The debate over Bobby Brown's appearing and then disappearing from ex-wife Whitney Houston's funeral will likely rage for the next few days. But the New Edition singer proved once again that being famous has its perks. He got a do-over!
Bobby was already slated to perform at the Mohegan Sun casino in Montville, Connecticut when the mother of daughter Bobbi Kristina was found dead in a Los Angeles hotel bathtub. Considering his well-known financial issues over the years (hello, child support), you really can't blame the guy for keeping his promise to perform in front of a sell-out crowd. And it gave him a second chance to at public mourning just a few hours after hopping in a car and taking off from Whitney's New Jersey farewell.
Bobby made a point to give a shout-out to Whitney from the stage. It was lumped in with "blessings" for his kids, fiancee Alicia Etheridge, and love for the crowd, but still, it was there. Just listen:
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So what do you think? Heartfelt? It's hard to tell when performers make these kind of effusive statements onstage. But I'll give him credit for the "I love you" for Whitney right out there in a public arena.
At the very least, that had to be a bit awkward for Etheridge. Bobby and Whitney may have separated in 2006, followed by the divorce (initiated by Whitney), but no woman likes to hear the man she's engaged to using the "l" word about his ex-wife. And now that Whitney's gone, she's been elevated to a status that's really impossible for Etheridge to compete with. We don't "speak ill of the dead" in this society, for one thing. But then you have to consider the tragic circumstances of Whitney's death, the fact that her funeral was such a big deal because her fans were so many, and all the good things she did do as a human being before she died ... I could see a rather awkward night for Bobby when he went home to his bride-to-be.
So does this erase the bizarre circumstances at the funeral, bring him back into Whitney's fans' good graces? It's hard to tell. Being famous certainly weighed heavily on his shoulders at the funeral, but it gave Bobby a benefit most of us don't get -- to try again.
What do you think of Bobby's concert tribute to Whitney?
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