NEW YORK – Aretha Franklin believed Whitney Houston had overcome her demons and was primed for a comeback, which made learning of the troubled singer’s death all the more shocking.

Franklin said she was watching TV in her hotel room in Charlotte, N.C., when she learned of Houston’s death in a hotel suite across the country in Beverly Hills, Calif.

“I was sitting on the side of the bed,” she said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show Friday. “I just jumped up off the side of the bed: ‘What?! This could not be!’ “

Franklin said she had seen recent video of Houston, “and she looked fresh, she looked healthy and she looked gorgeous. And I thought, ‘Yes, she has conquered her challenges and she’s on the way.’ “

Now her fans should remember Houston for her artistry, Franklin said, and not focus on the challenges she faced with substance abuse.

Recalling how Houston’s smile made her eyes twinkle, Franklin then recited a poem she wrote in Houston’s memory:

“Twinkle, twinkle superstar,

“We don’t wonder where you are.

“Up above the world so bright,

“Like a diamond in the night.

“Twinkle, twinkle, she stood alone.

“I can’t believe that she’s gone.”

The Queen of Soul had long been a friend and mentor to Houston, who died last Saturday at the age of 48. She will sing at Houston’s funeral today in Newark, N.J.

Singer Robin Thicke facing minor drug charge

NEW YORK – Police say R&B singer-songwriter Robin Thicke has been arrested on a minor drug charge in New York City.

The 34-year-old is the son of Alan Thicke, who played patriarch Jason Seaver on the long-running ABC sitcom “Growing Pains.” He was arrested Friday in Manhattan near Madison Square Park. Police say he was pulled over and they saw a joint inside his black SUV. He was given a desk appearance ticket and released.

His publicist had no comment.

Thicke has written and produced songs for Michael Jackson, Christina Aguilera and others. His 2009 hit “Sex Therapy” was at the top of the R&B charts. His fifth album, “Love After War,” was released in December.

Buchanan says ‘clamor from left’ led to firing

LOS ANGELES – Pat Buchanan has been dismissed by MSNBC, the left-leaning news network, four months after the channel suspended him.

In an angry post on his blog, conservative commentator Buchanan took his critics to task, writing, “After 10 enjoyable years, I am departing, after an incessant clamor from the left that to permit me continued access to the microphones of MSNBC would be an outrage against decency, and dangerous.”

Buchanan says the calls for his firing began with the publication in October of his book “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?”, which critics have called racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic.

Upon his suspension, Buchanan quotes MSNBC President Phil Griffin as telling the press regarding his book, “I don’t think the ideas that (Buchanan) put forth are appropriate for the national dialogue, much less on MSNBC.”

Buchanan, a former White House aide to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and a former Republican presidential candidate.

On his website, Buchanan called his ouster “an undeniable victory for the blacklisters.”

Among the groups he cites as his accusers: Color of Change, Media Matters, the Anti-Defamation League and the Human Rights Campaign.