Never meet YOUR HEROES?

“MARIAH CAREY WAS FIVE HOURS LATE”
– TIFFANY BAKKER

Mariah Carey is not ready. It’s close to midnight on a freezing New York winter’s night in 2010 and the woman who has sold more than 200 million records, and who still has the most number-one singles of any solo artist in the US, is somewhere in SoHo’s swanky Mercer Hotel doing something very important that does not involve talking to me.

Five hours earlier, I arrived at the hip downtown hotel, a favoured celebrity haunt and paparazzi magnet, prepared for a 7:30pm audience with the icon.

“Mariah is not ready,” an assistant says defiantly and motions me to an expensivelooking olive sofa as a snippy concierge looks me over, unimpressed.

The minutes tick by at a glacial pace. Then the hours. I know the superstar has a reputation for being late, but by 9:30pm, I’m about to start climbing the expensive walls.

“ONE OF MARIAH’S ASSISTANTS SITS SO CLOSE BEHIND ME, I CAN FEEL HER BREATH ON MY NECK”

“Mariah is not ready,” another flustered assistant bleats apologetically, before promptly disappearing back into an elevator. At various points, a string of assistants