Whitney Houston's "Triumph?"; Chris Brown's No Show
BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "31ST GRAMMY AWARDS," COURTESY CBS) WHITNEY HOUSTON: Thank you so much. Thanks, Bono. I knew I should have worn my boots. Now, before I open the envelope, I want to acknowledge the man who last night was honored with the Recording Academy's Industry Icon Award -- a man I consider to be my industry father, a visionary executive, a great man of music. Please, Mr. Clive Davis.</s>SANCHEZ: All right. Welcome back. I want to cut to the chase on this one. I'm Rick Sanchez. HLN has a show called "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT." Brooke Anderson hosts it -- or co-hosts it. It's on at 11 00 p.m. There's the smiling face. I've got to bring you into this conversation, because here's what's going on. If you watch most of the news -- or many of the news reports on this today, including on our own network -- it's being described by many as a comeback by Whitney Houston. And yet when I go on the Internet, when I go on Twitter, when I go on Facebook, when I go on MySpace, all I read is people believed -- watching her last night, the American people believe she was a wreck, that she was a mess while she was talking.</s>BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Oh.</s>SANCHEZ: All right? In fact, here. I'll give you some examples. Let's go to DJMerritt on my Twitter board right here: "That was a comeback? To quote Whitney, hellz to tha no.'"</s>SANCHEZ: MakeWavesBonnie says: "She could have looked better, but I was glad just to see her up there."</s>ANDERSON: Yes.</s>SANCHEZ: "MSM=clueless. But let's not trash Whitney for that."</s>OK: "Whitney looked nice. Her words did seem to slur a little bit, but it was good to see her. She looked good. But as soon as she opened her mouth, you knew things haven't changed for her." All right, what -- what gives? What's the real buzz?</s>ANDERSON: Well, Rick, she did seem to ramble a bit. But I think we need to give her the benefit of the doubt. I think -- I think some of it was off-the-cuff, it wasn't scripted, it wasn't on the teleprompter for her and she lost her way a little bit. But I agree with the person who said just glad to see her up there. And the night before she had performed at music mogul Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party and the people who were there raved about what she did, Rick. They said that she may not be what she used to be, but she's close. She could be getting there. And people are optimistic for a big future for Whitney Houston.</s>SANCHEZ: All right. Well, you're giving her the benefit of the doubt. Folks on the Internet are being not so nice about it. There's something else I want to show you. This is also, by the way, a Grammys-related story. Last night, Chris Brown apparently was supposed to be there.</s>ANDERSON: Yes.</s>SANCHEZ: He didn't show up. Instead, had an incident with police. And here's -- there's Rihanna, right? Now, if you look at Rihanna, she didn't show up either. And some people are putting two and two together. Any evidence yet that she may have been related to his police incident?</s>ANDERSON: Yes. In fact, we do have that. Police -- OK, Chris Brown is under investigation on an allegation of domestic abuse. We were at the Grammys. We got word he wasn't going to show up -- a double nominee, a performer. And then we got word from the Recording Academy that his girlfriend, Rihanna, wasn't going to show up, either. The LAPD tells us, yes, there was an incident just hours after the party we were seeing video from -- Clive Davis' party. About 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning, Chris and a woman were in a car, had an argument, got out of the car. It escalated. Police received a 911 call. When they arrived, Chris Brown had taken off. And the woman showed visible injuries and identified Chris Brown as her attacker. Now, authorities are not naming Rihanna as the alleged victim. But sources close to the couple tell us that, indeed, Rihanna was the one who was allegedly abused here.</s>SANCHEZ: Wow!</s>ANDERSON: It's very, very sad, especially because Chris Brown is known as squeaky clean, a nice kid, 19 years old.</s>SANCHEZ: And great timing, by the way...</s>ANDERSON: Oh, terrible timing.</s>SANCHEZ: I mean with the Grammys. I mean, you knew it was going to be in the news. Thanks so much. Brooke Anderson. Tonight at 11:00 p.m. On HLN, "SHOW BIZ TONIGHT". Here's another story everybody is talking about -- and especially in New York -- but, heck, anybody who follows sports or particularly baseball. Another steroid scandal claiming a baseball player -- this time, the highest paid of them all. It's A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez. And we -- just five minutes before we went on the air, we were told that he's now admitted it, according to "Sports Illustrated" and ESPN. So we're going to talk to one of those writers when we come back. Stay with us. We'll be right back.