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Here's Â￡1.7m 4 U Whitney: Phone boss pays troubled star for one-hour
charity performance
by JAMES TAPPER - Last updated at 00:29am on 2nd March 2008
Building up his hugely successful mobile-phone business, John Caudwell became
accustomed to taking risks - but few as big as this.
The billionaire philanthropist has hired Whitney Houston - who has fought a
high-profile battle with drug addiction - to perform a one-hour gig at a
London charity event...for a reputed Â￡1.7million.
Diva Whitney has endured a disastrous string of failed public appearances.
But she now appears to have conquered her demons and Mr Caudwell, founder of
the Phones4U empire, is gambling that her performance will ensure his charity
ball is a massive success.
Ms Houston's huge fee - which works out at Â￡28,333 a minute - is just the
start of her demands for appearing at the glittering May ball, which will
raise funds for the Caudwell Children charity.
The 44-year-old singer has also insisted on being provided with an odd
assortment of "extras" on the night, including M&M sweets, pulp-free orange
juice, camomile tea, and "cranapple" and "crangrape" juices, as well as
peanut butter and jam sandwiches.
Her list also includes two full-length mirrors with make-up lights, a dozen
hand towels, two fans, pumpernickel and sourdough bagels with cream cheese
and four one-litre bottles of American spring water, as well as two large
banquet tables, clothing racks, flowers and doughnuts for her entourage.
The American soul diva, who in the Eighties and Nineties sold 100million
records with hits including So Emotional and I Will Always Love You, is also
said to have demanded 35 rooms at the Â￡350-a-night Dorchester hotel and
another five-star hotel for her team.
In 2000, Miss Houston cancelled a performance at the Oscars following US
newspaper reports that she was "totally out of it" during a rehearsal with
Burt Bacharach.
And in 2002 she pulled out of singing at Liza Minnelli's wedding to David
Gest, less than 24 hours before the ceremony.
She has been a virtual recluse over the past two years as she battled drug
addiction and became embroiled in a messy divorce from fellow soul singer
Bobby Brown.
In 2006, her sister-in-law claimed she was a hopeless crack addict, and
pictures were published showing drug paraphernalia at her Â￡3million home.
After a long period of rehabilitation, she played a comeback concert last
December in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, but her charity performance
in May will be her first concert in Britain since 1999.
John Caudwell, worth Â￡1.6billion after selling Phones4U, will have to dig
deep into his own pockets to pay Miss Houston's fee.
He covers all Caudwell Children's operating costs so that more money is
raised for children with terminal illness and to support the NSPCC's Full
Stop campaign against violence towards children.
A source said: "John is hoping Whitney will be worth it. He thinks it's
important to raise the profile of the charity, and eye-catching stars such as
Whitney Houston are exactly the sort of people he's hoping to attract."
The ball is being held at an events centre in Battersea. Last year's bash
starred Tina Turner, who was paid an estimated Â￡3million.
The auction at the event raised Â￡1.2million, while ticket sales and
sponsorship brought in far more - the cheapest table cost Â￡10,000 for ten
people.
A spokesman for Caudwell Children said that claims of a Â￡1.7million fee
for Ms Houston were "ludicrous". But a source revealed that negotiations
started at Â￡1.5million.
Nor will this be the first bumper payout Miss Houston will have received for
a single private performance.
In 2005, she was paid Â￡560,000 to perform for just 300 guests at the
wedding of Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko and former Miss Yugoslavia
Aleksandra Kokotovic
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