randi kaye has more. >> on saturday, bobby brown took to the stage to declare his love for his ex-wifeld like to say, i love you, whitney. >> reporter: as this ireport shows he was there for a reunion of the 1980 boy band new edition. ♪ my girl's the best and that's no lie ♪ >> reporter: "new edition" had a string of hits. but brown's onstage antics and and a feud with a fellow band member led the band to kick brown out in 1986. ♪ they say i'm crazy really don't care ♪ ♪ that's my prerogative >> reporter: undaunted, brown went on to a successful solo career with hits like "my prerogative" and "every little step" from his 1988 album, "don't be cruel." ♪ it's like that girl brown and houston married in 1992, on the surface, it seemed perfect, the pop princess and the r&b singer. but there were signs of trouble. in 1995, brown was present at a shooting outside a seedy boston bar that claimed the life of his bodyguard, steven seely. he was shot in the head several times and died inside a bentley registered to whitney houston. then there were brown's arrest for dui in 1996, for marijuana po

tom foreman, cnn, washington. >> randi kaye is following other stories for us tonight and joins us with bulletin. >> breaking news from capitol hill, house and senate negotiators hammering out a tentative bill to extend the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits. and prevent cuts in medicare payments to doctors. a vote could happen by friday when congress adjourns for a week. >>> and the shelling on neighborhoods in syria, snipers fire at just about anyone out on the streets. new video shows what appears to be a government gunman targeting a young child. at least 40 syrians died today alone. cnn cannot independently verify these reports or video. >>> and chinese vice president ping in a visit to the white house and president obama reminding the man in line to be his country's next leader of the perhaps of a trade balance between the u.s. and china. anderson. >>> still ahead, rick santorum hoping for a victory on mitt romney's home turf of michigan and what rick santorum's surge in michigan means and breaking down the race. >>> former mississippi governor haley barbour trying to stay out o

this is cnn presents with your hosts tonight, randi kaye and dr. sanjay gupta. >> good evening.ey houston will be remembered as one of the greatest voices of her generation and many of her closest friends say the troubled star was poised to make a comeback. but that comeback, as you know, was tragically cut short with her untimely death. >> whitney houston's soaring talent was shadowed by her struggles with addiction and her marriage. don lemon looks at her rise to fame, her fall from superstardom and the final hours in her troubled life. ♪ but above all this i wish you love ♪ >> that legendary ballad, that >> that legendary ballad, that blinding beauty, that breathtaking voice. ♪ and i will always love you >> whitney houston, the shy jersey girl who belted her way to superstardom, six grammys, and a record seven consecutive number one singles. for a time she was pop's greatest love of all. ♪ it is the greatest love of all ♪ >> to hear her voice was a miracle because for anybody to be able to do with a voice what she did with hers speaks to a divine order. >> whitney houston, th

here is randi kaye with an upclose look at callista gingrich. ♪ >> reporter: on most sundays callistaings in the church choir, but not until recently she found her voice on the campaign trail. >> let's give a warm welcome to my husband and best friend, newt gingrich. >> reporter: still moments like that are rare. getting anywhere close to callista on the campaign trail is challenging to say the least. >> no cameras. and sit down. i feel like i'm dealing with 8-year-olds again. >> reporter: are they trying to keep callista away from the reporters? >> i am not aware that they are trying to. >> reporter: and yet when we wanted to interview callista, the campaign said no, and agreed to let us speak with karen olson, callista's friend since the second grade. growing up, olson recalls that callista was a cheerleader, and they played piano together and attended luther college in iowa where calista majored in music. she practiced six hours a day and graduated kum laude. and then she moved to washington, d.c. to work as a clerk with the house agriculture committee. in 1993, callista began a si

randi kaye shares more on the candidate's wife once called kelly lou. ♪ >> on most sundays, callistachoir but it wasn't till recently that she found her voice on the campaign trial. >> let's give a warm welcome to my husband and best friend, newt gingrich. . >> still, moments like thatting are rare. getting anywhere close to callista on the campaign trail is challenging to say the least. >> no cameras and sit down. >> are they trying to keep callista away from reporters? >> you know, i'm not aware of that they're trying to. >> reporter: yet, when we asked to interview ca lis ta, the campaign said no but agreed to let us speak with karen olson, her friend since the second grade. >> growing up, olson recalls callista was a cheerleader. they played piano together and attended luther college in iowa where callista majored in music. she practiced six hours a day and graduated in 1988 cum laudee. after college, she moved to washington, d.c. to work as a clerk with the house agriculture committee. in 1993, callista began a six-year affair with newt gingrich who at the time was speaker of th

more from randi kaye. >> reporter: whispers about whitney houston's troubles began to circle shortlyhe appeared in this michael jackson tribute. looking rail thin, the appearance fueled rumors her health was rapidly declining. she denied those rumors in this infamous 2002 interview with diane sawyer, insisting she didn't have an eating disorder and crack addiction. >> whitney dying, crack in hails. >> first of all, crack is cheap. i make too much money to ever smoke crack. let's get that straight. i don't do crack. i don't do that. crack is whack. >> this says $730,000 drug habit. this is a headline. >> come on! 730. i wish. i wish whoever was making that money off me could share it with me. no way. no way. >> still, she admitted to battling other demons. >> is it alcohol? is it marijuana? is it cocaine? is it pills? >> it has been, at times. >> all? >> at times. >> if you had to name the devil for you, the biggest devil among them? >> that would be me. >> reporter: houston also had a turbulent marriage to singer bobby brown. married in 1992, some pointed to their relationship as an

here is randi kaye with an upclose look at callista gingrich. ♪ >> reporter: on most sundays callistagrich sings in the ch church choir, but not until recently she found her voice on the campaign trail. >> let's give a warm welcome to my husband and best friend, newt gingrich. >> reporter: still moments like that are rare. getting anywhere close to callista on the campaign trail is challenging to say the least. >> no cameras. you are like 8-year-olds. >> reporter: are they trying to keep callista away from the reporters? >> i am not aware that they are trying to. >> reporter: and yet when we wanted to interview callista, the campaign said no, and agreed to let us speak with karen olson, callista's friend since the second grade. growing up, olson recalls that callista was a cheerleader, and they attended college together where callista majored in music and practiced six hours a day and graduated cum laude. and then she moved to washington, d.c. to work as a clerk with the house agriculture committee. in 1993, callista began a six-year affair with newt gingrich who at the time was speak

i'm randi kaye. >> and i'm dr. sanjay gupta. thanks for joining us. >>> tonight whitney houston's funeral. >> we celebrate the life of whitney houston. >> her family. >> god wanted me now. >> a grace that carried her from heaven down. >> and final good byes from those who knew and loved her best. >> there is a lady in heaven making god wonder how he created something so perfect. >> whitney houston a final fairwell. >> we loved her so much and that won't stop. >> this is a special edition of "piers morgan tonight." ♪ ♪ he leaded me in the path of righteous ne righteousness ♪ ♪ though i walk through the valley of the shadows ♪ ♪ ♪ they do comfort me >>> whitney, today is your day. we celebrate. today is your day, whitney. today is your day. now, i want to just say that we came here to celebrate and this is how we celebrate. we have church. we have church. the loving people you see, this family, they love the lord. and that is their faith that is holding them together. so it's not about anybody but whitney today and we celebrate an

cnn continues right now with randi kaye. hello, randi. >> hello, suzanne. i'm randi kaye. it's 10:00 on the west coast and 1:00 on the east coast. >>> an outed sheriff resigns from romney's campaign after jose says that sheriff babeu threatened to deport him. he now acknowledges that he is gay but denies the other allegations. we'll talk to the reporter for the "phoenix new times" to talk about this story. >>> iranian officials over nuclear program, iran's foreign minister is now saying he expects relations with europe to improve one day after iran cut crude exports to the uk and france because of sanctions. the iaea wants to clear the military program. back in november, the u.n. watch dog program carried out weapons-related research. iran needs to dis-prove the allegation. >>> a washington skier is describing her terror. she knew two of the three skiers killed yesterday. on the "today" show she described what it was like to see an avalanche coming towards her. >> there wasn't much sound and it literally is just trying to figure out within seconds what is happening and how

i'm randi kaye. >> i'm dr. sanjay gupta. thanks for joining us. >>> tonight whitney houston's funeral, proper farewell for an all-american diva. >> we celebrate the life of whitney houston. [ applause ] >> the family. >> god wanted me now. he set me free. >> faith. >> a grace that carried her from heaven down. >> and final good-byes from those who knew and loved her best. >> there's a lady in heaven who is making god himself wonder how he created something so perfect. >> whitney houston, a final farewell. >> we loved her so much and that won't stop. >> this is a special edition of "piers morgan tonight." ♪ ♪ he restoreth my soul, yeah, ooh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ he leadeth me in the path of righteousness ♪ ♪ oh, in his namesake, oh, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ though i walk through the valley of the shadows ♪ ♪ of death i shall have no fear for thou are with me ♪ yes, they do comfort me, yes, they do comfort me ♪ ♪ hallelujah, they comfort me, they comfort me ♪ >> whitney, today is your day. we celebrate. today is your day, whitney. today is your

sanjay gupta and randi kaye, and don lemon will be in there. we hope you have a lovely president's day weekend. >>> tonight on the eve of the final farewell to whitney houston, superstar b.b. winans. >> it caught up off guard, but it didn't catch godoff guard. >> linsanity -- and more of my exclusive interview with ricky gervais. >> many people are offended because you exist. plus an exclusive tribute to whitney houston. ♪ no better what they take from me ♪ ♪ they can't take away my dignity ♪ >> this is piers morgan tonight. >> a big story tonight saying goodbye to whitney houston, a family using of the superstar's body today. >> flags in new jersey are flying at half staff to honor whitney. i'll talk to governor chris christie about that. and more of my interview with ricky gervais. >> at least he can use expressions, most of them are too botoxed out, you can't tell if they're smiling or not. >> jason, you're outside the church in new jersey, tell me about what you can expect tomorrow. >> well, first let's set the stage in terms of what's happ

tweet your answer to me at randi kaye cnn. right after the break. peter. i can see that you're busy... but you were gonna help us crunch the numbers for accounts receivable today. i mean i know that this is important. well, both are important. let's be clear. they are but this is important too. [ man ] the receivables. [ male announcer ] michelin knows it's better for xerox to help manage their finance processing. so they can focus on keeping the world moving. with xerox, you're ready for real business. i have a cold. and i took nyquil, but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] sorry buddy. truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. what? it doesn't have a decongestant. really? [ male announcer ] you need a more complete cold and flu formula, like alka-seltzer plus liquid gels. it's specially formulated to fight your worst cold and flu symptoms, plus relieve your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you! [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! [ male announcer ] and to fight your allergy symptoms fast, try

randi kaye takes a look back. >> reporter: whispers about whitney houston's troubles began to surfacehis michael jackson tribute concert. ♪ >> reporter: looking rail thin, the appearance fueled rumors that her health was rapidly declining. she defiantly denied those rumors in this infamous 2002 interview with diane sawyer. insisting that she didn't have an eating disorder and didn't have a crack addiction. >> whitney dying, crack rehab fails. >> first of all, let's get one thing straight, crack is cheap. i make too much money to ever smoke crack. let's get that straight, okay? i don't do crack. i don't do that. crack is whack. >> this says, $730,000 drug habit. this is a headline. >> come on! 730?! i wish, no. i wish i was making that money and you could share it with me. no way. no way. >> reporter: still, she admitted to battling other demons. >> is it alcohol? is it marijuana? is it cocaine? is it pills? >> it has been, at times. >> all? >> at times. >> if you had to name the devil for you, the biggest devil among them. >> that would be me. >> reporter: houston also had a turbulent

. >> randi kaye, cnn, atlanta. >>> and we invite you to watch sunday night, a look back at whitney houston'sluding her rise, her fall, and of course investigation into her death. 8:00 p.m. eastern, only here on cnn. >>> and in case you haven't noticed, we've actually gone the whole show without mentioning it's valentine's day. but one presidential candidate, well -- >> all i can promise you is that i believe she will be quite happy tomorrow night. >> we're going to let newt gr g gingrich explain what he's doing for his wife. we want to warn you it gets awkward. >>> we'll come back and talk about your savings account, next. customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. >>> time now for the help desk where we get answers to your questio questions. david novak is a personal financial planner. thank you both for being here. your question comes from emily in minnesota. she says, i'm taking a trip to england next month. is it better to change my money n