Kevin Costner gave a heartfelt eulogy at Whitney Houston’s funeral today at New Hope Baptist Church in her hometown, Newark. Costner was nearly brought to tears talking about Houston’s greatness in their 1992 film The Bodyguard: “you sang the whole damn song without a band, you made the picture what it was,” he said. “A lot of leading men could’ve played my part … but you, Whitney, I truly believe you were the only one who could’ve played Rachel Marron at that time. You weren’t just pretty; you were as beautiful as a woman could be. And people didn’t just like you Whitney, they loved you.”
The funeral was an emotional four hours. Although Aretha Franklin was too ill to attend, Stevie Wonder performed a reworked “Ribbon in the Sky.”
Trailer from The Bodyguard
Only 1500 people will be attending Whitney Houston’s funeral this Saturday. Among them will be musicians Brandy and Chaka Khan, songwriter Diane Warren, and record producer Antonio L.A. Reid.
Though we’re not sure who’ll be speaking, it’s reported that Kevin Costner, her costar in The Bodyguard, will say a few words alongside Clive Davis, while Whitney’s godmother Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder are both expected to sing.
Unfortunately fans won’t be able to get inside the New Hope Baptist Church in New Jersey but it will be aired online so everyone can pay their final respects.
Whitney Houston is set to return to the big screen for the first time in 15 years, reports CTV.
The 47-year-old singer-and-actress will be reuniting with her former ‘Waiting To Exhale’ castmates to create a sequel to the 1995 hit movie, in which she played unlucky-in-love television producer Savannah Jackson.
Actress Angela Bassett, who portrayed Bernadine Harris in the film, explained director Forest Whitaker is in the process of altering author-and-screenwriter Terry McMillan’s follow-up to the movie.
“It’s preliminary, but it’s going to happen, ‘Waiting to Exhale 2′. McMillan wrote ‘Getting to Happy’ and she’s written the screenplay … Loretta Devine, Lela Rochon, Whitney, Forest. Forest is working on the script now.”
In others news, a representative for the superstar singer confirmed today that Houston is undergoing treatment. Kristen Foster says Houston is in an out-patient program for drug and alcohol treatment. She says it is a voluntary measure and part of Houston’s “long-standing” recovery process.
Houston has battled problems with drug addiction for years. But in 2009, as she released a comeback album, she declared herself healthy and clean.
However, her 2010 tour overseas was trouble. Houston cancelled some dates due to illness and received negative reviews from fans who were disappointed in the quality of her voice and performance.
It’s unclear how long Houston will be in rehab or where she’s being treated. But before she takes on the stress of doing huge films, it’s good she clears her mind and focuses on herself first.
The usual enamor or utter decay of the American Dream is left behind and replaced with the realistic monotony of everyday life in The Company Men.
The film centers on the downsizing of a large corporation due to the recession and the subsequent men that the company is forced to lay off. The film revolves around the stories of three men who are searching for new jobs and dealing with the consequences of how being unemployed affects their lives.
Bobby (Ben Affleck), the first to be laid off, moves his family out of their beautiful white picket fenced in home to move in with his parents, and reluctantly leaves his MBA behind for a job manual labor after his wife confirms his fear that he is just “an asshole with a resume.” Phil (Chris Cooper) has trouble in the modern job market due to his obvious older age, the graying hair and wilting eyes, and finds it too difficult to mask his qualms. Gene (Tommy Lee Jones), the former right hand man and best friend of the CEO of the company, leaves his wife of many years and decides to do something positive with his new wealth of free time.
Altogether the film falls deep into the abyss of mediocrity. Though it is a realistic portrayal of the situation that many Americans and Canadians have faced in the last few years, it sheds no light on the improvement of such dire circumstances. The story is droning and depressing. The characters go from sitting in trivial board meetings, discussing business details of the company that are rendered completely arbitrary to the viewer, to moping around their households arguing with their wives and children. It appears that the director, John Wells, was going for something in between American Beauty and Up In the Air. Unfortunately, the script lacks the ambiance and originality of each of those films.
With such a star-studded cast, especially Jones and Cooper who have starred in such compelling dramatic roles (In the Valley of Elah, American Beauty), one would expect to see powerful performances that could possibly outshine the absolute dullness of the narrative. Costner’s character is the highpoint of the film as he plays a stubborn Boston accent wielding carpenter and the antagonistic brother-in-law of Affleck’s character, a role that is seemingly outside of his performance as leading actor.
In the end, The Company Men is just another one of those tragic films that is released at the height of Oscar season that will be entirely forgotten.
According to TMZ, Stephen Baldwin is allegedly suing fellow actor Kevin Costner. Baldwin is claiming that Costner and his business partner “schemed” to make millions of dollars off the BP oil rig disaster and in doing so fooled Baldwin into selling shares in a company that builds machines that separate oil from water.
In the midst of the BP oil spill, apparently Baldwin decided to become a 10% partner in an invention backed by Costner. The device that separated oil from water was developed during the filming of Costner’s famous film, Waterworld.
Now he is suing for unspecified damages. They both sound like crooks if you ask me.
Eonline! is reporting that the residences of several celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe, Michael Douglas, Ellen DeGeneres, Kevin Costner and Jeff Bridges, are being threatened by a fast-growing wildfire that has broken out in Montecito, California.
The fire started around 6 p.m. Thursday evening and has spread across 2,500 acres. 100 residences have already been burned, and if the fire continues, 1,500 more homes could be at risk.
KEVIN COSTNER has forgiven MADONNA for poking fun at him in her TRUTH OR DARE backstage documentary, after she took time to publicly apologize to him during a Los Angeles concert.
Madonna feigned sticking her finger down her throat to be sick after she was filmed meeting Costner after a show – an action the actor admits “embarrassed” and “hurt” him.
But, a decade after the incident, Madonna made up for her bad behaviour when Costner took his daughters to see her in concert.
He tells the Los Angeles Time newspaper, “She was performing about three or four years ago, so I decided to take my daughters to see her.
“I didn’t call anybody for tickets, I just got the tickets and we went down… And about the third song in, the lights were down, and she said, ‘I want to apologize to someone.’
“All of a sudden, my face starts to get hot… And she says, ‘I want to apologize to Kevin Costner.’ She just said it very simply.
“Ninety eight per cent of that audience didn’t know what she was talking about. But I really respected that… Whatever possessed her, whatever was inside her, she came to her own decision and a bigger thing came out of some kind of humiliation.”
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Actor Kevin Costner is set to return to the baseball diamond made famous by his movie “Field of Dreams.” He hasn’t visited the location since the flick came out 17 years ago.
The Associated Press reports that Costner will appear at the field in Dyersville, Iowa on August 11 as part of the Rolling Roadshow tour. It’s one of ten stops on the tour, which is screening classic movies in the places where they were filmed.
The tour is being organized by online DVD rental service Netflix. They confirmed Costner’s appearance earlier this week.
A 30-foot inflatable screen will be set up in the outfield of the baseball diamond to show the movie. Before the film plays, Costner will put on a concert with his rock band.
“Returning to the ‘Field of Dreams’ location to play a concert…has special meaning for me,” said Costner in a press release. “The movie was significant in my career, and the band is an important part of my future.”
