Mariah Carey explains loopy acceptance speech

Mariah Carey told reporters at the People’s Choice Awards last night that her meandering acceptance speech at the Palm Springs Film Festival was due to the “splashes of champagne” she had imbibed earlier in the night with director Lee Daniels. “We were really celebrating for [Precious],” she said. She joked that it was “kind of a party atmosphere” and that Daniels is a “bad influence.”

“If people…think I’m just this girl who stands by a microphone and sings ‘Hero,’ they’re definitely not going to get me,” she said. “If they knew me better, they would understand I have a sense of humor.”