Last night’s Grammy Awards was the second most watched Grammys ever, with over 39 million viewers tuning in to see the tribute to the late Whitney Houston. People Magazine says:

Whitney Houston’s death 24 hours before the event turned the CBS special into a night of mourning and celebration cresting on big, pure emotions.

LL Cool J, who handled the hosting duties without any perceptible wrinkling in his uncanny smoothness, opened with a simple prayer for Houston, “a woman who we loved … our fallen sister.” This set up a clip of the six-time Grammy winner belting her signature hit “I Will Always Love You.”

The song was reprised by Jennifer Hudson in one of the night’s high points. You wouldn’t have blamed Hudson if she fumbled it, but it was a strong, humble, honest interpretation – a sincere salute to Houston, and not an attempt to outshine her.

My heart is as black and as cold as they come, but seeing her in her prime in that tribute clip really gave me a case of the sads. Lipsynching “Greatest Love of All” into a hairbrush was practically a rite of passage for girls in the eighties. I can’t stand Barbra Streisand, but I really think she said it best: “How sad her gifts could not bring her the same happiness they brought us.” Rest in peace, Whitney.

A complete list of the night’s winners after the jump; Jennifer Hudson’s tribute to Whitney below:

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I wanna try to get all the Whitney stuff out of the way before we start talking about last night’s Grammy Awards, so you might want to sit down before you read any further. Turns out it was a mixture of pills and alcohol that killed her, not drowning. Shocking, I know. The Daily Mail says:

Whitney Houston died from mixing a cocktail of Xanax and other powerful prescription drugs with alcohol.

Her family has allegedly been told by Los Angeles County Coroner officials there was not enough water in her lungs to conclude she had drowned in her luxury hotel bathtub and in fact died before her head went under water.

And in more depressing Whitney-related news, daughter Bobbi Kristina has been hospitalized twice in the last 24 hours amidst rumors that she’s become suicidal. The Daily Mail says:

The teenager was first admitted after allegedly passing out after drinking alcohol and then taking a sedative pill given to her by one of her mother’s entourage to calm her down upon learning of [her mother's death].

She was then pictured being taken out of the Beverly Hilton — the same hotel where her mother had died just hours earlier — on a stretcher at 10:30 am yesterday and being rushed to Cedars-Sinai where she was treated for extreme anxiety.

She was released several hours later, but friends and family are still very concerned about her mental state.

It’s all just so tragic. I’m sure you’ve been bummed out all morning. But hopefully, these nude(ish) pics of Olivia Wilde for Lance Staedler will cheer you up just as much as they did me. They really did wonders for the ol’ morale, if you know what I mean.

In fact, I think I’m gonna go cheer myself up with them again right now. BRB:

By now you’ve no doubt heard, but 48-year-old pop legend Whitney Houston was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel room bathtub on Saturday, just hours before she was to take the stage at Clive Davis’s annual pre-Grammy party. TMZ says:

Her stylist, hairdresser and two bodyguards were among the people in the room… theybecame worried about Whitney because she had been in the bathroom for over an hour and it was time to start getting ready for the Clive Davis party.

They began to knock on the door and there was no answer. The hairdresser, who is female, went in to check on Whitney. She immediately screamed and, according to our sources, one of the bodyguards came running in and pulled her out of the tub.

We’re told Whitney’s face was below the water and her legs were up, like she had slid down the back of the tub.

Her body was very cold and the bodyguard attempted CPR. That’s when hotel security was called.

Paramedics arrived shortly thereafter, but Whitney was pronounced dead at 3:55 PM.

Initial coroner’s reports indicate that water was found in Whitney’s lungs, but whether she died from drowning or whether it was the “plethora of sedatives, including Lorazepam, Valium, Xanax, and sleeping medication” found in her room that actually did her in still remains to be seen, and toxicology results won’t be back for at least another month. So sad. Such a waste of talent and life. Not to mention I had Lindsay Lohan waaaay ahead of her in my celebrity death pool. That’s another five bucks I won’t be getting back.

You already knew that crack was wack — apparently, airplane seat belts are wack, too. Whitney Houston almost got kicked off a Delta Airlines flight for refusing to buckle hers yesterday. TMZ says:

Whitney boarded a flight in Atlanta Wednesday afternoon, and when she settled into her seat, a crew member asked her to buckle up.

Whitney refused and “got diva” on the crew member … until another crew member came over and warned Houston that if she didn’t buckle up, she would have to get off the plane.

Whitney eventually allowed one of the crew members to grab the buckle and fasten it for the singer — and the plane was then cleared for takeoff.

Sources close to the singer tell us … Whitney “overreacted a little bit after missing an earlier flight but she’s still 100% sober and was on the way to Detroit for her first day of shooting a new movie.”

Well, having to buckle Whitney Houston’s seat belt is still better than having to dig a doody bubble out of her butt. Flight attendant, 1; Bobby Brown, 0.

Whitney Houston has been banned from attending any future Prince concerts after repeatedly trying to make her way onstage at his shows while high on crack and Wild Turkey. TMZ says:

Whitney attended several Prince concerts in the last few weeks and appeared to be “intoxicated” at each show.

Whitney was constantly badgering Prince’s staff to let her up on the stage … but Team prince shot her down every time because P’s people “didn’t want her to embarrass herself.”

Our sources say Whitney’s erratic behavior, coupled with repeated and excessive ticket demands became too much for Prince — and his team ultimately banned Houston from his concerts.

Personally, I never burn a bridge until I’ve urinated or vomited on it first, but that’s just me. Whitney wasn’t even given the chance. She got trumped before she even played her card. And ten bucks said that card would have been one of her weaves covered in puke and crack residue and a hilarious video we could watch over and over again on YouTube. Way to ruin it for everybody, Prince!

Oh, look — even MORE pics of Julianne Hough in a bikini. What are the odds?:

PHOTO SOURCE: Fame Pictures

Her rep tried to pass it off as a “cleanse” at first, but it has since admitted that Whitney Houston has entered an out-patient treatment program for her ongoing problem with booze and crack. Us Magazine says:

Whitney Houston is currently in an out-patient rehab program for drug and alcohol treatment. Whitney voluntarily entered the program to support her long-standing recovery process.

Out-patient rehab isn’t really even rehab at all. It’s just someone following your around all day saying things like “The last thing you need is a drink, young lady!” and “That can’t be good for your sinus condition!” and “Don’t you dare put that nasty thing in your mouth!” It’s like hanging out with my damn mom all night.

A former boyfriend of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown’s 18-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina is alleging that she is addicted to cocaine — and he sold a couple of photos of her hoovering up blow at a party last month to prove it. The Daily Mail says:

In the pictures, a woman alleged to be Kristina is shown snorting lines of a white powdery substance, alleged to be cocaine.

According to the National Enquirer, she was snapped using the drug at two different parties.

The article that she regularly indulges in marijuana and ‘guzzles beer and gets smashed on grain alcohol.’

Bobbi Kristina was quick to respond last night after the photos were made public, tweeting:

A former very dear person to me did this. Set me up to make it look exactly what it looks like. God will smite them yes…

But it’s really not what it looks like… People will do anything for money which is extremely sad, and I’m very hurt by this.

Thing’s people do these days to hurt others is a shame. All I can do now, is keep my head up high, keep looking towards the lord.

All the lord is telling me is be still. That’s all, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. #BeStill.

I think she’s telling the truth. No way a person addicted to cocaine looks like this. She was probably just snorting powdered sugar in those pictures. It takes too long to wait for them to turn into into frosting, and Type II Diabetes bows to no man. Probably because it’s still recovering from another hip replacement.

Whitney Houston continued her Crash & Burn World Tour last night at London’s O2, disappointing nearly 20,000 fans by not even bothering to attempt the high notes in most of her signature songs. The Daily Mail says

Houston admitted to the crowd that she couldn’t hit the high notes and even abandoned The Greatest Love Of All after only a couple of verses, [saying]: ‘She don’t want to come, my soprano friend. Sometimes the old girl sings, but not tonight. I want to do it, but she doesn’t want to. … She’s getting a little … temperamental, even.’

She struggled further with another of her classic songs, cutting short I Will Always Love You, and paused and panted for breath between songs.

Fans were still unhappy, with some even demanding their money back.

Remember those old “this is your brain on drugs” commercials with the egg in the frying pan? Well, they could do one for “this is your voice on drugs,” only instead of a frying pan, they’d just show the footage of sweaty Whitney Houston in a Rick James wig screeching like a barn owl caught in a hairnet made of live wires. Any questions?

Whitney Houston is postponing her tour in the UK after being inexplicably hospitalized in Paris late last week. Her record company claimed she’d been stricken with a respiratory infection, while her publicist issued a statement denying she had any health problems at all. One thing’s for sure, though — Whitney’s definitely in the hospital, and she’s definitely not performing this month. According to Nine MSN

The troubled singer has landed herself in hospital in Paris and has had to postpone the first three dates of her sellout UK tour.

Whitney’s ‘illness’ comes after widespread reports the former drug addict has gone back to crack while traveling on her worldwide comeback tour.

She was reportedly seen snorting cocaine with her ex-husband Bobby Brown at an LA bar last month.

“I saw her pull a plastic bag out, put a folded bill to her nose and discreetly snort a line from it, of what to me certainly looked like cocaine,” an onlooker told In Touch. “She’s extremely thin and looks like a disaster.”

This is usually where I’d pose a rhetorical question as to where it all went so terribly wrong, but I’m not going to do that here. Experience has taught me that there are some questions in life for which nobody really wants an answer, like “What the fuck is your problem?” or “Where did you get this picture?” or “Why aren’t you wearing any pants?” or “Is that blood?” Sometimes you can say it best by saying nothing at all. Unless you’re in front of a judge, in which case saying nothing at all is considered contempt of court and punishable by up to five years in jail and a $2,000 fine. The more you know…

PHOTO SOURCE: Pacific Coast News

The National Enquirer was the first to report that former crack addict Whitney Houston had relapsed last week, but her performance in Brisbane, Australia over the weekend pretty much confirmed it. The Daily Mail says

The American star struggled through the opening night of her tour and was left breathless and exhausted after just two songs.

And even more bizarrely, the 46-year-old took a 20 minute break to catch her breath mid-way through the show, [leaving] the stage for twenty minutes [while] her brother Gary Houston [sang] in her absence.

“The singer appeared disoriented,” wrote the Australian Associated Press, “but the final act faltered at the finale when she croaked her way through I Will Always Love You, pausing to get a drink and towel herself down just as she was about to hit the song’s epic high note, which she turned into a soft coo.”

“Soft coo” is putting it nicely. After you watch the “performance” (and I use that term loosely) for yourself below, I think we can all agree “Gollum-esque death rattle” is a hell of a lot more accurate. You could hack an old crow to death with a garden hoe and get the same acoustic experience as being front row at that concert. The only difference is the crow wouldn’t require a half-hour smoke break or charge you a hundred and fifty bucks for the pleasure.

Crack might be “wack,” and crack might be “cheap,” but judging by her X Factor performance on Sunday night, Whitney Houston is back to basin’ again (FF to the 4:00 mark for the especially crack-y stuff). Star Magazine says

The admitted drug user’s bizarre appearance on Britain’s The X Factor raised eyebrows Sunday, as she nervously struggled through her song “Million Dollar Bill,” and seemed disoriented during the interview afterward.

When asked by the host when her album was to be released, Whitney paused and stared at the ground before stammering, “Yeah, the um…the album? It should released this weekend or next week sometime. I’ll be back here in April for the tour.”

When [the host] asked her what she thought of the talent, Whitney again looked at the floor for the answer. “I thought that they were…um…how do I put this? Really good.” Then she fiddled with her nose and added, “So that’s um…they’re young.”

Jesus Christ she’s freakin’ twitchy! All that’s missing is a herkie into a pile of folding chairs and a nervous smelling of the fingers she had shoved under her armpits during her Meredith Baxter-Birney monologue and she could be the old black version of Mary Katherine Gallagher.

Part two of Whitney Houston’s first televised interview in more than seven years airs on today’s Oprah, in which she reveals she regularly smoked marijuana and crack and was “addicted” to ex-husband Bobby Brown. The Daily Mail says

The 46-year-old singer described her drug use, saying it became ‘heavy’ after her 1992 movie ‘The Bodyguard.’ She said she would take marijuana combined with rock cocaine. “You put your marijuana, you lace it, you roll it up and you smoke it,” Houston explained to Winfrey.

“I didn’t do anything without [Bobby]. He was very much in control. I liked that. When he said something, I listened. I was very interested in having someone have that kind of control over me. It was refreshing.

He was my drug,” Houston added.

And everyone knows you don’t just quit a drug cold turkey. You have to be weaned off of it. Like methadone for heroin junkies, or in this case, Jenkem for Bobby Brown addicts. See, your rehab meds have to be spawned from the same chemical family as your actual drug of choice. I figure a big bottle of hot fermented butt hash is about as close as one gets to Bobby Brown’s actual molecular structure without killing inadvertently themselves.