Whitney Houston‘s biopic will air tonight at 8PM (Eastern standard time) on the Lifetime network. Actress Angela Bassett will make her directorial debut in the film. Bassett made the conscious decision not to include Houston’s death in the biopic. In fact, there will be no mention of Houston’s death in the Whitney film at all. The biopic will focus of Houston’s legendary career and her marriage to R&B singer Bobby Brown.
There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the Whitney movie. Houston’s family has publicly shown their disapproval of the film. The family has also refused to offer any background information regarding the singer. Cissy Houston, Houston’s mother, discredited the validity of the biopic. “Lifetime has chosen to go ahead with the movie about Whitney in spite of my family’s objections. No one connected with this movie knew Whitney or anything about her relationship.” Bassett insists her past experience with Houston will serve as a credible background source for the film. Bassett starred alongside Houston in the 1995 film Waiting to Exhale. The role of Whitney Houston will be played by Yaya DeCosta. DeCosta spoke about the challenges of not having the proper resources or the support from Houston’s family, “With the time constraints and the lack of resources and the inability to access anybody– you have to understand that these are real people who lead private lives, and I actually wouldn’t know how to go about that in days– it was literally get on the plane, make the movie.”
The producers of the film also had problems securing the rights to Houston’s vocals. In order to rectify the situation, the producers decided to bring in a singer to re-record Houston’s songs. Bassett decided Deborah Cox would be the perfect singer to fulfill the task. Cox is best-known for her double-platinum selling single, “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here.” A special entitled Bobby Brown: Remembering Whitney, will air immediately after the biopic. During the special, Brown will speak on his marriage to the singer. Bassett spoke about Houston and Brown’s relationship, “This was a very important and instrumental person in her life– the love of her life…I guess they really were meant for one another.” Whitney Houston married Bobby Brown in 1992; they were married for fifteen years before divorcing in 2007.