Houston has a problem

Whitney Houston is having trouble finishing her "comeback" album and cancelled a video shoot to go back into the recording studio.

The first single, Whatchulookinat, featuring some vocal help from Sean "P Diddy" Combs and released a week ago, has been panned by Billboard and Entertainment Weekly.

The tune, which blasts the media, was "leaked accidentally" to the press a month ago. According to Radio & Records magazine, it is in rotation on only a handful of radio stations.

Houston scuttled a video for the song last week when she "took issue" with the script and didn't show up for the shoot.

According to Foxnews.com, the director, crew, makeup artists and stylists all had to be sent home. "It cost tens of thousands of dollars," one insider said.

Executives at Arista are said to be jittery. In August last year, Houston signed a US$100 million ($214 million) deal with the label.

In recent times Houston has had problems with cancelled shows, reported drug busts, and rumoured abuse by husband Bobby Brown.

When she took the stage at Michael Jackson's comeback concerts last year, she looked so emaciated and ill that the CBS network scrambled to alter the footage. Some proclaimed that anorexia and drug addiction had left her on death's door.

- NZPA