According to reports Cissy Houston was not pleased about the slick comments Aretha Franklin made about Whitney Houston on the Today Show the day before the funeral...
From NY Daily News
The Queen of Soul’s spokeswoman strenuously denied that Franklin missed Whitney Houston’s funeral on Saturday afternoon because she angered the late singer’s mother, Cissy Houston, with comments she made during a “Today” show interview on Friday.
Franklin, 69, canceled her scheduled appearance at Houston’s New Jersey funeral service on Saturday, citing leg spasms, but sources and reviews note that the soul diva was in fine fettle on Saturday night when she performed the second of two sold out concerts at Radio City Music Hall.
An insider also tells us that Franklin — who paid tribute to Houston during her concert — was even feeling well enough to entertain 40 of her friends at the Ritz Carlton hotel on Central Park South after Saturday’s show.
The eyewitness says Franklin, sporting a curly blond hairstyle, arrived on the arm of her on-again, off-again fiance William Wilkerson.
The group dined on steak and shrimp, and our source says, “It looked like everyone was having a great time.”
Franklin’s rapid recovery gives credence to buzz that her absence from Houston’s funeral had to do with comments she made during an interview she taped with Al Roker.
Curiously, the clip is no longer available on the “Today” website, but Franklin addressed Houston’s drug problem with what sounded like veiled criticism of the tragic singer’s upbringing.
“Parents have to really talk to their children before they leave home,” Franklin told Roker. “They have to make sure when they leave home, they have all the right things.
She left home with all the right things, but she just kind of lost her way along the way.”
Franklin also denied she was Houston’s godmother, as the media has reported, but rather an “honorary aunt.”
