Whitney's dead? Party on

During the BBC News coverage of Whitney's death, I turned to Shawndra and said "the way this report is written, it makes it sounds like Clive Davis continued with his party after Whitney's body had been discovered".

Turns out that wasn't sloppy reporting. He actually did carry on munching canapes and slurping champagne four floors before where Houston had been found. Chaka Khan finds that a little ghoulish, too:

Appearing on Cnn show Piers Morgan Tonight on Monday (13Feb12), she said, "I thought that was complete insanity. Knowing Whitney, I don't believe she would have said, 'The show must go on'. She was the kind of woman that would have said, 'Stop everything... I'm not gonna be there.'

"I don't know what could motivate a person to have a party in a building where the person whose life he had influenced so enormously (had died)... I don't understand how that party went on.

"It would have been alright if it really was a true tribute... Call everybody together, let's say a prayer and eat dinner and go home."

Presumably Davis was worried that he wouldn't get his room rental fee back if he cancelled so late.

Elsewhere on CNN, Nancy Grace was desperate to talk-up the death into a murder:

The HLN host was speaking to CNN's Brooke Baldwin [...]
Grace appeared before the police's press conference. But she seemed to sense that some kind of foul play was afoot. Speaking about the prescription drugs found in Houston's hotel room, she wondered "who if anyone put it in her system or gave it to her?" Then, she went further.

"I'd like to know who was around her, who, if anyone gave her drugs...and who let her slip, or pushed her, underneath that water?" she said. "Apparently, no signs of force or trauma to the body. Who let Whitney Houston go under her water?"

"Might it have been one person, might it have been multiple people, all excellent questions," Baldwin said. "Again, we don't know the cause of her death."

Yes, it's an "excellent question" and in no way morbid-corpse-wanking to decide on absolutely no evidence that there must have been a circle of people surrounding the bath, murdering Houston by the well-known criminal method of "letting someone go under the water without touching them".

Apparently there are no signs that Nancy Grace uses force to get on air on a once-proud station that used to cover actually news rather than making shit up. Who lets Nancy Grace go out on the air? Might be one person, might be multiple people. All excellent questions.

The changing of the Sony BMG guard: Clive Davis steps down

Sony BMG has announced that Clive Davis is stepping down as head of BMG and will no longer be in day-to-day charge at RCA.

He's being replaced by Barry Weiss, who until now has been in charge at Zomba and is known for never knowingly spending two bucks when he can get the job done for one.

Of course, no executive ever really disappears, and Sony BMG have found a role by which Clive Davis can continue to draw a salary in a new, vaguely-defined "creative post", which is in no way a forumla for chucking him some money in return for his stepping aside quietly and with no repeat of the balls-up the company made in 2000 when it tried to get shot of him.

It's going to be frustrating for Weiss, trying to trim costs at the label at the same time as the company has to find funds to pay their Denny Crane in his new job.

Kelly Clarkson abandons 'artistic integrity' for 'cosy life'

After having a taste of the life beyond the confines of top 40 pop, Kelly Clarkson has followed up her grovelling retraction of anything bad she might have said about Clive Davis with a promise to record whatever he sees fit. Which will be formula-fixed, tightly-targeted top 40 pop, of course. It'll be ready next year.

Now that her heart isn't in it, though, you might wonder what the point of it all is.

Kelly Clarkson recants

Perhaps it must have been mouth herpes, but something made dumper-edge-dweller Kelly Clarkson suddenly feel the urge to clarify (i.e. withdraw completely and pretend she meant the opposite) remarks she made about label head (i.e. her boss) Clive Davis:

"I want to set the record straight on this by saying that I want my band, my advisors [sic], those close to me and my record label to be one big, tightly knit family. Like any family we will disagree and argue sometimes but, in the end, it's respect and admiration that will keep us together."

"Contrary to recent characterizations in the press, I'm well aware that Clive is one of the great record men of all time."

Respect and admiration will keep you together. And, of course, the creeping realisation that it's merely the support of the record label which is keeping you aloft.

Clarkson told to start over?

We're not entirely sure how you could tell a bad Kelly Clarkson record from a good one, which, presumably, is why Sony-BMG haven't been on the phone offering us work. But the Daily Star says Clive Davis reckons he can tell, and has told his singer the album she's delivered isn't good enough:

A source at the record company tells the paper, "It was an extraordinary presentation. Clive was absolutely merciless in his criticism of Kelly.

"She's one of the biggest priorities on the label and her new songs were savaged."

Were I shareholder in Sony-BMG, I might be worrying a little less about Clarkson's performance, and more about Davis: should a major label be investing so much hope in so slender an talent? And if she is so crucial to the future of the label, shouldn't someone in management be keeping a closer eye, rather than waiting until the head guy gets to hear the tracks, to avoid this sort of thing happening?