"But Mariah secretly likes the idea of Leona Lewis playing her.

"Not only is she exotic, she's the only one who they reckon would be able to tackle Mariah's eight-octave vocal range."

A spokeswoman confirmed: "Mariah is in talks for a Broadway musical to be made about her life in 2009."

Carey apparently only agreed to the show after a heart-to-heart with her husband Nick Cannon on their Christmas holiday in Aspen this year.

He tells Britain's Ok! magazine, "Wearing coloured contact lenses... It was like I constantly had sand in my eyes. I was wearing them for three months constantly and my eyes never ever accepted them! It took me 20 minutes per eye every single day and I ended up having to literally fold it into my eyeball."

And the star believes the dreaded lenses may inhibit his acting skills - because he couldn't properly portray his character's emotions due to the "two orange blobs" in his eyes. He adds, "It was frustrating as well because normally your eyes are saying something, but if you've got two orange blobs in your face it's so annoying!

"The director (Catherine Hardwicke) would say, 'Look at her (Kristen Stewart) like you love her,' and I'd be like, 'I'm trying!' I'm going to have to do it again because we're making the sequel next year."

In Star Wars: A Musical Journey, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will play a live score as excerpts from the six films are shown on a cinema screen. The show has been put together by director George Lucas' company Lucasfilm and composer John Williams. It will premiere at the O2 arena in London in April before a European tour.

It will not be a traditional musical with actors playing characters from the films, but will feature live narrators. The six Star Wars films have been edited down to two hours for the show, and Williams has "painstakingly rewritten" the music he wrote for the movies, a statement said. The Royal Philharmonic will use an 86-piece orchestra and an accompanying exhibition will feature original models, props, costumes and production artwork.

THE long professional relationship between Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott could come to a cataclysmic end if Crowe gets Scott fired from "Nottingham." Scott turned Crowe into a major star by casting him in "Gladiator" (2000), a role that won him the Best Actor Oscar. The New Zealander also earned critical acclaim in Scott's "A Good Year" (2006) and "American Gangster" (2007).

Sources say Crowe blames Scott for the disastrous drubbing their fourth collaboration, "Body of Lies," received from critics and at the box office last summer, and no longer wants to work with the British director. "Ridley is the only one who is willing to stand up to Russell and tell him he's too fat and that he can't show up four hours late to the set," said one source. "He [Russell] wants someone he can control."

"Nottingham," which starts filming in March, is a revisionist version of the Robin Hood legend, in which Crowe stars as the sheriff of Nottingham, a noble and brave lawman whose corrupt king is raising taxes even as his subjects starve. He and Robin Hood vie for the love of Maid Marian.

Crowe is notoriously hot-tempered, and faced criminal charges in 2005 after throwing a telephone at a concierge at the Mercer Hotel. He is now said to be pressuring George Freeman of William Morris, the agent who represents both Crowe and Scott, to get Scott replaced.

Some actresses might find the prospect of playing a nun -- dressed from head to toe in a black habit -- daunting, but not Meryl Streep, and not because, with her talents, she seems able to do anything.

"I found nuns' habits to be liberating, not only because they are a negation of things that women in the outside world have to contend with, but also because they focus on the true essence of a woman -- her face and her hands," Streep said while discussing her starring role in "Doubt."

*****

Both Streep and Adams met with the real Sister James, a 70-year-old nun after whom Shanley modeled Adams' character both in spirit and in name. "She was fantastic," Adams said. "She was also so thrilled by it. They now call her Sister Hollywood. She was at the premiere and stayed longer than I did." When Streep complimented Adams' performance, the latter dead-panned, "It takes a bitch to play virtue."

Although both actresses recently starred in musicals -- Streep in "Mamma Mia" and Adams in "Enchanted" -- there was no song and dance on the set of "Doubt." "I kept on hoping," Adams said. "But there was no 'Dancing Queen' from Meryl."