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Whitney Houston Hits Auction Block

Whitney Houston is cleaning house in an effort to get control of her life -- first by giving the boot to rascally husband Bobby Brown, and now by giving fans a chance to help her pay unpaid debts by purchasing hundreds of pieces of equipment and designer threads on the auction block.

Next Tuesday (January 9th), the company Speed of Sound will auction off a wide assortment of goods from Houston's 1999 world tour, in an effort to recoup the approximately $200,000 in storage fees they are owed by Houston's company, Nippy Inc. Among the eclectic items on the block: a grand piano, a forklift, a leather whip, a velvet bustier, 13 Dolce & Gabbana bras, and a vintage barber chair. As Whitney herself once sang, albeit in happier times, "Don't bother to compare / I got it." Some of Brown's music awards will also be put up to bid. Truly a delight for window shoppers -- except for the $100 that curious parties will need to fork out merely to step inside the Irvington, New Jersey warehouse where the auction is to be held.

"We're probably going to combine a lot of the individual items, like the costumes," said Steve Newmark of A.J. Wilner Auctions, who will be overseeing. "It's not for the teenage fan hoping to buy one of her trinkets."

Once Speed of Sound is paid off, any excess money will go to Houston -- a sum which could be considerable, considering her grand piano alone was once worth over $300,000.

Houston is currently out of rehab and back in Los Angeles, where she has reunited with Arista Records mogul Clive Davis. A comeback album is expected later this year.

--The ARTISTdirect Staff
01.04.07