At press time, Whitney Houston was in talks to play the lead role of opera singer Cynthia Hawkins in a remake of the early '80's French thriller Diva. I was told that Will Smith's production company, Overbrook Entertainment, secured the remake rights a few months ago. Will had been trying to get the project for years, but the remake rights had originally been optioned to Diana Ross. Diana's option expired a year and a half ago and Will initiated talks with the film's owner, Canal Plus Image. Now the film will be produced by both Overbrook and Whitney's company, Brownhouse Productions.

The film will begin with an adoring fan who secretly tapes a Cynthia Hawkins performance and makes a bootleg for his personal enjoyment. From there, two different sets of thugs begin pursuing the fan for the tape, one group who thinks it contains evidence of murder and the other who wants to make money off of the tape.

I talked to Debra Chase, who heads up Whitney's production company. She said they are doing three projects with Overbrook. She said the two companies have similar tastes.

Whitney and Will are also starring in a romantic comedy called Anything For You. Whitney is also filming a movie called Get Christie Love. They are doing this film with Danny Devito's film company. I don't remember the "Get Christie Love" TV series, It was in the '70s when I was studying in Europe. But Theresa Graves starred in it and they say that Whitney looks like her. Theresa played a cop. She was also a regular on the TV show, "Laugh In."