MARIAH REVS UP NEW CD, RETURNS TO POWERHOUSE PR

MARIAH REVS UP NEW CD, RETURNS TO POWERHOUSE PR *** Mariah Carey - despite idiotic postings elsewhere - is gearing up for her big new CD release. Mariah feels so strongly about "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" that she's even re-hired the PR powerhouse that made her second-stage career such a success. She's back with Cindi Berger of PMK HBH. It was Berger who made her "Emancipation of Mimi" the biggest hit of Mariah's career. Smart move. *** Of course, that means both Mariah and Whitney Houston are now being repped by the same PR company. PMK's Kristen Foster is handling Whitney with my old pal, Jill Fritzo. *** "Memoirs" was scheduled for an August 25th release, then moved to September 15th. Now it's set for September 29th. If the regular Grammy deadline had been in place - September 30th - Mariah would have made it. But the unfortunate early deadline of August 31st cut her off. So she has some slack time to get "Memoirs" just right. *** The first single from Mariah's CD will not be "Obsessed" - that was just a summer trifle, and it was a lot of fun. The real first official single is said to be a powerhouse ballad along the lines of "Vision of Love". (Showbiz 411) *** So "Obsessed" is not the first single from the new album. Does this mean "Obsessed" won't be on "Memoirs of an imperfect angel", or does this mean that "Obsessed" is not really a single, despite being released to radio, with live performances, a video and even a physical single? It is No 1 on Billboard's Hot Singles Sales chart. *** Also, in May 2004, Roger Friedman wrote: "It was only three short years ago that Mariah Carey's career was in the toilet. But she seems to have forgotten that. Last week, Carey fired her longtime publicist, Cindi Berger, of powerhouse firm PMK HBH, because - I am told - she held her responsible for a stupid, unchecked gossip item that ran in a local newspaper." See: Mariah: singing a tune of self destruct? So how can Cindy be responsible for the success of an album that was released a year after she was fired?