[Ed. Note: This has to be the most awkward set of file photos to be released in the wake of Whitney's death, so of course we ran them. In a way, it's what Whitney would've wanted. Mostly because she drank a lot. - SW]
Despite early reports suggesting an accidental drowning, TMZ reports Whitney Houston‘s family have been officially informed the cause of death is drug and alcohol related which, let’s be honest, probably isn’t going to cause any of them to clutch their pearls except maybe Dionne who should’ve seen it coming:
Whitney Houston’s family was told by L.A. County Coroner officials … the singer did not die from drowning, but rather from what appears to be a combination of Xanax and other prescription drugs mixed with alcohol … this according to family sources.
We’re told Coroner’s officials informed the family there was not enough water in Whitney’s lungs to lead to the conclusion that she drowned.
Our sources say the family was told Whitney may well have died before her head became submerged.
So now that drowning’s been ruled out, I guess we can let Aquaman off the hook even though he’s still a gill-faced junkie whose half-porpoise son cries each night for a father that’s never home. In the meantime, probably my favorite Whitney story of the past 24 hours, has to be LA Times reporter Gerrick Kennedy who went on TODAY this morning and tried to act like he noticed something “off” about Whitney hours before her death. Via Mediaite:
Kennedy reported that, “though Houston greeted people with a warm smile, she appeared disheveled in mismatched clothes and hair that was dripping wet with either sweat or water.”
The visibly bloated singer displayed erratic behavior throughout the afternoon — flailing her hands frenetically as she spoke to Brandy and Monica, skipping around the ballroom in a child-like fashion and wandering aimlessly about the lobby. It was mentioned by a Grammy staffer that security personnel received calls of the singer doing handstands by the pool.
After leaving rehearsals, Houston returned to the ballroom — with her teenage daughter Bobbi Kristina in tow — as camera crews set up for interviews. The singer smelled of alcohol and cigarettes. A Grammy staffer said that during the interviews with Brandy, Monica and Clive, Houston was dancing just off camera to make the singers and Davis laugh. Grammy personnel expressed concern that she’d be caught on camera, and that reporters would write about her behavior.
So basically this guy saw Whitney Houston acting exactly like Whitney Houston hours before her death and that passes for dramatic insight on morning television? Jesus. I get that audience has a median age of 63, but I’m pretty sure most of them already suspected drugs because old people are notoriously racist. But in a cute, hilarious way, so go easy on them.
Photos: Bauer-Griffin, Pacific Coast News
first Amy Winehouse now Whitney. heaven’s gonna need a lot more crack.
And yet Lindsay Lohan lives on… Unbelievable!
Not really that unbelievable. It’s the prescription drugs that kill. Not so much the illegal ones the government doesn’t want you doing. Kind of funny how that works. Shit your doctor gives you puts you in a dirt nap yet you never hear about celebs dying from weed or crack. Not that I’m saying crack is good for you…… Kind of hypocritical of the government to tell us we can’t take something cause it’s bad for us and yet prescribe death pills which are legal.
“You never hear about celebs dying from weed or crack.”
Lenny Bruce. Frankie Lymon. Janis Joplin. Gram Parsons. John Belushi. River Phoenix. Chris Farley. Dee Dee Ramone. Ted Demme. Mitch Hedberg. Ike Turner. Billy Mays. All died from cocaine, heroin, or morphine. (Granted, no one’s died from weed.)
+1 TomFrank. No weed just makes you stupid. Ever dealt with anyone who smokes weed daily? People ridicule them to their face and behind their back. Now there’s something to aspire to…
This is so wrong, and yet so right!!
Nice rationalization there Sheppy.
And complete baloney.
If you’re going to use the spins on celebrity deaths to justify illegal drugs as a ‘better” then you’ve done too many drugs and have brain damage or you’re a dealer. Check out the local coroner’s office and you’ll find the coke and meth deaths outnumber the legal drugs about 400 to 1 for “not famous” people.
The problem with celebrities is that they often get surrounded by sycophants (look it up) that will pretty much do their bidding while tellng them what they want to hear. Duh! So, similar to Michael Jackson, they find some hack with a prescription pad and the rest becomes history.
FYI – Lindsay Lohan’s demise is just around the corner? Why? Because coke and meth damage the heart and “the magic 27″ is when the body can no longer keep repairing the substantial damage drug use does. So – like Lindsay as it’s so often and creatively pointed out here on the fish, they begin to look haggard and bloated as their system starts to struggle. Then finally something major gives out – usually the heart – and they pop off “suddenly.” Read your local obituaries and you’ll find the dead twenty-something died of heart “problems” – the sanitized version of “the junkie finally bit it.”
There are far too many funerals of deluded people JUST LIKE YOU who think the risks from illegal drugs is reasonable. And, how it hurts them AND the people around them. GET HELP and quit lying to yourself and other people. Surely there’s an NA in your area. Here’s hoping you give enough of a crap about yourself to do it. Here’s a novel thought – NO drugs.
All we really know about Whitney is that she had the heart of an ox to live this long, considering her history.
Sad – but for her fame and fortune – she might have had a relatively normal and happy life and lived a long time.
she looks very doable in that pic
Yeah, Dionne! What the fuck happened to your network of psychic friends?
I wondered what the hell Fish was talking about. I had completely forgotten/repressed/ginned away all memory of that infomercial.
At the very least on would’ve expected Miss Cleo to intervene!
i had a friend in high school that worked for psychic friends hotline.
he even offered me a job at one point.
big surprise, it’s 100% scam. they ask you questions and you read from a list of answers.
Yeah…I had a feeling that people had forgotten about Dionne Warwick and the Psychic Friends Network. That is, if they knew about it in the first place, ’cause that was like 20 years ago now, and some of these kids today, they barely remember stuff from the ’90s.
They went bankrupt. All physics are fucking rip-offs! “Oh I see you’re born a sucker and the stars line up with Lindsey’s dripping cunt—so will that be Visa or MC?”
People forget the calendar we use today came from the Catholic Church and the dates are wrong they don’t line up with shit.
Why for once cant God kill someone we dont need. He could lightning bolt the shit out of that whole Kardashian clan and church attendance would shoot up like 1 billion percent.
This just proves that God doesn’t exist.
Yeah, absolute and incontrovertible proof. We’re so lucky to have achieved enlightenment here today.
someone please take LMFAO.
who needs Whitney Houston, besides her crack dealers?
mrsmass – I believe the point here is that Whitney Houston had awesome talent whereas it takes something substantially different be known worldwide as for a videotape of a guy peeing on you.
Get it?
It still sucks… Poor woman.
And Any Guy, don’t forget Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger… oh, wait… they are not in heaven.
The Catholic Church would have welcomed Mr. Jackson and he’d be in heaven right now fondling boys and sipping on the Jesus Juice. Instead he chose to burn with the rest of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Why isn’t Heath Ledger in heaven?
Because he fathered a child out of wedlock? I’m going to guess that’s the reason he said that. But I wouldn’t rule out the gay cowboy movie.
Heaven is over rated anyways. who wants to hang out with a bunch of uptight stick in the muds reading scripture for eternity when you can hang out with history’s greatest musicians, hookers, drug dealers, artists, scientists, ninjas and pirates.
suck it heaven, I’m joining Hendrix, Cobain, and Einsteins kick ass rock band in hell
Kurt Cobain is in heaven … so you can suck it dumb a s s . Enjoy life as a jerk. Hope you have lots of fun being a d i c k.
Looks like someone’s doctor didn’t learn anything from the Conrad Murray case.
The worst part about her dying is the number of stations pulling their regular programming to show ‘The Bodyguard’ ad nauseum.
Oh Lord—when Lohan bites it, it’s going to ‘Herbie: Fully Loaded,’ isn’t it?
Probably “Mean Girls”.
Nah, “The Parent Trap”. Look how innocent!
What’s with this shit, fish? – “I’m pretty sure most of them already suspected drugs because old people are notoriously racist.”
so anybody that suspected drugs were the cause of Whitney Houston’s death are racists? count yourself as a racist then, fish, since you’ve been making crack jokes and snide remarks about drugs being the culprit since the second the news of her death came out. How is it racist to assume that a habitual decades long crack abuser died from drugs?
perhaps learn to read + comprehend:
“I get that audience has a median age of 63…old people are notoriously racist”
♫ Everyone’s a little bit racist, it’s true.
But everyone’s just about as racist as you!
If we all could just admit
That we are racist a little bit,
And everyone stopped being so PC
Maybe we could live in harmony! ♫
- “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”, Avenue Q.
Obviously you don’t get the joke… Fish is saying that old people are oblivious and wouldn’t get that she died from drugs, BUT they are usually racist (a product of their times) so they will assume that a black woman like her died of drugs.
He is dissing old people, not everyone (including himself) who said it was drugs from the get go.
so mocking the elderly is cool and funny, mocking someone because of their race is bad and evil. or is it whoever fish mocks, that’s cool, everyone else is a jerk? if it was a joke I didn’t get, the explanation didn’t make it funny. who writes this site, a 12 year old kid?
If you don’t like it, don’t read it. It was a joke. They weren’t being serious.
Maybe you’ve also missed the snide comments about how her death is the perfect representation of Black History Month? There are people out there who assume that every black person uses drugs, if they’re famous and/or wealthy then they got that way through drugs, and if they kick off early, of course they died from overdosing on drugs. If you’re going to make a career out of being indignant about someone’s sarcasm, it really helps if you’re not so oblivious to the situation.
Wow – it’s just like a traffic accident here.
What I got from that comment was that Whitney was a “has been” because her primary fan base is retirement age.
Give fish a break. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar after all.
If it’s “you’re time”, I can think of way worse ways to go than on the super-chillout effects of Xanax, a few glasses of wine, and a hot bath. I hope she drew her last breath sound asleep with a smile on her face.
Now, how about flesh-eating disease for the KK-Klan, and perhaps galloping crotch-rot for Miss Lohan. Seems appropriate…
Just think, heaven is filled with crack pipes for her. She’s in a better place now.
In Heaven, there are no pipes — you are the crack, and the crack is you.
here’s another example of how pfizer is far more dangerous than even the most hardcore street drugs
Yea, that sounds about right. I hear they’re winning their war against the Zetas down in Mexico.
Another crackhead bites the dust…boohoo
white chick. or is it white trailer trash?? Go drink your Pabst.
I’m shocked.
Is 48 the new 27? Does this mean lindsey has another 2 decades to go?
Lohan will not make it to 2013.
Nah. Lindsay’s 27th birthday is just around the corner and she’s already showing the signs. (Remember Winehouse’s skin about two months before she died)
But, some people do have a heart like an ox. You can start as early as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards – two men who should have not seen 30 much less their golden years.
It’s been a few days and I already don’t miss her one bit.
ass
I just took three xanax, ate a turkey sandwich and am taking three beers into the bath…goodbye cruel world
Cool. Hope you have a happy trip.
rihanna looks good
I blame Bobby Brown. He’s the one that got Whitney hooked at drugs. Only good thing that came out of that relationship was Bobbi.
Yes, let’s blame Bobby Brown for Whitney’s choice to become a drug addict.
I fucking hate Bobby Brown but for shit’s sake STOP blaming someone else for your choices. It’s not like Whitney started smoking the pipe when she was twelve and hanging with the wrong crowd. She started up when she was a grown woman.
First Mama Cass, and now this. Damn you the sandwich, dam you to hell
Mama Cass’ was ham with extra mustard. Whitney’s was toasted turkey, light mayo. The bread is cleverly changing its M.O.
Mmm, it smells like crack. Crack-crackity-crack! CRACK! Crackcrackcrackcrackcrackcrackcrackcrack! Craaaaaaaaaack!
Wow. You guys are really being a holes. Prescription drugs kill many people regardless if your famous or not. Heaven is full of addicts and messed up people because God knows that they needed the love of a loving person. Get over yourselves. Your pathetic.
I enjoyed the Aqua man joke immensely.
this is sooo damn easy to conclude.
……..LET’S SAY bobby brown?
oh, you guys are so fuckin hysterical! pat yourself on the back for writing a comedy piece on a death? you look like assholes.
It’s really ironic. Whitney used to do commercials for Pepsi, then spend all the money she made on Coke.
I have read alot of comments that people are making about Whitneys death, but the truth of it is she was someones daughter, mother and friend.
She had people that really loved her and her addiction struggle was heartbreaking for others to watch.
While everyone wants to make jokes and snye comments I just want to say that it can happen to anyones family member,
Never say ” Not my kid.”
I guess if I gave a fuck it would matter.
I’ll bet that any doctor that has ever prescribed Whitney a drug, is on a flight out of the country right now. God forbid she overdosed on Valium. Its going to be a witch hunt.
I hope I look that good when I’m dead.
Don’t worry. Whitney’s not really dead. She’s just waiting to exhale.
I’m sorry.. maybe because I am new here. I do not get the “tone” of this article.
Can someone loudly tell Babwa Walters that she was WRONG about the drowning? And additionally scream “WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!”
I hate that fucking bitch.
I bet you hate her because she fucked a black guy.
Whit, you were wonderful. The world now; We save our love for you, Baby. :( I Love you, Whitney — I’ll always love you especially. May God wrap you into his immaculate essence now, forever. Great, you’ve done!!. Thanks for the memories, Superstar.
-Robert 29
“This is not funny. The next time I ask for some coke, I’d better not see a can or you are goddamn fired. Do you understand me?”
Beautiful picture