TROUBLED Mariah Carey is obsessed with hip-hop mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and determined to get him to make a new woman out of her.
Mariah believes that P. Diddy - and only P. Diddy - can wave a magic wand and restore the luster to her tarnished stardom, insiders reveal.
And, they add, the distressed diva is seizing every opportunity to see and be seen with Combs.
When Mariah spotted the rap impresario at a party Oct. 28 at New York's Roseland Ballroom, she was all over him, as these up-close and personal photos show.
"Mariah was gushing all over Puffy," an eyewitness tells Star. "He gave her a peck on the cheek, but she couldn't keep her hands off him. It looked like she wanted everyone to see her with Sean."
Mariah's motivation is simple, says a source close to the 32-year-old singer: "She's sick with worry over her career."
Her mission is to receive a total musical makeover from P. Diddy, who made a name for himself producing music ranging from hard-core gangsta rap to bubblegum teen pop, and by cultivating artists like former lover Jennifer Lopez.
When Through the Rain, the first single from Mariah's new Charmbracelet album, came out in September, it bombed.
Still, if sultry Mariah retired today, her place in music history would be assured: She's sold more than 125 million albums worldwide.
Her last major hit was Heartbreakers, in 1999, which was No. 1 for two weeks and stayed on Billboard magazine's Top 40 chart for 14 weeks.
But since then, Mariah's career has been in a tailspin.
Her much-publicized "emotional and physical" breakdown in July 2001, following her breakup with Mexican singer Luis Miguel, landed her in a Connecticut mental hospital for weeks.
Things looked even grimmer after a brief fling with raunchy rapper Eminem, the embarrassment of having Virgin Records pay her $30 million to buy out the remainder of her $80 million contract and her flop Glitter soundtrack album.
Compounding her problems, Mariah sought comfort in food and gained a huge amount of weight. She had to check herself into an exclusive fat farm earlier this year.
But insiders tell Star that music-business pals recently confronted Mariah and told her bluntly that she's not selling because she's boring.
"They said: 'You have to spice it up and stop feeling sorry for yourself,'" says a source.
They also pointed how Jennifer Lopez's musical career soared after she hooked up with 33-year-old P. Diddy. Now Mariah is obsessed with getting the same treatment.
Her publicist, Cindi Berger, says the couple's dealings are strictly business for now. "They're friends, that's all I can tell you," says Berger.
But sources close to Mariah say she's set on having P. Diddy take her under his wing.
"The bottom line is Mariah feels P. Diddy is strong, successful and sexy," says a source.
"In Mariah's eyes, he's the answer to a whole lot of her problems on a whole lot of levels."
