HolidayGuy
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Post by HolidayGuy on Feb 18, 2012 22:21:11 GMT -5
MikeC- Dionne was speaking about the next person to go up and introduced "Miss Aretha Franklin..." I was surprised at first because I read that Aretha was not going to be there- and then someone apparently let Dionne know that she was not present. I don't know if Dionne just read the wrong info from the program at that time or what.
It was a nice service- Cissy took us to church, no doubt. And the level of media access was acceptable.
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Bojangles
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Post by Bojangles on Feb 18, 2012 23:34:03 GMT -5
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carrieidol1
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Post by carrieidol1 on Feb 18, 2012 23:39:31 GMT -5
OMG...
Now she is one special woman. God Bless Her!
Wow, so well written and heartfelt... I just got over sobbing over it, just perfect.
Wow.
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kjw518
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Post by kjw518 on Feb 18, 2012 23:42:11 GMT -5
I cried so much while reading that ):
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allow that
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Post by allow that on Feb 19, 2012 0:03:10 GMT -5
Got chills reading that.
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Linnethia Monique
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Post by Linnethia Monique on Feb 19, 2012 0:48:24 GMT -5
I loved that it was intimate. Family, friends, and god. It was like looking through a door at her life. Kevin Costner moved me. That man spoke with so much bliss. The tale of The Bodyguard made me regard him in a whole other light. He believed in her and believed she was the only one gifted for that role. He made me laugh and cry at the same time.
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johnm1120
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Post by johnm1120 on Feb 19, 2012 0:59:44 GMT -5
Saw most of the funeral today. Kevin Costner gave an incredible speech. Clive Davis and Patricia Houston also did great. It was a very nice service. I am one of those people who tends to switch the channel if IWALY comes on cause I've gotten so tired of the song over the years, but the song used at the end today really captured the entire day, not to mention her career and what she has left behind.
Based on Clive's speech, Whitney was planning on recording a new album later in the year. it's so sad she left us just when it looked like she was making a turn around and really was trying to take care of herself.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2012 3:28:09 GMT -5
Cissy's letter is beautiful.
Love you Whitney! :'(
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Me. I Am l!nk!nfan815...
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Post by Me. I Am l!nk!nfan815... on Feb 19, 2012 12:52:50 GMT -5
The funeral service was extremely touching and beautiful. When they were carrying the casket out at the end...omg. I started crying.
Her mom's letter to her also made me cry. I got chills.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2012 15:00:59 GMT -5
If I should die this very day Don't cry, cause on earth we wasn't meant to stay And no matter what people say I'll be waiting for you after judgement day
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$uperb@tDuDe
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Post by $uperb@tDuDe on Feb 19, 2012 15:08:45 GMT -5
Today was one of the most emotionally draining, saddest, most depressing days of my life. I miss my lady so much :'( I'm so sorry *hugs*
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2012 15:12:36 GMT -5
WHITNEY HOUSTON Laid to Rest
Pop legend Whitney Houston was buried today at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, NJ.
Houston was laid to rest next to her father, John Russell Houston, who died in 2003. The burial was a small "family only" affair and not the star-studded event that yesterday's moving funeral service was.
As TMZ first reported, Whitney's casket was heavily protected since the funeral yesterday ... with nearly 10 security guards working in shifts to keep it guarded.
Houston passed away back on February 11. A cause of death has yet to be determined.
BOBBY BROWN Won't Drag Lawyers Into Bobbi Kristina Dispute
Bobby Brown has been battling with Whitney Houston's family over seeing his daughter ever since Whitney passed away last week ... but Bobby won't turn this into a legal battle ... TMZ has learned.
Sources close to the New Edition singer tell TMZ ... Bobby really wants to be there for Bobbi Kristina, but does not want to make the situation more stressful for her than it already is.
We're told Bobby was very upset with how he was treated at Whitney's funeral yesterday and feels her family should be as considerate to him as his family was to Whitney when Bobby's mother passed away last year.
According to our sources, Bobby won't bring lawyers into the situation and, as on source said, he feels "this sort of thing you let the higher power handle."
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allow that
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Post by allow that on Feb 19, 2012 15:36:19 GMT -5
Isn't Bobbi Kristina 18? Hence making her a legal adult and ineligible to be part of a custody battle anyway?
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Oprah
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Post by Oprah on Feb 19, 2012 15:43:09 GMT -5
That was so beautiful. I'm glad Cissy's staying strong for Bobbi Kristina, I can't even imagine what it's like losing your own child. A parent should never know that feeling.
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Bojangles
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Post by Bojangles on Feb 20, 2012 1:42:09 GMT -5
Exclusive:
Whitney Did Leave a Will, And She Wasn't Bankrupt
Let’s clear up a few things about Whitney Houston. First of all, she left a last will and testament. It was drawn up after her divorce from Bobby Brown, according to my sources. Daughter Bobbi Kristina is her likely main heir. Despite dire reports, Houston also was not bankrupt or broke. Even though she didn’t have a publishing legacy–others wrote her songs–she did have money from album sales and touring.
She likely had advances, too, from various deals with Sony (formerly Sony BMG) dating from 2000. She made a lot of money–at least $35 million gross–from touring Europe and Asia in 2010. Sony is shipping and selling millions of her records right now.
And while there may not be a lot in the vaults of unreleased material, there will be enough to do some kind of souvenir album.
Her estate in Mendham, New Jersey has been on the market for three years. Yesterday, the price was dropped to $1.7 million. “The property is amazing,” says a friend. “Someone will buy it and remodel it.”
The gated home comes with an Olympic sized swimming pool that at one time bore a large “W” scripted on its bottom. Mostly, Houston had been dividing her time between Atlanta and Los Angeles.
Some other things to note: Houston was not scheduled to sing at the Clive Davis party on Saturday. She was merely there as a guest and cheerleader. As I reported on Saturday night– on Thursday she spent the morning and early afternoon with musical director Ricky Minor and Monica and Brandy. Minor reported that she’d been swimming and was in a good mood. Press saw her on Thursday with Davis and the singers. I was staying in the very same Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The sense that Whitney was wildly partying all over the place has been conveyed by the tabloids. It’s just not true. What she did at night outside the hotel is another story.And then there was the exclusive story we reported here about the leak on Friday night from her room into the one below.
The man in the suite below her saw water cascade through his bathroom ceiling at 2:30am. When he went upstairs, he found that the bathtub had been left on and was overflowing. Bobbi Kristina, 18, was not taking a bath at that hour. But she was awake, and the television in the room with the overflowing bathtub was cracked.
Source: Forbes
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allow that
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Post by allow that on Feb 20, 2012 14:27:24 GMT -5
So many extra things that the family has to worry about on top of all of their grief.
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HolidayGuy
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Post by HolidayGuy on Feb 20, 2012 16:01:02 GMT -5
www.billboard.com/column/chartbeat#/events/aretha-franklin-honors-whitney-houston-at-1006232152.storyAretha Franklin Honors Whitney Houston at Radio City Concertby Associated Press | February 20, 2012 Aretha Franklin was thankful to be alive and was thinking about lost friends, among them Whitney Houston. Hours after she canceled an appearance at Houston's funeral because of spasms in her legs, the "Queen of Soul" (the "undisputed" Queen, the capacity audience was reminded by the show's announcer) was quick on her feet, feisty in voice and sentimental and sassy in spirit at Radio City Music Hall on Saturday night. It was the latest stop on a "greatest hits" tour featuring old favorites and, since Houston's shocking death a week ago, a tribute to the fallen singer. Franklin is close to Houston's family, and she said Houston called her "Aunt Ree." Franklin herself was rumored a year ago to be mortally ill, hospitalized with an undisclosed illness and asking her fans worldwide to pray for her health. On Saturday, the 69-year-old looked young enough to joke about a man who had mistaken her for being in her 50s. She danced and shimmied, kicked off her heels and paced the stage barefoot, and even smirked and gave herself a couple of satisfied pats on the rear. She looked back over a 50-year career and those who helped her along. Franklin praised the late Luther Vandross as she kicked off the R&B hit he co-wrote for her, "Get It Right." She introduced her most heartbreaking ballad, "Ain't No Way," with a brief word about her sister and the song's composer, Carolyn Franklin, who died in 1988. She sang the title from the classic Motown anthem of devotion, "You're All I Need To Get By," and two giant flat screens on opposite sides of the stage flashed a picture of one of the writers, Nick Ashford, who died last summer. Franklin then called out to Ashford's widow and songwriting partner, Valerie Simpson, among several friends and family members in attendance. Houston's turn came during the second half of the roughly 100-minute concert, after Franklin had changed from a glittery green and silver caftan into a caftan of white and gold, and settled behind the piano and sketched out the words and melody to "I Will Always Love You." Softening Houston's all-time power ballad into a light, gospel reverie, Franklin paused to acknowledge the "homegoing" of "Nippy," Houston's nickname: More formally, "Miss Whitney Elizabeth Houston." "She was a very fine young lady" and "one of the best, greatest singers," said Franklin, breaking back and forth between melody and spoken word, behind song and sermon. "She was giving, gave so much of herself." "God bless you, Nippy," she concluded. "We'll always remember." But no one, Houston included, has displaced Franklin at the top. No one would dare. Backed by a sprawl of percussionists, horns, keyboards, singers and dancers, she has absorbed and mastered so many styles, from pop and gospel to soul and jazz, that she can hold entire traditions within a single song. And she remains fearless about shaking up standards. Her breakthrough smash from 1967, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" was changed from a smoldering ballad into a bluesy vamp. Franklin worked in a few digs about womanizing into the otherwise despondent "Ain't No Way" and stretched and scatted the words to "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." She had come to celebrate, to sell (Franklin urged the crowd, twice, to go to Walmart and buy her latest record) and to heal. "I hope that there's something I will sing, or I have sung, that will lift all of our heavy hearts today," she said near the beginning of the show. The answer was obvious, especially after the closing numbers: an explosive "Spirit in the Dark," with Franklin leading the charge on piano; and the essential finale, "Respect," with a cameo from the Rev. Al Sharpton, who pulled off some James Brown strides, and even a few nimble steps from the Queen herself, whose heart and legs seemed to have lightened as she left the stage.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2012 18:13:22 GMT -5
Family Sells Funeral Footage To "Benefit Bobbi Kristina"
Whitney Houston's "home going" ceremony has turned into a money maker for her Estate -- which very quietly struck a deal to sell the video of the funeral.
Here's how it went down ... Associated Press provided a live pool feed of the funeral to media outlets around the world (including TMZ) on Saturday -- but everyone had to pull the footage 24 hours later. Why?
A rep for the family confirms the family has now "agreed to license footage to several media outlets." The rep says the family is charging "customary fees" to ... "help maximize the estate for the benefit of Bobbi Kristina."
For the record ... TMZ is not one of the chosen ones.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2012 23:19:52 GMT -5
This is so surreal. :'(
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allow that
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Post by allow that on Feb 20, 2012 23:46:57 GMT -5
Two weeks ago there were pictures of her out and about. This still doesn't seem real.
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Bojangles
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Post by Bojangles on Feb 20, 2012 23:56:53 GMT -5
This is so surreal. :'( OOMMMMFFFGGGGGG!!!! My heart can't take this
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Bojangles
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Post by Bojangles on Feb 21, 2012 15:20:03 GMT -5
Whitney Houston ROCKIN' OUT to Madonna's Halftime ShowJust five days before her death, Whitney Houston was GETTIN' DOWN to Madonna's Super Bowl halftime show ... singing and dancing to the music like her old self ... and TMZ has the footage. It all went down Feb. 5 at a bar inside the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel ... where Whitney watched the entire game with close family and friends. For the record, we're told she didn't have one drink. But she did let loose ... because when Madge busted out Vogue ... a super-excited Whitney sang along and even busted out some of the trademark Vogue dance moves. Sources close to the actress tell us ... Whitney RAVED about the performance and then reminisced about the days when she would battle Madonna on the music charts. At least someone was a fan of the show ... VIDEO - www.tmz.com/2012/02/21/whitney-houston-superbowl-madonna-video/#.T0Nmvtr1LOU
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asg4
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Post by asg4 on Feb 22, 2012 17:04:44 GMT -5
Watch Bobby Brown drop bag of crack onstage & pick it up!!!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2012 18:06:59 GMT -5
Watch Bobby Brown drop bag of crack onstage & pick it up!!!
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d.t.m
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Post by d.t.m on Feb 23, 2012 7:21:05 GMT -5
Two weeks ago there were pictures of her out and about. This still doesn't seem real. I Know, it's slowly hitting me she's really gone. :'(
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Post by gracelessheart on Feb 23, 2012 9:06:45 GMT -5
I've never been a big Whitney fan. Not much of her music resonated with me. But it's obvious the impact she's had on so many music fans and the industry in general. To me, it doesn't seem like she gone at all. She's just made too big of an impression, on too many levels, to ever really be gone.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2012 10:57:29 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2012 17:59:13 GMT -5
Cocaine, heart disease contributed to Whitney Houston's drowning, coroner saysLos Angeles (CNN) -- Whitney Houston died from an accidental drowning in a hotel bathtub, but the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use" were contributing factors in her death, the Los Angeles County Coroner said in an initial autopsy report released Thursday. Houston, 48, was "found submerged in bathtub filled with water" and "no trauma or foul play is suspected," the coroner said. The toxicology tests found other drugs in her body, including marijuana, the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, the muscle relaxant Flexeril and the allergy medicine Benadryl, the report said. But these drugs "did not contribute to the death," it said. The one-page report released Thursday did not disclose the levels of each drug, but that information will be included in the final coroner report to be made public within two weeks, the coroner said. Houston's family, which had been informed of the findings before Thursday's release, issued a statement through a family spokeswoman. "We are saddened to learn of the toxicology results, although we are glad to now have closure," said Patricia Houston, the singer's sister-in-law and former manager. Houston died February 11 in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the day before the music industry gathered for the annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Authorities had said that police and fire officials were called to Houston's room at the Beverly Hilton after her unconscious body was found in the bathtub, just hours before she was to attend a pre-Grammy party at the hotel. Houston won six Grammys and sold 170 million albums, singles and videos over her career. In recent years, the singer's accomplishments were overtaken by her struggles with drug addiction. www.cnn.com/2012/03/22/showbiz/whitney-houston-autopsy/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
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jebsib
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Post by jebsib on Mar 23, 2012 13:19:06 GMT -5
Sad, but no surprise.
I recall the first time I was aware of her drug problem was when she and Bobby fled Hawaii after a marijuana bust in early 2000, a full 7 years after they got married. Other than her domestic issues with Bobby, when when did the drug problem really become public? Any earlier than that?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2012 14:08:21 GMT -5
Sad, but no surprise. I recall the first time I was aware of her drug problem was when she and Bobby fled Hawaii after a marijuana bust in early 2000, a full 7 years after they got married. Other than her domestic issues with Bobby, when when did the drug problem really become public? Any earlier than that? There had been talk of her using drugs for years, dating back to the 80s. I think her behavior started getting a little more erratic around 1996. Then by 1998 she started seeming like she was on stimulants. You can see how her behavior changed in interviews. She seemed very on edge and jittery. Once she got caught in the airport, it went from rumors to public knowledge that she used drugs. Then throughout 2000, with the missed and canceled appearances, the press started writing about her drug use as if it were a consistent problem and not just that isolated incident. I think it was around 2001 that people started talking about her having a cocaine addiction, especially after the Michael Jackson concert. Her behavior around 2000-2004 made it clear she wasn't just smoking a little weed. Whitney admitted in her final interview with Oprah that cocaine started becoming a problem while she was doing The Preacher's Wife and that by 1998, she was doing it every day. After Whitney's death, Chaka Khan said she did coke with Whitney and Eddie Murphy back in the 80s. It seems like she was using cocaine since early in her career but that it didn't start turning into an actual addiction until the mid-90s
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