Mariah in for some company?
The rumors were flying hard this weekend that Tommy Mottola, former husband of Mariah Carey and ex-CEO of Sony Music, was headed toward the end of marriage No. 3. Or is it 4? The word from Los Angeles and Aspen is that Mottola and wife Thalia Sodi, a Mexican singer/ performer/ soap-opera star, have gotten tired of fighting and are going to end it all.
Mottola married Thalia (pronounced Tah-leah) in a multimillion-dollar wedding on Dec. 2, 2000, at St. Patrick's Cathedral. This column reported that Mottola had failed to get an annulment from his wedding to Carey or to his previous wife, for whom he converted to Judaism, even though the Catholic church prohibits weddings without one.
Since then, Mottola has worked hard to make Thalia into an American star. His partner, Randy Hoffman, manages her career. This spring, Mottola put up $300,000 with American Media to publish Thalia magazine in English and Spanish, which would capitalize on her Mexican popularity. Because Thalia is so unknown in the U.S., the first cover had to feature Mottola's former artist Jennifer Lopez prominently - something that couldn't have pleased the mag's namesake.
But with all this hard work, Thalia still has no presence in American culture, and in the end, that may be what causes the marriage to tank. I've had insistent phone calls from "insiders" who swear the marriage is over, and another call from "someone who knows" who says the couple is still together. Come on! Can't these two crazy kids work it out?
Meanwhile, where is Mottola in the music business? Last July he was given a deal with Universal Music to re-start Casablanca Records, home in the 1970s to Donna Summer, KISS and the Village People. But the label's Web site says it's still "under construction", and the industry is waiting for some sign of life from the house that Neil Bogart built. (Fox 411)
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