Mariah Carey has claimed that Nicki Minaj threatened to shoot her. The claims have been made public via Barbara Walters, who recounted a conversation that she'd had with Carey on the ABC show The View, regarding video footage of Nicki cussing Mariah during the filming of American Idol. Although the footage was not completely clear, Nicki could be heard referring to Mariah as "her f***ing highness and saying that she would no longer put up with her.

Fox News report that Walters had a phone conversation with Carey, who told her "when Nicki walked off the set, multiple people heard Nicki say, `If I had a gun I would shoot the (adjective unspoken by Walters) bitch." Apparently, after a meeting that both Nicki and Mariah attended, Nicki said to her newfound nemesis "I love you but we might fight again," to which Mariah answered "no, we will not." Walters also revealed that Mariah has felt the situation so severe that she has hired extra security, saying that she "doesn't feel comfortable, emotionally." She has said though, that she intends to continue with the show because she loves it and loves mentoring the contestants.

Nicki Minaj has been invited onto Barbara Walters' show to give her side of the story but has so far has responded with a string of Twitter posts, such as "Hey yAll. Lets just say nicki said smthn about a gun. Ppl will believe it cuz she's a black rapper. Lmao. I'll then hit up Barbara n milk it" and "I don't call tmz n Barbara Walters cuz I stand on my own two feet. Never needed an army. God is good. Insecurity is as cruel as the grave." American Idol has only been filming for a couple of weeks, though we've long known that Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj were likely to come to blows. If one of the two judges have already descended into threatening to shoot the other, though, heaven only knows what the live shows are going to be like!