the dish

The anti-'Glitter' Mariah Carey couldn't be happier people don't recognize her as the dowdy counselor in "Precious." "Somebody just said to me, 'You are so ugly in this movie.' ... I really love it because I get a chance to escape," she says. Carey says she embraced the dark circles, the prosthetic nose and even, sort of, the mustache. And she's hoping this serious turn will erase the memories of a certain spectacular flop. "People kind of trash me forever for that," she says of "Glitter." "That was like eight years ago. Could we let it go now?"

The final reel Danny Boyle's next film, "127 Hours," is the story of Aron Ralston, the trapped climber who cut off his own arm. ... George Clooney is in talks to star in "The Descendants" for Alexander Payne ("Sideways"). ... Owen Wilson will voice the title dog in a live action/CGI "Marmaduke." ... ... Shawn Levy ("Night at the Museum") will make a film based on the "Berenstain Bears" books. ... Helen Mirren, Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman star in the DC Comics adaptation "Red." ... Freeman also is attached to "Dirty Old Men," as a longtime wingman who tries to break up his old buddy's new romance. Please, no Nicholson.

CYNTHIA DICKISON