What Questions Will Be Answered in the New Whitney Houston Documentary?
It’s been nearly six years since Whitney Houston’s death and even today, there are still so many unanswered questions about what happened in that Beverly Hills hotel room the night before the 54th annual Grammy Awards. Now, a new documentary titled Whitney will try to answer some of those questions and put to rest the rumors about the star’s life and death.
The film, in theaters July 6, is the first to be approved by Houston’s family and takes an in-depth look into the singer’s childhood, fame, and struggles with addiction. It is produced by Houston’s sister-in-law, Pat Houston, and directed by Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald.
“I think that trying to make a serious psychological film about her and to try and understand her will mean that people will stop speculating and stop gossiping and say, ‘OK, that’s the definitive portrait of her, now we can turn to the music,'” MacDonald said.
While the movie includes so many high points in her life and career, the low points and painful topics are not glossed over or brushed under the rug. These topics include her long-rumored sexual relationship with best friend Robyn Crawford, her volatile relationship with Bobby Brown, footage portraying her as an absentee mother to her late daughter Bobbi Kristina, and the shocking revelation that she was abused as a child by her cousin, Dee Dee Warick. Her alleged abuser died in 2008 and is the sister of singing legend Dionne Warwick.
The documentary contains footage of the “I Will Always Love You” vocalist giving an interview in which she was asked about the worst thing that could happen to a child. “And she said, ‘Child abuse.’ And she spoke about it herself. So she has narrative in the film and she’s talking about certain aspects of her life that she doesn’t like,” Pat Houston explained to E! News. “Fans have to understand she has a human story that mirrors all of ours. She’s just a human that had a phenomenal gift that she shared with the world.”
And, as for what happened in the hotel room the day Houston was found dead, was it foul play like many of her fans have suggested over the years? The superstar’s assistant, Mary Jones, thinks so. She stepped out to pick out a dress option for Houston and when she returned the “I Have Nothing” artist was facedown in the bathtub. “Somebody was in the room with her, had given her these drugs, and had found her drowned in the bath, switched off the taps and left the room,” Jones said.
MacDonald though doesn’t believe it was foul play and revealed, “I had four different people who I all caught out lying about what had happened at the end of Whitney’s life … But I don’t think she was murdered. I have no evidence for that.”
The L.A. County Coroner’s office said the official cause of the pop diva’s death was “drowning and effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.” It was ruled an accident.
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