The new documentary Whitney just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and it contains an explosive revelation about the late singing superstar Whitney Houston: According to one of her closest friends, Houston said that she was molested at a young age by Dee Dee Warwick, Houston’s cousin and the sister of Dionne Warwick.
For most of the documentary’s running time, director Kevin Macdonald brings Houston’s sadly curtailed life to the screen in a manner reminiscent of Amy, Asif Kapadia’s 2015 documentary about the late singer Amy Winehouse: It begins with the beautiful voice and the career full of promise, and then come the drugs, the bad-influence husband, the grifting family members, and finally the tragic death. Macdonald has considerably more access to Houston’s family and friends than other documentarians have had, but some topics are clearly still difficult for them to discuss: While on camera, ex-husband Bobby Brown refuses to talk about Houston’s late-in-life drug problems, and though the singer’s friends confirm that she was romantically involved with her assistant Robyn Crawford, Houston’s family members…
