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"&lt;strong&gt;&lt;img alt=\"0217_wmel_whitney_ex\" src=\"http://ll-media.tmz.com/2012/02/17/0217-wmel-whitney-ex-2.jpg\" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mel Gibson&lt;/strong&gt; was invited to&lt;strong&gt; Whitney Houston&lt;/strong&gt;'s funeral ... and the family extended the invite because Mel tried to help the singer during a very dark period in her life ... TMZ has learned.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sources tell us ... several years ago, when Whitney was about as bad off with drugs and alcohol as she ever was, Mel quietly intervened and spent a lot of time with her, trying to help her break the addiction cycle.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We're told Whitney's family is \"extremely appreciative\" and wanted Mel at tomorrow's funeral, but because of family plans he can't attend.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!-- relatedlinks --&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/17/mel-gibson-invited-whitney-houstons-funeral/3/>