NEW ALBUM TO DEBUT TOO LATE FOR GRAMMY CONSIDERATION

*** Mariah Carey is refusing to be pushed around by the Grammys anymore. The songbird, who has won a mere five awards out of 21 nominations since 1991, is officially taking herself out of the running this year. She'll release her album "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" on September 29, missing the Grammy cutoff date by just one day.

*** "Mariah's been shafted so many times before that it's like a big 'Kiss my butt' to the Grammy folks," says a music industry insider. "She doesn't need the awards, because her career is already so successful." The diva definitely doesn't need trophies to sell her album: "Memoirs" has already spawned the hit single, "Obsessed" and has generated heavy industry buzz.
*** Although the singer just rescheduled a series of promotional appearances on programs like the "Today" show and "VH1 Storytellers", the insider says Carey is just busy adding more songs to her album, wanting the end result to be perfect. In addition to her CD, the singer is drawing rave reviews for her performance as a Harlem-based social worker in the indie flick "Precious". The Lee Daniels-directed movie debuted earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.
*** Meanwhile, fans hoping for a Battle of the Divas will be disappointed to learn that Whitney Houston's new CD will be released nearly a month earlier than Mariah's; the icon's first album in seven years is now set to hit shelves on September 1. Whit should be thankful she's avoiding a showdown with Mimi. Her album's first single, "I Look to You", received a lukewarm reception on pop radio, finally debuting on Billboard's Hot 100 last week at No. 74. Mariah, meanwhile, blasted onto that chart at No. 11 with "Obsessed".
*** Houston is hoping the record's second single, the Alicia Keys/Swizz Beatz-penned track "Million Dollar Bill", will make her some big bucks - it's being released just five weeks after "I Look to You". Says Houston's rep: "Our strategy has always been to release a song to urban formats ('I Look to You') and a song to pop formats ('Million Dollar Bill'). The reviews for 'I Look to You' have been glowing. In fact, Billboard has said this single 'signals the long-awaited return of a true diva'."

(New York Daily News)