'I THINK WHITNEY'S LOST IT A LITTLE BIT'

NEW YORK - Whitney Houston, who released her first album in four years
this week, has succeeded in getting the public's attention - but not
for her music.

Instead, the buzz is about Houston's admissions of drug use, her
erratic behavior and her frail appearance.

"I think Whitney's lost it a little bit," says Delia Pena, of Bayonne,
N.J., one of thousands of fans who waited outside Lincoln Center on
Sunday to see the Grammy-winning star in a mini-concert that aired on
Good Morning America on Tuesday. "I like her music. I hope she's doing
better."

Just Whitney comes a little more than a year after Houston, now 39,
signed a reported $100 million contract to stay at Arista Records.
When she was 22, she released her self-titled debut album, which has
sold more than 13 million copies in the United States; she went on to
have hits like Saving All My Love for You, The Greatest Love of All
and I Will Always Love You, and starred in movies such as The
Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale.

Those glory days, however, seem far away. During the past few years,
the singer has been dogged by controversy, from her tumultuous 10-year
marriage to bad-boy/singer Bobby Brown to her missed concert
appearances.

She looked so emaciated at a concert for Michael Jackson last year
that there were rumors she was dying. And in 2000, Houston was charged
with marijuana possession when an airport security guard found the
drug in her purse; the misdemeanor count was dismissed when a
counselor said Houston did not need treatment for drug abuse.

Brown has a history of drug and alcohol arrests, including an arrest
last month in Atlanta on drug and traffic charges.

After years of denying drug use, Houston confirmed in an interview
last week with Diane Sawyer on ABC's Primetime Live that she had used
cocaine, marijuana and pills.

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst
enemy," said Houston, who says she is using prayer to help her get
over drugs. "And that's how I have to deal with it."

She scoffed at reports that she was a crack addict: "First of all,
let's get one thing straight. Crack is cheap. I make too much money to
ever smoke crack." At another point in the interview, Brown admitted
taking marijuana because he's bipolar. And Houston acknowledged
rebuffing her mother's attempt at an intervention.

The ABC special was a ratings success, landing approximately 21
million viewers. But Houston's thinness and defensiveness didn't
impress critics.

The Washington Post dubbed the interview "Whitney's Weird Chat," while
the Miami Herald said the singer appeared "strung out."

"She wasn't humble. . . . she came off very flip," said Karu Daniels,
who wrote about the interview in his weekly column on EURWeb, an urban
entertainment Web site.

"The interview was crazy . . . I blame the people around her." Still,
the interview may also have garnered some sympathy for the star.

"It's kind of clear that Whitney is in the middle of a major personal
crisis, and I think women feel for her, because it's sad," said
Michelle Santosuosso, program and music director for the Los Angeles
urban adult contemporary station Hot 92 Jamz.

Santosuosso said the station recently presented Houston's latest
single, One of Those Days, to the listeners and asked them to "make it
or break it."

She said the response was overwhelming. "Regardless of Whitney's
personal drama, people are pulling for her," said Santosuosso. "She is
a superstar and people love to hear her sing."

Reaction elsewhere hasn't been as strong. Considering the diva has had
countless No. 1 hits, response to her new material has been
unspectacular. The first single, Whatchulookinat, in which she blames
the media for trying to mess up her reputation, was critically panned
and received scant airplay.

Her latest single debuted at No. 94 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and
has been rising slowly.

Still, Houston's star power remains formidable, judging from the crowd
that waited more than an hour to see her perform three songs at
Lincoln Center on Sunday.

Ada Penabaz and Alicia Doble, both 26, traveled from Boston just to
see the performance.

"She has a strong voice, and she seems to be pulling through her tough
times now," said Doble. "She's survived these past 20 years."