Houston, you have a problem.

Diva-in-distress Whitney Houston is being sued to the tune of $100 million - by her dad's company. The breach-of-contract suit, filed two weeks ago in New Jersey Superior Court, was instigated by Kevin Skinner, president of John Houston Entertainment. His claim: He tidied up Houston's legal mess after her January 2000 marijuana bust in Hawaii, and brokered her 2001 mega-deal with Arista Records when she was on the brink of financial ruin.

And, he complains, he didn't get as much as a C-note for his troubles. "Whitney, we love you. We want you to get yourself together. And we want to get paid," Skinner told The News' Austin Fenner.

The suit is potentially embarrassing to Whitney because it was filed by her father's Newark-based company. But it's unclear what role 81-year-old John Houston - the firm's CEO - is playing.

Skinner's lawyer, Philip Levitan, said John Houston "supports the lawsuit."

But Whitney's flack, Nancy Seltzer, disputes the idea and offered a statement from her dad: "This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. I couldn't do something like that - and I didn't."

We couldn't get a straight answer from John Houston himself, because wife Barbara said he couldn't come to the phone. "Physically, he's not feeling hot," she said.

NEWSFILE: 6 OCTOBER 2002