Fisticuffs in Divaland?

Macy wants to punch Mariah; Mariah gets snippy about J.Lo; Winslet's in-laws pile on. Plus: Lucas says no more "Star Wars" after 2005!

Published September 6, 2001 4:09PM (EDT)

If Barbara Walters is feeling any violent urges toward Mariah Carey after the singer bailed out of the big interview she had scheduled with her for next week (Carey "needs more time to rest," her rep said), she's apparently not alone.

Macy Gray has fantasies about going a few rounds with Carey herself.

"Who would I like to take on in a fight?" Gray said in recent interview. "Well, I saw the last Mariah Carey video, I'd like to punch her!"

But before you go feeling sorry for poor Mariah, be aware that the avowedly fragile popster is fixing for a little fight of her own -- and not with Mira Sorvino.

Talk magazine reports that Carey's still steaming over Jennifer Lopez's use of the song "Firecracker" by Japan's Yellow Magic Orchestra in her song "Be Real." Carey had apparently sampled the same song in her own single "Loverboy," which was set for release months later.

And when a writer for Allure recently told her she'd spoken to Lopez, Carey snipped, "I bet that was really intellectually stimulating. I bet you could just see the depth in her eyes."

Meee-youch. On second thought, maybe she does need more rest.

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Not his No. 1 fan

"He's a comedian. I wouldn't have signed him."

-- Death Row records founder Suge Knight on how he has no regrets that his time in the clink kept him from getting Eminem in his stable.

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Granny's got a few things to say

Looks like Kate Winslet's plea for privacy from the prying eyes of the press as she and her husband, Jim Threapleton, head for Splitsville didn't make much of an impression on her in-laws.

The actress' soon-to-be-ex-husband's grandparents have apparently seen fit to weigh in on what went wrong with the young couple's marriage. "We have known for a little while that things are not good between them," Jean Threapleton told the London Daily Express. "Her work and his work often kept them apart. They seem to be under so much pressure that they don't have time for each other -- her with her film career and Jim writing."

Her husband, Norman, took it a step further. "I take the view that it was down to Kate's work that they split up," he said. "It is unfortunate it has come between them. She is a star. Jim is a bit of a quiet type and is trying to make his way in his own particular field. It is difficult. He wants to be recognized eventually in his own right and not to be just Kate's husband."

Or perhaps he'd rather not be recognized at all ...

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Speaking of chatty relatives ...

"My husband looks at the divorce rate in Hollywood and prays his daughter will change her mind and find a husband in Spain."

-- Penelope Cruz's mother on her daughter's alliance with Tom Cruise, in the British magazine Heat.

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Juicy bits

Worse than typecasting: Vincent Pastore, who played the late "Big Pussy" on "The Sopranos," feels he was "racially profiled" when he got nabbed by U.S. Customs officials when he returned from a work trip in Canada on Monday. His traveling companion, actor Paul Borghese, told the New York Post that officials went over his friend's luggage "like he had a bomb in there," though he admits they "did find $400 worth of Cuban cigars." When the customs officials figured out they had a star on their hands, they asked for an autograph, which Pastore signed, "Thank you for breaking my f---ing balls." Spoken like a true wiseguy.

Relief in sight: George Lucas says he's definitely not going to make another "Star Wars" trilogy when he finishes this one, despite having indicated in the past that he intended to make nine films. "I can guarantee to you that I will definitively give up after Episode 3, which will come out in 2005," Lucas told French magazine Tele 7 Days. And let us all say, Amen.

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Miss something? Read yesterday's Nothing Personal.


By Amy Reiter

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Barbara Walters Celebrity Jennifer Lopez