I feel badly for her daughter. She's 19, lost her mom, dad is Bobby Brown who's on tour right now, had some issues of her own. I hope she has family members who will be able to provide some stability and support for her now and in the future.

Clarification - She's 18 and Bobby is in LA with her as of 9 last night

DEKEGUY, agree!

Do we hold a person with talent to high?

They are just people like each of us and have the sme problems we do.

No matter what, it is such a sad time to lose a person like Whitney.

RIP Baby Girl. You had a good run, but also a tough time!

Really, Tom Earp?

I was going to commend him for flying under the radar so long but it looks like he was sniffed out within a few posts.

RIP. Another legend gone.

What ever you may think?

Giving my deepest wishes to a neat lady?

She will of course be missed.

Is there a problem with that?

I am trying to figure out what is wrong with some of you folks.

CTFU @ you trying to figure out what's wrong with usernames.

Who is Tom Earp?

Exactly. It doesn't matter how she died, statements like "Who cares she dead?? It's her own fault, she brought this on herself" are just flat out rude. She wasn't a saint but she was a person. She was someone's mother, daughter, and friend. To say she doesn't deserve to be mourned is totally unwarranted. This would be true even if she wasn't "The Late, Great Whitney Houston."

The volume exists simply because many people have heard of her. That's kind of a no-brainer. As for the extent of praise and adulation, I challenge you to find a single post that praised her lifestyle and her use of drugs and alcohol.
Yes you are. It was the entire reason for your post.

WHAAAAAT????? These must be the same idiots who said that Sandra Bullock was "the most admired woman in the entertainment industry" because that trailer trash Jesse James dumped HER.

================================================== =========

Ah, my dear Leslie Anne, it has been so long since you rose to the occasion that I thought you might have grown up at long last. Since any attempt to discuss anything with you in a calm and rational manner simply isn't on the cards I won't waste my time. Have a happy St. Valentine's Day.

This looks like bad haiku written by a comatose chicken.

EARP ALERT!

I'm just over hearing about it every five minutes during the morning news. Is there nothing else going on in the world that you must cover her death every five minutes? Really did something happen in those five minutes that you must immediately report.

Really? I didn't hear that though I did hear that they wanted a private ceremony and fans are flipping their stuff about it. For goodness' sake, her whole life was on display for over 30 years. The family has every right to say goodbye privately.

If that's true, I think that's a bit much. They were together for many years and had a child together. I think he deserves to say his final goodbyes.

Of course, this is completely their call.

I think that people were expecting something because of MJ. His life was in the spotlight longer than hers, but they had a public and a private ceremony.

Folks will get over it, but I get where they're coming from.

I agree with all of the above. @the bold, I get it, too, but that's still a really entitled stance to take. There's a difference between thinking it would be nice if the family did something public and actually being angry that they are choosing to not.

I've read that the family was/is considering some sort of live feed to people outside the church who may gather at the time of service. If that happens, it's highly likely that CNN and others (certainly BET, TVOne) would carry that.

Regarding Bobby, I think he'll be there if only because he's Bobbi Christina's surviving parent and the family will put that above whatever other concerns they might or might have had.

....just imagining the grief they're dealing with, I give a pass to whatever decision they make, whether I agree with it or not.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. I think they would like to believe/pretend he was an aberration in her life, when probably nothing could be further from the truth.

This is not trashing her, just saying that IMO pressure to be the perfect pop princess probably played a big part in her drug use. I was saying the other night that Christina Aguilera is one smart cookie. She was being marketed in a way that was not her, so she jumped off the train and smashed the image. She may have saved her own life by doing so.

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/...0-%20copia.jpg

You two hush your mouth about Ms Aguilera.

Dude, we're COMPLIMENTING that little wifey of yours.

I saw "hurt her career" and got defensive. Gotta stick up for the wife, ya know?

*goes back to listening to Dirrty*

I was babysitting and the 6-month-old was kicking my behind. She drank all the milk her mom left and got pissed when there was no more. I walked with her, bounced her, gave her the pacifier, and sang every lullaby I know but no good. She screamed for almost an hour and I was running out of ideas. So I broke out in a soft, lullaby-like rendition of "I Will Always Love You."

She calmed almost immediately. Thank you, Whitney.

You mean thank you, Dolly Parton. ;)

Yep!

I don't really get the time and attention devoted to celebrity. Can someone tell me why anyone really GAS about who is or isn't allowed to come to the funeral of a dead person who was [really] good at singing? What is your emotional connection to this person who you saw on TV and heard recordings of and never met or knew beyond what you read in the tabloids?

If it's about being sad that you'll miss her future output, let's be honest. Her voice wasn't what it once was and she was a hopeless addict making a living on [badly] singing the same songs she sang 20 years ago.

I don't recall even Steve Jobs' funeral arrangements getting this sort of hype. Maybe it's about Sony maximizing some last minute profit on record sales?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/e...w/11913702.cms

I just don't get it and never will.

My theory is a lot depends on who is controlling the news.
The people now controlling it (meaning TV news directors, editors etc) are from the generation who grew up with Whitney commanding the pop charts. That, plus the fact of her dramatic decline over the years, informs what they choose to put on the air.
Add that to instant news - the news was out minutes after she drew her last breath - plus our innate tendency to not be able to tear our eyes away from a train wreck - and you have the TMZ TV show reporting, with each person's opinion, every detail.

Nope. I did the Whitney version so she gets the shout out. Dolly's original sounds different. :)

That's easy. Her songs (one in particular) were playing at memorable times of my life. They probably added to the memorable-ness of it. It makes me sad that a person who contributed to my life, even in a very peripheral way, even though she didn't know that she did it, is gone.

The fact that you even referenced Steve Jobs apparently means he played some similar part in your life.

If you don't understand that I don't know what else I can tell you. :rolleyes:

It's essentially cognitive dissonance made real - the dissonance between everyday life and celebrity culture (plus celebrities' actions and our own, plus the time we spend on it versus the value it actually provides) becomes outrageously powerful when a celebrity dies.

I wasn't particularly affected by Jobs. I was just throwing out an example of someone who had an ongoing contribution to society and was felled by an illness which wasn't preventable (whereas addiction is very preventable and treatable). Jobs' contribution to society was measurably more than Houston's, but my Apple stock has continued to be a great investment, so his death wasn't a big deal after all.

Yeah, I don't get it.

That's a perfectly rational explanation. I don't really get the celebrity culture or why anyone accepts it, but they do. There is certainly nothing innately virtuous about it, and as you illustrated, it's pretty irrational.

Folks accept it because it's entertainment. Folks like celebrity gossip/entertainment, especially if it's negative (lies or truth).

Yep.

Singers usually provide the soundtracks to folks' lives (ex. I love XYZ because she was on the radio when I had my first kiss). Of course, this is going to cause people to get attached to them.

If (general) YOU don't have a connection to the artists, that's fine, but we can't discount their contributions to entertainment. The Beatles were before my time, so while I wouldn't flip tables and take off of work when McCartney passes away, I'll understand if others are upset.

I was also thinking about something else recently. I'm 27, so MJ and Whitney (among others) have been constants in my life (as long as I can remember, MJ and Whitney have been around). With their deaths, it's making me feel like I'm "closer to death" (if that makes sense), which is a bit of a downer.

Ditto. Seeing people who have been "present" my ENTIRE life die trips me out. I remember watching the world premiere of the "Remember the Time" video when I was 7. To think that MJ is no longer living (even though he died younger than most) is a huge reminder of how much of my life has passed and how much older I am. Time is precious and that loss made me more aware of how fast it's going. In that vein, it's also trippy seeing people close to my parents' age or younger die. It makes me more aware that my time with them is limited as well. :(

When I think of Whitney, I remember watching The Preacher's Wife with my mom, dancing to her music with my friends, etc. So it does feel a little bit like a personal loss because Whitney was "there" in those intimate moments.

Dolly wrote the song.;)