Troubled pop superstar Whitney Houston — once a bigger seller than Madonna — is running out of cash. Insiders tell me she is literally broke, with no current income and huge expenses. Not only that: Whitney’s life is such a dismal mess that, according to sources, her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, is living with Whitney’s brother Gary and sister-in-law, Pat, close to Houston’s home in Atlanta.
Brown told friends alternately that Houston was pregnant and that they were divorcing.
It doesn’t help that this week Whitney was sold out by her sister-in- law, Tina Brown (not to be confused with the real Tina Brown, thanks). Tina’s brother is Houston’s often-arrested and imprisoned former pop star husband Bobby. Tina sold the most salacious stories she could muster to "The National Enquirer" and the "UK Sun" tabloid, along with pictures that suggest a horrifying saga of Whitney’s drug abuse. Her take could be as high as $200,000. There has been some suggestion that Brown, needing cash, put her up to it.
“There are 30 members of the Brown family,” says an insider, “and they’ve all sponged off of Whitney.”
That’s the problem. Generous to a fault, Houston has now managed to spend most of her earnings taking care of her own family and Brown’s. She has two main assets: a five-acre estate in posh Mendham, N.J., assessed in 2005, according to public records at $5.6 million. In 2003, she also purchased a large home in Alpharetta, Ga., a for $1.8 million, almost all of which was borrowed.
“There’s no money,” says an insider. “She’s really broke.”
Public records show Whitney has borrowed millions of dollars and taken out many staggering mortgages in her time — enough to give Michael Jackson a run for his money.
Houston’s financial problems are simple, and they were easy to predict. She is a singer, not a songwriter. Unlike Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Madonna, Houston does not write her own material. Or, to be more exact, she never attached her name to her hits and took a cut of the publishing. She has only five song credits on ASCAP’s Web site.
Houston’s next big problem is going to be with Child Protective Services in Alpharetta, Ga. Even though Bobbi Kristina lives away from home, there will no doubt be a new investigation based on the "Enquirer" story. If 50 percent of the report is deemed true, Houston and Brown could easily lose their daughter for good. One wonders if that will be enough of a wake up call for the singer who once represented the best of America’s youth.
Bookmarks