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[From Fox 411] Whitney's Comeback Disses Oscars, Bacharach Whitney Houston's comeback video takes the Academy Awards and Burt Bacharach to task. For the storyline of "Try It On My Own," Whitney very cleverly recalls the mess she got into three years ago when Bacharach fired her from the Academy Awards during rehearsal. She was supposed to sing "Over the Rainbow," but was too verklempt to sing. Bacharach replaced her with Faith Hill. In the video, Houston -- looking exceptionally well, by the way -- seems to be auditioning for a group of people. She has cue cards with the words to "Rainbow" written on them, but sings her own song, and the group starts panicking and making phone calls. Houston starts the video in a black hat and trench coat but ends it in a spectacular gown against a lavish Hollywood set. It's just one more phase in Houston's attempt to come back from a disastrous album release last winter. Her problems were compounded by an equally bad, almost career-ending interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC. In it she bragged about drug abuse. Her husband, Bobby Brown, perspired heavily and admitted to his own drug abuse. It was a public relations nightmare. But this past Thursday, Whitney made another step in the right direction. She performed at a fund-raiser for the National Action Network, the group run by presidential hopeful Reverend Al Sharpton. Whitney sang two songs and looked terrific, even if she did break down in tears at one point. The fund-raiser, not coincidentally, gave awards to Arista Records head Antonio 'L.A.' Reid and his entertainment attorney, Joel Katz, of Atlanta. Whitney is tied to Arista through a $100 million recording contract. Last year, Arista handed her a first installment check of $20 million. Then her album, Just Whitney, sold 540,000 copies. Can Just Whitney bounce back too? Anything is possible. From the beginning, I said that "Try it On My Own" should be the big single off the album and nothing happened. Hearing it again, I'm still convinced that if Whitney could do a live version of this song on television, she would have her hit and revitalize the album and her career. She still has a voice superior to nearly everyone in her generation.
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