Well. At least it isn’t Dr. Phil? Or Dr. Drew? Upgrade?
Of all the distressing and intrusive follow-up stories to the death of Whitney Houston (staged death photos! casket photos! Ray J!), the ones dogging her daughter Bobbi Kristina bugged me the most. Leave the poor girl alone! She just lost her mom! She’s not a celebrity! Can we please get the cameras out of her face and dial back on the TMZ-fueled concern trolling? OMG Bobbi Kristina has been rushed to the hospital after her mother’s death for a potential overdose and OMG suicide watch and OMG I hope she’s okay drugs drugs drugs.
It’s been mere weeks since Whitney’s death, but apparently it’s high time for her grieving family — her mother, brother and daughter — to finally “break their silence” (DUN DUN DUUUUN) and sit down with Oprah for a big whole televised thing. The interviews were already conducted last week. And the show will air this Sunday, on March 11, exactly one month after Whitney’s body was discovered.
I know this is a huge “get.” And I’m sure Oprah will be respectful as all get-out — Whitney’s last interview with Oprah back in 2009 was mercifully worlds better than the infamous CRACK IS WHACK mess with Diane Sawyer in 2002 — but…doesn’t this seem a wee bit too soon? Especially for a teenage girl who may possibly have more than a month’s worth of parental baggage to sort out? Yes, the media is chomping at the bit to get all the dirty drugs drugs drugs laundry on the Houston family out in the open, but you don’t have to give it to them, guys! Even the soft-focus, tissue-heavy, touchy-feely Oprah version. Give it six months, maybe. Or a year. I’m sure Oprah will be just as happy to take a few minutes out of her busy day to put together a Whitney Houston Tribute Show then, too.
I feel oddly protective of Bobbi Kristina. Yes, she’s 18 now, but still. She just lost her mother. Her father is…well, you know. And now her grandmother is apparently on-board with going on TV a few weeks after a devastating loss to (very likely) get questioned about her own drug use and personal problems. None of this is sitting well with me. Even the Jackson family did a pretty decent job keeping Michael’s children out of the media spotlight immediately after his death, and they were the freaking Jackson family.
Anyway, no, I won’t be watching, because The Walking Dead is on Sunday nights (and I’m going down with that ship to the bitter rotting-eye-socket end), and because you just knoooooow all the interesting bits will be all over YouTube by Monday morning. Sigh.
DISHEARTENING HUMANITY SUCKS UPDATE: While running a search for a photo to accompany this post, I learned that Fox News aired video of an unconscious Bobbi Kristina being wheeled on a stretcher to an ambulance last month. I AM NOW MAYBE OFFICIALLY IN FAVOR OF A SELECTIVE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.
About Amy Corbett Storch
