Kevin Costner has revealed CNN tried to get him to cut down his eulogy at Whitney Houston's funeral. The 69-year-old actor was one of eight people who spoke at his late 'Bodyguard' co-star's funeral after she was died aged 48 in February 2012, and he wasn't going to budge when the broadcaster tried to get involved and shorten his speech. Speaking to Dax Shepard on the 'Armchair Expert' podcast, he said: "I had been working on this speech.
.. and I tried to compile everything I wanted to do and finally crafted this speech.
"Somebody said, 'CNN’s here, they wouldn't mind if your remarks were kept shorter because they’re going to have commercials.' Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion. "I said, 'They can get over that.
They can play the commercial while I’m talking, I don’t care.' " It's unclear if the network - or any others - did cut any of his speech due to commercials, or if it was broadcast in full. However, the 'Yellowstone' actor still remembers feeling uncomfortable in case he overran and upset other speakers or attendees.
He explained: "There were some people that really wanted to speak, and they’re kind of staring daggers at me. What was I going to say? I started, and about 17 minutes later I was done." Other speakers at the funeral included Houston's friend and mentor Clive Davis, music director Rickey Minor, security guard Ray Watson, and her cousin Dionne Warwick.
She actually encouraged him to give the eulogy.
