Hurry, Hurry, Get Your Whitney Houston Bustier
Jan. 9, 2007 -- If you've ever had trouble understanding Whitney Houston, now you can walk a mile in her size 9 Manolo Blahnik shoes -- as long as you're the winning bidder.
Houston's clothing, microphones, and other personal items are hitting the auction block today, as she tries to raise money to pay bills.
On sale are Whitney's 32 A Dolce & Gabbana bustiers, an assortment of Manolo Blahnik and Steve Madden shoes, feathered purses and silicone disks marked "bust enhancer."
"Only a trickle of people went down to preview these items," says Andrea Peyser of the New York Post, who viewed the items Monday. "We're going to have to see how it goes. Some of the items are very large. You wouldn't be able to put them in your house."
A Dirty Home for Hollywood Glitz
Whitney's glitzy memorabilia was stored in a dilapidated warehouse with "a rotting ceiling and a decaying floor," says Peyser.
In the early hours of the auction, a set of drums fetched several hundred dollars. Later in the day, bidders will have a chance at costumes the 43-year-old Grammy winner wore on her 1999 tour.
Houston is divorcing Bobby Brown after a stormy, 14-year-long marriage and has been living in Los Angeles, working on an album.
But the singer has been riddled with financial troubles. She recently avoided a sheriff's sale of her New Jersey mansion after falling more than $1 million behind on the mortgage and taxes.
Houston's management company decided to auction off more than 300 items from her 1999 world tour to pay for unpaid storage fees on the gear and clothing -- a bill said to exceed $175,000.