Queen Latifah, Tony Bennett, Mario Lopez, Real Housewives Shine at The Blacks’ Annual Gala

Posted by Jose Lambiet , March 26, 2012 Print

Drag queen gone wild? Smut peddler Joe Francis (left) gives a handful to drag queen Elaine Lancaster as Extra’s Mario Lopez approves! (Click on the MIke Jachles photo for the event gallery)

In the busiest weekend of the year in South Florida, the place to be Saturday night was The Black’s Annual Gala, the $1,000-a-plate fundraising gala organized at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach by Miami attorney Roy Black and The Real Housewives of Miami‘s Lea Black, his wife.

– Click here for Mike Jachles’ photo gallery of the event

Not only did guests get to watch the unlikely duet pairing of hip-hop singer Queen Latifah and crooner Tony Bennett during appetizers, but some of them got to star on an upcoming Real Housewives episode since Lea Black and some of her castmates, including looker Alexia Echevarria, were trailed by production crews.

Extra interviewer and actor Mario Lopez made the trip from Los Angeles for the shindig, and was seen palling around with Girls Gone Wild bad boy Joe Francis and drag queen Elaine Lancaster!

Also munching on the grouper dinner: baseball great Sammy Sosa, boxer Bernard Hopkins, music producers Emilio Estefan and Rico Love, R&B star Deborah Cox, uber-philanthropists Sanford and Baroness Beatrice Ziff, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, and many more.

Click here for the 100-plus photos of the event

Want more charity galas throughout South Florida:

– Miami’s Heart & Stroke ball raises $400K!

– Miami Heat broadcasters Tony Fiorentino and Eric Reid bring out the sports stars to Seminole Hard Rock gala

– Miami Marlins Logan Morrison causes auction inflation at Jupiter’s cancer gala

– Clouds part for Polo With Pedro gala at IPC

– Comic Richar Lewis, Super Bowl QB Joe Theismann loosen the strings of gala goers’ purses

– Dave Matthews plays the Everglades Foundation ball

– Dezer car collection museum opens in North Palm Beach

– Goldie Hawn, UM kick off $1.6 billion campaign

– Tropical pound setting wows them at the Fairchild Tropical Garden’s yearly gala

– Dave Matthews to highlight Everglades Foundation gala

– Donald Trump at the Red Cross Ball: Negative electioneering hurts the GOP

– The Palm Beach zoo ball is where the wild things are

– Tebowing in Palm Beach: Donald Trump snags Tim Tebow garb at Komen for the Cure auction

– Rod Stewart, Housewife Ramona, cold hard cash star at Palm Beach Policemen’s Ball

– Young Friends of the Red Cross kick off the new year in style

– Rudy Giuliani highlights Palm Beach’s Salvation Army ball

– DWTS’ JR Martinez stars at LIFE Foundation

Miami Photos Adriana de Moura, Alexia Echevarria, Bernard Hopkins, Bravo, Burn Notice, Elaine Lancaster, Fontainebleau Miami Beach, Gabrielle Anwar, Girls Gone Wild, Gossip Extra, Joe Francis, John Goodman, Jose Lambiet, Lea Black, Mario Lopez, Mike Jachles, Roy Black, Sammy Sosa, Shareef Malnik, The Black's Annual Gala, The Real Housewives of Miami