Alexis Houston, you have a problem. You haven’t paid fashion stylist Phillip Bloch the $25,000 he claims you owe him.
Whitney Houston’s supposed half-sister hired the busy Bloch a year ago to style her photo shoots for an upcoming album, her website and a promotional tour.
Alexis is managed by Robyn Crawford, who was Whitney’s close friend since they were teenagers in Newark, NJ.
“I was a huge Whitney fan, and I thought I was continuing Whitney’s legacy and paying homage to Whitney by working with her half-sister,” Bloch told me.
“I took her to countless social events such as the opening of the Fifth Avenue Dolce & Gabbana store. I introduced her to the creme de la creme in fashion society.”
But Bloch claims he has been unable to collect his fee for the shoot despite a string of e-mails and threatening letters that I have read.
Reached by phone, Houston told me, “This is the first I’ve heard of it.” Asked if there was any reason why the bill hadn’t been paid, Alexis said, “No. Phillip and I have a great relationship.”
“She’s such a liar. I don’t tolerate liars,” Bloch said.
Houston’s office manager Jacob Ascher told me Houston’s label, EMI was responsible for paying the bill.
“Ms. Houston is not a party to the hiring or payments of agents brought on the label’s behalf.” (Requests for comment from an EMI spokesperson were not returned.)
As annoyed as he is with Houston, Bloch doesn’t believe the two big rumors about Alexis — both of which she has denied: that she once had a fling with Matt Lauer and that she is a transsexual who used to be a man named Wellington Houston.
“She has a husband and baby that she lives with in New Jersey, but I’ve never had a client who wouldn’t change in front of me before,” Bloch said. “I don’t think she’s a man, but I never saw what was down there.”