Hollywood gathered on a somber note last night (Sat Feb 11) at Clive Davis’ 2012 Pre-Grammy Gala, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, the same hotel where R&B legend Whitney Houston was found dead earlier in the day.

When the sad news broke, there were reports that the annual Clive Davis event would be canceled, but Davis — Houston’s longtime friend and mentor — said that the R&B/Pop icon “would have wanted the music to go on.”

“She loved music and she loved this night that celebrates music,” said Davis, adding that Houston’s family requested that the party continue.

Some of the many celebrities in attendance at the Pre-Grammy Gala and Salute to Industry Icons Honoring Richard Branson and Diana Ross included Diddy, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, Quincy Jones, Kelly Rowland, Dr. Dre, Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz, Wiz Khalifa, Amber Rose, Jamie Foxx, Kim Kardashian, Gabrielle Union and more.

The star-studded event also featured performances from Alicia Keys, Ne-Yo, Pitbull, Marsha Ambrosius, Wiz Khalifa, Jessie J and others. Monica and Brandy were slated to perform their new single “It All Belongs to Me”, but we’re told they were unable to because they were too devastated about Whitney Houston’s passing.

Diana Ross, who was being honored at the event, told a red carpet reporter, “I won’t be able to enjoy it,” when she was asked how she felt about being the night’s guest of honor.

“By now you have all learned of the unspeakably tragic news of our beloved Whitney’s passing,” Clive Davis said at the start of the evening. “I don’t have to mask my emotion in front of a room full of so many dear friends. I am personally devastated by the loss of someone who has meant so much to me for so many years. Whitney was so full of life. She was so looking forward to tonight even though she wasn’t scheduled to perform.”

He continued, “Whitney was a beautiful person and a talent beyond compare. She graced this stage with her regal presence and gave so many memorable performances here over the years. Simply put, Whitney would have wanted the music to go on and her family asked that we carry on.”

Check out 40+ photos from the Clive Davis 2012 Pre-Grammy Gala below:

Actresses Gabrielle Union and Sanaa Lathan, along with R&B singer Ciara — 3 of the sexiest women in Hollywood, FYI — showed their pretty faces Wednesday night (Oct 12) in California as they supported actress/philanthropist Charlize Theron at her Africa Outreach Project photo exhibition.

Proceeds from the charity event will go straight to Theron’s Africa Outreach program, which is committed to reducing violence and HIV/AIDS among African youth.

Also spotted at the benefit, held at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City, CA were “Dexter” star Michael C. Hall and comedian/actress Sarah Silverman.

Check out the pics below:

Jennifer Hudson hosted a Weight Watchers Walk-It Challenge Tuesday afternoon (May 10) at the Namaste Charter School in her hometown of Chicago. The singer/actress also presented the Alliance for a Healthier Generation with a $100,000 check donated by Weight Weight Watchers.

Rapper Fabolous sat down with students from the Garden of Dreams Foundation for a “Fuse Rocks the Classroom” taping at Fuse Studios yesterday (Tue. May 10) in New York City.

“Gossip Girl” star Blake Lively attended the Chanel Collection Croisiere Show 2011-12 at the Hotel du Cap in Cap d’Antibes, France early Monday (May 9). Lively is among the many stars attending the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Shania Twain made an exclusive appearance for her book signing for “From This Moment On” Monday afternoon (May 9) at Indigo Manulife Centre in Toronto, Canada.

Actress Sanaa Lathan came out to the “By The Way, Meet Vera Stark” Off-Broadway Opening Night-After Party (May 9) at Trattoria Dopo Teatro in New York, NY.

Halle Berry was in attendance at the 18th Annual EIF Revlon Run/Walk For Women at eh Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Cali Saturday (May 7).

The entire Kardashian Klan, minus the little Jenner girls, were on hand for the City of Hope gala at Universal Studios in Hollywood Saturday evening (May 7). Pictured above from left to right is Bruce and Kris Jenner, and Kim, Khloe, Kourtney and Rob Kardashian.

Kelly Rowland was spotted Saturday (May 7) at Beso Steakhouse At Crystals CityCente in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Lauryn Hill performed during Day 6 of the 2011 New Orleans Jazz Festival in Louisiana Saturday afternoon (May 7).

And singer/songwriter Bruno Mars stopped by radio station Q102 in Pennsylvania Saturday afternoon (May 7) to talk about his “Hooligans in Wondaland” tour and perform a few singles from his successful debut album Doo Wops & Hooligans.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center presented legendary actor Sidney Poitier with the 38th Annual Chaplin Award last night (Sun. May 2) at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. Poitier made history back in the 1960′s when he became the first black person to win an Oscar for his role in “Lilies of the Field.”

Some of the many stars that came out to congratulate Mr. Poitier on receiving the prestigious Chaplin Award included Sanaa Lathan, Chris Tucker, Quincy Jones, James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman.

Check out 10+ pics from the red carpet below:

Rapper T.I. and his wife Tiny were boo’d up Friday night (Aug 13) at the Axe Lounge in Southampton, New York. The happy couple just got married last month in Miami.

NBA ballers Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade attended the Jordan Brand Breakfast Club Finale during the World Basketball Festival at Rucker Park in New York City.

Jermaine Dupri was in DJ mode at the WWE SummerSlam Kickoff Party at the Tropicana Bar at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood.

Singer Ke$ha, who is currently on tour with Rihanna, recorded an appearance/concert on NBC’s “Today Show” at the Rockefeller Center in NYC.

Actress/TV personality Tori Spelling hosted a book-signing for her new book “Unchartered Terri-TORI” at Borders bookstore in Town Square in Las Vegas, NV.

Actresses Sanaa Lathan and Jurnee Smollett attended the 9th Annual InStyle Summer Soiree Thursday (Aug 12) in Los Angeles.

Carmelo Anthony and rapper Jadakiss partied it up at Greenhouse in New York City at the after-party for Rihanna‘s concert earlier that night at Madison Square Garden. (Check out home boy in the back trying to sneak into the picture! LOL!!)

Denzel Washington and his wife Pauletta posed for pics on the red carpet of the 10th Annual Harold Pump Foundation Gala in Century City, CA.

And rappers/actors Bow Wow and Ice Cube kicked it at the after-party following the premiere of their new movie “The Lottery Ticket” in Hollywood.

Actress Holly Robinson Peete and her husband, former NFL football player Rodney Peete, hosted the HollyRod Foundation’s 11th Annual DesignCare Fundraiser at a private residence Saturday (Jul 25) in Beverly Hills, CA. Holly recently spoke out about the treatment of autism, calling it “expensive.” She and Rodney have a son with the disorder and have been trying to raise funds for his treatment through their HollyRod Foundation.

“We started the HollyRod Foundation years ago to help people with Parkinson’s disease – my dad had Parkinson’s and then about five years into the foundation, my son was diagnosed with autism… Much like Parkinson’s, autism is very expensive to treat so we started raising money for the quality of life for people suffering from both because of our personal experiences,” she revealed at the 11th annual DesignCare event in Hollywood.

“You can’t even know how expensive it is to treat a child with autism, especially families who don’t have insurance – it’s next to impossible. It destroys families.”
Holly added: “We raise money through these fundraisers and we beg people to use their gorgeous homes, we beg all of our friends to get dressed up and play with us.”

Other celebrities who showed up to support the cause were Ciara, Sanaa Lathan, Gabrielle Union and more. Continue reading for all of the pics!

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

Beyonce was among many performers who took the stage Friday night (Jul 3) in New Orleans during Day 1 of the 2009 Essence Music Festival. The Coca-Cola sponsored event also saw performances from Ne-Yo, John Legend, and others. Continue reading for lots of pics from day one of the event and keep checking back as we upload photos from the entire weekend!

PHOTOS: WIRE IMAGE / GETTY IMAGES

Michael Strahan and girlfriend Nicole Murphy attended Fox Broadcasting’s 2009 UpFront Programming Presentation Monday in New York City. Other celebrities who rolled through were Wanda Sykes, Jane Lynch, Reagan Gomez and more.

Michael Strahan, who is currently a Fox football analyst and former New York Giants player, will co-star along with Daryl Mitchell in a Sony-produced comedy about two brothers. Carl Weathers & CCH Pounder play their parents in the series titled “Brothers.” What an original name! The show will air Friday nights at 8/7c.

The Cleveland show (created by Seth MacFarlane as a spin-off series from Family Guy), which features the voices of Sanaa Lathan, Reagan Gomez and Kevin Michael Richardson will debut this Fall and will air Sunday nights at 8:30/7:30c.

Here are some photos from the after party, which was held directly after the UpFront presenation at Wollman Rink at Central Park in NYC.

PHOTOS: WIRE IMAGE

The paparazzi spotted award winning actress Sanaa Lathan in Midtown Manhattan Monday afternoon.

Actress Reagan Gomez (you may remember her from “The Parent Hood”) was also spotted in Midtown Manhattan Monday afternoon.

The NYC paparazzi snapped some pics of former NFL football star Michael Strahan in Midtown Manhattan Monday afternoon too.

Rihanna stepped out for an afternoon lunch outing Sunday and hit up Da Silvano restaurant to get her grub on. She was just returning to NYC following an island getaway to Hawaii where she has been reportedly working on her upcoming album.

Singer Teairra Mari was recently spotted getting out of the car outside of Koi Restaurant in West Hollywood.

Kim Kardashian and her little sister Khloe touched down in Miami via Miami International Airport Saturday and the paparazzi were there to capture them at the luggage terminal grabbing their bags.

Mariah Carey was seen Friday as she made her way through the crowd in Cannes, France.

The paparazzi spotted the King of Pop aka Michael Jackson as he left Tom’s Toys Friday afternoon in Beverly Hills.

PHOTOS: FILM MAGIC // GETTY IMAGES // INF DAILY // KODAK JONES

Sanaa Lathan, Kim Kardashian, Brittny Gastineau and Gabrielle Union posed for a pic together at the Carrera Vintage Sunglasses LA launch party at Chateau Marmont Thursday in Los Angeles. Four beautiful women in one pic … hot damn!

Comedians Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy spoke at the JDRF’s Annual “Finding A Cure: A Love Story” Gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel Thursday night in Beverly Hills, CA.

Ciara and Funkmaster Flex took a pic together at the grand opening of Next Level at Prime Wednesday in New York City.

Singer Estelle attended the launch party of the new Belvedere Black Raspberry Maceration Vodka at the Belvedered Pop-Up Shop Wednesday night in London, England. She and shoe designer Johnathan Kelsey hosted the exclusive event.

TV and music producer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmunds and songwriter Carole Bayer Sager stopped and took a photo together Wednesday afternoon at the presentation of “Wounded” curated by Carole Bayer Sager at LA Art House in West Hollywood, CA.

Singer/songwriter/producer Wyclef Jean attended the launch of Nicole Richie’s new jewelry line, House of Harlow 1960 Jewelry Collection, at Fontainebleu Miami Beach Wednesday in Florida.

Sandra “Peppa” Denton and Cheryl “Salt” James (formerly of hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa) lended their support to the 7th Annual Taste of NFL at Cipriani, Wall Street Tuesday night in NYC.

The paparazzi snapped up some photos of actress Rosario Dawson and an unidentified male friend Thursday night as the two left a Catherine Malandrino shop with gift bags in West Hollywood, CA.

Singer Mary J. Blige was also spotted Thursday night as she left the West Hollywood Catherine Malandrino shop with gift bags in her hands.

Terminator Salvation co-star Common was spotted Thursday afternoon as he left the doctor in Beverly Hills, CA.

The West Hollywood paparazzi caught a glimpse of actress Sanaa Lathan Thursday afternoon as she made her rounds in the city of flashing lights.

Rihanna and her favorite yellow umbrella were spotted Wednesday night as they let Da Silvano Restaurant in New York. RiRi kept it conservative this time around with a white pantsuit, a leopard print blouse and gold pumps.

Kim Kardashian was spotted checking her Crackberry as she left Beverly Hills Nail Design Wednesday afternoon. She just had to get that pedi after returning from NYC. Gotta keep those toes in check!

Actor/comedian Martin Lawrence was spotted Tuesday night as he left a dinner with Jamie Foxx at Mr. Chow’s in Los Angeles. The pair reportedly discussed a collaboration of some sort. Interesting…

You can barely see his face, but that there is rapper Eminem walking around in Paris, France wearing a swine H1N1 flu mask earlier this week. Either somebody is trying to keep a clean bill of health or he’s trying to be as incognito as possible, using the virus outbreak as an excuse to wear that mask.

Singer Teairra Mari, who just recently released a new music video, was spotted at LAX airport earlier this week dressed down rocking a pair of flat sandals. Be on the lookout for upcoming sophomore album At That Point, which will be relased this July under Warner Bros. / Fo’ Reel Ent.

PHOTOS: WENN // GETTY IMAGES // WIRE IMAGE // E-MAILED TO US

“It was surprising to us that [he] was so into it that he came to the table [read], and wonderfully surprising how cool he was, how funny he was and how unassuming he was,” says executive producer Mike Henry, who voices Cleveland Brown and other characters on the show. “He’s just a great presence.” West then spent three hours in the studio Friday laying down his voice as not-so-mega-star rapper Kenny West.

“We knew Kanye was a big Family Guy fan because he invited [creator] Seth [MacFarlane] to his house a year or two ago,” adds Henry. “And there was a mention on his blog when the spin-off was announced that he was excited about it. We knew he was a big fan and a lot of us are fans of his.”

New to the art of voicing animation, West came early to meet the cast and the writers. Soaking up the table-read process, West, 31, got pointers from series regular Sanaa Lathan, who plays Cleveland Brown’s wife Donna, and excelled at improvisation. According to executive producer Richard Appel, “Before we came to the table … there was only one line he didn’t love and he came up with another idea and in a completely modest, nice way said, ‘Would you mind if I changed just this one line?’ And our feeling was, how many raps have we written? One? And how many has he written? Be our guest!”

And would the producers ever have Grammy-winning West back on the show? “We just recorded him in the booth and he was fantastic,” says Appel. “Once he read it a couple times through, he just owned the character, which I guess isn’t hard since he was named Kenny West. He said he’d be glad to [be back.]. I said we could write him in to the next 21 episodes!”

Also in the episode, which will air in 2010, is Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson. The Cleveland Show is set to premiere on FOX in the fall of 2009.