These days, giving birth to or acquiring children seems to be the fad in the world of celebritydom. While Madonna and Angelina Jolie collect them like Beanie Babies, rumors of Mariah Carey adopting have again come to light. Since turning 30, unmarried Mariah has constantly been asked about when she will become a mother. It's very apparent, though, that she takes motherhood more seriously than most entertainers.

In February of this year, a Latin radio show reported that she was seen visiting the Frank Gonzalez orphanage in Mexico with her lawyer. Speculation first began after Mariah’s hospitalization. At the end of 2001, the media began to report that she wanted to adopt an Afghan child. Always the culprit, a “pal” stated that after Mariah’s tough year, she decided to make some life changes which included starting a family. However, around the same time she gave a Guardian interview exclaiming, “The reports said I was in rehab, that I'd gone crazy, tried to commit suicide. I was exhausted, that's all, and thank God it happened at that point rather than down the line, with kids, where it could have been irreparable damage for a child to see their mother like that. And I know, because it happened to me as a little girl: I saw something similar ... I had to take control and be the caretaker from the time I was a little kid.” Later interviews quoted Mariah as saying, “Now I need to be – I don’t want to use the word – selfish, but if I’m gonna do The Career, I’m gonna do The Career.”

That, Mariah Carey has definitely done by gracing the public with nearly two decades of her tireless hard work in recording, touring, acting, charity, and by constantly trying to satisfy the beast that is the media. She has always commented on the celebrity baggage that a child would inherit saying that a child does not have the privilege of choosing its parents and whether or not to be born into a celebrity life. In Glamour Magazine she has stated, “I'm not obsessed with having a child, and I'm not in a rush. Maybe one day, but I would want to do it properly. Because I know that children always want what they don’t have, no matter what.” There's no doubt that Mariah takes having children as seriously as possible - a caution that more than likely stems from her own strifes as a child. She struggled with being a multiracial girl in a divorced family where she did not have a relationship with her father. As a woman, she now feels a maternal instinct to care for wayward children.

Mariah’s love for children is apparent through her endless involvement with adoption. In the early 2000’s, she participated in commercials for the New York and National Adoptive Centers, even donating all of the royalties from the single, “Thank God I Found You” to the centers. She also hosted CBS’s “A Home for the Holidays”, an annual program, which celebrates giving orphaned children a happy home through adoption.

Her 2001 soundtrack to the motion picture, “Glitter” even contains a song that Mariah seems to sing in character as an orphan:

A displaced little girl/Wept years in silence/And whispered wishes you'd materialize/She pressed on night and day/To keep on living/And tried to many ways/To keep her soul alive/Did you really care/Care enough for me…If I'm not quite good enough/Or somehow undeserving of/A mother's love/You could have had the decency/To give me up/Before you gave me life…I need to understand/Why you left me there so helplessly

Although it’s been common practice for Mariah to emotionally and financially support Mexican institutions and the orphanage had been expecting her visit, I would not say that the idea of her adopting is totally unfounded. Recently, when her label representatives are asked to confirm her desire to adopt they only say that they don’t interfere with her private life. The truth is, no one knows when Mariah will become a mother, not even Mariah herself: “It's great that people get married - and stay married - have children and a wonderful life together, but I don't know if its going to happen to me.”

Mary Carey is currently taking steps to trademark her self-applied name, which is more than similar to Mariah Carey’s birth-name. What’s the big deal you may ask? WorldNetDaily’s 2005 “Bimbo of the Year”, Mary Carey, is arguably the most popular of female porn stars behind Jenna Jameson. Now, she seeks to register the trademark for audio and video recordings, which is sure to cause confusion and conflict of interests. In October of this year, a lawyer for Mariah threatened legal action if the application was not withdrawn.

Mary Ellen Cook was born on June 15th, 1980 but changed her name to Mary Carey in an obvious attempt to bring publicity upon herself. She chose this particular name because (blind) people had commented that she resembled the beautiful singer. Mary tells Reuters, “I'm ready to battle Mariah over this because I've been Mary Carey for a long time.” Oh, contraire, lady of pleasure! Mary Cook changed her name to Mary Carey in 2002 just before the porn princess ran for California governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger. Strange? Mary Carey’s life has been a strange one up to this point.

She was born in Cleveland, Ohio to a mother and father who were both mentally handicapped. Her grandparents adopted her and raised her in Florida where her mother eventually moved in with them. Her grandfather died when she was 16 from cancer and her grandmother soon developed Parkinson’s disease. Mary was a ballet and dance student until 19 when she enrolled at Florida State and joined the dance team. Her grandmother’s condition grew worse and money was in short supply. Whether or not for that reason, Mary got a job as a model on an adult Internet site, which led her to being an exotic dancer. Eventually, she landed a job with Playboy TV and then Kick Ass pictures for films.

The first Mary-marketing method was to change her surname from Cook to Carey in 2002. The second was to enter the field of candidates trying to replace Gray Davis as California governor in the recall campaign in 2003. Before Mariah began using her “platform” phrase, Mary developed her platform on the issues:

1) legalization of gay marriage
2) taxation of breast implants
3) making lap dances a tax deductible business expense
4) wiring every room of the California Governor’s Mansion with Web cams
5) creation of a “Porn for Pistols” program to remove handguns from the streets
6) recruitment of adult industry performers as goodwill ambassadors
7) mandating jury duty for all Californians collecting unemployment
8) freeing the porn industry from harassment by the government

I guess wives were not interested in state returns for their husbands’ strip club visits and UNICEF would turn down randy celebs. However, the campaign received extensive coverage in national media and the resulting eleven thousand votes were nothing to shake a stick at (no pun intended)!

It seems that the name recognition did help Mary’s popularity. Is there anything that can be done? Webster defines a trademark as “a word pointing distinctly to the origin or ownership of merchandise to which it is applied and legally reserved to the exclusive use of the owner as maker or seller”. Though "Mariah Carey" is a pre-existing trademark, it could be hard to prove Mary's "Mary Carey" mark as dilutive. Mariah’s attorney, Robert Baker is demanding that Mary Carey use her name only for adult entertainment and that she not be allowed to sing or perform music. You can see that there is a fine line between protecting property and impeding on liberties.

Mary would definitely be a challenge, being an advocate for free speech. During a live interview on The Daily Show she spoke about why she has never done a scene involving a particular sexual position, explaining that she has chronic gas problems. She then emancipated some gas.

What a lady.

At this point, it is well known that the October 28th Hong Kong concert was cancelled. Unfortunately, this has become factual and not a rumor. Just as the production crews began to build the stage at The Tamar the show was scrubbed 48 hours before Mariah was to go on stage. However, the two involved and opposing sides’ arguments bestow the now important questions. Why was this show cancelled? Did Mariah, herself, cancel? Did Hong Kong promoters cancel? Did Mariah’s management cancel? Let’s get to the bottom of this unfortunate circumstance!

Concerts Asia, the Hong Kong promoter - “Due to both the poor response of public ticket sales … and also due to specific last minute demands which we find wholly unreasonable and not with the best interests of Hong Kong, us and also the fans.”

Benny Medina, Mariah’s manager - "Due to a financial default by the promoter, it is with great sadness that Mariah will not be able to perform for her fans in Hong Kong … we gave them time to pay but he kept missing the new deadlines."

Medina also states that 8,000 tickets were sold, not 4,000 as claimed by Hong Kong concert promoters. Medina’s statement seems credible when one takes into account that Mariah’s latest album release, ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’ went double platinum in Hong Kong and that her management is in talks with other Hong Kong promoters to line up another show.

As our Looking In author, Jason, has said, “Why would the venue, itself, cancel a show for poor ticket sales? Artists pay for tours, and they are the ones who make or lose money. Artists pay the venue a certain amount … and it would be the artist who would cancel a show for poor ticket sales.” This fact personally leads me to believe that the cancellation has nothing to do with ticket sales at all as Concerts Asia was the barer of this piece of information. Even with artists taking the financial hit with low sales, Medina says, “If there were only 10 people in this venue, and this particular promoter . . . had fulfilled his contractual obligations, we would be there. Mariah Carey loves her fans in Southeast Asia. He has defaulted several times, right up into the last 48 hours. Literally, we tried to hang in there with this guy."

So, what about this “demand” accusation? Could this be a low blow by promoters who cannot seem to promptly pay their bills? Or does Mariah live up to the diva image that she has been stamped with? Asian fans may remember stories of the caravan of eight vehicles parading into Shanghai, including four cars designated specifically for Mariah’s luggage. Personally, I think if one wanted to make a convincing argument, one would be more specific. What were these demands? Concerts Asia has repeatedly declined further comment.

As for you, feel free to comment below!