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Thursday, Jun 8, 2000 7:08 PM UTC

Whitney, phone home

Earth calling Houston -- time to come down; Courtney Love for president; Julia Roberts for hooker ... again. Plus: Eminem sings the lip-lock blues.

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Topics: Celebrity, Whitney Houston, Courtney Love,

If Whitney Houston’s high as a kite right now, don’t blame her mother.

According to an upcoming report in Us Weekly, the pop diva’s mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, joined a roomful of friends and family — and at least two drug specialists — at the Beverly Hills Hotel last summer to rescue her troubled daughter through a drug intervention.

The family members had been summoned after Whitney’s husband, Bobby Brown, was found “ranting and raving” outside the hotel (“It was clear Bobby was high,” said one witness). Whitney, meanwhile, is said to have sat alone in the lobby, lost “in her own world” and, sources contend, pretending to talk on her cellphone.

Later, as the singer sat “dazed and confused” in her wrecked hotel room (“Broken beer bottles were everywhere,” one source tells the magazine), relatives urged her to enter “an exclusive treatment center outside of Los Angeles.” But, alas, Whitney would have none of it.

“There was nothing her mother could say that night to make her pay attention,” one source told the magazine. “It was very sad.”

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A spirit level?

“I’m the first me. I have mad respect for Leo, but he throws out a lot of energy, whereas I’m like a spirit level.”

– Freddie Prinze Jr., on why he despises being dubbed the “new DiCaprio,” in the U.K. magazine Smash Hits.

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Sprockets out of whack

There will be no dancing in Nothing Personal today.

Mike Myers has pulled the plug on “Dieter,” the flick based on everyone’s favorite turtleneck-wearing monkey toucher, and I’m heartbroken.

But my disappointment is apparently nothing compared to the sentiments over at Universal Pictures. The studio, which had agreed to pay Myers $20 million to star in the film, has taken action against the comedian, attempting to bar him from other projects until the movie is complete. Oh, and they’d also like $3.8 million in compensation for production costs, please.

Myers, for his part, says he is “shocked and dismayed” at the studio’s suit and contends the delay was necessary to rework an “unworkable” script. What’s more, he says, his agreement stipulates that he has “absolute” script approval, which renders the suit “without merit” — and his lawyers are at work on a countersuit for fraud.

“I cannot in good conscience accept $20m and cheat moviegoers who pay their hard-earned money to see my work by making a movie with an unacceptable script,” Myers said.

In other words, the story was growing tiresome.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

This is for all the fat-girl haters …

“One of these days, I’ll have a movie and there’ll be all fat girls in it and it’ll scare everybody.”

– Camryn Manheim on her nightmarish dream project, in the Toronto Sun.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

Juicy bits

Eminem’s life story just got a little more interesting. The rapper has been charged with carrying a concealed weapon and assault with a deadly weapon stemming from his bar brawl over the weekend. Prosecutors contend Em hit a guy over the head with an unloaded gun after catching him in a lip-lock with his wife, Kimberly Mathers.

Courtney Love for president? According to a recent survey conducted by Jane magazine, more people would like to see the Hole frontwoman in the Oval Office than either Oprah Winfrey or Kevin Spacey. Drew Barrymore was robbed.

Matthew Perry’s got a healthy liver, but he might want to get a few new friends. The “Friends” star told “Access Hollywood” that what amused him most about recent rumors about his unhealthy organ was the U.K. Sun’s report that his fellow cast members rallied round him to show their support. “I enjoyed the image of that,” he said. “Like they would really take time off out of their day to surround me and wait for a liver or something.”

More Amy Reiter.

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