THE KIDS AREN'T ALRIGHT

Stories published by the National Enquirer should always be taken with a pinch (if not a bucket) of salt, but if their latest story has a grain of truth in it then it's an extremely sad one indeed. The magazine is reporting the Whitney Houston's 15-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina attempted to stab the singer during an argument then turned the knife on herself and slashed her wrists.

As a result, the teenager is currently detained in a psychiatric ward in Atlanta. One detail that might mean that there is a grain of truth to the story is that the magazine actually name their source as a family member called Ann Davis, which is a change from them quoting an 'un-named source' or a 'concerned friend' who appears to speak in carefully-written soundbites.

Obviously the antics of Whitney and husband Bobby Brown have provided many (HM! included) with some amusement over the years, but it's hard to imagine what it must be like growing up in a household with such dysfunctional parents on a day to day basis. Probably not too healthy for the psyche.

So, if the story is true (and that's a massive 'if') then best wishes to Bobbi, though she can console herself with the thought that there are at last a couple of celebrity families in the UK that would provide even worse parenting role models than the pair of idiots she currently has to tolerate.