Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
a hashtag:#JusticeforGlitter.
As the campaign spread across social media,Glitters soundtrackreached No.
1on the iTunes albums chart and returned to theBillboardsoundtracks chart.
Suddenly, Careys biggest flop era was up for reconsideration.
The campaign succeeded in resurrecting the infinitely mocked movie and its music, but to what end?
Two decades afterGlitter, are we any closer to understanding its legacy?
An ill-conceived vanity project?
A doomed-from-the-start venture forced into the cracks of history by tragedy?
A final gush of the celebrity monoculture before social media rewrote the fame game?
An unfortunate case of public rubbernecking?
All of the above?
The following year, she cameoed as an opera singer in the middling Chris ODonnellRenee Zellweger rom-comThe Bachelor.
(Playwright Cheryl L. West earned a story by credit.)
I wrote the treatment,Carey told Movieline.
Its a story Ive wanted to tell for a long time.
She signs a bad deal, then meets a DJ who falls for her and makes her a star.
But he has a very dark side.
(That is, rather succinctly, the entire plot.)
Almost as soon asGlitterentered the publics consciousness, skepticism arose.
Carey convinced herself that cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson was shooting me on my bad side on purpose.
Off set, Careys circumstances were more troubling.
Her first album under that deal was theGlittersoundtrack, a blend oforiginalsandcoversthat matched the movies clubby early-80s setting.
Mottola learned of their interpolation and rushed the sample to Sony darling Jennifer Lopez thievery, Carey called it.
Without the kicky Firecracker beat, Loverboy turned fairly bland.
After endlessly catchy hits like Honey, My All, and Heartbreaker, Loverboy paled.
Whatever sympathy existed for Careys behind-the-scenes ordeals seemingly dissipated, however, asGlitters press blitz kicked off.
Rewatching the clip today, Carey does seem a little unhinged.
Youre my therapy session right now, Carson, she tells him.
You see, every now and then, somebody needs a little therapy.
And today is that moment for me.
Underneath, shes wearing a halter top and tight shorts, a typical uniform for young stars circa 2001.
Assumptions about Careys erraticism began to take hold anyway.
Carey had beenworking nonstopon limited sleep, too tired to make a second video before the soundtracks release.
She was visibly being pulled in a million different directions, DalytoldEntertainment Weeklyshortly thereafter.
On July 20, Carey attended a Q&A at a Long Island mall.
On July 25, two alarming audio messages surfaced on Careys website.
I just cant trust anybody anymore right now because I dont understand whats going on.
They were swiftly removed, and hours later, Careychecked into a hospital.
She has suffered an emotional and physical breakdown,Berger told the Associated Press.
She is under psychiatric care.
Plans for Carey to headline the networks starry20th-anniversary specialwere scrapped, as was theGlitterpress junket.
A box-office analystsaidthe movie was tracking very poorly based on prerelease buzz.
Carey got discharged on the day of the World Trade Center assault.
(Hello?!!
She would later seek estrangement from her brother and other unreliable relatives.
Carey was one of the best-selling artists in music history, yetGlittersold a small fraction of her previous work.
Critics reviews confirmed those suspicions.
This star vehicle for singer Mariah Carey is primarily a showcase for her breasts, the WashingtonPosts Megan Rosenfeldwrote.
And if they gave out Oscars for body parts, this pair would definitely be contenders.
A New YorkTimescriticsaidaudience members erupted repeatedly into laughter at scenes intended to carry emotional weight.
But the drama didnt stop there.
It goes like this.
Something like, Industry Rule No.
Carey spent the beginning of 2002 writing her next album,Charmbracelet.
(This is a person that never, ever relaxes,producer Anthony Esposito said.)
The following month, sheperformedthe national anthem at the Super Bowl.
In May, after fielding competing offers, shesigneda $7.5 million-per-album deal with Universal Music Group.
Through the Rain stalled at No.
But while promotingCharmbraceletin late 2002, Carey began to reclaim theGlitternarrative.
It lost a lot of grit.
It was gritless, in fact.
I kind of got in over my head.
Until 2016, she didnt sing anything from theGlittersoundtrack on her many tours.
So when #JusticeforGlitter sprang up in 2018, it seemed silly.
Denigrating supposed bad girls like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton simply for existing has grown outdated.
Recently, another, more efficient hashtag proliferated:#FreeBritney.
I can say it, now that they got it to number one.
We neednt pretend thatGlitteris a masterpiece so you can feel that justice has been served.
A little empathy for its progenitor will do fine.
