E! Online Report...

Bobby and Whitney Go Courtin'
Mon Nov 25, 9:15 PM ET

By Joal Ryan

Some celeb couples show off their couple status on the red carpet. Then there's Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. They seem to prefer the courtroom.

The R&B duo was back at it Monday, putting in face time in a Decatur, Georgia, hall of justice. Per usual, the appearance was the result of Mr. Brown's deeds. Or, as authorities allege, misdeeds.

Brown is in hot water--again--for a November 7 arrest in Atlanta in which police pulled over the onetime teen heartthrob for alleged speeding and subsequently also booked him on suspicion of not having a driver's license, not having proof of insurance and having a baggie of pot.

The traffic and drug charges may be the least of Brown's troubles--police say Brown had less than an ounce of marijuana on him.

The bigger deal is the court hearing that Brown skipped the last time he was arrested in Georgia for speeding. Brown's 1996 bust in DeKalb County also saw the singer accused of driving under the influence, not signaling a lane change and (stop, us if you've heard this one before) not having proof of insurance.

It's the old case that prompted Brown's appearance today in Decatur.

The lawyer for the former New Edition boy bander asked the judge to dismiss the charges stemming from the 1996 arrest, saying that since it happened so long ago no one would remember what happened.

State Court Judge Wayne Purdom wasn't buying. He ordered Brown to face the music, setting a January 21 trial date.

In court, Brown, 33, didn't look the bad boy more famous now for his numerous arrests than for his long-ago reign as the King of New Jack Swing. He wore a grown-up, staid dark suit and played the responsible adult who held hands and conferred quietly with the wife.

The wife, aka Whitney, accessorized with a lavender scarf, looking stylish, if a little gaunt and fried in the hair department.

The couple didn't talk to the press, but Brown's attorney Xavier Dicks told Reuters that his celeb defendant "feels he's getting a fair shake."

Brown did try to settle the 1996 case once before. Back in 1997, he asked if he could plea without, you know, actually showing up in court. But then as now, the judge (the same one he went before Monday) wasn't buying. When Brown didn't put in a live appearance in his courtroom, an arrest warrant was issued.

Brown most recently served 26 days in a Florida jail relating to a 1996 drunken-driving case in that state.

Barring any further run-ins with the law, Brown and Houston will next be seen sitting across from Diane Sawyer, in a prime-time chat to air on ABC's 20/20 early next month. The interview was taped in Atlanta the day after Brown's most recent arrest but was arranged long before, ostensibly to hype Houston's new album, Just Whitney.

According to the New York Post, Sawyer originally was only interested in talking to Houston, herself the subject of drug rumors since a January 2000 marijuana bust in Hawaii, but then her hubby made himself newsworthy again.

At least Bobby Brown can be counted on for something.

NEWSFILE: 25 NOVEMBER 2002

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