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Dateline Interview with Whitney Houston (12/10/96)
(Interview done by Katie Couric)

(Introduction)  She was the Queen of Pop in the mid-80's, the music
industry's golden girl.  Whitney Houston's first album still holds the record
as the biggest selling debut album by a solo artist.  In the '90's, she made
the move to movies with "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting to Exhale."  And now a
new film opening this week, "The Preacher's Wife," takes this former choir
girl back to her gospel roots.  She's also getting ready for another debut.
 A new baby is on the way to join a very active
youngster back home.  But for Whitney Houston, being back in the spotlight
means grappling again with the persistent rumors about her life.

(Interview starts with Whitney and Bobbi Kristina sitting at the piano with
Bobbi banging the keys.  Whitney tells her "I love you."  Bobbi says, "I love
you too, mommy.")

(Narrative)  Time will tell if Bobbi Kristina, who looks just like her mother
did when she was 3, is blessed with these vocal chords...  (Video clip from
"I Will Always Love You" is shown).  It's been more than a decade since
Whitney Houston made her solo recording debut with a voice destined to break
music records. (Clips are shown of her many music videos).   In 11 years,
she's sold more than 100 million albums, at perhaps too high a personal cost.
 For with all the glory has come more than her fair
share of heartache.

(Whitney and Katie enter Whitney's room at home where she keeps her awards in
a glass cabinet).

KC:  WOW.  This is some collection!

WH:  It is something.  Sometimes I come in here and just stare to see if it's
all for real.

(Clips are shown of Whitney's name being announced as the winner of several
different music awards).

(Narrative) At the age of 33, Whitney is one of the world's wealthiest
entertainers.  Forbes ranked her among the top 40 earners in 1994, for
pulling in $33 million in just 2 years.

WH:  (Looking at her awards)  If I stop now, I could say I've had a great
career.  Really.

KC:  (Looking at Whitney's awards) Plus you're running out of room!

WH:  (Giggling)  Yeah, it's true, Katie, huh?!  I have no where to put this
stuff, huh?

(The two are now seated in a room facing each other).

KC:  Do you think your success has at any time gone to your head, Whitney?

WH:  No.  My mother... I have a mother who just says, "Hey girlfriend...
(snaps her fingers twice) ...Check this out!"  (Laughs)

(Clip is shown of her mother directing her church choir).

(Narrative)  Whitney's talent and tenacity were inherited in part from her
mother, Cissy, an accomplished gospel and pop artist and musical director at
New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey.  (Whitney then starts singing
"Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah).  The youngest of 3 from a middle class
background, Whitney grew up singing in the choir here.  Although her parents
split up when she was a teen, they raised her with a strong sense of family
and devotion to God.

(Clip is shown from "The Preacher's Wife" of Whitney and choir singing "Joy
To The World")  This girl from modest beginnings was recently paid $10
million for her new movie, "The Preacher's Wife".  In it, Cissy's influence
is unmistakable.

KC:  How does she (Cissy) do it (direct the choir)?  Just show me a little
bit.

WH:  (She starts acting like she's directing a choir).  That kind of stuff.
 (Laughs).  That kind of stuff.

(Katie is now seated with Cissy Houston).

KC:  In "The Preacher's Wife," she got a lot of her mannerisms, leading that
choir, from you?  Did that tickle you?

CH:  (Laughing, blushing) Very much so.

(Narrative)  But years ago, when Whitney told her that she wanted to become a
singer, Cissy did not encourage her to follow in her footsteps.

CH:  I didn't want her in the music business because I knew what it was like,
and it could build you up to tear you down.

KC:  You said it was a very lonely place.

CH:  It is a lonely.  It's a lonely place to be and you're misunderstood,
you're misjudged.  All kinds of things, you know?

(Clip is shown of Whitney, in 1981, singing in a night club).

KC:  You couldn't really keep her down when you heard that voice, could you?

CH:  I didn't really try.  I just told her that if [this is what she] wanted
to do, she had to do it properly.

(Narrative) (Clip is shown of "So Emotional" video)  Yet even Cissy would
underestimate the potential downside of international celebrity.  (Magazine
covers are flashed across the screen with their headlines frozen on the
screen:  "Whitney Houston Gets Nasty" from Rolling Stone;  "The Awards, The
Gossip, The Glory" from Ebony;  "So Why Is She Back With Bad Boy Bobby Brown"
from People).  She never imagined Whitney's personal life would be so
intensely scrutinized...  her marriage to singer Bobby Brown put under the
microscope, her attitude constantly analyzed.

CH:  Yeah, when you see your child, you know, in pain just through her eyes
or just a look on her face, you know.  I'm ready to kill the world at that
point, you know.  But you can't always do that.  You have to piece it out and
I pray a lot.

(Clip is shown of Whitney performing at the VH1 Honors Show in 1995).  Her
voice spans 3 octaves and can certainly stand alone, but Whitney has always
depended on her family for emotional backup. 

KC:  (Katie is back seated with Whitney).  You received a lot of praise in
the early years.  And you also took some hits...either you were too sweet or
too sultry, too white/too black, too demure/too demanding, too this/too
that... How do you deal with that?

WH:  My mother told me, she said, "Nobody has the right to put any
expectation over your head.  If you get into it (people's expectations), then
you will hurt yourself mostly.  And that hurts worse."  She said, "Above all,
to thine own self be true.  You deal with it like that and you give them the
best you can and, Whitney, you call it a day."

(Narrative)  (Clip is shown from the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards).
 Whitney's mettle was tested at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards.  She was
booed.  Though barely audible in the telecast, Whitney heard it loud and
clear.

WH:  It's not a good feeling.

KC:  It must be horrible.

WH:  It IS horrible, and it's kind of funny.  You go, "Are they booing me?"
 And they say, "Yeah."  You go, "Oh, how nice."  You have to sit there and
be, like,  cordial and be smiling like everything is ok, and you're feeling
like, "Oh my GOD.  They're not booing me, are they?"

KC:  Why have people booed you in the past?  Did they not think you were
black enough or something?

WH:  (Sarcastically)  Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?  You're not
black enough for them.  I don't know.  You're not R&B; enough.  You're very
pop.  The white audience has taken you away from them.

(Narrative)  (Clip is shown of Bobby and Whitney singing "Something in
Common" at the 1994 Soul Train Awards).  Still, the pain of being openly
jeered has dulled in comparison to being whispered about.  In the 4 years
since their wedding, Whitney has been unable to squash the rumors she and
Bobby did not marry for love.  According to the gossip, it's a marriage of
convenience designed to boost their careers... or hide something.

KC:  You've called the media "demons".

WH:  Blood-sucking demons.  Yeah.

KC:  Out to eat my flesh.

WH:  Out to eat my flesh.

KC:  Yikes!  (Laughs)

WH:  Yeah, yeah.  They write about me (speaking very sarcastically), "Oh, she
just wanted to have a baby.  She just wanted a man and have a baby and this
is all a joke."  That ain't me.  That is not me.  That may be somebody else,
but that's not me.

KC:  How are you and Bobby getting along?  Truthfully.  You have had ups and
downs.

WH:  Oh MAN!  Have we ever.  A lot of stuff based on someone else's madness.

(Narrative)  (Clip is shown of Bobby and Whitney presenting "Video of the
Year" award at the 1995 MTV Video Awards, with an Enquirer headline frozen on
the screen with the headline reading, "Whitney's Gay Secrets".)  Feeding into
the madness is the nonstop speculation about Whitney's relationship with her
female executive assistant and best friend for 17 years [Robyn Crawford].

WH:  This wasn't her world.  I brought her into this madness.  She goes, "Why
am I the target?  What did I do?"  I said, "You're my friend.  What else do
you want?  You play basketball.  They think you're a man.  I don't know."
 She's a damn good basketball player.  She can beat any guy there is.  I love
it.  (Laughs).

KC:  Because she plays basketball, people think she's a lesbian.

WH:  She's a very tall, very broad woman.  She's been my friend for years.  I
don't know.  We've just stuck it out.  And now we're just... I don't know...
they just think we're just... I"m not gay.  I'm not lesbian.  I'm a mother,
I'm a wife, I'm a daughter.  Lesbian and gay I'm not.  Two titles I can't
claim.  I'm sorry.  I just can't, you know.  But I do have a friend [Robyn].

KC:  And if you were?  If you were, I mean...?

WH:  More power to me.  I'd say, "Hey, this is what I am.  Love me or leave
me."

(Narrative)  (Clip is shown of Bobby's "My Prerogative" video).  Bobby
Brown's image of a free-loving, smooth-talking, wild-man-around-town has also
made the rumor mill bump-and-grind.  Slank, slick, street.  He moves in ways
that would make some wives nervous.  But Whitney, who is now pregnant with
their second child, takes most of it in stride, shrugging of talk of alleged
infidelities.

KC:  When you watch your husband gyrate on those videos and do his manly-man,
macho stuff...?

WH:  (Interrupting) The stuff he does with me? Yeah... (Laughs)

KC:  Do you ever think.... "Child...?"

WH:  Yeah, I do.  I go, "Honey, do you HAVE to do that?"  I do.  He goes,
"No, I don't have to do that."  I'd cut that out.

KC:  What have you asked him to cut out?

WH:  (Sticks out her tongue and flicks it)  That.  The tongue.  (Flicks her
tongue again).  "Please, don't show them... don't show them your tongue.
 God."  You know (laughs).  It's like, "Keep your tongue in your mouth."

KC:  Ixnay on the ungtay.

(Clip is shown of Bobby's "Humpin' Around" video).

KC:  He's got a reputation for being a bad boy, naughty, um...

WH:  He can be.

KC:  Is he behaving himself?

WH:  He's behaving himself.  He's actually always behaved himself.  Um,
listen, if they caught him with somebody,,, I haven't, but maybe they know
something I don't know.  You know?  And if I wanted to know, I would
definitely find out because I'm that kind of girl.

KC:  How would you find out?

WH:  Oh, baby.  There are ways.  There are ways and I know them.  I'm from
Newark.  I know.  (Laughs).

KC:  Would you have him tailed?

WH:  (Thinks).  I might.  I might tail him myself.

KC:  Other people speculate that it won't last.  Are you convinced that you
all will be married forever?

WH:  Katie, we're on our second child in 5 years of marriage.  They gave us 6
weeks to 6 months.  I think we're doing ok.  (Smiles happily, then laughs).
 I do.

(Scene changes to Whitney at the piano with Bobbi Kristina.  Bobbi is banging
on the piano).

WH:  Ok.  Beautiful.  Love that song.  (Claps).

KC:  (Talking to Bobbi Kristina)  Do you wanna... do you think you might
wanna be a singer when you grow up?

BK:  (Shakes her head no).

WH:  She's shy.  (Looking at Bobbi Kristina) "You always tell me you do."

KC:  What would you like to be when you grow up?

BK:  (Shakes her head again).

(Narrative)  Apparently, Bobbi Kristina feels the same way her mom does about
pesky reporters, and she's inherited a few things from her dad, too.

WH:  She does a MEAN little gyration, baby, like her father.  She scares me.

KC:  Lots of pelvic thrusts?

WH:  Lots of thrusting... that we try to control around here, you know.  My
mother goes, "She's moving a little too much... and there's no music."

KC:  If she came up to you when she's about 11 or 12 and says, "Mommy, I
wanna be a singer"...?

WH:  (Cringes).  I would jump out my skin like my mother did.  I would.
 Because I know the ins and outs of this business and it's not very nice.

KC:  You sound a little bitter about the whole world of show business, or
maybe... maybe bitter isn't the right word.  Um... disenchanted?

WH:  I'm not by no means bitter.  I love what I do.  Don't get me wrong.  I
do.  But I just know the realities of the business, and not everybody's your
friend.

(Narrative)  (Clip is shown of Whitney and Georgia Mass Choir performing "Joy
To The World" at Ebony's 50th Anniversary Special).  Although she can still
belt it out with unbridled joy, Whitney Houston is now older, wiser, and in
some ways, a little sadder, and leaning a little harder on the people she
loves the most.

WH:  I know I'm news today and not news tomorrow, you know.  (Voice cracking
with emotion).  I can deal with it, but it's mom and dad that stay constant,
and my brothers and my husband and my children.  That's what matters to me.

(Conclusion)  With the exception of a concert tour in Japan and perhaps a few
other engagements, Whitney Houston plans to take it easy next year, spend
time with her family, and travel with Bobby on his concert tour.  Their baby
is due in July.
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