Houston finds she has a parenthood problem

Date: December 20, 1996
By Lee Luaine

From Hobart Mercury (Australia)
Submitted by: Larry A.


HIT maker Whitney Houston has the music business tucked tightly in her tiny palm. But marriage and motherhood, that's another thing.

"I can make records off the bat," she says, snapping her fingers and flashing the "11-point-something" diamond ring her husband gave her.

"I can go and record a hit record because I know how to make records ... That part I know real well. I can hear it right away ...

"I was never a wife or mother (before), so I'm growing, I'm learning.

"I've had a career for the last 13 years and that part I've got down pat. But now there are things my daughter will do or say and I go: 'OK, let me think about it for a minute."' As if it was not enough to be the musical keystone behind dozens of hit records, Houston is now a movie star.

She's also the mother of a three-year-old daughter and expecting her second child in July. Married to controversial pop singer Bobby Brown (he has been involved in several altercations with the law), Houston admits: "I'm learning. Even with my husband, I'm learning." Although she did not really plan it, Houston finds herself one of the hot new flavours in Hollywood, after the big ticket flick The Bodyguard and a stellar effort in Waiting to Exhale. And she does not take it lightly.

This week she opens in The Preacher's Wife, a feel-good Christmas movie about an angel who visits Earth to help restore a devout minister's faith.

Based loosely on the 1947 version The Bishop's Wife, the movie was pushed by Denzel Washington, who stars as the angel.

A man of enviable integrity, Washington feels the movies need to reflect more positive images of black Americans.

Houston says: "In his convincing voice he said to me: 'We have to do this movie. It must be done. It is essential that African-American actors play these roles of people who have a life, who care, believe and have faith in the community and stick with that.'" Although she portrays the retiring little wife (with a BIG gospel voice), Houston herself is no shut-in. She has enjoyed a meteoric career and been the centre of incendiary headlines most of that time.

Although she is deeply religious and relies on God to see her through, she remembers a time in London when the stress and notoriety overcame her.

"The press was coming out pretty hard on me," she says. "And I didn't understand why, being that they didn't know me.

"There were all these stories going around about me and I was confused by the fact that I was a singer and why wasn't that accepted, as opposed to what I was doing in my bedroom and stuff like that?

"It kind of weirded me out a bit. I'd been working so hard and on a tough schedule, and one day I just woke up and I was profusely crying, just crying and crying.

"My mother was with me at the time and she walked into the bedroom and said: 'I know this is hard, but life is good and you just have to hold on to that.' "She held my hand for 17 hours. I'll never forget it because I was exhausted, really; I was at my wit's end. And she talked to me and she prayed with me and she prayed over me. I could hear my mother in my sleep praying for me. And when I woke up she was still in the same position with her hand on my hand. That time was rough." Houston's mother is gospel singer Cissy Houston and her father has been Whitney's chief executive officer for years. Now in his late 70s, it's time for him to retire and take it easy, she says.

She credits both of them for instilling in her such a well-grounded view of her life.

"My father showed me how a man treats a lady," she says. "I don't know if that's extraordinary or not, but for me it was standard. My father demanded a certain amount of respect, and he gave it.

"He and my mother were the best of lovers and could fight like cats and dogs. But after it was all over, they laughed, which you must do.

You must find the humour.

"You must go to bed and say: 'OK, I was silly about this thing. Let's laugh and forget about it.'" Her parents had a way of confronting problems, she says.

"If there was something to be discussed, my family would call a meeting. If we wanted to call a meeting, we could.

"Most times it was me. My brother would pull my hair or something. My parents allowed us to be open to a degree. We couldn't get loud, couldn't holler, but say what we wanted to say without disrespect. My dad was the rule maker. He still is." Next up for Houston is a brief tour in Japan and then a long rest while she waits for the birth of her baby.