Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991 TAG: 9104050533
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E7 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
How normal is normal? For Houston, it means making her home miles from the glitz of Los Angeles, in the small town of Mendham, N.J.
She avoids other trappings of superstardom. Not for her the hyperbaric chamber, pet llamas or frequent plastic surgery favored by Michael Jackson. She has no large entourage, as does Eddie Murphy. Unlike Madonna, she rarely wears a disguise when going out.
Houston, 27, sounds almost too good to be true. When she's not touring, she attends the same church in Newark - New Hope Baptist - that she went to as a child. When she can, she sings in the church's gospel choir that nurtured her voice when she was young. Her mother is still minister of music there.
And life wouldn't be any fun without frequent runs to McDonald's.
Wholesome superstars are at a premium, and that may be why Houston was the headliner at a concert welcoming back troops from the Persian Gulf. The concert was televised live on HBO from the Navy base in Norfolk last Sunday.
Houston said that her emotional (albeit pre-taped) rendition of the national anthem at this year's Super Bowl sparked a sense of patriotism in her. She opened the HBO concert with the song.
Houston's third album, "I'm Your Baby Tonight," was released recently and appears headed for the same mega-sales racked up by her first two efforts, "Whitney Houston" and "Whitney." She is considering acting offers but said for now she is "just fine" with the way her career is going.
It sounds as if it has been a charmed career, ever since it began Lana Turner-like when a modeling scout spotted her on a Manhattan street when she was 16. She signed with the Click agency and modeled for eight years.
But Houston said fame has its drawbacks.
"The thing about big success is that if you don't know who you are going in, then you'll never find out," she said.
Houston, who frequently cites her belief in God, said she came "face to face" with herself and her faith when she was 14 - and never turned back.
"I still value my parents, my family and friends - the people who don't treat me any differently," she said.
"This whole thing has its wonderful, wonderful moments. But it has its price to pay. Nobody knows it until it happens to them. Your life is definitely not your own. It becomes the world's."
So Houston said she works at normalcy.
"If you're smart, you can have your own life; you don't have to be isolated," she said. "It's a feat unto itself but I have to know that a part of my life is all my own."
by CNB