{"id":388715,"date":"2026-07-28T05:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T05:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/388715\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T05:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T05:41:17","slug":"the-princess-diaries-turns-25-it-wouldnt-exist-without-whitney-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/388715\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Princess Diaries’ turns 25. It wouldn’t exist without Whitney Houston."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Princess Diaries<\/a> is celebrating a major milestone. The Millennial Disney<\/a> classic turns 25 on July 29. It was released<\/a> in 2001.<\/p>\n

Fans of the movie may be surprised to learn that the late Whitney Houston<\/a> was an executive producer of the iconic film. Without Houston, it might not exist.<\/p>\n

Houston co-produced the original movie and its sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, through her production company, Brownhouse Productions. According to Variety<\/a>, Disney \u201cpaid mid- to low-six figures to option novelist Meg Cabot\u2019s book \u2018The Princess Diaries\u2019\u201d for Houston and her fellow producers, who helped turn it into a hit.<\/p>\n

Anne Hathaway meets Houston<\/p>\n

In a clip shared by Entertainment Tonight<\/a>, Hathaway and Houston chatted on set during the filming of the movie\u2019s hit song, \u201cSupergirl!<\/a>\u201d by Krystal Harris.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so much fun making it. It was incredible,\u201d Hathaway told Houston, who responded, \u201cYou know what? Every little girl is going to love trying to be a princess. It\u2019s like Cinderella. When I did Cinderella, all the little girls wanted to be Cinderella. A lot of them wanted to be Fairy Godmother. And now they want to be you!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hathaway added that she saw Houston in Cinderella (which starred Brandy in the title role and Houston as her Fairy Godmother), and Houston replied that she \u201chad a lot of fun doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a 2022 interview with Interview<\/a> magazine, Hathaway reflected on Houston and what she meant to her:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say on a technical level, the musical artist who has changed my life the most would be Whitney Houston because she produced\u00a0The Princess Diaries, the film that we were in together. And if there ever has been a voice in modern history that was probably touched by god, it\u2019s hers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston speaks about The Princess Diaries<\/p>\n

According to The Princess Diaries star Julie Andrews, Houston visited the set a few times to say hello, and she \u201ckept her eyes on things,\u201d adding, \u201cShe\u2019s a lovely lady,\u201d per ET.<\/p>\n

Houston was also interviewed by ET, where she shared more about her vision for the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make good films, quality films, for young people,\u201d she said, emphasizing that she wanted to keep things appropriate. \u201cI want to make films you can watch in its entirety. That\u2019s the kind of movies I grew up with. I could watch the whole film, and be inspired by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston described the first time she saw actress Stephanie Mills in The Wiz, explaining, \u201cThat was like, \u2018Oh my God! I can do this!\u2019 Things that inspire us to be great people for ourselves. Not famous, just greatness inside. So your parents can say, \u2018I\u2019m proud of you. You planted that tree and it grew. I\u2019m proud of you. It\u2019s a damn good tree. It\u2019s going to stand forever.\u2019 That\u2019s the kind of stuff I like to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also spoke highly of Andrews, saying her voice \u201cis like heaven. Never mind her singing voice. Her speaking voice is like heaven. There\u2019s a quality to it that is very soothing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Princess Diaries is celebrating a major milestone. The Millennial Disney classic turns 25 on July 29. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[133895,56,58,57,1175,137008,6574],"class_list":["post-388715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-anne-hathaway","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-pop-culture","tag-the-princess-diaries","tag-whitney-houston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}