Now that Whitney Houston has filed for divorce, R&B crooner Bobby Brown has to plan for a future without a rich wife.

I hear that the 37-year-old Brown -- who reportedly has been staying in L.A. with "Video Vixen" Karinne Steffans since separating from Houston -- would appear on the African-American-oriented cable channel TV One only in exchange for a car.

Producers of the TV One reality series "I Married a Baller" -- an inside look at the marriages of sports figures -- invited Brown last week to have an on-camera lunch with former Tennessee Titans player Eddie George and his wife, Brown's old friend Tamara (Taj) George of the R&B group SWV.

"When he asked for a car, we actually thought he meant for us to book him car service, and I told the producers to set it up," the show's executive producer, Datari Turner, told Daily News contributor Jawn Murray. "But then I was told that he actually wanted us to buy him a car!"

Brown's longtime friend and occasional rep, Ray Pouncey, told TV One that Brown was new to Los Angeles and didn't have wheels, so a car would be the ideal payment instead of an appearance fee. Brown apparently wanted Taj to formally present the vehicle to him on the show as a gift.