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Jennifer Hudson will address the October 2008 murders of three of her family members on an upcoming episode of VH1’s “Behind The Music.”

According to MTV News, the star will “talk at length” about the loss of her mother, brother and nephew in the episode, which will debut Monday on the network.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, her mother, Darnell Donerson, and brother Jason Hudson were found dead at the time inside the family’s Chicago home with the body of her nephew, Julian King, found several days later.

William Balfour — the estranged husband of Hudson’s sister, Julia — was charged with the killings.

The star has mentioned her heartbreaking losses several times in the year and a half since the murders, though never at length.

“I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time,” she wrote on her MySpace page in November 2008. “My sister and I take great comfort and strength from your love and concern.”

Months later, she thanked her fans once again on the red carpet.

“Everyone has been so supportive and it’s overwhelming,” she told Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson at the Grammy Awards in February 2009.

At the ceremony itself, she thanked “my family in heaven, and those who are here today” after earning Best R&B album — her first Grammy.

The upcoming “Behind The Music” episode will also feature a look at Jennifer’s stunning rise to fame, which has found her going from a run on “American Idol” to an Oscar-winning role in “Dreamgirls,” Grammy success and a thriving career in film and music – as well as welcoming fiance David Otunga and their son, David Jr., into her life.

Mena Suvari has tied the knot — in Vatican City.

The “American Beauty” star, 31, wed concert promoter Simone Sestito, 25, on Saturday in a private church in the holy city, according to TV Guide.

The pair got engaged in 2008 after meeting the year before at the Toronto Film Festival.

According to a People source, the intimate nuptials were “truly unique and Mena looked breathtaking.”

The couple reportedly chose the destination wedding thanks to the groom’s family members, many of whom are Rome-area residents.

Actor Don Cheadle has become a spokesman for the United Nations environment program.

He was appointed Saturday in Rwanda’s capital as a U.N. Environment Program Goodwill Ambassador and vowed to fight climate change and promote environment conservation.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner announced the appointment, saying that Cheadle would help raise green awareness among millions of people around the globe.

Cheadle also named a baby gorilla Zoya, a name chosen by internet users as part of a UNEP awareness program.

In 2004, Cheadle starred in the film “Hotel Rwanda” which told the world about the Rwandan genocide in 1994 that claimed the lives of more than 500,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Rwandan government, however, was critical of the film.

Rue McClanahan, the Emmy-winning actress who brought the sexually liberated Southern belle Blanche Devereaux to life on the hit TV series “The Golden Girls,” has died. She was 76.

Her manager, Barbara Lawrence, said McClanahan died Thursday morning at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital of a brain hemorrhage.

She had undergone treatment for breast cancer in 1997 and later lectured to cancer support groups on “aging gracefully.” In 2009, she had heart bypass surgery.

McClanahan had an active career in off-Broadway and regional stages in the 1960s before she was tapped for TV in the 1970s for the key best-friend character on the hit series “Maude,” starring Beatrice Arthur. After that series ended in 1978, McClanahan landed the role as Aunt Fran on “Mama’s Family” in 1983.

But her most loved role came in 1985 when she co-starred with Arthur, Betty White and Estelle Getty in “The Golden Girls,” a runaway hit that broke the sitcom mold by focusing on the foibles of four aging — and frequently eccentric — women living together in Miami.

“Golden Girls” aimed to show “that when people mature, they add layers,” she told The New York Times in 1985. “They don’t turn into other creatures. The truth is we all still have our child, our adolescent, and your young woman living in us.”

Blanche, who called her father “Big Daddy,” was a frequent target of roommates Dorothy, Rose and the outspoken Sophia (Getty), who would fire off zingers at Blanche such as, “Your life’s an open blouse.”

Fellow “Golden Girl” Betty White called McClanahan a close and dear friend.

“I treasured our relationship,” said White, who was working in Los Angeles on the set of her TV Land comedy “Hot in Cleveland” on Thursday. “It hurts more than I even thought it would, if that’s even possible.”

McClanahan snagged an Emmy for her work on the show in 1987. In an Associated Press interview that year, McClanahan said Blanche was unlike any other role she had ever played.

“Probably the closest I’ve ever done was Blanche DuBois in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ at the Pasadena Playhouse,” she said. “I think, too, that’s where the name came from, although my character is not a drinker and not crazy.”

Her Blanche Devereaux, she said, “is in love with life and she loves men. I think she has an attitude toward women that’s competitive. She is friends with Dorothy and Rose, but if she has enough provocation she becomes competitive with them. I think basically she’s insecure. It’s the other side of the Don Juan syndrome.”

The We TV cable network said it would honor McClanahan with a marathon of “Golden Girls” episodes featuring Blanche on Friday night. The Logo network said it would replay all episodes of “Sordid Lives,” her last TV series, on Sunday.

Vicki Lawrence worked with McClanahan on “Mama’s Family.” Lawrence called her “a consummate professional, an actor’s actor.”

“It was my good fortune to get to work with her on the first season and a half of ‘Mama’s Family.’ When she got stolen away from ‘Mama’s Family’ to do ‘Golden Girls,’ I cried,” Lawrence said in an e-mail.

After “The Golden Girls” was canceled in 1992, McClanahan, White and Getty reprised their roles in a short-lived spinoff, “Golden Palace.”

McClanahan continued working in television, on stage and in film, appearing in the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau vehicle “Out to Sea” and as the biology teacher in “Starship Troopers.”

She stepped in to portray Madame Morrible, the crafty headmistress, for a time in “Wicked,” Broadway’s long-running “Wizard of Oz” prequel.

In 2008, McClanahan appeared in the Logo comedy “Sordid Lives: The Series,” playing the slightly addled, elderly mother of an institutionalized drag queen.

During production, McClanahan was recovering from 2007 surgery on her knee. It didn’t stop her from filming a sex scene in which the bed broke, forcing her to hang on to a windowsill to avoid tumbling off.

McClanahan was born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Okla., to building contractor William McClanahan and his wife, Dreda Rheua-Nell, a beautician. She graduated with honors from the University of Tulsa with a degree in German and theater arts.

McClanahan’s acting career began on the stage. According to a 1985 Los Angeles Times profile, she appeared at the Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse, studied in New York with Uta Hagen and Harold Clurman, and worked in soaps and on the stage.

She won an Obie — the off-Broadway version of the Tony — in 1970 for “Who’s Happy Now,” playing the “other woman” in a family drama written by Oliver Hailey. She reprised the role in a 1975 television version; in a review, The New York Times described her character as “an irrepressible belle given to frequent bouts of ‘wooziness’ and occasional bursts of shrewdness.”

She had appeared only sporadically on television until producer Norman Lear tapped her for a guest role on “All in the Family” in 1971.

She went from there to a regular role in the “All in the Family” spinoff “Maude,” playing Vivian, the neighbor and best friend to Arthur in the starring role.

When Arthur died in April 2009, McClanahan recalled that she had felt constrained by “Golden Girls” during the later years of its run. “Bea liked to be the star of the show. She didn’t really like to do that ensemble playing,” McClanahan said.

McClanahan was married six times: Tom Bish, with whom she had a son, Mark Bish; actor Norman Hartweg; Peter D’Maio; Gus Fisher; and Tom Keel. She married Morrow Wilson on Christmas Day in 1997.

She called her 2007 memoir “My First Five Husbands … And the Ones Who Got Away.”

Dennis Hopper, the high-flying Hollywood wild man whose memorable and erratic career included an early turn in “Rebel Without a Cause,” an improbable smash with “Easy Rider” and a classic character role in “Blue Velvet,” has died. He was 74.

Hopper died Saturday at his home in the Los Angeles beach community of Venice, surrounded by family and friends, family friend Alex Hitz said. Hopper’s manager announced in October 2009 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The success of “Easy Rider,” and the spectacular failure of his next film, “The Last Movie,” fit the pattern for the talented but sometimes uncontrollable actor-director, who also had parts in such favorites as “Apocalypse Now” and “Hoosiers.” He was a two-time Academy Award nominee, and in March 2010, was honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

After a promising start that included roles in two James Dean films, Hopper’s acting career had languished as he developed a reputation for throwing tantrums and abusing alcohol and drugs. On the set of “True Grit,” Hopper so angered John Wayne that the star reportedly chased Hopper with a loaded gun.

He married five times and led a dramatic life right to the end. In January 2010, Hopper filed to end his 14-year marriage to Victoria Hopper, who stated in court filings that the actor was seeking to cut her out of her inheritance, a claim Hopper denied.

“Much of Hollywood,” wrote critic-historian David Thomson, “found Hopper a pain in the neck.”

A major hit
All was forgiven, at least for a moment, when he collaborated with another struggling actor, Peter Fonda, on a script about two pot-smoking, drug-dealing hippies on a motorcycle trip through the Southwest and South to take in the New Orleans Mardi Gras.

On the way, Hopper and Fonda befriend a drunken young lawyer (Jack Nicholson, whom Hopper had resisted casting, in a breakout role), but arouse the enmity of Southern rednecks and are murdered before they can return home.

“‘Easy Rider’ was never a motorcycle movie to me,” Hopper said in 2009. “A lot of it was about politically what was going on in the country.”

Fonda produced “Easy Rider” and Hopper directed it for a meager $380,000. It went on to gross $40 million worldwide, a substantial sum for its time. The film caught on despite tension between Hopper and Fonda and between Hopper and the original choice for Nicholson’s part, Rip Torn, who quit after a bitter argument with the director.

The film was a hit at Cannes, netted a best-screenplay Oscar nomination for Hopper, Fonda and Terry Southern, and has since been listed on the American Film Institute’s ranking of the top 100 American films. The establishment gave official blessing in 1998 when “Easy Rider” was included in the United States National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

London, May 4 : Actress Lynn Redgrave, who receivedOscar nominations for ”Georgy Girl” and ”Gods and Monsters”, has died at the age of 67.

Speaking on behalf of her children, her publicist Rick Miramontez said Redgrave died on Sunday night.

She had been treated for breast cancer in 2003.

Lynn’s death comes a year after her niece Natasha Richardson died from head injuries sustained in a skiing accident, reports The Mirror.

Children Ben, Pema and Annabel said: “Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven-year journey with breast cancer.

“She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives.

“Our entire family asks for privacy through this difficult time.”

He’s been anticipating the arrival of his child ever since he found out his wife Paula Patton was preggers, and yesterday (April 6) Robin Thicke became a father.
The “Lost Without U” singer and his wife welcomed their first child, Julian Fuego, in Los Angeles.
Earlier in the evening, Thicke canceled his gig with Alicia Keys “for personal reasons,” though Keys congratulated her tourmate from the stage of the Staples Center when she heard the news.
Robin’s rep told press, “Mother, father and son are all doing well.” Months earlier, Robin had expressed his excitement to impart his knowledge to his son- “teaching him how to respect a woman. Teaching him music.”

Michelle "Bombshell" McGee reportedly returned to work at Pure Platinum Strip Club in San Diego on Saturday, just four days after the bombshell reveal of an 11-month affair with Sandra Bullock's husband, Jesse James. jesse james

"He was a nice guy -- most guys who do what he does have an attitude," she told the New York Post. "But he was gentle."

Although McGee tells the Post she's upset James hasn't called to apologize, her main concern is her current custody battle with ex-husband Ronald Shane Modica for their 5-year-old son, Avery.

McGee's ex filed for temporary and legal custody of their son on Friday. He is fearful that Avery may be in danger in light of the allegations. "If she sees Avery, she will bring these curiosity seekers and glory hounds down on herself and Avery, totally confusing him and frankly scaring him," Modica wrote in legal papers.

The judge denied Modica's request for custody.

It's the grind that every politician dreads: working the phones, hour after hour, asking people for campaign money.

Of all the gushy things that fans of Julianna Smoot have to say about the Obamas' new social secretary, the most telling may be that she could make even "the ask" seem fun.

"She'd place the call, get the person on the phone for you and just make you feel good about it," says former Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, whose losing re-election campaign in 2004 pulled in millions with Smoot as fundraiser. "Pretty soon you'd be laughing."

In choosing Smoot to be the new overlord of the White House social scene _ her first day is Monday _ the Obamas have selected someone with an enviable list of not-on-the-resume qualities that have everything to do with her track record as one of the best fundraisers on the planet.

By all accounts, she's girl-next-door nice, disarming, fun, creative. But also hyperorganized, direct, driven, competitive. And, yes, she can even cuss when necessary, the sting softened by her Southern accent. It's an apt skill set for social secretary, a job that requires a multitasker who can juggle planning for hundreds of occasions ranging from glitzy state dinners to teas-for-two, mediate all the elbows thrown in pursuit of coveted White House invites, and strike the right notes for events with cultural, political, legislative and international overtones.

Equally important, she has the trust of the first lady and the president, who calls her "Smoot." Smoot's in-box already is full. Beyond the usual events on the calendar, there's a May 19 state dinner for Mexico, sure to be closely watched after all the theatrics over the gate-crashers who penetrated the Obamas' first state dinner, in November for the Indian prime minister.

Susan Sher, chief of staff to Michelle Obama, says Smoot was selected for her organizational abilities and gracious manner, not her history of pulling in big money for Democrats.

But Meredith McGehee, policy director of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, said Smoot's background calls for extra attention to who scores invitations to White House events.

"It does mean she will receive scrutiny, well-deserved scrutiny," said McGehee. "She is at the nexus between donors and access."

Christine Forester, a San Diego businesswoman who got to know Smoot when both were part of Obama's money-raising juggernaut in the 2008 campaign, said Smoot is persuasive. "Because she is Julianna, there is nothing that people don't want to do for Julianna," Forester says. "She has never sought the limelight. She's really all for getting the work done."

Smoot, 42, spent the past year working as chief of staff to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. He says that when the presidential transition team learned Smoot was interested in working at the trade office, he was told: "If you don't take her, you're a fool."

Smoot already had an eye-popping achievement by then. As finance director for the Obama campaign _ her first presidential race _ she brought in nearly $750 million, a record amount that surpassed the combined total for both major party candidates four years earlier. Early on, the impressive cash haul marked Obama, a first-term senator, as a serious contender and in later stages it provided the cash to let him do pretty much whatever he wanted.

Plenty of other Democrats, too, owe their campaign millions to Smoot's abilities. She steered fundraising for Democratic Senate candidates in 2006, raising a record sum.

Smoot is taking over the Social Office from Desiree Rogers, a fashion-forward Chicago confidante of the Obamas who resigned after little more than a year in the job. Rogers' service was marked by a series of successful high-wattage social events and lots of new and creative twists, among them an East Room poetry jam and trick-or-treating by thousands of D.C. kids on the White House lawn.

Her tenure was marred, though, by the big blowup over the party-crashers at the Obamas' first state dinner and a general sense that she acted too much like a celebrity and not enough like a staff member.

Smoot comes across as the anti-diva. Fashion doesn't consume her. No one expects her to turn up in Vogue magazine, as Rogers did early on. Or to pull up a seat at a state dinner, as did Rogers. Or to have a front-row seat during New York fashion week, as did Rogers. Think J. Crew, not Comme des Garcons.

Smoot has declined interview requests since the announcement Feb. 27 that she was moving to the Social Office. But Penny Pritzker, a Chicago business executive who developed a close friendship with Smoot when Pritzker was national finance chief of the Obama campaign, said in an interview that Smoot was "into it, and her competitive juices are flowing to do a good job."

"She told me she was even thinking about different ideas as she was showering in the morning," Pritzker said. This was just days after the change was announced.

White House aides say the transition from fashionista to fundraiser portends no big changes in White House guest lists or the general direction of the social operation. Fourteen months into the Obama presidency, the traditional social events _ from Easter Egg Roll to Governor's Ball _ have all been road-tested at least once. "With one of everything under our belt, it's much more a matter of tweaking and expanding and trying to get as many different types of people in here as possible," said Sher. "And no, this has nothing to do with donors." It was during the campaign that Smoot earned the confidence of the Obamas, to whom Smoot didn't flinch from delivered both good news and bad on the fundraising front

American Idol got off to a rocky start this week, with the Top 12 contestants rolling out tunes from The Rolling Stones. With some hit-and-miss performances, America voted and decided the first contestant eliminated would be Lacey Brown.

After receiving some lackluster reviews from the judges for her version of “Ruby Tuesday,” Lacey sang for her life in the hopes of receiving the elusive judges' save vote, but it was not to be. “I am trying to be positive,” Lacey said after the news, adding, “someone has to go home every week, and if it’s you, it’s you — it’s out of your hands.”

Following some shows in New York, it’s back to Amarillo, Texas for Lacey, where she’ll chill with her friends and family and then catch a movie or two. Last week's Idol, which also featured performances by Ke$ha and Orianthi, season seven winner David Cook proved himself a winner with a roaring performance of The Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”

This Tuesday, the remaining 11 contestants will battle it out for a place in the coveted Top 10 (ensuring a place on the Idol summer tour) with a Billboard No. 1 Hits-themed week.