Revisiting Mariah Carey’s iconic episode of ‘Cribs’ — from stilettos on the stair-climber to tub time

There are celebrities after which there’s Mariah Carey — and that is what set aside her well-known episode of Cribs from all of the others.

The MTV collection, now in its nineteenth season, is back with new episodes on Nov. 15 — with stars together with Vivica A. Fox, Rumer Willis and Dita Von Teese giving home excursions — however the most-watched and replayed episode is that of the Grammy-winning songstress which initially aired in January 2002. She opened the golden doorways to her 11,000-square-foot Tribeca penthouse in NYC, making six outfit adjustments, exercising in stilettos and taking a shower alongside the best way.

Memorable moments in Mimi’s diva den

The jaw-dropping 3 bed room, 5 1/2 lavatory triplex with views of the Empire State Constructing was Carey’s first house, having bitterly divorced music exec Tommy Mottola a pair years earlier, and he or she put her stamp — within the type of her monogram or butterflies — on every little thing. It was embellished in an artwork deco design by the late Mario Buatta (dubbed “Prince of Chintz”) with “glazed” partitions — requiring eight coats of paint — made to appear to be sweet. Nevertheless, it was all achieved in impartial colours as a result of, in line with the “Imaginative and prescient of Love” singer within the episode, “I’ve sufficient jarring issues that occur to me every day. We do not want that at residence.”

Each room within the luxurious palace — which boasted fainting couches in virtually each room, together with the kitchen — she proclaimed to be her favourite. The true fave gave the impression to be her 38-foot-long, chandelier adorned, candlelit “girls lounge” (aka lavatory), the place she stripped to a bodysuit and took a shower. She defined she used the bathe solely as soon as, deciding it had “too many knobs.”

Her closets have been like mini shops with gold leaf designs on the ground — one for lingerie (which she tried on for the cameras), garments (together with her “Heartbreaker” denims) and sneakers (just like the “Loverboy” boots). An assistant was actually dressing her, and strapping stilettos to her toes.

“There was a time in my life the place I solely had one pair of sneakers,” mentioned Carey, who didn’t grow up with money. “The lady who had one shoe now has many.”

Whereas Carey would not present her bed room or a close-up of Marilyn Monroe’s piano (privateness, please!), right here have been different highlights:

• Her not often used health club, the place she famously used the stair-climber in stilettos and a black minidress.

• Her laundry room, the place she pulled her lapdog out of the dryer.

• Her full-service salon — with a “Be Good or Go away” signal on the door — the place she mentioned she spent most of her time getting diva-ed up.

• The “Mermaid Room,” a screening room with full kitchen embellished in an underwater motif with aqua partitions, a sand-colored sofa and saltwater fish tanks. The fish have been “modified to be nocturnal” to match her life-style, she quipped.

• Her Moroccan room — previous to giving her son that identify — which she known as “like a fairy-tale.” It opened to her non-public terrace with sweeping Manhattan skyline views.

• Her nation kitchen, with butterfly designed marble on the middle island alongside mentioned chaise, the place a special canine proceeded to assault her cat.

• Her solely visitor room, embellished with butterflies, which she mentioned was to restrict “fools” (aka houseguests) overstaying their welcome. In it, she had albums with fan letters, which she mentioned helped throughout mental health struggles the 12 months earlier than.

• Her trophy instances with an eye-popping variety of awards.

• Her front room with a certain copy of her 2001 Architectural Digest home photo shoot.

“Once I was little, I at all times needed a penthouse house in New York Metropolis with a view like this,” Carey mentioned searching on the twinkling lights of town.

Twenty-plus years of Cribs

Cribs, which debuted in 2000, was the brainchild of Nina L. Diaz. She informed the Washington Post in 2020 that she grew up watching Existence of the Wealthy and Well-known, and needed a present that adopted celebrities residence, peaking into their bedrooms and cupboards, wanting on the pictures on their partitions, giving an “unfiltered, uncooked, actual, let-your-hair-down model of those artists and celebrities.”

The present — which launched pre-reality TV and social media — was a fast hit. Nevertheless, Carey’s episode — which was filmed in in the future, between 9 a.m. to midnight, in line with the Cribs ebook, and took up your complete half-hour episode — put the collection on the map. In 2005, the community ran an hour-long bonus version through which Carey corrected the file on some issues — like that she wasn’t nude within the tub (“I did not actually take a shower. Like, good day. I had on a bodysuit.”) — and he or she was making an attempt to be humorous at different factors (see: canine in dryer and exercising in heels). Her buddies Da Brat and Jermaine Dupri gave humorous commentary, as did Sharon Osbourne, by then one in all MTV’s greatest stars due to The Osbournes. There have been additionally added scenes, Carey guiding viewers via unfinished rooms, together with a recording studio and a butterfly lavatory, and making a number of extra outfit adjustments. (“Hurry up, Blair,” she famously mentioned to a girl dressing her. “The clock is ticking!”)

By means of the years there was some Cribs backlash when it was revealed that among the celebs did not stay within the properties they confirmed off. The present, which went into syndication for a interval and had a number of spin-offs (nation stars! teenagers!), slowed its roll round 2010. As a substitute of recent episodes, outdated episodes — of which there have been 100-plus — have been repackaged with some new ones tossed in.

Snapchat briefly introduced again Cribs in 2017, however that did not final and the community seized the chance to provide it a second life. The primary a part of Season 19 kicked off final 12 months with Kristin Cavallari, the late Leslie Jordan, Whitney Cummings and Macy Grey amongst these to indicate off their properties.

Mariah’s stays the queen of her Tribeca penthouse

Within the final 20 years, so much has occurred in Carey’s life — she remarried, had twins, acquired divorced once more, purchased and offered a ton of different actual property, known as off an engagement and have become the Queen of Christmas — however her Franklin Tower penthouse has remained her residence base.

12 months bought: 1999

Buy worth: $5.5 million for the penthouse and $3.5 million for the house under which she mixed. Evidently, it is value much more 24 years later.

Bought after: Carey was rejected by co-op boards in different buildings prior to purchasing her dream penthouse. In her 2020 ebook, The That means of Mariah Carey, she wrote that she got here shut to purchasing Barbra Streisand’s “beautiful palatial Central Park West penthouse” however “the conservative co-op board” rejected her as a result of they have been “afraid there could be too many rappers and their entourages, aka massive Black males, milling about.”

Decor of her desires: Carey walked away from the Westchester property she shared with Mottola with “little greater than my wardrobe and private pictures,” she wrote in her ebook. So she had Buatta give her triplex prime to backside remedy. He told Architectural Digest in 2013 that he put butterflies “wherever we might,” on the handles of cupboards within the bed room, on the tiles within the kitchen and even on the cleaning soap. “There are such a lot of butterflies on this house, you don’t even discover them. However Mariah does.”

Different glimpses of Chez Carey: Since Cribs, Carey has opened her residence to provide a closet tour to Vogue in 2017.

She additionally confirmed off her household room to British Vogue in 2020. In Carey’s memoir, she known as it the “most private room” in her residence, housing “household pictures and different valuable issues of mine.” On the middle of the room is a white picket mantle, with a butterfly carved into it, which got here from the house she shared with Mottola. Carey wrote that the following proprietor of the home put the mantle into storage, which saved it from damage as a result of the home burned to the ground. The proprietor later reached out to Carey to see if she needed it, considering it will need to have been sentimental contemplating she made a complete album known as “Butterfly,” and Carey was reunited with it.

Carey additionally opened her doors to InStyle Home in 2006, posing within the Moroccan room. Within the interview, she talked about houseguest Lindsay Lohan being obsessed along with her Hello Kitty bathroom.

In the meantime, final 12 months, the “All I Need For Christmas Is You” singer let two individuals, by way of a Reserving.com contest, have a cocktail hour and a Christmas card picture shoot in her Moroccan room, all embellished for the vacations, and personal terrace.

Carey has additionally shared many pix from inside her famed fortress to social media, together with TikToks along with her children, Moroccan and Monroe, in her salon and family room. There are are a great deal of Instagrams from her kitchen (together with on the lounger) and on her deck (together with in the jacuzzi). It stays as fabulous as ever — as if we might count on much less.

Cribs premieres its new episodes on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 9:30 p.m. You’ll be able to watch it, in addition to previous seasons, on MTV, Paramount+, the MTV app and the official series page.