Just another day in the life of Miss Mariah! Between Mariah Carey‘s headlines-making New Year’s Eve performance and the drama-filled Sunday, January 1, episode of her E! docuseries, Mariah’s World, the pop singer is certainly on a lot of people’s minds at the moment.
Lee Daniels Made a Cameo
The episode kicked off with Mariah introducing her good friend Lee Daniels to her series. The Precious director referred to himself and Mariah as “inseparable.” He continued, “We understand the dark. We understand pain. And we have had predators who have done not-so-nice things to us.” He then referred to Mariah’s darker side, calling it “messed up.”
Bryan Tanaka Prepared Pelvic Thrusts for Mariah’s “Anniversary”
As some Mariah fans may know, the pop star calls her birthdays “anniversaries” in order to eliminate the aging process from the celebration. The “Emotions” singer kept referring to her anniversary as her “12th anniversary” — we guess she loves being middle-school-aged!
As a surprise for Mariah’s “anniversary,” her team arranged for dancer Bryan Tanaka to pop out of a cake shirtless. While rehearsing his cake dance, Bryan did several pelvic thrusts. He then told the camera about his hopes for a future relationship with the “Butterfly” singer, saying, “I’ve been really excited to see if we could get back to that camaraderie. Back to that friendship.… I better nail my inner Magic Mike.” Clearly, there’s no better camaraderie than with a male stripper.
Mariah Poured Champagne on Bryan’s Abs as He Gyrated
While Bryan may be the star’s current beau, at the time of filming, Mariah was still engaged to billionaire James Packer. This fact made the scene a bit scandalous as we saw Bryan, shirtless, dance right up to Mariah and serenade her with his sensual moves. The singer then proceeded to smirk and pour champagne over the dancer’s abdomen. Mariah said of the interaction, “Why are we making a big deal about it?”
Fellow dancer and creative director Anthony Burrell chimed in about Bryan’s blurred lines, saying to the camera, “You’re walking on dangerous grounds here. The woman is engaged about to be married.” Yikes!
Bryan Said He and Mariah “Reconnected” at Her Birthday Party
After Mariah’s anniversary party, Bryan hung out with his fellow dancers, who teased him about his seemingly romantic connection with Mariah. Bryan explained the night away by saying, “We were just chatting. Catching up.” One dancer interjected with, “You just disappeared into the woods.” We wonder if Mariah Carey was in those woods!
To the camera, Bryan admitted, “I think it just kind of happened.… This lap dance, Magic Mike moment kind of kick-started us to break down a wall… brought us back together.” He continued, “I’ve finally been able to reconnect with her.” Sparks. Were. Flying.
Mariah Criticized Her Assistant, Saying “Not Cool”
The episode started off on a lighter note, with Mariah hilariously prank-calling her new assistant, Molly, and sharing a few laughs. But the laughter quickly died down when Molly committed a cardinal sin: getting a tattoo of a globe emoji. This infuriated Mariah’s manager, Stella Bulochnikov, who needed Molly by her side to help wrangle sick children at the time of the emoji-tattoo application.
After calling Molly “a f–king lunatic” and “incompetent” behind her back, Stella finally told the assistant that she was not suited for the nonstop nature of this job. When Stella relayed the tattoo tale to Mariah, the singer concluded, “Yeah, that’s not cool.” It’s unclear if Molly actually got fired, especially considering the episode ended with Mariah urging Stella to be “more compassionate towards her.”
Bryan and Mariah Lock Lips in Preview Clip
By now, we’ve all seen the photos of Mariah and Bryan making out on a Hawaii beach, and the idyllic show of passion will be featured on her show. In a preview for the season’s upcoming episodes, we saw a clip of them in that very same lip-lock! We also got to witness a brief moment of Bryan gushing to a friend about his budding attraction, saying, “I’m catching some hard feelings, bro, about Mariah.”
Then, in another clip, Bryan made a comment about James and Mariah’s relationship, saying, “James came into town, and it looks like she’s really happy. I feel like I just made a big mistake.” What was the mistake? What was the mistake?! Needless to say, we’ll be staring at our blank TV until this show comes back on next week. We need answers!
Tell Us: What do you think about Mariah and Bryan’s budding romance?
Mariah’s World airs on E! Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
