casual observer

Tyler Perry was on Piers Morgan last night--the only part of the show I caught while channel-surfing was oddly enough the one part where he discussed Whitney--here is the excerpt:

PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT

Interview with Tyler Perry

Aired October 19, 2012 - 21:00 ET

...MORGAN: Unlike most celebrities I've interviewed in your position who have been this successful, there doesn't seem to be any terrible drug, alcohol-related period where you had to go in the Betty Ford Clinic for a year. None of that. How have you avoided the pitfalls that go with superstar fame, big money and all the rest of it?

PERRY: My faith. It has completely 100 percent been my faith in God and believing and praying all the time. Because this entire life, when I look at all these people and what they go through and how they go through it -- and Whitney was a friend of mine and Michael Jackson and the struggle. I feel I understand what brings you to a point of I need some relief.

I completely understand it, because the pressure of the situation can be really difficult and demanding. And it affects -- it doesn't affect you as much as it affects everybody around you, which in turn will affect you.

MORGAN: It can get overwhelming for people.

PERRY: Absolutely. And I understand why people turn to some sort of relief. And I'm telling you, if I didn't have my faith in God, I don't know where I would be.

MORGAN: We touched earlier on Whitney Houston, who was a friend of yours. You have been quite candid about trying to help her. You rang her or felt compelled to ring her on the night that Michael Jackson died.

PERRY: Yeah.

MORGAN: Because they were similar age, similar kind of problems. You realized she may be going through turmoil over that news. Tell me about that.

PERRY: It was -- I haven't talked about it publicly, actually. I'm surprised that you know that. How do you know that?

MORGAN: I know everything, Tyler.

PERRY: I called her that night. I had been trying to get her all day. I called her that night. And she had Donny Hathaway's "A Song For You" blasting in the background. I'm surprised she could hear me. We talked for awhile. She was really broken up by his death. And I didn't know if she was thinking about herself, but I was trying very desperately to get her to let me come over to the house and just sit with her to make sure she was OK.

And Whitney, in true fashion, after me trying for about five, 10 different times -- she said listen, I'm a mother and I'm a woman and I'm single and you're not coming over to my house in the middle of the night, in the way only she could. But it's beyond tragic.

And I was so disgusted -- I must tell you, I was so disgusted at the media and the way that they handled her death. It was -- it was so blatantly disrespectful. The paparazzi, this is what I mean about fame, even in death, trying to get her -- just her body from the morgue to the plane.

MORGAN: You supplied the plane, didn't you?

PERRY: I did. I did. There was -- this was -- it was beyond awful. I tell you, there was -- we tried to send a hearse as a decoy. They found out we had the body in a van. And there were paparazzi 50 deep following the van. I had to move the plane into the hangar, close the door, bring the van in. One person -- one of the hired drivers is trying to take pictures of them putting her body on the plane.

It was just beyond disrespectful for her family and everyone else. And I understand she was a superstar but she didn't deserve to be treated that way in the media toward the end. You know?

They asked me to come down to the Beverly Hilton and walking into that hotel room and seeing -- it was so bizarre. I'm thinking these people cannot know that she has died. There's a party going on. This can't be true. It can't be real. It's so surreal.

I go upstairs to the floor and her family's there. They're all in tears. And I'm in the room with them and the coroners and the police are three doors down from where we are. And I'm looking at the water on the table as the family's breaking down. It's vibrating from the bass below.

I just think what is this? What is this, that this woman's life is not worth a moment of silence? ...

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIP...19/pmt.01.html