Kevin Costner’s speech at Whitney Houston’s funeral worth hearing

Whitney Houston’s funeral was Saturday at her childhood church in Newark, New Jersey, and if you didn’t see Kevin Costner’s speech, it’s worth hearing.

Costner co-starred with Houston in The Bodyguard, where she sang “I Will Always Love You.”

Costner told the story of how Houston — in order to get that movie part — had to do a screen test.

She was so afraid she didn’t look good enough, she went and got the heavy makeup she wore in music videos and slathered that on, and under the hot movie lights it melted.

“She seemed so small and sad at that moment and I asked her why she did it. She said, ‘I just wanted to look my best,'” said Costner.

He said he reassured her and she went back in to her screen test and the studio fell in love with her. But he said it still wasn’t enough.

“The Whitney I knew despite her success and worldwide fame still wondered – Am I good enough? Am I pretty enough? Will they like me? It was the burden that made her great, and the part that caused her to stumble in the end,” Costner said.

Finally Costner talked about our young people, our young Whitney Houston wannabe’s, and he mentioned her daughter Bobbi Kristina, and this hit me hard because my 5-year-old is a budding diva — she sings pop songs and movie tunes with all her heart and she tries to make her voice do a Whitney-like vibrato and she might want to be a star like so much of our American Idol generation.

And this is what the Bodyguard says about what we really need to guard.

“To you Bobbi Kristina and all those young girls that are dreaming that dream that may be thinking they aren’t good enough. I think Whitney would tell you – Guard your bodies, and guard the precious miracle of your own life, and then sing your hearts out knowing that there’s a lady in heaven who is making God himself wonder how he created something so perfect. So off you go Whitney, off you go, escorted by an army of angels to your heavenly father. And when you sing before him, don’t you worry – you’ll be good enough,” Costner said.

Costner received a standing ovation from Jesse Jackson and everyone else up behind the pulpit.

By BILL RADKE