Please check out Slate.com’s reporting on the death of Whitney Houston. This content has not been produced by the Ebony Tower Blog. Please check out the original link here. http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2012/02/11/whitney_houston_dead_at_48_pop_legend_found_dead_in_a_beverly_hills_hotel_room_saturday_.html

Whitney Houston died Saturday, at the age of 48

Photo by Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images.

The investigation into the death of legendary singer Whitney Houston continues after officials said there was no sign of foul play “and no obvious signs of a cause of death.” TMZhears word that there were no illegal drugs in the Beverly Hills hotel room where she was declared dead Saturday afternoon but cops “found various pill bottles.” By the time EMTs arrived her body had already been removed from the bathtub so it’s not clear whether she drowned.

An anonymous music executive tells CNN that Houston seemed healthy a few days earlier when she had seen her at the hotel pool with her daughter. Still, there were signs that something might have been amiss. The Los Angeles Times notes that on Thursday, reporters and hotel staff couldn’t help notice her “erratic behavior, dripping sweat and disheveled clothes.”

ABC News points out that photos of Houston at a Hollywood nightclub earlier in the week “show a disheveled, bloated and agitated Houston” and “she reportedly had blood dripping down her leg, scratches on her wrist and had to be escorted from the club.” The pop diva was also apparently disruptive that day during rehearsals for music mogul Clive Davis’ annual Grammy industry party.

An autopsy is usually carried out within two days of a death, at which point some preliminary information could be released. But if drugs or alcohol are found, “an official cause of death would not be released until after toxicology tests, which could take six to eight weeks,” explainsReuters.

Sony quickly announced that Whitney Houston’s final film, Sparkle, will be released as planned in August, notes the Hollywood Reporter. The movie, in which Houston plays a mother of two singers, was widely seen as her opportunity to once again shine on the big screen as she did during the 1990s. “This would have been a big, big comeback, she is so brilliant in it,” an executive produce on the new film said. “I was just raving about her performance, she was so great in it. I’m just in shock.”

In what the Associated Press describes as “a surreal scene,” Houston’s life was celebrated only hours after she passed at Davis’ industry party.  “Simply put, Whitney would have wanted the music to go on, and her family has asked for us to carry on,” Davis said. That meant there were stars singing on a stage a few floors below where her body had been found and while officials were carrying out their investigation. Davis praised Houston and dedicated the evening to her, asking for a moment of silence. And then, in the next breath: “Now, ladies and gentlemen, let the music begin.”

Saturday, Feb. 11: Whitney Houston, who reigned as pop music’s queen throughout the final two decades of the last century, died Saturday at the age of 48.

The Associated Press reports that the music legend was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel room by paramedics. The cause of her death is unknown, and remained under investigation late Saturday night. 

Houston’s death came on the eve of the Grammy Awards. She was slated to attend music exec Clive Davis’s pre-awards show party—the “seen-and-be-seen event of the year,” in the words of the Los Angeles Times—on Saturday at the Beverly Hilton hotel.

Houston had performed earlier this week and had also been seen at rehearsals for the awards show, where she had reportedly coached singers Brandy and Monica. An unnamed source told the AP that Houston looked disheveled at the rehearsals, and that her breath smelled of liquor and cigarettes and that she was sweating profusely.

The singer had battled drug and alcohol problems for years, and was believed to have entered rehab for the final time in May of last year.