Whitney Houston | featured news

The world's attention wavered between the tragic and the silly in 2012, and along the way, Web surfers searched in huge numbers to find out about a royal princess, the latest iPad, and a record-breaking skydiver.

Unless you count the box sets and rarities packages sure to come, the “Sparkle” soundtrack contains what will be the last music ever released by Whitney Houston.

In addition to a tribute to Whitney Houston, the BET Awards show features Chris Brown, D'Angelo, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj and host Samuel L. Jackson. During Sunday's live telecast of the 2012 BET Awards, anticipation reigned, with questions filling Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium.

Whitney Houston was found by an assistant "lying face down in the bathtub filled with water" in a hotel room the day she died, according to the full autopsy report. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled that Houston's February 11 death was an accidental drowning with the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use" as contributing factors.

Viewers got a first glimpse of Whitney Houston's upcoming film Monday when NBC's "Today" show premiered a trailer for the much-awaited release, and a fuller clip debuted on Yahoo! Movies. A remake of the 1976 original, "Sparkle" stars Houston as the mother of three girls who form a singing group and struggle with fame and drug addiction. The trailer displayed the daughters, including "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks, in performance. Houston is prominent throughout, at one point singing the classic gospel song "His Eye Is on the Sparrow."

Whitney Houston died as the result of drowning in what the Los Angeles County coroner has ruled as an accidental death. The coroner said heart disease and cocaine use were also factors in her death on Feb. 11.

Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of the late Whitney Houston, spoke publicly for the first time about her mother’s death during Sunday’s episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter,” that program on Oprah’s OWN network that you probably never watched until last night’s Whitney Houston episode.

Whitney Houston is being laid to rest at a private ceremony in New Jersey.

Many of the biggest names in entertainment gathered Saturday to say celebrate and bid farewell to singer Whitney Houston in the church in Newark, N.J., where the late singer, who died on Feb. 11, started her singing career.

Stevie Wonder, R. Kelly, Alicia Keys and gospel greats Kim Burrell and BeBe Winans will perform.