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BOLDFACE NAMES: Smack-Down Radio?
submitted by: Lisa D.
source: The New York Times
Date: January 31, 2003
By Joyce Wadler
WENDY WILLIAMS, the shock jock at WBLS-FM, has never been known for her restraint. She's outed people, she asks guests about their breast implants and is not shy about discussing her own. (Double D, in case you're wondering; but then she's 5 feet 10 inches and, as has been said, likes everything -- hair, diamonds -- big.)
Ms. Williams' interview with WHITNEY HOUSTON, broadcast yesterday, was combative, even for Ms. Williams. Speaking over the phone -- which was probably best, from the point of averting bloodshed -- Ms. Williams asked Ms. Houston questions about her husband, BOBBY BROWN, and his jail time and asked about her drug use. Ms. Houston answered in language best called unrestrained. Imagine two women who don't like each other and find themselves late at night at the same end of the bar. "When your husband was incarcerated, what did you tell her?" Ms. Williams asked, referring to Ms. Houston's 9-year-old daughter. "Do you say, like, 'Daddy's away visiting Boston?'"
"Who you think you're talking to, a" expletive deleted here "retard?" Ms. Houston shot back. "My child has intelligence, my child is smart. I talk to her as a human being."
Ms. Houston was also enraged by a rumor that she had cut her mother's allowance to $500 from $1,600 a week, disputing Ms. Williams' information in far more saltier language than had been used in her much ballyhooed interview with DIANE SAWYER.
Of course, Ms. Williams' questions were more provocative. She asked Ms. Houston how she got along with "Bobby's babies' other mothers."
"Just fine; we're all women", Ms. Houston said.
She asked Ms. Houston if infidelity had been the biggest problem in her marriage.
No, Ms. Houston said, she felt it was reporters -- "you people."
She asked Ms. Houston that signature question: "Do you deny you've had breast implants?"
No, Ms. Houston said.
"Did you ever wish you got 'em bigger?" pressed Ms. Williams.
"No, my husband loves 'em," Ms. Houston said.
"They fit well," said Ms. Williams, "But when you lost weight, you did look like two baseballs on a stick."
Ms. Houston gave it right back.
"I'm sure when you look in the mirror, you got some reservations, too," she said. "I've seen you. I know what you look like."
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