 |
| Whitney Houston CREDIT: COURTESY WHITNEY HOUSTON ESTATE |
By Darlene Donloe
The death and life of Whitney Houston have always made for popular and incendiary tabloid headlines.
Her meteoric rise to stardom. Her marriage. Her divorce. Her sexuality. Her weight loss. Her alleged molestation by a female family member. Her relationships. Her pregnancy. Her relationship with Robyn Crawford. Her fall from grace. Her ultimate and deadly self-sabotage. Her decision to do a reality show. Nothing about her life was off limits. All of it boosted sales because, at one time, she was considered America’s sweetheart.
If you think you know everything there is to know about Houston, think again. Apparently, not even Nick Broomfield’s Whitney: Can I Be Me, released last fall, had the ultimate goods.
Revelations about Houston, from people who actually knew her, are spread eagle in the new documentary, Whitney, by Oscar®-winning Scottish filmmaker Kevin Macdonald. It’s set to open in theaters nationwide July 6.
A lot of what is revealed is eye-opening. Some of it is rehashed news, but it’s also filled with some secret information. In the end, Whitney is a well-made documentary about the woman who was considered the best singer of her generation. The documentary is full of behind the scenes, never before seen archival footage and actual first-hand accounts from her mother, two brothers (Gary and Michael), her former husband Bobby Brown, her makeup artist, close family friends, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, former musical director, manager, music executives, publicist and Mary Jones, her personal assistant. It was Jones who found Houston after the songstress sent her for Sprinkles cupcakes. Jones, who had drawn a bath for Houston, said she was only gone 30 minutes when she came back and found Houston face down in a bathtub.
Nuggets about Houston, or Nippy as she was called by family members and childhood friends, are throughout the documentary - painting a picture of a woman who was famous, but who was also fragile, hurt, broken, shy, unhappy, happy, revered, booed, bored, and above all – complicated.
Her older brothers (Gary Garland Houston and Michael Houston) reveal how it was them, and not Bobby Brown, who introduced Houston to drugs at the age of 16.
The affair her mother, gospel great, Cissy Houston had with their church’s minister, had an emotional impact on Houston who left the home soon after learning of the infidelity. The documentary also speaks to her father being a corrupt civil servant.
The doc also speaks to the phenomenon that was “I Will Always Love You.” Her version was so popular that Saddam Hussein used a version of it during one of his re-election campaigns.
Houston, who died at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, in 2012 at the age of 48, broke more music industry records than any other female singer in history. She sold more than 200 million albums worldwide, making her the only artist to chart seven consecutive U.S. No. 1 singles.
It seems we’ll never know what really happened to Whitney Houston that fateful day. Was she killed? Did she commit suicide? Was it an accident? No one knows for sure.
What we do know is that Whitney Houston blessed the world with an incredible voice that will live on.
On the DONLOE SCALE: D (don’t bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likable), O (oh, yeah) and E (excellent), Whitney gets an E (excellent).
Running time: 120 minutes
No comments:
Post a Comment