $500 million, paying $70,000 for a one way ticket to the Cannes Film Festival is no big deal
Mariah, 44, has apparently reserved the entire first-class cabin of a British Airways flight to the South of France because she doesn’t want to be disturbed on the eight-hour flight from New York to Europe.
The Sun, a British tabloid reported this news, which they obtained from an unnamed source. Their informant said, “Over the years Mariah has grown accustomed to travelling in ultimate style so she doesn’t think twice about paying such a crazy amount to ensure her privacy.”
Mariah is planning to make good use of her time in the air by relaxing and taking advantage of all the benefits British Airways first class travel can offer.
The source was somewhat scathing about Carey by saying:
“Let’s hope she doesn’t demand that British Airways lays out fluffy carpets for her, kits out the upper deck with puppies and paints the interiors cream. To be honest, it would be cheaper for Mariah to just hire her own private jet.”
Mariah Carey started in the music business in 1988. Her first album in 1990 was a smash hit, going multi-platinum. She built on that success with a number of other albums after changing record companies.
Eventually the stress became to much, and she suffered a physical and mental breakdown. Her first movie, Glitter, was an unmitigated disaster, which led to her recording contract being terminated. The buyout figure was $50 million.
Skeptics might wonder that if that is the price of failure, what’s the prices of success? Her career was revitalized in 2005, and she has sold some 200 million records worldwide.
Mariah doesn’t really accept that she had a breakdown. She says: “I never had a mental breakdown, I had a diva fit and it was [because] no one wanted to let me have a say. When you start so young in the industry people are used to controlling you and then they realise, ‘Oh this person has an opinion… OK it’s different now.’”
“Diva fit” or not, Mariah Carey is now living life on her own terms. Presumably, the next stage will be reserving the entire plane in case the passengers in cattle class might disturb her tranquility.
Who says money isn’t everything……….