Throughout Mariah Carey’s long career, there have been rumors of insane diva behavior. There’s the infamous one about how she only eats blue M&Ms. Really, her demands have become the stuff of urban legends. A quick google provide the following supposed ridiculous demands:

• Mariah has been known to have 11 bodyguards surround her restaurant table so diners can’t see her eat.
• When signing autographs this week at Selfridges department store, Mariah demanded a £50,000 antique table, covered with silk cloth, to scribble upon, flown in from New York. She sat on a £1,000 throne and was surrounded by roses and butterflies.
• Mariah has a steamy time in the bedroom … but it’s got nothing to do with her sex-life. As part of her obsessive campaign to preserve her all-important vocal cords, she insists on maintaining rainforest levels of humidity.
• She insists on wearing high heels at all times, and has even been filmed in her stilettos while using her home-gym equipment. “I can’t wear flat shoes,” she sighs. “My feet repel them.”
• She only consumes soft drinks through a straw and insists on these being available whenever she makes a personal appearance. She even has people to hold her drink as she sips.

[From the Daily Mail]

However Mariah says that this is all ridiculous and just rumors that have gotten out of hand. She doesn’t say she’s down to earth by any means, but rather that she’s a lot more normal than people think.

MARIAH CAREY insists her “diva” behaviour has been blown out of proportion – critics just to make up stories about her odd mannerisms. The Hero hitmaker has been dogged by claims she is a prima donna throughout her career, with countless bizarre allegations of her backstage demands, but she is adamant the reports are untrue – brushing off rumours she only eats blue M&Ms and once snubbed a hotel because she wasn’t greeted with flowers upon her arrival.

She says, “I try not to be a jerk. I really do. I try to be nice and cordial. I’ve seen the real extreme diva behaviour and I don’t think that’s who I am.

“I think I have mannerisms and that whole thing, and I’m running around in these shoes. But even before I had any type of fame, I was like this. Seriously.

“I don’t even eat (M&Ms)… They said I wouldn’t come into a hotel unless there were petals on the floor. I’m like, ‘Do you really think at 3am I give a s**t what I’m walking on?'”

[From Contact News]

I definitely believe that last one. But I think she’s also doing quite the PR campaign between her praised role in “Precious” (she’s even gotten Oscar buzz) and her talking on and on about babies with Nick Cannon. I think she’s trying to soften her image and appear more grounded. But if that’s the case, it would serve her well to acknowledge that she used to have diva moments and then say something about how she’s matured or something. Because she definitely used to. Because that straw in the soda held by an assistant thing? There’s photographic evidence.

Here’s Mariah and Nick Cannon at the New York premiere of ‘Precious’ at the Alice Tully Hall on October 3rd. Images thanks to WENN.com .