Funeral Home Denies Providing Whitney Houston Open Casket Photo
The National Enquirer continues to push the limits of tastelessness. The publication has published an alleged photo of Whitney Houston’s open casket on the cover of their latest issue. According to some sources online the photo was taken during the singer’s open-casket viewing in Newark, NJ.
The photo runs with the headline: “Whitney Houston Last Photo” showing the singer in a purple dress and diamond jewelry the mag claims is “worth $500,000”. According too Business Insider: This isn’t the first time the publication has touted supposed “last photos” of a celebrity. In 2008, the Enquirer posted fake images of Anna Nicole Smith in a half-zipped body bag soon after her death.
Of course many are wondering how the photo got to the National Enquirer, which has put a lot of heat on the Whigham Funeral Home in Newark, N.J., but owner Carolyn Whigham insisted her business did not play a role. Below is a short article from the Chicago Tribune who interviewed Whigham.
The National Enquirer’s cover photo of the late Whitney Houston in her casket was unauthorized and had nothing to do with the funeral home where the singer’s body was prepared, the funeral home’s owner told Tribune Newspapers on Thursday.
Questions of how the photo was obtained have cast suspicion on Whigham Funeral Home in Newark, N.J., but owner Carolyn Whigham insisted her business not play a role.
“I’m going to answer you as the (family’s) publicist told me to answer you: We have no comment. But it was not the funeral home,” Whigham said.
National Enquirer Publisher Mary Beth Wright told FoxNews.com she thought the cover photo was “beautiful,” but the Enquirer has not said how it obtained the photo.
Houston, 48, died in a Beverly Hills hotel room earlier this month. Officials said she was found submerged in a bathtub just hours before she was scheduled to attend a pre-Grammys soiree hosted by her longtime mentor, Clive Davis.
There’s some precedent for the Enquirer’s use of the photo — the tabloid ran similar open-casket shots of Elvis Presley after he died in 1977.
A sampling of Chicago newsstands and grocery stores on Thursday indicated they plan to stock and display this issue of the Enquirer as they would any other.
“You can’t be the moral policeman here,” said Jay Gheewala, manager of Daily News Stand in the 200 block of North Michigan Avenue. A few customers bought the magazine by Thursday afternoon, Gheewala said.
“My daughter wanted to see it,” said Diana Moss, 59, of Chicago. “I normally don’t buy these, but she was curious to see (Houston’s photo).”
Despite spending the listed $3.79 price for the Enquirer, Moss thought the tabloid showed poor taste.
“They should have respected the family,” she said.
We are not going to publish a copy of the photo in question, but if you want to see it, you can view it here.
