Now it all makes sense.

For awhile, we didn't understand why Mariah Carey cared that a porn star shared a similar-sounding name. Aren't music and pornography very different worlds?

Will fans truly mix up Mimi for Mary Carey?

But now that we've learned Mariah will pose in Playboy, it's apparently the soon-to-be washed up singer will soon be starting a career in skin flicks herself.

Granted, Mariah won't be nude in the pictorial. She'll continue to leave all sex pictures to Paris Hilton. But she'll still be featured in the publication. Don't ask Carey about the layout, however.

She'll just say it never happened, just like her lies regarding Eminem getting her in the sack.