BUZZ BIN

Carey is also the talk of the music business this week for another reason. A character in her new “Honey” video has caused a lot of people to wonder if it’s meant to be a dig at her estranged husband, Sony Music President Tommy Mottola. The video has started airing just as Carey switched management and legal representation, apparently in part to distance her business dealings from Mottola.

In the lavish clip, a James Bond-ish bit of intrigue and chase sequences climaxing in a big dance number, Carey is kidnapped by two gangster-types, one of whom appears to be a bearded man of Mediterranean ancestry. Some are taking him to be a stand-in for Mottola, who is of Italian descent.

Representatives of both Carey’s record label, Sony-owned Columbia Records, and of her new manager, Sandy Gallin, acknowledge that they’ve gotten “lots” of calls from music executives and the press asking about that. And though they won’t comment on the record, they dismiss any similarity as merely coincidental.