Bobby Brown has often been very protective over his late wife Whitney Houston's legacy following her death in 2012, so it's perhaps unsurprising that Deadline reports that he's suing both Showtime and BBC over the 2017 documentary that he says features previously unseen footage that he never gave his approval of.
“The film contains footage that Brown and [his late daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown] has never consented to have released,” the suit, which was filed Tuesday (Nov. 27) in New York District Court, reads. “Brown and [his late daughter] appear in the film for a substantial period of time, in excess of thirty (30) minutes. … Brown never signed or executed a release for the airing of the material that appears in the film.”
Brown has filed the lawsuit against the two companies for their film Whitney: Can I Be Me, which he says includes unauthorized footage. “The film contains images of [Brown’s] other children, Landon Brown, Robert ‘Bobby’ Brown Jr. and LaPrincia Brown as minor children," the suit also mentions. "Brown never consented to have his children appear in the film Can I Be Me and his children never consented.”
The documentary premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival before airing on Showtime in the States and the BBC in the UK later that year. It was later sold to other markets, notably Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands without express permission from Brown. He's seeking more than $2 million in damages.
