Rehab...

[E! Online Report]

Whitney Back in Rehab

by Marcus Errico
Mar 23, 2005, 5:20 PM PT

Whitney Houston has a problem.

The "I Get So Emotional" diva's comeback from years of personal drama and a stalled musical career was seemingly derailed Wednesday, when her publicist confirmed that Houston has again checked into a treatment center.

"Whitney Houston has reentered a rehabilitation facility today," rep Nancy Seltzer said in a brief statement. No further details were given. Houston completed her first stint in rehab a year ago.

Seltzer's confirmation came hours after Access Hollywood broke the news that Houston was back in treatment.

Houston made headlines last month, when she was briefly hospitalized in Paris after becoming violently ill on a transatlantic flight for what Seltzer chalked up to a bad case of food poisoning. There's no indication that incident was related to Wednesday's disclosure.

For years Houston was dogged by drug rumors, which she adamantly denied. Then, in 2000, she was busted at Hawaii's Kona International Airport for trying to sneak a baggie of pot by airport screeners. A petty misdemeanor drug charge was subsequently dropped based on a drug counselor's evaluation that the Grammy winner did not need treatment for substance abuse.

In 2002, she admitted to Diane Sawyer that she had indeed experimented with an array of drugs--cocaine, marijuana, alcohol and pills--but proclaimed that the "party's over."

Houston first entered rehab in March 2004 to deal with a substance-abuse problem, but checked herself out after just five days. At the time, Seltzer insisted that all was well, and that Houston simply preferred to continue the program on an outpatient basis. She spent the next 30 days accompanied by a chaperone.

It was the latest black cloud over Houston's once golden career. Just months earlier, in December 2003, her perpetually troubled husband Bobby Brown, who has battled his own sobriety issues, was busted for allegedly roughing up Houston during a domestic dispute. Houston later said the whole thing was a misunderstanding, but Brown is still facing trial for the incident.

Until Wednesday, she seemed on track for a return to her hit-making form. After her initial trip to rehab, she regrouped to team with Natalie Cole and Dionne Warwick for a tour of Europe last summer and also played her first shows in China.

She also agreed to appear alongside Brown in his upcoming reality TV show, Being Bobby Brown, scheduled to debut on Bravo this summer, and had been working on her first album since 2002's underwhelming Just Whitney. The album, produced by longtime mentor and J Records boss Clive Davis, had been slated to drop by year's end.

NEWSFILE: 23 MARCH 2005