At first glance, I was all like “whatever” when I spotted the Enquirer’s headline about Nick Cannon being jealous of Mariah Carey getting all kinds of friendly with Lenny Kravitz. But it makes sense, really. Mariah and Lenny apparently go way back, and they’ve been in two movies together lately — 2009’s Precious and the upcoming The Butler — so they’re not exactly mere casual acquaintances in the biz. Certainly, Nick has been aware of their friendship, but he hasn’t let it get to him; that is, until now.

The trouble all started when Mariah (who has so far shown herself to be quite opinionated on the topic of prospective fellow “American Idol” judges) decided to take to her Twitter account in an effort to convince “Idol” producers to consider Lenny Kravitz as a judge. She tweeted the above photo of herself with Lenny as well. Of course, I kind of doubt Lenny even has “Idol” on his radar at all because he’s always so busy with his international touring and, you know, being so damn fabulous on his own. Then again, I also assumed Lenny was too cool to hang with Gwyneth Paltrow (let alone allow her to call him “Leonard”), but I was wrong on that account. For whatever reason, Lenny is playing along with Mariah’s suggestion for now, and he answered her tweet favorably. Now Nick has reportedly grown quite irritated with all of this madness, and here’s the details from the Enquirer:

Mariah Carey and hubby Nick Cannon are back at each other’s throats — over her too-close-for-comfort relationship with rockin’ ladies’ man Lenny Kravitz! “America’s Got Talent” host Nick, 31, hit the roof when Mariah suggested Lenny, 48, join her as a judge on “American Idol,” sources say.

“Mariah and Lenny have been friends since they were young,” said a source. “They had a crush on each other, and all their friends knew it.” The two Grammy winners worked together on the 2009 movie Precious, and they were both in New Orleans recently filming the upcoming movie, The Butler.

And Nick blew up when Mariah, 43, posted a picture of herself with the “American Woman” singer on her Twitter page on Aug. 20 with a message urging “Idol” brass to hire him. “Mariah told Nick to relax because lenny probably wouldn’t even consider doing the show,” said the source.

“But Nick told her, ‘That’s not the point! I know how you feel about him!’ mariah assured Nick that she and Lenny are just good friends, but Nick’s not so sure.”

His suspicions first heated up in May when Kravitz posted a cozy picture of him with his arm around Mariah’s waist on his Facebook page. The two had bumped into each other in Morocco while Kravitz was on tour and Mariah was vacationing with the couple’s twins Moroccan and Monroe.

“Although Nick was upset at the time, he let it go,” said the insider. “But now that Mariah’s actively campaigning to get Lenny on ‘Idol,’ he’s convinced that she has more history with Lenny than she’s let on. And it’s eating away at him!”

As The Enquirer has reported, Nick’s already hunappy about Mariah taking the “idol” job because it competes directly with his show.

[From The Enquirer, print edition, September 20, 2012]

Meanwhile, there’s a story in this week’s Star about how Nick is pushing Mariah to have more kids, but since she’s just about to start “Idol,” Mariah told Nick that “her career is her baby now.” Uh-oh. There have already been murmurs about Nick not exactly being thrilled with Mariah’s new gig, but I hope they can weather the storm. They kind of have to, really. I don’t think either one of them could find partners to keep up with their respective idiosyncracies at this point. Mariah is definitely far too high maintenance for someone like Lenny.

Mostly, this post also provides me with a great excuse to post some recent photos of Lenny Kravitz. Here he is in NYC’s East Village on 8/23 and onstage in Switzerland on 7/20. Lenny just doesn’t age at all, and he’s looking mighty fine for 48 years.

Photos courtesy of Twitter and WENN