Houston, she's got a problem

GRAMMY-WINNING singer Whitney Houston has entered a drug rehabilitation facility, her publicist said yesterday.

Whitney "thanks everyone for their support and prayers," publicist Nancy Seltzer said in a statement in Los Angeles, but declined to offer any further details.

It's the latest in a series of setbacks for the star. Didn't she almost have it all? Over 100 million albums sales, hit films and a global appeal.

But now, it seems, she's lost it. Houston, she has a problem.

Houston, 40, admitted in a December 2002 she had abused drugs in the past, but had moved beyond that time through prayer.

Her husband, R&B singer Bobby Brown, was sentenced to 60 days in jail in late February for violating probation. One of the violations included a December misdemeanour battery charge for allegedly striking Houston, leaving her with a bruised cheek and a cut inside her lip.

The last couple of years have been bad to Houston. If the 110 million album sales that My Love Is Your Love contributed to not to mention the Grammy she won for her vocal performance on 'It's Not Right But It's Okay' took her to an all time high, she must also have experienced a harsh comedown.

During 1999, rumours that dogged Houston throughout her career resurfaced. For years, she has had to endure unsubstantiated allegations of a lesbian relationship with her business partner Robyn Crawford. Then there's her husband Bobby. He has been convicted of drink driving and went to prison after being caught using cocaine while on parole. In 1997, police investigated reports that he slapped her during a row in a Honolulu car park. More categorically, in the mid-1990s she successfully sued a tabloid which alleged she was addicted to a slimming drug.

But then real-life gossip began. On the 1999 US tour to promote both My Love Is Your Love and her then-forthcoming Greatest Hits, she gained a reputation for last-minute cancellations. The damage she was doing to her fanbase was small compared to the damning news when she was caught with 15.2 grams of cannabis in her hand luggage as she tried to leave Kona Keahole International Airport in Hawaii in January 2000.

Conveniently, she managed to dump the offending weed and board her flight anyway. In 2001, a petty misdemeanour drug charge relating to the incident was dismissed after a drug counsellor said Houston did not require treatment for substance abuse.

Brown and Houston have been married since 1992 and have a 10-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina.

In February, a judge in DeKalb County, Georgia, ordered Brown locked up for 60 days for violating the terms of his probation stemming from his conviction on a 1996 drunken driving charge.

In January 2003, Brown, 35, pleaded guilty to a slew of charges dating back to 1996, including driving under the influence, failing to show proof of insurance, speeding and failing to maintain a lane while driving. He was sentenced to two years' probation and an eight-day jail term. Houston was cut and bruised during the altercation and Brown issued a public apology. However, authorities still charged Brown with battery.

There is a huge list of bizarre and disturbing stories that have circulated in recent years about the singer. In 2000, she was dropped from the Oscar ceremony after she forgot lyrics, hummed distractedly and played an imaginary piano at rehearsals.

So what next for the singer? We'll have to wait for the rumours to begin or truth to emerge.