by Ian Halperin
Later, Costner would describe Davis’s reaction when he informed them of his choice. “When I said to Whitney, ‘You’re gonna sing “I Will Always Love You,’ ” the ground shook,” he recalled. “Clive Davis and those guys were going, ‘What?!’ ”
The film was scheduled to premiere in November. The producers were a little concerned at the interracial theme that saw Costner’s white bodyguard character fall in love with a black woman. Although America had come a long way, this was still controversial territory. Would Middle America and the South accept the premise? Costner would later admit that Warner Bros. had initially balked at the commercial risk but that they had changed their minds after watching Whitney’s screen test, which finally persuaded them to green-light the project.
The studio insisted on including scenes that directly addressed the interracial aspect of the relationship if producers wanted to keep the final scene in which the lead characters kissed. But Costner steadfastly refused.
“I said ‘Absolutely not,’ ” he revealed to ABC after the film’s release. “This is not race. This is a man and a woman. This is chemistry, romance. That’s what that kiss was all about. It was two people thanking each other. I kissed her once for all of America, and I kissed her once for myself.”
In advance of the film’s release, it was essential to ready filmgoers for the romantic premise. To that end, the publicity machine sent Whitney on an endless round of press interviews in which she gushed about her marriage to Brown and professed happiness with what was being described as a fairy-tale romance.
“I love being married,” she told Ebony. “I want to spend my whole life with him, to give to him and to take from him.” To the LA Times on the eve of her film premiere, she couldn’t quite muster up the word “love” to describe why she had married Bobby. “Women are supposed to have husbands,” she explained. “We are validated by that, and we validate ourselves that way.”
Brown was a little more reticent in his own press interviews. “Our personal life is our personal life,” he told a reporter. “We don’t like talking about it.” But he revealed that dating in the age of AIDS was treacherous and that single life wasn’t what it used to be.
“There’s too much going on in the world today to be alone,” he said.
For the most part, the marriage had succeeded in silencing the incessant questions about Robyn. The tabloids, not to mention the mainstream media, had finally changed their focus from questions about lesbian trysts to stories about Bobby’s reputed drug use and reports that he was a “crackhead,” a rumor reported in Vanity Fair as early as 1992.
Yet FBI files released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that on the eve of the Bodyguard premiere, Whitney’s camp scrambled to contain information that could have done tremendous damage to the carefully crafted image that she and her publicity machine had constructed for months to ensure the film’s success and revive her career.
The official pre-premiere gala was scheduled for November 24 with a star-studded red carpet Hollywood screening. But only a day earlier, an FBI file was received at the bureau’s Newark office, reporting that both Whitney Houston and her company, Nippy Inc., had been the “victim” of “extortion.” The heavily redacted version reveals some key details.
The initial letter from a Chicago attorney—sent to the singer’s New Jersey business office a week earlier on November 16—had revealed that her client possessed damaging information about Whitney but would be willing to sign a “confidentiality agreement” in exchange for a financial settlement.
When John Houston eventually brought the extortion attempt to the bureau’s attention on November 23, a special agent was assigned to question the attorney about the demand.
The woman informed the agent that her client had “knowledge of intimate details regarding Whitney Houston’s romantic relationships and will go public with the information unless _____________ is paid $250,000.”
The bureau twice interviewed John Houston, who headed Nippy Inc., about what they had initially deemed the “extortion” attempt. Both times they asked to interview Whitney but was told she was unavailable. John informed them he had tape-recorded his conversations with the alleged extortionist and offered to make a transcript. By that time, the film had premiered and Whitney was on a promotional tour. John informed them that his daughter was very busy.
On December 15, the bureau advised that there would be “no further investigation conducted by the FBI until Whitney Houston has been interviewed and a determination has been made as to whether or not a violation has occurred.”
Subsequently, the bureau spoke to John via speakerphone about the matter at the New Jersey offices of Nippy Inc. with two of Whitney’s attorneys present.
Not long afterward, an FBI special agent interviewed Whitney at the office. A heavily redacted file from the interview reveals that Whitney acknowledged the extortionist to have been a “friend” and assures the agents that _______________ “would never do anything to embarrass her.”
She revealed that she had discussed “personal things” with the purported friend that the person “could possibly write about.”
On January 12, 1993, a special agent sent a memo to the FBI’s Newark office informing them that John Houston had mailed a confidentiality agreement to the alleged extortionist in November almost immediately upon receiving the threat. The bureau had obtained a copy of the agreement, which is attached to the file but redacted in full.
As a result of the subsequent investigation, and the settlement, the memo reveals that the assistant US attorney general concluded the original letter “is not a violation of federal law.” However, he did request “further investigation.”
Attached to the file is a redacted version of the original letter from the attorney, dated November 16, addressed to both John and Whitney at the offices of Nippy Inc.
It reveals that her client had “already turned down several offers for _________ rights which are in the six figure range.”
The wording of the letter suggests that it was crafted in such a way that it could not be interpreted as blackmail or extortion per se. Instead, it gives Whitney the opportunity to purchase the “exclusive rights” to the friend’s story—including damaging personal information about her own romantic relationships. In exchange for $250,000, the former friend offered to sell the rights to the story to Whitney instead of a publisher and sign a confidentiality agreement to ensure the potentially damaging information never sees the light of day.
The letter goes on to reveal that the friend had “suffered emotional stress” which possibly “constitutes a separate cause of action against the individuals in your company as well as the corporation itself.”
The client, added the attorney, “would like to avoid negative publicity out of respect for Ms. Houston’s position in the worldwide entertainment industry.” Should a lawsuit be necessary to enforce the client’s rights, the letter adds, “the fall-out will undoubtedly be negative.”
It demands a “speedy resolution” within seven days of any offer to settle.
Although the file confirms that John settled the matter by sending a confidentiality agreement almost immediately, it is unclear how much money was paid to silence the person and whether he met the initial demand for $250,000.
On January 12, 1993, FBI agent James Esposito sent a memo informing US Attorney for the District of New Jersey Michael Chertoff of the investigation.
“Since no evidence that a federal criminal law had been violated was presented, prosecution of this matter would not be pursued,” he wrote.
We may never know what the information was about Whitney’s love life that was evidently so damaging it caused John Houston to settle the so-called extortion attempt even before reporting the threat to federal authorities. It may be a secret that both Whitney and John took with them to their graves.
The premise of The Bodyguard focuses on a famous singer who is victimized by threats from an anonymous stalker. Iron
ically, a large section of Whitney’s FBI files unrelated to the extortion attempt concerns a Vermont man who claims he fell in love with Whitney from afar and is angry that she will not return his love.
He begins his first letter with a declaration of his love. “Miss Whitney, you are a beautiful lady and a beautiful person. I really and truly am in love with you.” In scores of subsequent correspondence, he escalates his obsession to the point that he would write to John, declaring, “I might hurt someone with some crazy idea and not realize how stupid an idea it was until after it was done.”
He informs Whitney that he is so in love with her that if she doesn’t respond, he is considering going on The Phil Donahue Show or turning to the National Enquirer to force a response. But when the FBI interviewed him, he revealed that he changed his mind about this “crazy idea” because it would have hurt Whitney’s reputation, so he decided not to follow through.
A different stalker, residing in Holland, enclosed countless audiotapes declaring his love and revealing his long-standing obsession. The tapes proved so disturbing that the FBI requested that Dutch officials interview the man.
During the interview, the stalker claimed to be the “President of Europe” and to have purchased Brazil for $66 billion. He also claimed credit for the downfall of the South African apartheid regime and for the election of Nelson Mandela.
* * *
The Bodyguard had its pre-premiere gala on November 24 at Mann’s Chinese Theatre as a benefit for Magic Johnson’s Pediatric AIDS Foundation. The evening kicked off with a prescreening party hosted by People magazine for one hundred of the foundation’s major donors at Hollywood’s Old Masonic Hall. The post-screening party took place under a huge tent set up in a parking lot adjacent to the hall.
The LA Times reported that among the star-studded guest list was a “very pregnant” Whitney.
The film hit theaters the next day, and the first reviews were savage. Entertainment Weekly called the film “an outrageous piece of saccharine kitsch—or, at least, it might have been, had the movie seemed fully awake. Instead, it’s glossy yet slack; it’s like Flashdance without the hyperkinetic musical numbers and with the romance padded out to a disastrously languid 2 hours and 10 minutes.”
TV Guide called it a “dreary turgid melodrama.”
Many of the poor reviews focused on the lack of romantic chemistry between Whitney and Costner.
The New York Times singled out this aspect in particular in its own negative review. “Two long hours and 10 minutes after this tale begins, Rachel and Frank seem no closer than seatmates on a long bus trip. It takes a dizzying 360-degree shot of them embracing, plus the swelling of the hit-bound soundtrack, to suggest any passion.”
Entertainment Weekly agreed with this assessment. “To say that Houston and Costner fail to strike sparks would be putting it mildly.” The Austin Chronicle also struck a similar note: “The only chemistry that Costner and Houston are able to generate with one another is something akin to the tension between two pieces of plywood propped together in a soggy drizzle.”
Roger Ebert was one of the few who singled out Whitney’s performance for praise.
“This is Houston’s screen debut,” he wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, “and she is at home in the role; she photographs wonderfully, and has a warm smile, and yet is able to suggest selfish and egotistical dimensions in the character.”
The film received a total of seven Golden Raspberry nominations, including a Razzie for Worst Picture, and two nominations for Whitney, Worst Actress and Worst New Star.
And yet despite the generally negative reviews that might have sank Whitney’s film career almost before it began, an interesting phenomenon occurred.
First, the Dolly Parton song that had been added over the objections of Clive Davis started to be played everywhere. It soared to the top of the Billboard singles charts and stayed there for an amazing fourteen consecutive weeks. And all the more remarkable, every single other song on the soundtrack except one also became a hit.
The album ended up as the most successful soundtrack of all time and one of the most successful albums in history, with more than forty-five million copies sold.
Variety called the film “a soundtrack in search of a movie.” Indeed, the monster success of the musical numbers appears to have propelled a mediocre film into a box office hit. The film would end up as the second-highest-grossing Hollywood film of 1992.
Whitney Houston was not only once again a superstar singer, but she was also a bona fide movie star. For the moment, however, none of that mattered to Whitney as she realized the accomplishment she said she had dreamed of all her life.
The baby was almost named Tekatia. That’s the name Bobby had chosen for his new daughter. But when Cissy heard the choice, she exploded.
“That child will have to carry that name through her whole life,” she told the parents-to-be when she learned of their choice. “You are not giving my grandbaby that name. Just name her Christina or something like that.”
And so Bobbi Kristina Brown was born on March 4, 1993.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Roswell Police Department has been keeping the results of their investigation very tightly guarded. I was both impressed by their tight ship—unusual, in my experience, with cases involving celebrities—and frustrated by their lack of cooperation.
So far, they have refused to release any information about the events of January 31, because the investigation is ongoing. There had been a number of purported leaks but none that I considered reliable.
When I arrived at the Roswell police headquarters with Sheila to see what we could turn up, we were told by a desk officer that we couldn’t enter the premises with cell phones. Sheila had left her weapon in the car but not her phone. None of the other police stations had denied us entry with phones. Handing me her phone and flashing her badge, Sheila was waved through the metal detector. It flashed, but the policewoman said, “It’s just your badge. You’re good.”
Left behind, I asked the officer why cells aren’t allowed.
“If we let people in with cells they could take pictures of our facility and come back and bomb us,” she explained. “We need to take precautions.”
Sheila came back a few minutes later, complaining about how uncooperative and rude the clerk was when she attempted to access information. “She didn’t want to give me the reports. I told her I’m a private investigator and that I’m entitled to that information. She finally shoved some papers at me and told me it will cost fourteen dollars an hour for their search time.” As she left to fill out the paperwork, I tried small talk with the desk officer.
“It’s really quiet here,” I told her. “You must get bored sitting here all day.”
“Yes, sometimes it’s very boring,” she said. “Sometimes I fall asleep.”
I asked her how she stays awake. “Simple, I play Candy Crush on my iPad. It keeps me going.” She shows me the screen, and sure enough, she’s been playing all this time.
Noticing an officer smoking out front, I stepped outside and tried quizzing him about the case.
“I can’t comment on it,” he said. “It’s been intense here. They’re taking their time to make sure they get it right. It’s a high-profile case.”
We had collected a series of names of assorted friends and hangers-on of the three people known to have been with Bobbi on the morning she was found.
We had been frantically calling each of these people in hopes that somebody would want to talk. Most hung up immediately.
I had been told repeatedly that I needed to talk to a woman named Debbie Brooks who was Bobbi’s “caregiver,” even as an adult. She had been described to me as “like a mommy” to her and a “sort of nanny.” I was assured Brooks would know what went on behind closed doors. We tracked down a number but had so far been unsuccessful in reaching her. When she finally answered her phone, she gave a predictable response.
“Bobbi Kristina was a personal friend o
f mine but I don’t feel comfortable talking about her. You should contact the family.”
I was more successful when I reached a twenty-year-old woman who I’m told knew the couple well. She confirmed that she was close to Bobbi and that she had plans to come over on the afternoon Bobbi was found.
“I was supposed to help Krissi shop online for some new clothes,” she told me. “I heard the news from a friend who called me crying. It’s so sad. Krissi was messed up but she’s an amazing person with a huge heart. I never trusted Nick. He was a Svengali figure to Krissi. He didn’t have her best interests at heart.”
When I asked her what she thought happened, she referenced Whitney’s death three years earlier.
When Whitney was found dead it was in very hot water, which explains that she probably drowned accidentally. When they found Krissi it was in cold water. It just doesn’t make sense. Why would she jump into a cold bath of water? I know Krissi and she would never do something like that. Somebody put her in there; there was foul play. Somebody is behind it. Krissi was found there, facedown.
She told me that Bobbi was in “good spirits” and that she doesn’t for a minute believe it was a suicide attempt.
Next, I got through to a friend of Max Lomas and his brother, Nick. He suggested we meet that night at an Atlanta strip club called the Pink Pony. He told me it’s where a lot of musicians and athletes hang out.
When we met that evening at the establishment, which bills itself as a “Southern Gentlemen’s Club,” the friend pointed to the strippers onstage and told me that this is where Max and Nick often hung out.