{"id":117820,"date":"2024-06-04T18:00:31","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T18:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/"},"modified":"2024-06-04T18:00:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T18:00:31","slug":"kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Costner says he refused to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston&#8217;s funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2024-06-04\/Getty_KevinCostnerandWhitneyHouston_060424.jpg\" alt><figcaption>Costner and Houston at &#8216;The Bodyguard&#8217; premiere; Kypros\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Kevin Costner<\/strong> was one of only eight speakers at <strong>Whitney Houston<\/strong>&#8216;s 2012 funeral, and he recently revealed that he refused to cut his eulogy short, despite being asked to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing on <strong>Dax Shepard<\/strong>&#8216;s podcast <a href=\"https:\/\/armchairexpertpod.com\/pods\/kevin-costner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><strong>Armchair Expert<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, Costner says he was the one who decided that Whitney should star in <em>The Bodyguard<\/em>, and he promised both\u00a0Whitney and her manager that she&#8217;d be great in the film. Costner says when it didn&#8217;t test well with focus groups, he insisted on re-editing the film \u2014 and the test scores improved dramatically.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was always gonna keep my promise to her,&#8221; he says, describing himself as Whitney&#8217;s &#8220;imaginary bodyguard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But despite the fact that he and Whitney were extremely close, he says he didn&#8217;t want to speak at her funeral until <strong>Dionne Warwick<\/strong> called him and asked him to do it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had been working on this speech \u2026 and I tried to compile everything I wanted to do and finally crafted this speech,&#8221; he tells Shepard.<\/p>\n<p>In the church ahead of the service,\u00a0someone told him that CNN was there.\u00a0As Costner recalls, he was told, &#8220;They wouldn&#8217;t mind if your remarks were kept shorter, &#8217;cause they&#8217;re gonna have commercials.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And I said, &#8216;They can get over that. They can play the commercial while I&#8217;m talking, I don&#8217;t care.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But Costner said he nearly chickened out. &#8220;I saw <strong>Oprah<\/strong> and <strong>Diane Sawyer<\/strong>, and I was like, &#8216;Will you do my speech for me?&#8217; I didn&#8217;t feel like I was the right guy to go up there, but I did.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I started and about 17 minutes later, I was done,&#8221; he concludes. &#8220;And I said everything that I felt I needed to say.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Costner and Houston at &#8216;The Bodyguard&#8217; premiere; Kypros\/Getty Images Kevin Costner was one of only eight speakers at Whitney Houston&#8216;s 2012 funeral, and he recently revealed that he refused to cut his eulogy short, despite being asked to do so. Appearing on Dax Shepard&#8216;s podcast Armchair Expert, Costner says he<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/\">Read More &rarr;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[425,426,427,428,429],"tags":[701,702,227,527,700,490,528,276,703,648],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kevin Costner says he refused to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston&#039;s funeral - Magic 104.9<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kevin Costner says he refused to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston&#039;s funeral - Magic 104.9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Costner and Houston at &#8216;The Bodyguard&#8217; premiere; Kypros\/Getty Images Kevin Costner was one of only eight speakers at Whitney Houston&#8216;s 2012 funeral, and he recently revealed that he refused to cut his eulogy short, despite being asked to do so. Appearing on Dax Shepard&#8216;s podcast Armchair Expert, Costner says heRead More &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Magic 104.9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/myMagic105\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-04T18:00:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2024-06-04\/Getty_KevinCostnerandWhitneyHouston_060424.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"danielpeterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mymagic1049\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mymagic1049\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"danielpeterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"danielpeterson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/e6bd84603399f6827de2a1538fdf3c52\"},\"headline\":\"Kevin Costner says he refused to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston&#8217;s funeral\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-04T18:00:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-04T18:00:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/\"},\"wordCount\":309,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"104.9FM\",\"AC\",\"Las Cruces\",\"las cruces radio\",\"MAGIC\",\"magic 104.9\",\"magic 105\",\"New Mexico\",\"NEW MEXICO RADIO\",\"top 40\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Adult Contemporary\",\"CHR\",\"Hot AC\",\"Urban\",\"Urban AC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/\",\"name\":\"Kevin Costner says he refused to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston's funeral - Magic 104.9\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-04T18:00:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-04T18:00:31+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kevin Costner says he refused to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston&#8217;s funeral\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/\",\"name\":\"Magic 104.9\",\"description\":\"Playing Today&#039;s Biggest Hits\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Magic 104.9\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/03\/magic-logo-3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/03\/magic-logo-3.png\",\"width\":296,\"height\":100,\"caption\":\"Magic 104.9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/myMagic105\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mymagic1049\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magic104.9\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCcv85Bxj9WRRnL0O3xii6IQ\/videos\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/e6bd84603399f6827de2a1538fdf3c52\",\"name\":\"danielpeterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b98a32bcd773b5cb483a801bf0582bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b98a32bcd773b5cb483a801bf0582bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"danielpeterson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/author\/danielpeterson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kevin Costner says he refused to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston's funeral - Magic 104.9","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kevin Costner says he refused to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston's funeral - Magic 104.9","og_description":"Costner and Houston at &#8216;The Bodyguard&#8217; premiere; Kypros\/Getty Images Kevin Costner was one of only eight speakers at Whitney Houston&#8216;s 2012 funeral, and he recently revealed that he refused to cut his eulogy short, despite being asked to do so. Appearing on Dax Shepard&#8216;s podcast Armchair Expert, Costner says heRead More &rarr;","og_url":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/","og_site_name":"Magic 104.9","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/myMagic105","article_published_time":"2024-06-04T18:00:31+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2024-06-04\/Getty_KevinCostnerandWhitneyHouston_060424.jpg"}],"author":"danielpeterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@mymagic1049","twitter_site":"@mymagic1049","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"danielpeterson","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/"},"author":{"name":"danielpeterson","@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/e6bd84603399f6827de2a1538fdf3c52"},"headline":"Kevin Costner says he refused to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston&#8217;s funeral","datePublished":"2024-06-04T18:00:31+00:00","dateModified":"2024-06-04T18:00:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/"},"wordCount":309,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#organization"},"keywords":["104.9FM","AC","Las Cruces","las cruces radio","MAGIC","magic 104.9","magic 105","New Mexico","NEW MEXICO RADIO","top 40"],"articleSection":["Adult Contemporary","CHR","Hot AC","Urban","Urban AC"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/","url":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/","name":"Kevin Costner says he refused to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston's funeral - Magic 104.9","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-06-04T18:00:31+00:00","dateModified":"2024-06-04T18:00:31+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/06\/04\/kevin-costner-says-he-refused-to-shorten-his-eulogy-for-whitney-houstons-funeral\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kevin Costner says he refused to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston&#8217;s funeral"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/","name":"Magic 104.9","description":"Playing Today&#039;s Biggest Hits","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#organization","name":"Magic 104.9","url":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/03\/magic-logo-3.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/03\/magic-logo-3.png","width":296,"height":100,"caption":"Magic 104.9"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/myMagic105","https:\/\/twitter.com\/mymagic1049","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magic104.9\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCcv85Bxj9WRRnL0O3xii6IQ\/videos"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/e6bd84603399f6827de2a1538fdf3c52","name":"danielpeterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b98a32bcd773b5cb483a801bf0582bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b98a32bcd773b5cb483a801bf0582bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"danielpeterson"},"url":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/author\/danielpeterson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}