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"Barbed Doll: Whitney Houston" The Times (UK) Oct 17. 1992

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"Barbed Doll: Whitney Houston"

Newspapers | Jackson, Alan - The Times (Oct 17, 1992, London (UK)):


Launched in 1985, Whitney Houston came ready-packaged as the black diva of her generation. Imagine that Pallitoy or Mattel, intent on creating the first-ever living doll, had examined every definable demographic within America about the purchasing preferences. Only after such a multi-million dollar research and development program might a commodity as finely tuned and consumer-friendly as the then 23-year-old woman from New Jersey have been launched.


Within the available range of female singers, she represented a luxury item with mass appeal. The voice, technically faultless and effortlessly expressive, had been trained both in church and by her gospel-star mother, Cissy, before being loaned to Mammon. It had the potential to inherit the legacy of fame enjoyed by the legendary women of 20th-century popular music. But which of those essential names certainly not Ella or Sarah or Aretha had reached point-of-sale so gloriously gift-wrapped?


Houston, a former model, was poised, glamorous, serenely beautiful. As such, she captured the Zeitgeist of aspirant, buppie America, without alienating the country's vast but conservative white mainstream. She was a brand leader from day one, the ultimate example of what the Americans like to call "a class act".


She was also, of course, a young woman barely into her twenties, suddenly expected to play a public role that was equal parts siren, sage and supermodel. Media expectations provide a script for such scenarios: she should have turned weird under the strain, living the diva's image to its tempestuous, neurotic, ermine-drenched hilt. But after seducing the world into buying some 40 million copies of the three albums she has released to date, the single weirdest thing about Houston is how normally she behaves within the hothouse atmosphere that inevitably encloses her. She may have an Olympic-sized swimming-pool at home, the initials WH inscribed on its floor in black Plexiglas, but first impressions are of a woman radiating a relentlessly sunny, if slightly hyped-up, normality.


Due at a Manhattan hotel to promote her film debut in the forthcoming Warner Brothers thriller The Bodyguard, her impending presence provokes seismic waves of nerves and anticipation among the huddles of television, newspaper and public-relations personnel assembled in an upstairs suite. Someone signs for the tray of tiny sandwiches and fresh berries that has just arrived via room service, and tries not to blanch at the $200 (Pounds 117) cost. A Japanese video crew, intimidated by the crush, retreat into the adjoining bedroom and sit in a nervous line on the very edge of an enormous four-poster.


"Thank you, thank you, I appreciate that", says the woman at the eye of this minor hurricane, graciously fielding congratulations on her recent marriage to singer Bobby Brown. Wearing a vividly patterned silk shirt over canary-yellow trousers, Houston looks at once exotic and strangely modest. An enormous diamond flashes from her third finger, left hand. Her eyes and smile are similarly bright. As yet, there is no visible sign of her recently announced pregnancy.


Even one-to-one, as we move to a neighboring room to talk, Houston projects a megawatt brilliance. It is the second time we have met, and she asks all the right "How've you been?" questions. Ice-breaking chitchat about July's lavish wedding (reported with breathless reverence within the pages of Hello!) is responded to with near-religious fervor. "The love that I have for Bobby... well, it overwhelms me," she says at one point, fingertips pressed together above her heart. The effect of this performance, observed at such close quarters, is spellbinding. Any instinct to giggle is swept away by that luminous smile. Applause would not seem inappropriate.



This is why the camera loves Houston. And it is also why the news of her much-rumored break into movies makes one think of the successes (Cher, Diana Ross albeit briefly) rather than the relative failures (David Bowie, Sting, Olivia Newton-John, and so on) among those of her profession who have attempted the transition before her. Not that the synopsis for The Bodyguard gives substantial grounds for such optimism. "Frank Farmer is a professional bodyguard, one of the best," it reads. "A former Secret Service agent, he has risen to the top of a demanding profession by never letting his emotions interfere with his work.



"Then he encounters Rachel Marron (Houston). A flamboyant singer and actress, she doesn't think she needs a by-the-book bodyguard and doesn't mind saying so." If the idea of Houston playing a member of her own profession on screen sounds less than ground-breaking, there is an element to her presence in the film that is genuinely revolutionary, even in the Hollywood of late 1992. Taking the part of the bodyguard in Lawrence Kasdan's script is Kevin Costner, perceived by conservative white audiences as the acme of leading manhood. With black actresses still consigned to comic or stereotyped roles, Houston's presence as his co-star and interracial romantic lead in a $37-million production, predicted to be one of the winter's best box-office takes, is significant.


Jim Wilson founding partner in Costner's development company, Tig, and an Oscar-winner last year for his work on Dances With Wolves reports that even when the actor first suggested the project in 1988, he envisaged Whitney as its female star. "When Kevin suggested her, I asked the same question anyone else would: 'But can she act?"' he says. "I told him: 'Yes, she's a diva. Yes, she's a world-class beauty. But what on Earth makes you think she'd be able to carry off something like this?"' Costner remained adamant, however, and Houston agreed to go to Los Angeles for two days of screen testing.


"I'd heard that Kevin wanted me for the part, and that he was prepared to wait however long it took for me to be available to do it," Houston says. "Let me tell you, that was tripping me out. I thought: 'Why does this man want me so bad?' Then I read the script and I understood why. Rachel's a great singer, a good actress, she's up for an Academy award she's hot! Everyone loves Rachel. And I could relate to that because it's been that way for me in my career."


She continues: "There was a time when I first hit the scene that it was like I was on fire or something. For three years I was everywhere I kind of got sick of myself in the end, and that's why I took a break after the second album. I couldn't take it any more. It got to the point where I'd lay down at night and I could feel people talking about me. I had to get out of that fame aura for a while. So I knew what this character was about, and that maybe I could play her."


Houston admits that Costner's telephone entreaties almost persuaded her, but that the final impetus came from an entirely different angle. "It was something a friend of mine said that really made me decide. She said to me: 'Whitney, if you do this, do you realize what it will mean for other black actresses, for other black women period?' Immediately, I was encouraged. She was right. It's a very, very strong role for a black woman."


Even in a town as hyperbole-happy as Hollywood, the word is that Houston's performance is genuinely good enough to merit a parallel career in film, should she choose to pursue one. This, plus recent announcements by the cosmetic houses Revlon and Cover Girl that they will use black models for mainstream advertising campaigns in the coming months, may seem at first too frivolous to represent a watershed in white attitudes to equal opportunities. But they give high-profile proof of a move to dismantle ethnic barriers within the media even if it is for less than purely altruistic motives. America's black and Hispanic populations are growing twice as fast as its white, and have a younger demographic profile. The recession-hit market for consumer goods be they cosmetics or cinema tickets is waking up to the fact that it can no longer afford to ignore such a source of disposable income.


Yet there is an irony to Houston being seen as a standard-bearer in this erosion of subliminal discrimination and one that does not escape her for a minute. Although she has achieved her superstar status without resort to Prince's shock tactics or Michael Jackson's strange behavior, one frequent criticism dogged her through that first extraordinary rush of success. "Again and again I heard that I was too white," she says. "Because I had such huge success I was accused of selling out, of being a black singer doing pop for white audiences.


"I don't categorize either music or people on the basis of color. And there's no way I would attempt to make myself less black, whatever that entails, to be more commercial. I'm comfortable with myself and I don't want to change anything. I stay close to my roots. I don't pretend to be anything other than who I am nor do I want to be. But for so long we've been tortured with this negative image problem: it used to be that if you wanted to sell records as a black artist, you didn't even put your face on the sleeve. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with anyone who chooses to change their look for those reasons... but I don't want to sell out and I don't have the need to."


The allegation was provoked mainly by music-industry perceptions of the way in which her career launch was engineered. Responsible for refining her raw talent into the champagne-and-oysters sound of her debut hit, Saving All My Love For You, was Clive Davis, the avuncular head of Arista Records and a man with two decades of star-building behind him. "I didn't create Whitney, although I did work with her on a creative level," he says. "I was involved in picking the material with her, choosing the right producers, waiting until the top people were free to work with her. I saw a rare combination of talent and beauty, but even then I couldn't be sure it would all work."


It did, of course. Brilliantly. The string of high-drama ballads and melodic dance tunes with which she made her name, together with the glamour gowns she wore when singing them, created an image that was glossy, sophisticated, preternaturally mature. Compared with the streetwise sound and images of such contemporaries as Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul, Houston's appeal was up-market, almost princess-like. For Davis, one felt, the thrill came from having helped to fashion a new talent with the hauteur to rival those middle-aged divas he so much admired: Aretha Franklin, Patti Labelle, Whitney's older cousin Dionne Warwick.


Two years later, and almost ten years since she first submitted to Arista's star-maker machinery, Houston gives the appearance of having retreated behind her image. Whether facing an audience of tens of thousands from a concert stage or a single journalist across a room, she is professional to the hilt. But behind the dazzling smiles and friendly asides, there is the inescapable sense that she is approaching the encounter as just another item in her endless schedule one that requires her to play the role of Whitney, diva, yet again. Robyn Crawford, her one-time school friend and now executive personal assistant, acknowledges that riding the coat-tails of this intensity of fame is not always easy.


"The foundation we had years ago, the friendship that we shared, is pretty much back there in the past. Now it's business. Those of us who work with her have to change to accommodate what happens. I'd say that, as a person, Whitney has pretty much stayed the same. I think it's the people around her, including myself, who've had to make a change... And a lot of times you get your feelings hurt. I may look at her in a room and think, 'That's my best friend', but it's not about being that personal any more. It's about going as far as she wants to go." And now that Bobby Brown is sharing Houston's mansion in New Jersey, Crawford realizes further readjustments may be necessary.


"None of us around her, not her mother or father or me, could be to her what a husband can be. In a marriage, it seems to me that it is always the woman who has to do more commit herself more, devote herself, always be there. And Whitney is going to be that kind of wife: she's very traditional and Bible-written. And if that changes anything about her, I think it will mean she's going to take less sh!t. She's not high-handed or temperamental or arrogant, but although she walks softly, she carries an invisible stick. If you back her up against a wall, you'll be sorry. In the nicest way, she'll make you feel like this..." Crawford holds up her thumb and first finger only millimeters apart.


The strength of the understanding between the two women is such that it has withstood a constant record-industry whispering campaign that theirs is a lesbian relationship. These rumors went public two years ago when Houston found herself the subject of an attempted "outing" campaign by militant homosexuals. "I don't care who's sleeping with who," she said, when I interviewed her last. "I've become tired of dignifying the question of whether I'm gay with an answer. At first we all laughed. But it's disturbing, and not only does it affect me and my family, but that's my friend they're talking about and it's hard for her to deal with. Enough is enough, so lay off it now."


The rumblings have continued, though, irrespective of the announcements of her marriage and subsequent pregnancy. It has even been suggested, somewhat incredibly, that both events were planned as media smokescreens. In a homophobic climate, such speculation can damage the chances of winning sponsorship deals, endorsement opportunities and other lucrative sidelines to superstar status. More centrally to Houston's career, it could also alienate the sector attracted to her as a visible Christian. Yet today she seems more sanguine about, or perhaps just reluctantly resigned to, the gossip-mongering.


"I am not and never have been gay," she says. "But there's a sense in which all the things said about me have kept people's curiosity up and made me more famous than I really am. In a very odd sense, maybe it's been beneficial to me. Like they say, 'Negative press is just as good as positive, 'cos it's all going the same way down the toilet."'


For Crawford, however, without a famous boy friend or husband, there is no advantage, however tangential, to the rumors. "When I was younger, I used to pray that I'd have something to contribute," she says. "I wanted to be needed, counted on. Well, I guess I got what I prayed for, but I also got more attention than I ever bargained for. It's not easy trying to establish a career and be respected, knowing in the back of your mind that when you walk into a room some people are thinking, 'That's the girl who...' I've learnt to overcome that, but it's made me well-known in a way I wouldn't wish to be. They are a bunch of liars, though. I only have to answer to one person, and it's nobody here."


Yet if Houston's romance with Brown raised eyebrows, it was largely for the seeming incompatibility of their respective images. Six years her junior, the former teen star is renowned for his suggestive dance routines. During his 1989-90 world tour, he was arrested in Georgia for lewdness on stage. The four-year delay between his second album and its recent successor fueled talk denied by the singer that he had a heavy drug habit. Touted as the ultimate bad boy, he made a surprising choice of partner in the hospital-endowing, charity fund-raising Whitney. Cynics pounced.


"How miraculously coincidental that Bobby Brown should release his crucial follow-up to the multi-platinum Don't Be Cruel only weeks after his Hello! photo-spreaded marriage to Whitney Houston," sneered The Independent in August. "Can her next album be far behind? And would it be too cynical to ask which came first, the relationship or the release schedule?"


Such withering comment was nothing compared to that made in America, however. Crawford recalls one showbiz commentator describing Brown as "a spermbank" on screen (a reference to his three young children from previous relationships), and suggesting that he would make as reliable marriage partner as Senator Edward Kennedy. There were gleeful tabloid reports, too, of an alleged brawl between Crawford and Houston outside a Los Angeles hotel an incident said to have been caused by the former's intense jealousy of Brown. "All a complete lie," she says wearily, but with underlying anger.


Houston herself may hate the gossip and innuendo, but says she enjoyed the fact that her and Brown's opposing images provoked such a stir. "If you looked at us just in terms of those images, you might well imagine we had nothing in common, but we do," she says. "Bobby's family is very close, just like mine, and he was raised with the same good sense of God as I was. All the fundamental, important things we share. Out on stage he does his thing and I do mine, but we don't go home together as Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston we go home as husband and wife. People look at us and see a certain surface, but you have to look deeper than that to know the truth. If you only knew how uncomplicated we really are."


The interview over, she gives me a kiss, a hug, and another flash of the diva's dazzling smile. "It's been a pleasure," she says. "Any time you want to talk to me..." What will she be doing for the rest of the day, I ask. There is no answer. The door is open and Whitney Houston is already walking quickly down the corridor. She seems to become more herself with each retreating step.

One-Iconic-Look-Whitney-Houston-The-Bodyguard-1992-Movies-Costume-Analysis-Tom-Lorenzo-Site-27.jpg


@NoLies @The Standard @Jane Williams @Nippian @REDM1217 @Butterflyj82 @Witty_Houston @CriDionne @Lilac89 @Niecey0788 @sade @Kahota @SaintTitus @mizzsparks
 

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Pretty in depth interview! Always felt like Whitney gave really great interviews and provided us with her own receipts!

“Houston admits that Costner's telephone entreaties almost persuaded her, but that the final impetus came from an entirely different angle. "It was something a friend of mine said that really made me decide. She said to me: 'Whitney, if you do this, do you realize what it will mean for other black actresses, for other black women period?'”

As an actress, she was a trailblazer also. After starring in 2 movies, she became the highest paid Black actress in Hollywood. You need someone to open the doors, get the big bag so others can eat.

“Because I had such huge success I was accused of selling out, of being a black singer doing pop for white audiences”

She forgot to add jealousy was behind some of this hateration.

"None of us around her, not her mother or father or me, could be to her what a husband can be. In a marriage, it seems to me that it is always the woman who has to do more commit herself more, devote herself, always be there. And Whitney is going to be that kind of wife: she's very traditional and Bible-written. And if that changes anything about her, I think it will mean she's going to take less sh!t. She's not high-handed or temperamental or arrogant, but although she walks softly, she carries an invisible stick. If you back her up against a wall, you'll be sorry. In the nicest way, she'll make you feel like this..." Crawford holds up her thumb and first finger only millimeters apart”

Lol. Robyn definitely rode Whitney’s coattails but hey.. This a good quote and so blunt.
 

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Pretty in depth interview! Always felt like Whitney gave really great interviews and provided us with her own receipts!

“Houston admits that Costner's telephone entreaties almost persuaded her, but that the final impetus came from an entirely different angle. "It was something a friend of mine said that really made me decide. She said to me: 'Whitney, if you do this, do you realize what it will mean for other black actresses, for other black women period?'”

As an actress, she was a trailblazer also. After starring in 2 movies, she became the highest paid Black actress in Hollywood. You need someone to open the doors, get the big bag so others can eat.
True. It's funny recently someone on LSA claimed another singer was actually in the running to be Rachel tho. As IF they had a chance because we know who Kevin wanted...

"Jim Wilson founding partner in Costner's development company, Tig, and an Oscar-winner last year for his work on Dances With Wolves reports that even when the actor first suggested the project in 1988, he envisaged Whitney as its female star."

...and Kevin was going to do what it took it go for his 1st choice! However, if Whitney flaked in the end whoever was 'a thought' would've always been in Whitney's shadow. Kevin wasn't going to forget someone he envisioned for that part for YEARS!
 

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This is a good read, thank you for sharing.

Excellent read. I love these throwback articles.

Within the available range of female singers, she represented a luxury item with mass appeal. The voice, technically faultless and effortlessly expressive, had been trained both in church and by her gospel-star mother...to inherit the legacy of fame enjoyed by the legendary women of 20th-century popular music. But which of those essential names certainly not Ella or Sarah or Aretha had reached point-of-sale so gloriously gift-wrapped?
c157823f5265524858faaa1f9ea47e803ce9cf39.gif
 

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More from the article...
During his 1989-90 world tour, he was arrested in Georgia for lewdness on stage. The four-year delay between his second album and its recent successor fueled talk denied by the singer that he had a heavy drug habit.


@The Standard @Nippian @WhitneyForever Well what?! But but HE said he had it all going on before Whitney came along. He was so focused, well loved and drug free....
giphy.gif
 

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True. It's funny recently someone on LSA claimed another singer was actually in the running to be Rachel tho. As IF they had a chance because we know who Kevin wanted...

"Jim Wilson founding partner in Costner's development company, Tig, and an Oscar-winner last year for his work on Dances With Wolves reports that even when the actor first suggested the project in 1988, he envisaged Whitney as its female star."

...and Kevin was going to do what it took it go for his 1st choice! However, if Whitney flaked in the end whoever was 'a thought' would've always been in Whitney's shadow. Kevin wasn't going to forget someone he envisioned for that part for YEARS!
“I didn’t realize in The Bodyguard when I wanted Whitney to play that that was such a brave move,” Costner said. “I thought she was the cutest girl I’ve ever seen”

Think it was @slw84 who said Madonna was KC’s first choice for Rachel. Kevin Costner has always maintained his first choice was Whitney. He was also quite persistent. The STUDIO may have considered “others” only when Whitney started stalling. The only reason why it took so long to make the bodyguard was due to Whitney’s apprehension. Also the interracial component of the movie( a major reason why the movie was groundbreaking back then) wouldn’t have existed with a Madonna or another white passing singer.

@Legendary did you know The Bodyguard was the 10th highest grossing film of all time back then? She
 

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And another....
"But there's a sense in which all the things said about me have kept people's curiosity up and made me more famous than I really am. In a very odd sense, maybe it's been beneficial to me. Like they say, 'Negative press is just as good as positive, 'cos it's all going the same way down the toilet."'
f02407aabaef09f1-.gif


There is some truth to this. Do you all think she understood this fame 'game' more than she let on? I'm sure some of these things hurt her but at the same time people wouldn't be all up in your biz IF she wasn't so famous which in turn makes you more famous. While fans may hate some of the focus on the personal stuff or even negativity does it help in some way?! I mean people are STILL talking about this woman usually good but some bad too...even on here, be it a fan or not the obsession with her is still very real.
 
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Great interview! So the rumors of Bobby's drug use and problematic behavior were already running rampant before he married Whitney... interesting.
IMG_20201128_013434.jpg
 

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“I didn’t realize in The Bodyguard when I wanted Whitney to play that that was such a brave move,” Costner said. “I thought she was the cutest girl I’ve ever seen”

Think it was @slw84 who said Madonna was KC’s first choice for Rachel. Kevin Costner has always maintained his first choice was Whitney. He was also quite persistent. The STUDIO may have considered “others” only when Whitney started stalling. The only reason why it took so long to make the bodyguard was due to Whitney’s apprehension. Also the interracial component of the movie( a major reason why the movie was groundbreaking back then) wouldn’t have existed with a Madonna or another white passing singer.

@Legendary did you know The Bodyguard was the 10th highest grossing film of all time back then? She
kudos to Whitney being who Kevin truly wanted.
Doesn't change the fact that Kevin went to Madonna's concert (even if it was the studio pushing him to do so) but after seeing her singing abilities felt she wasn't a good fit or that Tommy mottolla passed on it without Mariah even knowing until way later in their marriage because he felt Mariah should establish herself as a singer way longer before entering into movies (which was the right decision, um Glitter).

Whitney was the best choice. No one would have wanted Madonna singing I will always love you and Mariah would have wrote the soundtrack which wouldn't have brought life to I will always love you or even I'm every woman.
 

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kudos to Whitney being who Kevin truly wanted.
Doesn't change the fact that Kevin went to Madonna's concert (even if it was the studio pushing him to do so) but after seeing her singing abilities felt she wasn't a good fit or that Tommy mottolla passed on it without Mariah even knowing until way later in their marriage because he felt Mariah should establish herself as a singer way longer before entering into movies (which was the right decision, um Glitter).

Whitney was the best choice. No one would have wanted Madonna singing I will always love you and Mariah would have wrote the soundtrack which wouldn't have brought life to I will always love you or even I'm every woman.
First choice is first choice...I think that was what @The Standard is saying! Correct me if I'm wrong @The Standard.

While Kevin had mentioned Princess Diana for a possible reboot and of course most people know about the original film that would've starred Diana Ross. However, I dont think I've heard of Madonna and definitely not Mariah. Kevin did say some singers auditioned BUT never named them...which was nice of him.

While, the big wigs may have threw Madonna's name in the mix because technically she is a singer, was in movies even tho back then they flopped....most importantly shes white just like Kevin. However, Mariah although white passing was still very new in 1990-early 91. This film was casted by mid 1991. It's just odd. Why waste her time like that? Can you share where you read this from someone who was involved with The Bodyguard?

Kevin just like with casting the leading lady also had a MAJOR hand in the Soundtrack. He was going to have at least ONE cover on that Soundtrack period. So lets say Whitney after stringing them along all those years in the end decided to decline the movie...MC would've still had to compete with the other options. MC would've also had to record either 'What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted' and/or 'I Will Always Love You' so total writing wouldn't have happened. Kevin was SET on that and a new singer with no acting experience who was an after thought for the role wasn't going to change that.
 

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Lol believe me I'm aware... it's just funny how he's tried to rewrite history with his narrative in his book and movie.
And him dropping the dope LITERALLY right onstage while performing didnt help. However its not about the truth it's about who has the last word you know. She up & died and things got strange ie time for alot of rewrites. She should've wrote a book but that's none of my business lol!
 

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Yes, they were.


Teddy Riley already spilled his tea...he said when he was around in the 80s Bob was on EVERYTHANG! Too bad Teddy said it after that film was made! Bob just can't accept reality or responsibility. Had he had DRIVE and a better musical ear MOST OF THIS WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN AN ISSUE! People don't really care about what a man does privately as long as they are PRODUCING. He also wouldn't have had to peddle trash books, movie and food had he been on his JOB! He would have more of a foundation career/money and public perception wise TODAY and wouldn't be slandering a dead ex-wife who birthed him a daughter.
 

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funny how the real black girl whitney was called white while her while passing copy mariah was embraced as black by the same people..... poor whitney
 

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I hate when Robyn fans claim Whitney abused Robyn emotionally because she let Robyn still work for her after their 2-second fling ended, this article clearly proves whether Robyn could have Whitney or not she was gonna stay regardless because she made good money while not having to do a lot.
 

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funny how the real black girl whitney was called white while her while passing copy mariah was embraced as black by the same people..... poor whitney
I see what you are saying but nobody Black I knew called her that. I also didnt personally know any Black major MC fans...still dont. However, yes she does move units in our community obviously considering how she caters her sound but the connection to Whitney was stronger. Plus, its not hard for others to impress us esp a woman. All they need to do it hit a good run or two and we (not me) go UP lol. No disrespect but it is what it is.

Anyhow, as to what happened with Whitney I think the media plays a huge part in the peddling of ideas and feelings. Whitney didn't STAY in the soul tradition so she did get some flack initially. However, IF we didnt love her so much SOME in the community wouldn't have been so bothered. At the end of the day Whitney maximized her talent and you have to respect it! The community got over themselves trust me. Black artists had to move a little different and we'd be foolish to deny that. Anita Baker said it best Whitney was there to open doors and be more than the genre like Streisand.

I'm still waiting on someone to show me what she did that was any different from her Black male counterparts *no names* needed. Yet the grumblings from the community didnt STICK on them the same so why is that?! Its all BULLSH*T at the end of the day and beyond tired. Fans should no longer even address the hypocrisy!
 
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kudos to Whitney being who Kevin truly wanted.
Doesn't change the fact that Kevin went to Madonna's concert (even if it was the studio pushing him to do so) but after seeing her singing abilities felt she wasn't a good fit or that Tommy mottolla passed on it without Mariah even knowing until way later in their marriage because he felt Mariah should establish herself as a singer way longer before entering into movies (which was the right decision, um Glitter).

Whitney was the best choice. No one would have wanted Madonna singing I will always love you and Mariah would have wrote the soundtrack which wouldn't have brought life to I will always love you or even I'm every woman.
That’s nice. I’ve never actually heard KC or the director speak about pursuing Madonna or Mattolla’s ex wife. I know the scene you’re referring to in Truth or Dare, It was obvious Kevin was grossed out by Madonna. Madonna was never, ever his first choice tho.
As I said, I don’t doubt others were “considered..” because for 1) Whitney had a busy schedule and 2), she was apprehensive about making movies. By default, they had to look at “others.”
But Kevin was pretty open about who he wanted as “Rachel” from the get go and pursued Whitney heavily until she finally agreed to do the movie.

It was for the best as you said.

@araik Kevin definitely had a crush on her but sigh. In all his quotes about Whitney, he makes sure to mention her beauty. She didn’t even wanna kiss him with tongue lmaoo! Can you believe it? That was her only request.. NO TONGUE!
 

THE STANDARD

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And so many people believe his disgusting lies.
It makes me sick to my stomach! His own mother accidentally fried chicken with cocaine, thinking it was flour yet and STILL, some people continue to play stupid. Even when you remind them, the boy was kicked out of NE because of his issues with drugs, they still act ignorant. Bobby's been the biggest lying loser ever...
 

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That’s nice. I’ve never actually heard KC or the director speak about pursuing Madonna or Mattolla’s ex wife. I know the scene you’re referring to in Truth or Dare, It was obvious Kevin was grossed out by Madonna. Madonna was never, ever his first choice tho.
As I said, I don’t doubt others were “considered..” because for 1) Whitney had a busy schedule and 2), she was apprehensive about making movies. By default, they had to look at “others.”
But Kevin was pretty open about who he wanted as “Rachel” from the get go and pursued Whitney heavily until she finally agreed to do the movie.

It was for the best as you said.

@araik Kevin definitely had a crush on her but sigh. In all his quotes about Whitney, he makes sure to mention her beauty. She didn’t even wanna kiss him with tongue lmaoo! Can you believe it? That was her only request.. NO TONGUE!

yup he doesn't just talk about how pretty she was but also vouched for her when everyone was mocking her. i love the way he spoke of her kindness and gentleness. i feel some people focus too much on her being a so called diva when she really wasn't just a nice sweet girl like kev said.
 

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yup he doesn't just talk about how pretty she was but also vouched for her when everyone was mocking her. i love the way he spoke of her kindness and gentleness. i feel some people focus too much on her being a so called diva when she really wasn't just a nice sweet girl like kev said.
Let's face it IT WAS still taboo to have a Black female lead in a major movie having a white love interest! That's what it was really about. Just like with most things PEOPLE GOT OVER IT....The Bodyguard recently aired on BET. The same as it has on The Country Music channel, HBO, VH1, Lifetime and so on!
 

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That’s nice. I’ve never actually heard KC or the director speak about pursuing Madonna or Mattolla’s ex wife. I know the scene you’re referring to in Truth or Dare, It was obvious Kevin was grossed out by Madonna. Madonna was never, ever his first choice tho.
As I said, I don’t doubt others were “considered..” because for 1) Whitney had a busy schedule and 2), she was apprehensive about making movies. By default, they had to look at “others.”
But Kevin was pretty open about who he wanted as “Rachel” from the get go and pursued Whitney heavily until she finally agreed to do the movie.

It was for the best as you said.

@araik Kevin definitely had a crush on her but sigh. In all his quotes about Whitney, he makes sure to mention her beauty. She didn’t even wanna kiss him with tongue lmaoo! Can you believe it? That was her only request.. NO TONGUE!
I ORIGINALLY stopped reading after you said 'that's nice'....I'm weak lol. I'm back now and the business partner said 1988 Kev was featuring Whitney HEAVY...two years before anyone knew MC and nobody looks at Madonna as a DIVA in that classic sense. Anyhow, all of this talk brings full circle that private note Maddy had during this era & the bratty snipes. Also, the fact that Tommy said he damn near fell out of his office chair when he heard "I Will Always Love You"....its funny when great things happen to the right people, in this case Whitney. Sis came back and shook the whole table!

BTW, I guess Whitney said she never kissed a whyte man before and wasn't gonna start. Ol'selfish ass lmao. However, she really had great respect for Kevin and they got along well! Little did her ass know that his support for her never wavered even AFTER the film wrapped! Now that let's you know what kinda man Kevin is and how much he liked her!
 

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I see what you are saying but nobody Black I knew called her that. I also didnt personally know any Black major MC fans...still dont. However, yes she does move units in our community obviously considering how she caters her sound but the connection to Whitney was stronger. Plus, its not hard for others to impress us esp a woman. All they need to do it hit a good run or two and we (not me) go UP lol. No disrespect but it is what it is.
Anita Baker said it best Whitney was there to open doors and be more than the genre like Streisand.

I'm still waiting on someone to show me what she did that was any different from her Black male counterparts *no names* needed. Yet the grumblings from the community didnt STICK on them the same so why is that?! Its all BULLSH*T at the end of the day and beyond tired. Fans should no longer even address the hypocrisy!
Look at Anita, speaking Truth( and you know she don’t like anyone!). Whitney was our own Barbara. She should’ve ignored a lot of things but she was human like everyone else! I’ll always maintain, the biggest issue wasn’t singing “pop.”It was mostly jealousy that she was able to reach a certain status/ level no Black female artist had ever reached before. It really angered/ annoyed some people, even those within her own community. Too much success always comes with haters. It had nothing to do with her singing! Some of her critics were quick to embrace her white clone though, if that’s not hypocrisy.. I don’t know what is.

Anyways, I think little Ricky schroder said he got a peck, Dassit, lol. Whitney really did believe in Black love.
 

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BTW, I guess Whitney said she never kissed a whyte man before and wasn't gonna start. Ol'selfish ass lmao. However, she really had great respect for Kevin and they got along well! Little did her ass know that his support for her never wavered even AFTER the film wrapped! Now that let's you know what kinda man Kevin is and how much he liked her!
He really respected her. Said she was his one true love even though he has a whole wife lol.
 

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"although she walks softly, she carries an invisible stick." (the stick that used to whop BHBrown ass at the beginning:whistle:)




The four-year delay between his second album and its recent successor fueled talk denied by the singer that he had a heavy drug habit.






ok BHBrown....#S.Orange
 

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He really respected her. Said she was his one true love even though he has a whole wife lol.

loool giving me deniro flashbacks chasing her for years and sending her expensive presents/ going to her damn concerts and she could care less.
sigh in another world she and kev are single and she gave vanilla men a lil taste lol.
 

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loool giving me deniro flashbacks chasing her for years and sending her expensive presents/ going to her damn concerts and she could care less.
sigh in another world she and kev are single and she gave vanilla men a lil taste lol.

“After her dress rehearsal, I was introduced to her backstage. ‘You truly are the most talented singer out there today,’ I said, a bit star-struck,” he recalls. “She paused and said, “I know, baby,” then walked on.”

 

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First choice is first choice...I think that was what @The Standard is saying! Correct me if I'm wrong @The Standard.

While Kevin had mentioned Princess Diana for a possible reboot and of course most people know about the original film that would've starred Diana Ross. However, I dont think I've heard of Madonna and definitely not Mariah. Kevin did say some singers auditioned BUT never named them...which was nice of him.

While, the big wigs may have threw Madonna's name in the mix because technically she is a singer, was in movies even tho back then they flopped....most importantly shes white just like Kevin. However, Mariah although white passing was still very new in 1990-early 91. This film was casted by mid 1991. It's just odd. Why waste her time like that? Can you share where you read this from someone who was involved with The Bodyguard?

Kevin just like with casting the leading lady also had a MAJOR hand in the Soundtrack. He was going to have at least ONE cover on that Soundtrack period. So lets say Whitney after stringing them along all those years in the end decided to decline the movie...MC would've still had to compete with the other options. MC would've also had to record either 'What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted' and/or 'I Will Always Love You' so total writing wouldn't have happened. Kevin was SET on that and a new singer with no acting experience who was an after thought for the role wasn't going to change that.
Madonna at the time was coming off the success of Dick Tracy which made her a hot name again in Hollywood at the time and a song she performed went on to win an Oscar, though it went to the songwriters.
 

TheChanteuse

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Teddy Riley already spilled his tea...he said when he was around in the 80s Bob was on EVERYTHANG! Too bad Teddy said it after that film was made! Bob just can't accept reality or responsibility. Had he had DRIVE and a better musical ear MOST OF THIS WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN AN ISSUE! People don't really care about what a man does privately as long as they are PRODUCING. He also wouldn't have had to peddle trash books, movie and food had he been on his JOB! He would have more of a foundation career/money and public perception wise TODAY and wouldn't be slandering a dead ex-wife who birthed him a daughter.
Bobby is lazy. Granted he has been working since he was a kid but I think he got too comfortable with his wife being the bread winner. I forgot who spilled the tea but basically he was practically forced to record his self titled album 'Bobby' in 92'; missing sessions, wasting studio money and producers times. He just wanted to party and do drugs. The sad part is tho not the best singer; he's a phenomenal dancer, and a great performer. He missed so many opportunities refusing to put in effort in his prime. It's like he gave up after his massive success in the late 80s.
 

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Little did Whitney know this movie would open the door to an acting career

It was interesting hearing from Robyn and how her relationship changed with Whitney.
 

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