Funeral Home: We Didn't Leak Whitney Houston's Casket Photo, But We Know Who Did -- Ask the Houston Family!

Carolyn Whigham the owner of the Whigham Funeral Home is livid that people are accusing her and her staff of leaking a photo of Whitney Houston -- who was found dead last month in a hotel bathtub -- lying in a casket to the National Enquirer, she held a press conference in Newark to "defend her character and [her] name." Carolyn was adamant that the only people on her staff who saw Whitney's body were herself, her daughter (Carol Whigham) and partner/manager (Cherry Fields) -- all three are licensed morticians who prepared the late singer for burial. No one else saw the late singer's body. Not her secretary, her security, her cleaning lady. No one. In fact, Whitney's body was under "lock and key" and 24-hour security was provided by Nippy, Inc. (Whitney's production company, ran by sister-in-law/manager Patricia Houston), which kept watch over the late singer's body from the day her body arrived at the funeral home to the time she left. (There was a total of 15 security guards keeping watch.) Carolyn says she has received hundreds of death threats and someone spit in her face last Friday. Carolyn says she knows who leaked the photo, but she refuses to identify the person. "It's up to the Houston family to release the name," a spokesperson added. The funeral home director also adds the family won't be surprised who the photo-taker is. Interestingly, Cissy Houston and the rest of the Houston family have, as far as we know, haven't asked for an investigation and have refused to comment on the "photo leak," leaving the funeral home to hold the bag. We say if Carolyn really wants to clear her funeral home's name, she should name names -- but she's too classy for that. We're sure the IRS knows who took the photo -- which was taken on taken on Feb. 17, a day before Whitney's star-studded funeral service -- because the Enquirer paid the opportunist as much as $500,000. Ka-ching!


Here's video of Carolyn pleading her case:




SIDEBAR: Speaking of selling their story to the Enquirer. Someone in the Houston family or someone else has sold the tabloid photos of Bobbi Kristina smoking weed from a bong. The photos, which are stills from a video shot in March 2011 while she visited college friends, supposedly show the 18-year-old, who was previously caught doing cocaine, smoking the weed and double-fisting shots of Grey Goose and Skyy Blue vodka. The source tells the tabloid: "The party was well underway by the time I got there around 11pm. When I left at 6am the next day, she was still partying hard." Coincidentally, a month later she was ticketed by police for underage drinking while involved in a "gun fight.". In another story, the tabloid claims Bobbi Kris was buying drugs from Whitney's drug dealer (a man in his 40s named Jay) without her mother's knowledge. BTW: Bobbi Kris turns 19 on March 4.


SIDEBAR #2, March 2: Oprah Winfrey has landed the first interview with Bobbi Kristina. That's a BIG get. (Has Bobbi Kris ever done a TV interview?) In the interview, which will took place March 2 and will air Sunday, March 11 on OWN, Bobbi Kris will share personal memories of her mom and how she would like her to be remembered. Whitney's brother, Gary Houston, and his wife, Patricia (who was Whitney's manager), will also join the interview and they promise to address the rumors and speculation surrounding Whitney's untimely death and her ex-husband, Bobby Brown. This will be must-see-TV. This will be a ratings bonanza -- much like Oprah's interview with Whitney, which, by the way, Whitney wasn't happy with and thought Oprah only hounded the late singer for an interview to drive ratings.



source: Star-Ledger | National Enquirer