Pop to flop: divas who died on screen

Melanie Blatt, Natalie and Nichole Appleton - Honest (2000)

Three of the four All Saints star in what is said to be an edgy black comedy set in swinging London in the late sixties. The girls play three streetwise sisters who head 'up West' to rob and generally cause trouble. Nicole falls for an Oxford undergrad. Natalie is the tough one - an angry, gun-toting, justice-seeking tart, who shags greasy bikers, punishes the wife beater next door and trades oral sex for weapons, while Mel is the sweet and innocent one. One boob-baring scene helped attract a straggle of drooling teenage boys to otherwise empty cinemas.

Killer Line: Nicole: 'What...you mean...that...our muvva... was...murdered?'

Critical Damage: 'Melanie Blatt does a half decent job but the Appletons are truly terrible. Nicole seems to think you can come across as an East End gangster simply if you chew gum and loudly say things like 'nuffink' and 'feevin'.' - Filmview.com

Box Office: $1m

Mariah Carey - Glitter (2001)

Another flop movie and another pop star playing - wait for it - a pop star. Billie Frank (Carey) is a shy, young, mixed-race girl who is sent away by her alcoholic mother at a very early age. At an orphanage, she befriends Louise and Roxanne. Flash forward to 1983. Billie and her friends are spotted by a record producer, who wants them to sing back-up for his latest pop music discovery. But DJ Dice (Max Beesley) has bigger plans for Billie's incredible voice and inevitably her body. Playing herself was obviously harder than expected because release of the movie was postponed for three weeks when Mariah was hospitalised as a result of an 'emotional and physical breakdown'.

Killer Line: Mariah (Lying in bed after making love): 'You know, I don't usually do this.'
DJ Dice: 'I can tell.'

Critical Damage: 'Carey can act after a fashion, though dialogue gives her trouble. But her performance alternates between two basic modes - a sort of porn star, come-hither sexiness and a little-girl-on-the-verge-of-tears. That gets very old, very fast.' - TV GUIDE.COM

Box Office: $6m