I must tell you, I’m still rooting for Whitney Houston.  Her vocals aren’t a fraction of what they used to be, but I’m hoping that they’ll rebound with time and use.  The bottom line is this:  I’m a sucker for a down-and-out celeb who rebounds and triumphs over the evil of addiction or abuse.

This weekend Whitney performed on the U.K.’s X Factor and again, she wasn’t sounding so hot.  What I admire is how unflappable she is.  Her dress came apart — the first strap goes “boing!” at about two minutes — and she just kept on.  Even when the second strap broke, she performed.  And I admire that.  (I think of Ashlee Simpson when her lip-synch track went haywire on Saturday Night Live.  She Irish danced off the stage leaving her band to sit there.  She will never be at Whitney’s level.)

Her level of class and professionalism just impresses me.  It even helps me overlook the fact that she had no idea of her album’s U.K. release date (that part is at the end).  It’s okay, Whit … you’ll get there.

Have I mentioned how glad I am that Whitney Houston is back on the scene?  Sure, her voice is shot, but hopefully with vocal training it can be restored.  Other than the iconic voice, — and yes, Whitney Houston has earned the term “iconic”.  Are you listening, Mischa? — the singer is also just brutally straightforward.  That’s why, I’m really hopeful that there’s some truth to The National Enquirer article that claims Houston called Oprah out for being a liar.

Insiders say bad blood has been simmering between the superstars for years over Whitney’s struggle with drugs – and their secret feud exploded off camera when the pop diva angrily blasted Oprah as a liar!

“Whitney knew Oprah’s show could help her clean up her tarnished image after years of drug use and her troubled marriage to Bobby Brown – and Oprah knew the interview could help her sagging TV ratings,” says an insider.

“But Whitney felt Oprah needed her more than she needed Oprah. Whitney was contacted by various media outlets vying for the ‘big get’ interview with her during her comeback campaign.”

Whitney, 46, had her pick of the litter, but chose Oprah because she wanted to appeal to her viewers and knew that if Oprah pushed her too far during the interview

she was going to push back and expose some of Oprah’s own secrets!

“Whitney will never forget that when she was down and out, Oprah wanted NOTHING to do with her,” an insider told The ENQUIRER.

And THAT pissed-off Whitney to no end . . .

The online article doesn’t get into the specifics that led to the outburst — gotta save something for the print edition! — but I definitely felt that Whitney was a little snippy with Oprah during that interview last week.

Oprah’s ratings continue to slip despite high-profile interviews such as Houston’s and today’s sit-down with Mackenzie Phillips.  She’s getting rid of that live Friday format in an effort to shake things up.  Getting rid of the panel discussions means that she canned Mark Conseulos, thus removing my one last reason for watching.

If you are ever sitting around wondering, “Does Wendie love me?” the answer is a resounding “Yes!”  And, just how much do I love you?  Uh … I watched Oprah today.  For you.  In other words, a lot.

I guess today was the season premiere of Oprah.  What made me throw away the last shred of my sanity was that today was the first of a two-part interview with the incomparable Whitney Houston.  She talked about Bobby Brown — she said he wasn’t abusive other than the time he slapped her and spit on her; it sounds like she was pretty abusive too — and their drug use.  For about seven years — it started around the time of The Bodyguard — they spent their time smoking pot laced with cocaine.  I didn’t even know this was possible, but she gave pretty good instructions on how to do it.  She went to rehab (twice).

The one thing that struck me about the entire interview is how many times she’d refer to Bobby — like, “Oh, he won’t like me saying this,” or “This will make him mad.”  W needs to stop factoring Bobby’s feelings into her choices.

Part two is tomorrow and I’m going to suffer through that too, mostly because I want to know where their daughter was while they were doing all these drugs.

When Houston sang on Good Morning America last week, she blamed her hoarse voice on Oprah.  To be honest though, Whitney’s voice was raspy throughout the entire interview.  I hope too many years of coke joints didn’t ruin her voice for good.

Whitney Houston sang(?) Tuesday morning for the Good Morning America Central Park concert and had a surprisingly talented back-up singer: her daughter Bobbi Kristina.  It’s a good. Damn. Thing.

It’s never a good sign when the first thing a singer does before singing a note is apologize, but that’s just what Ms. Houston did.  And like every single other ill that this world faces, it was all Oprah’s fault.  ”I’m so sorry. I did Oprah. I’ve been talking for so long.”

Whitney Houston is back in fighting form.  I don’t know if the Photoshop gods have been kind, but she looks amazing on the cover of October’s Ebony magazine.  Are we in agreement that divorcing Bobby Brown was the best 165 pounds she ever lost?

About her trials, Houston said, ”I shed a lot of stuff, a lot of unnecessary weight in the last three or four years. I left a lot of old luggage behind, and when I did, the blessings just started pouring on me, and the light in my spirit started to lift again.”

The reviews for Whitney’s newest album (it dropped yesterday), “I Look to You” haven’t been too favorable.  It’s been described as “a middling album by an artist who was once the greatest R&B singer of her generation.  Where once she would have elated us with power and grace, she delivers the lyrics with a faint trace of her former authority.”  Let’s hope this is just a temporary sitch as Whitney continues to rebuild her life and career.

Thanks to reality TV, the last thing I remember learning about Whitney Houston is that when she’s constipated, then husband Bobby Brown would massage her Houston-hole until their marriage– oh, excuse me, I meant to say, compacted, hardened, constipated shit– broke up. Then she ran off to Africa and began looking for the lost tribe of Israel, to which she was convinced she belonged.

The lost tribe of Israel didn’t do their job, because after a 7 year absence from the recording studio (and her mind) Whitney is back, and preparing to embark on a public relations whirlwind to promote her new album, scheduled to be released September 1st.

If you’re a talk show host who’s interested in having Whitney on for a chat– and who wouldn’t be– there’s one caveat. Under no circumstances is anyone to ask her questions such as, “If you were a kind of crack, what kind of crack would you be?”

They only want to let her talk to journalists who’ll agree not to ask about her substance abuse,” an insider tells us.

A rep for Houston calls speculation on any PR plans “premature. Nothing has been set.” But we hear the edict  goes for the TV morning shows, which are all angling to get her to perform live. “The deal is, if they want her, then Matt Lauer, Diane Sawyer or whoever isn’t supposed to ask her tough questions,” says the source.

Ostensibly, this is because if you say the word “crack” it elicits a Pavlovian response in the singer whereby she will beat the crap out of Kelly Rippa and steal her wallet so she can score.

Whitney appeared at the 2nd Annual BET Honors Show this weekend looking fanfuckingtastic!

And I don’t mean to be insensitive, but wasn’t Queen Latifah announced as the new Jenny Craig spokesmodel, like, over a year ago?  She was all over my television telling me how she was going to eat pre-packaged crap and get to the ever-ambiguous “healthy weight”.  Uh, did she eat all the pre-packaged crap at once?  I only ask because Queen L 2009 looks exactly like Queen L 2008 and Queen L 2007.  Or am I wrong?  I don’t pay too much attention to her body; I spend a lot more time contemplating how much easier her life will be once she comes out of the closet.  And yes, I realize what it says about me that I put anyenergy towards thinking about who Queen Latifah sleeps with. 

Anyway, I’ve got plenty of love for the big girls, but I’m sorry.  Queen hawking weight loss goods is the equivalent of Michelle Duggar doing a Yaz commercial.